The sample used on the song is that of "Lions" by American comedian Lord Buckley, from the 1959 album Way Out Humor and features the lyrics: "Fred, will you take those lions off the front of the boat? Good God man, lets have some heart in you! Will you please.!? All right. It was played live on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and was very well received by critics, applauding the song for its upbeat nature. Despite his new carer's efforts, the elephant's mother was nowhere to be found, and Albarn dedicated the song to him. The track was played in a demo form, for the elephant by Albarn and Paul Simonon when they visited Tanzania. The baby elephant became separated from his mother and Albarn wrote the song as a tribute to the elephant. Hence a song like 'Mr Tembo', which I never would have considered recording, because I put that in my 'songs I write for other things', like for kids' birthdays, or in this case, it was for a baby elephant I met in a place called Mkomazi, in Tanzania." Īn article on the baby elephant that Albarn wrote "Mr Tembo" about was released.
I started off giving Richard a lot of songs, 60 or 60-plus – he had the editorship. He said, 'I'd really like you to try that,' so I did. With regards to "Mr Tembo", Albarn said "It was recorded on a phone, and in a light-hearted moment, I put it on a list for Richard. Albarn spoke about "Mr Tembo", and said that the eponymous elephant had grown up around gospel music, as his owners were fans, so Albarn decided to incorporate The Leytonstone City Mission Choir, to offer a more gospel element to the track, saying in the programme: "If the elephant does hear the finished track, hopefully he'll like it." Īs for the recording process of the album, Albarn started it with nearly 60 songs written down, and then would allow co-producer Richard Russell to pick his favourites, which would then become tracks on his album. On 17 February 2014, Albarn was the subject of an episode of The Culture Show, in which he talked about the album, and his own personal experiences from his earlier life and how they had a profound effect on his songwriting. I sang it to him." "Tembo" in Swahili means "elephant". I was there, and I met this little elephant, and he was very sweet. He said in an interview for Rolling Stone: "It was recently orphaned and walked onto this aerodrome the people I know took it in and called it Mr. "Mr Tembo" was recorded for a baby elephant that Albarn met in a national park in Mkomazi, Tanzania.
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