#TEMBO STEAM FULL#

#TEMBO STEAM FULL#

On Tuesday 25 March 2014, the track was heard in its full studio form, which features the prominent Lord Buckley sample and a spoken-word portion from Albarn as well. I got in contact with that church, and they've still got a small choir, so they very kindly agreed to sing on the record a bit.'

But it was a very strong childhood memory that I've carried with me. I remember standing outside with my bicycle listening to the singing, but never being able to find an entry point. Speaking of the collaborations with The Leytonstone City Mission Choir, Albarn felt that the choir held a nostalgic importance to him and asked the Church if he could record with the choir, 'Back in Leytonstone, there was a Pentecostal Church at the end of my road that belonged to the city mission. It’s quite something at close vicinity.' Because it was on milk, it was white elephant baby poo, if you can imagine that.

When asked how the elephant responded to the track Albarn said: 'To be honest to you, when I sang it to the elephant, it shat itself. I'm trying to run this expedition in a decent manner.' 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.

Tembo steam