{"id":1102037,"date":"2026-07-21T05:59:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T05:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1102037\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T05:59:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T05:59:25","slug":"the-story-behind-kyle-gordons-incredible-mr-jambo-parody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1102037\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story Behind Kyle Gordon\u2019s Incredible \u2018Mr. Jambo\u2019 Parody"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n \u201cObviously, Paul Simon\u2019s Graceland is a huge influence on this. I do genre parody, and this is definitely mostly Graceland.\u201d
\n Photo: kylegordonisgreat via YouTube\n <\/p>\n

The seventh song on Paul Simon\u2019s legacy-defining 1986 album, Graceland, is an upbeat ditty called \u201cMr. Jambo.\u201d The melody and polyrhythms \u2014<\/p>\n

Oops, sorry, honest mistake. That song is called \u201cUnder African Skies.\u201d Kyle Gordon, the genre parodist best known for his 2023 Eurodance masterwork \u201cPlanet of the Bass,\u201d<\/a> doubts you\u2019ll spot the difference anyway. Released on July 17 as the lead single from his upcoming comedy album Kyle Gordon Is Everywhere, \u201cMr. Jambo\u201d takes loving aim at the white musicians who went to Africa in the 1980s to experiment with their sound, only to return home after conferring with a supposed wise native and realizing, to quote one of Gordon\u2019s stanzas, \u201cthe love that you seek is written in the wisdom of the ancient scrolls.\u201d The parody itself would be an amusing listen due to the ample use of fretless bass and \u201cNothing But Flowers\u201d\u2013era Talking Heads groove, but Gordon had one more trick up his tweed sleeve: He personally funded a full week in Africa with a group of friends to film an accompanying video, which brought the group through South Africa and Eswatini to link up with a local choir and brass band. \u201cI know there are rumors going around that I did this on my honeymoon or as a tax write-off,\u201d Gordon says. \u201cI think my wife would\u2019ve had me assassinated if I used our honeymoon to shoot a music video such as this. I\u2019m cruel, but not that cruel. So, yes, this was the sole purpose of the trip.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gordon\u2019s idea had been percolating for almost a year. He was, no surprise, thinking about Graceland, but he realized with a little more digging that there was a basis for such a micro-genre parody. \u201cIf there\u2019s only one artist who does a particular thing, it\u2019s less interesting to me than if there\u2019s a larger trend,\u201d he tells me. \u201cAnd as I built it, I gained more and more confidence in it.\u201d Gordon is also optimistic that he\u2019ll be seeing a return on his monetary investment. \u201cI\u2019m just so proud of it,\u201d he adds. \u201cYou never know when you put something out how people will respond or whether they\u2019ll take to it. My goal with anything is trying to find the balance between something that\u2019s accessible and unique to a wide audience. That\u2019s the response that I\u2019ve been hearing from people about \u2018Mr. Jambo.\u2019 I\u2019m really glad.\u201d<\/p>\n

This content can’t be displayed right now.<\/p>\n

\n To view this embed, please accept targeting cookies. It’s loaded from a third party and requires that permission to appear.\n <\/p>\n

Manage cookie preferences<\/p>\n

How\u2019s the valley of your soul doing today? Is everything well?<\/strong>
<\/strong>Healed, thriving. The valley is filled with wisdom.<\/p>\n

When did the words \u201cHey there, Mr. Jambo\u201d first enter your consciousness? <\/strong>
It feels so crazy to put this out now, because I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever worked on a song for longer than this. I studied for a crazy test that no one is ever going to give me. The first time I really got the idea to do this was last fall. I had just finished my last tour, and I was debating how long I wanted to take before making new music. This was one of the first songs I started noodling on when I knew I was going to start writing again. Obviously, Paul Simon\u2019s Graceland is a huge influence on this. I do genre parody, and this is definitely mostly Graceland. So it was when I first heard Johnny Clegg, who\u2019s a South African artist I love, that tipped me over the edge. I wasn\u2019t inspired by his lyrics, but when I first heard his music about a year ago, he was doing a very similar thing before Paul Simon \u2014 combining western rock and pop with traditional African music. When I heard that, I was like, This is also very \u201980s. There\u2019s a bigger world here. And that\u2019s when I got excited.<\/p>\n

Everyone is, understandably, making the Graceland connection. Who would you say are the forefathers of this musical genre who were the strongest influences for this parody?<\/strong>
Let me just say for the record: Graceland is one of my favorite albums, and I think it\u2019s one of the greatest pop albums of all time. It\u2019s a stunning masterpiece. But the lyrics are essentially him singing over Ladysmith Black Mambazo and then singing about how he\u2019s depressed because he got divorced from Princess Leia and he\u2019s awkward at Upper West Side parties. It was sort of loosely influenced by that, but he has these elliptical kind of lyrics; they\u2019re hard to pin down sometimes. So a lot of the influence came from the visuals of the \u201cDiamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes\u201d video and his performances with Ladysmith Black Mambazo on Saturday Night Live<\/a>. There were a lot of \u201ca dorky white guy in front of an African choir\u201d images. And I was definitely influenced by Talking Heads and Peter Gabriel.<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t get me started on \u201cThe Lion Sleeps Tonight.\u201d That song has a very interesting, complicated past. But in particular, there\u2019s a version by this pop group from the 1980s called Tight Fit<\/a> that was a No. 1 hit in the United Kingdom. That song has had such a life and also embodies \u201cwhite guy mishearing African lyrics and imagining that he\u2019s giving you some crazy wisdom.\u201d I could talk about that song for days. The original lyrics are from a song from the 1930s by a South African Zulu singer, and he\u2019s pretty much just talking shit. He\u2019s like, \u201cI\u2019m a lion. I\u2019m the best. I\u2019m a lion.\u201d And then they reinterpreted it in English like, \u201cOh, the beautiful lion in the wilderness.\u201d<\/p>\n

I then really need to give you props for this stanza: \u201cWell, I couldn\u2019t speak his language and I couldn\u2019t understand a word \/ But I knew his meaning was what I decided I had heard.\u201d<\/strong>
It came from the African wisdom that\u2019s swirling around us all, if we only just have the courage to reach out and grab it. I feel like I don\u2019t even write songs. I just let a greater force channel through me, and it was one of those moments.<\/p>\n

Several session musicians involved in this type of music \u2014 I\u2019ll just spitball <\/strong>Adrian Belew\u2019s name<\/strong><\/a>, who worked with Paul Simon and Talking Heads \u2014 are very much alive and recording. Did you ever consider recruiting them for the song, or would that defeat its purpose?<\/strong>
If I thought they would actually respond to my emails, maybe I would\u2019ve considered it. I didn\u2019t shoot for the stars enough. When we do the 40th-anniversary box set of this, we\u2019ll get Adrian Belew and Bakithi Kumalo on that version. We\u2019ll do a We Are the World 25, and I\u2019ll get all the musicians to play on the 20-minute version of \u201cMr. Jambo.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Gordon filming “Mr. Jambo” in Africa earlier this year. Ori Segev.\n <\/p>\n

\n Gordon filming “Mr. Jambo” in Africa earlier this year. Ori Segev.\n <\/p>\n

You went to Africa to film this. The scenery is beautiful. How on earth did you pull that off, and who funded the production?<\/strong>
I funded it all myself. So knock on wood I\u2019ll make even a fraction of it back. I was able to pull it off because of my old buddies and team at Loose Films, and also my brother, who works with me, supported me. He shoots a lot of the social stuff, and he\u2019s also an editor. He and his wife edited all the social clips that you see. That was the team here in New York and then we got connected with some producers in Africa. We filmed in South Africa and Eswatini, which was known as Swaziland until a few years ago. I knew I wanted a safari-type setting, and then I wanted a setting with the choir and Mr. Jambo. Those were two separate things. Everything you see with animals on safari, that\u2019s in South Africa. Everything with another person other than myself, that was in Eswatini.<\/p>\n

Can you tell me more about the budget you put in place and the parameters you set for yourself?<\/strong>
<\/strong>I\u2019d rather not put a dollar amount on it just so I don\u2019t have to remind myself and I can go to sleep at night. We were there for eight days in total. Luckily, it was my buddies, and most of them were working for free \u2014 my American friends. I obviously paid for them to go out and put them up and everything, but they were kind enough to help me with that. The first part of the trip was in South Africa. We flew into Cape Town and went to a game reserve that was a few hours north of the city. Then we flew a puddle jumper for about three hours to the other side of the country where Eswatini is landlocked. We spent a few days there finishing up the filming, went back to Cape Town, and flew back home.<\/p>\n

Did you try to get your label to provide any funding?<\/strong>
I\u2019m putting this new album out with BMG, who put out my last two albums, and I love working with them. But at that time, we didn\u2019t have a deal yet. So I was like, Fuck it, I\u2019ve got to go. You just hope the attention brings other financial opportunities. This is a brand call right now. A marketing initiative!<\/p>\n

How did you find your leading man to play Mr. Jambo, and how did you explain this concept? Same question for the wonderful background performers as well.<\/strong>
<\/strong>Mr. Jambo is just a retired guy who\u2019s the nicest guy in the world. He\u2019s a friend of the producer. I told him the concept of the song. I was blunt and just said, \u201cI\u2019m a dumb American tourist. I\u2019m going to be bugging this guy, and he wants me to go away.\u201d He was like, \u201cGot it.\u201d His name is Mandla Dlamini. When I first saw a clip of him telling the camera, \u201cGo away, go away, go away,\u201d I was like, This guy\u2019s the man. We still talk all the time. I sent him the video, and he sent a really nice note and seems to be really excited about it. Everyone was laughing at me the entire time. It was awesome. But they understood I\u2019m some moron who has no idea what I\u2019m doing or talking about.<\/p>\n

Did the safari animals behave themselves in the presence of such greatness? <\/strong>
That was crazy, because we only had two days on this game reserve because it was a private reserve. We spent a day and a half chasing these animals around the park. I was able to get pretty close to the giraffes. The zebras were a little more skittish, but the giraffes were confused by me. At a certain point they\u2019d run away. They were really the best actors we got on the whole production. Way better than me.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re rocking a Mets hat and lightweight suit in the video. What thought went into choosing this particular ensemble?<\/strong>
It\u2019s the classic 1980s yuppie. \u201cI make a ton of money, but I also wear jeans so you know I\u2019m not stuffy like my dad.\u201d I knew I always wanted that classic look and particular combination: baseball hat, tweed jacket, some ridiculously colorful tie, jeans, and sneakers. That big baseball-hat shape where the top of it goes a foot above your head was nonnegotiable. I mean, I\u2019ll be honest: I would wear that every day if I could.<\/p>\n

How did the success of <\/strong>\u201cPlanet of the Bass\u201d<\/strong><\/a> further open up the Kyle Gordon parody-video business over the past few years? Do you think you could have made \u201cMr. Jambo\u201d if you didn\u2019t already have that previous proof of concept?<\/strong>
There\u2019s no possible way. \u201cPlanet of the Bass\u201d changed my life in many ways. I had no idea what I was doing, really. I\u2019d never put music out before. I got the confidence to know that I can keep doing these parodies, because the most important thing is I have so much fun making all of these things more than anything else I do. I had been on social media and built up an audience before I released \u201cPlanet of the Bass,\u201d but I hadn\u2019t put out any music. The crux of my live act prior to doing anything online was musical-comedy stuff. I went away from that for a while when people first started to get to know me online. Then pivoting back with \u201cPlanet of the Bass,\u201d I was like, Oh, I can really do this.<\/p>\n

Before the pandemic, you could see me in front of 20 people at a show in Brooklyn, in a bar, playing my guitar. The way I wrote and thought about comedy music was, I need to test it in front of a live audience for however long a comedian would with a joke before I have the confidence to put it out. \u201cPlanet of the Bass\u201d was the one song on my first album where I had that persona character but never tried the song out. If I were to have tested that out at a live show, I don\u2019t think it would have worked. It gave me the confidence to write music more like a normal songwriter and not feel the need to test it in front of a comedy audience. In fact, it can actually hinder it, because the structure of a joke doesn\u2019t match the structure of a good song. I guess I have a vague sense about this, but I genuinely try not to think about success or look at social-media numbers. I don\u2019t consider that at all when I\u2019m writing or creating stuff.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say Paul Simon, a curious man, stumbles upon your song and then reads this interview. What would you want to tell him?<\/strong>
\u201cI love you.\u201d I was never a big Simon & Garfunkel guy. But Paul Simon as a soloist is one of the greatest songwriters of all time. I never get tired of Graceland, but I also love the album he did after that, The Rhythm of the Saints. People should listen to it. It\u2019s less commercial. He took the same concept and writing style, but instead of primarily South African music, he combined Brazilian and West African music. If this song turns people on to Graceland, I would point them to Rhythm of the Saints too, which they\u2019ll enjoy. But long story short, I would say to Paul Simon, \u201cYou\u2019re awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cObviously, Paul Simon\u2019s Graceland is a huge influence on this. I do genre parody, and this is definitely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1102038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3940],"tags":[72016,4080,2197,77,462,300821,269,300823,300822,47998,16,15,10357,10356],"class_list":["post-1102037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-backstories","tag-celebrities","tag-comedy","tag-entertainment","tag-interview","tag-kyle-gordon","tag-music","tag-musical-parodies","tag-parodies","tag-paul-simon","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-vulture-homepage-lede","tag-vulture-section-lede"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116956441508986931","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1102037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1102038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1102037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1102037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1102037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}