‘Elephant’: How Tame Impala hit back at “the jock”
The nature of Tame Impala is solitary by design. Although they’re one of the biggest bands in the world, Tame Impala aren’t really a band at all. It’s just singer-songwriter Kevin Parker recording all of his psychedlic ideas by himself. When it comes time to play live, Parker gets some of his friends from the Australian psych scene to join him, but Parker is the only person in charge of the creative decisions.
That idea of Parker working by himself has bled over into the material that he’s produced. Tame Impala’s second album is called Lonerism for a reason: most of the songs were recorded in isolatino, and Parker’s approach to the lyrics and artwork added to that same “one man against the world” feeling. But the world listened, especially on standout tracks like ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’ and ‘Elephant’.
That latter song became Tame Impala’s unexpected breakthrough. It wasn’t so much a chart hit as it was a cultural phenomenon, blasting out of computers and cars that extended beyond the indie circles that celebrated Parker’s first album, Innerspeaker.
“‘Elephant’ is actually one of the oldest songs that I have, it’s just been in the vaults this whole time,” Parker told Stereogum in 2012. “I’m not sure why we never recorded it before, but we were just playing it at a sound check one night and everyone in the band was like, ‘We should just put this on the album’, and so we did.”
Despite sitting at the heart of an album called Lonerism, Parker didn’t believe that the song represented isolation. Rather, he saw it as a kick back against some of the agitators and oppresors that he had encountered over the years.
“It’s not really a song about being a loner; it’s a song about the bully,” Parker told NME. “The guy who thinks he’s great. The jock. You can imagine a real reclusive kind of guy who’s a bit bitter about this guy who thinks he’s great. Which is the opposite vibe of the loner, so it presents him in the worst light.”
Check out ‘Elephant’ down below.
