A song called Graceland has appeared here before. Not the title track from this album but a song from the band The Bible written by another great songwriter Bow Hewerdine.
Mr Simon himself has only made a couple of fleeting appearances here. Once was with his best solo song Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard in the It's a Family Affair series when he appeared alongside his son Harper.
The other time was when alongside Art Garfunkel he wiped the floor with their version of Bridge Over Troubled Water when compared with Johnny Cash's version in the Covered by Cash series
It was controversial on its release in 1986 as it broke the cultural boycott against South Africa's abhorrent apartheid regime
Simon's counter argument was what was unusual about Graceland is that it was on the surface apolitical, but what it represented was the essence of the anti-apartheid in that it was a collaboration between blacks and whites to make music that people everywhere enjoyed. It was completely the opposite from what the apartheid regime said, which is that one group of people were inferior. Here, there were no inferiors or superiors, just an acknowledgement of everybody's work as a musician. It was a powerful statement.
You pays your money you takes your choice. 16 million people opted to purchase the album, one of the first to be referred to as World music.. My vinyl copy is second hand. I'm not sure where the CD version came from but I think it was part of an inherited CD collection.Therefore although I have two copies I have never contributed to its sales!
Not sure that I would go that far but I quite like it
ReplyDeletePaul Simon has so many great songs, but I only really like a couple of his solo albums front to back. I put this one at the top of the heap. I saw him on a double bill with Brian Wilson in the summer of 2001 at a huge outdoor theater. I rarely go to those kind of shows, but I plunked down big bucks for seats at the front. I'm positive that made all of the difference. It might be my all-time favorite show.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Brian. This is one of my favourite albums of the 80s.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic era for Paul Simon and that's saying something considering what else he has in his canon (you know what I mean).
ReplyDeleteA powerful statement indeed cleverly done.
You Can Call Me Al is one of my favourite tracks ever - OK so there are 35,000 tracks in that list! I do think the video he did with Chevy Chase is especially neat and clever though.
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