Graceland (album)

Graceland is the ninth album solo of the American singer Paul Simon. Left in 1986, it is regarded as the disc having launched the world music in its modern version. The second track, which gives its title to the album, described a visit in the property of Elvis Presley, named Graceland, with Memphis, in the Tennessee. Simon considers that it is the best song than he ever wrote.

History of the album

One day that it was in its car, Paul Simon listened to a cassette of South-African music given by a friend. The sound of the Mbaqanga , or township jive, kind of rock'n'roll of the townships, gave him desire of more immediately. Simon, large innovating musical, who had opened before with the gospel, with the blues, the jazz, the reggae, the salsa and the South American music, was then made send a score of discs, discovered the richness of the musical universe of South Africa, and decided to go to record an album on the spot, with the local musicians and their instruments.

Simon composes the English words, in his usual style, anchored in the poetry of the daily newspaper and the town of New York, as well as the melodies, and called upon the group of song Ladysmith Black Mambazo, like with musicians like Ray Phiri (guitar), Baghiti Khumalo (low) and Isaac Mtshali (battery).

Paul Simon also makes discover with the public a very South-African dance, the Gumboot dance hall, or dances in wellingtons. He explores the variety of the influences, opening the album with music sotho and Tsonga.

Part of the pieces were recorded in the United States, before the final mixing. Thus several American artists take part in various songs: the Everly Brothers appear on Graceland , Linda Ronstadt on " Under African Skies" and Los Lobos on the last track of the album, " All Around The World gold The Myth Off Fingerprints." One locates also the presence of the beater Steve Gadd and the guitarist Adrian Belew.

The successful mixture of instruments, rates/rhythms, influences and languages (Zulu English ) gave the signal of what one called the world music . Simon explains on the small pocket of the album that it is “popular music ( pop music ), at the same time familiar and foreign”. nevertheless, it is the rate/rhythm and the sound of the mbaqanga which dominates undoubtedly.

The most popular song of the album is without question " You Edge Cal Me Al" , which was classified in the charts whole world, and made famous for a video clip in which Simon sings in company of the actor Chevy Chase. This one, large admiror of the singer, particularly adored this title which he knew by heart, and asked him to let it take part in the turning of the clip, which he accepted. The two artists answer themselves, singing in turn some words, in a laughing wrongfully serious exchange.

Discusses

Left in 1986, whereas apartheid beat full sound, the album was politically incorrect. Because it had recorded in Johannesburg, Simon was in particular shown to break the cultural Boycott and to guarantee the nationalist mode authoritative and segregationist of P.W. Botha. Musical weekly magazine English NME will titrate on him: “Rotted fruit of apartheid” (the Rotten Fruit off Apartheid). If the album does not take any ideological party (there is no song anti-apartheid in the style of the protest songs of which Simon was familiar in the Sixties and Seventies), the committee anti-apartheid of the the United Nations recognized that it did not bring any guarantee to the South-African government while making it possible to the South-African black artists to profit from an exposure rare and necessary. Its defenders insist that, if he technically violated prohibition, the fact of facing it and of going to the front of the South-African artists was in oneself a standpoint against apartheid, without it being need to add some in the pathos or the provocation openly political. It is also noted that it made come to New York several musicians South-African to record certain parts of the album.

At the time of the round which followed to the United States and to Africa, it made sure collaboration of the singer Myriam Makeba and the musician Hugh Masekela, who had all two left South Africa in the Sixties for political reasons and which could with difficulty be suspected of guaranteeing the mode.

Impact and rewards

The album hardly suffered from the polemic and was classified n°1 in Great Britain in 1986. it gained the Grammy Award better album in 1986, the third of the career of the singer-type-setter, and the song " Graceland" better song was elected the following year.

In 1998, the English magazine Q placed it at the 56e row of the albums of all times, the English channel Chanel 4 84e in 2005 and the magazine Rolling Stone 81e.

Graceland left a durable impact on the contemporary musical culture by its will to make meet musical universes up to that point tight.

List titles

The Servant boy In the Bubble (song)|The Boy In the Bubble (P. Simon, P. Simon and Forere Motloheloha)
Graceland (P. Simon)
I Know What I Know (P. Simon, P. Simon and General M.D. Shirinda)
Gumboots (P. Simon)
Diamonds One The Soles Off Her Shoes (P. Simon and J. Shabalala)
You Can Cal Me Al (P. Simon)
Under African Skis (P. Simon)
Homeless (P. Simon and J. Shabalala)
Crazy Love Flight II (P. Simon)
That Was Your Mother (P. Simon)
All Around The World gold The Myth Off Fingerprints (P. Simon)

Videotex

DVD Paul Simon: Graceland , Classic Album Series DVD, Eagle Entertainment Rock'n'roll, 1997.

External bond

Site on Paul Simon

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