Graceland is the seventh solo studio album by the American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was produced by Simon, engineered by Roy Halee, and released on August 25, 1986, by Warner Bros. Records. It incorporates multiple genres, including pop, rock, a cappella, zydeco, and South African styles such as isicathamiya and mbaqanga.
In the early 1980s, Simon's relationship with his former musical partner Art Garfunkel had deteriorated, his marriage to the actress Carrie Fisher had collapsed, and his previous record, Hearts and Bones (1983), had been a commercial failure. In 1984, after a period of depression, Simon became fascinated by a bootleg cassette of mbaqanga, South African street music. He and Halee spent two weeks in Johannesburg recording with South African musicians. Further recordings were held in the US with American musicians, including Linda Ronstadt, the Everly Brothers, Rockin' Dopsie and the Twisters, and Los Lobos. Simon toured with South African musicians, performing their music and songs from Graceland.
Graceland became Simon's most successful album and his highest-charting album in over a decade, with estimated sales of more than 16 million copies worldwide. It won the 1987 Grammy for Album of the Year and is frequently cited as one of the best albums in history. In 2006, it was added to the US National Recording Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important".
Organizations such as Artists United Against Apartheid criticized Simon for breaking the cultural boycott on South Africa imposed for its policy of apartheid, while others accused him of appropriating the music of another culture. Simon responded that Graceland was a political statement that showcased collaboration between black and white people and raised international awareness of apartheid. Some praised him for helping popularize African music in the West.
Background
Following a series of hit records released in the 1970s, Simon's career declined. His relationship with his former musical partner Art Garfunkel had again deteriorated; his sixth solo studio album, Hearts and Bones (1983), achieved the lowest sales of his career; and his marriage to the actress Carrie Fisher collapsed. He recalled: "I had a personal blow, a career setback, and the combination of the two put me into a tailspin".
In 1984, Simon agreed to produce an album by the Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Heidi Berg, who had played in the house band for Saturday Night Live and been the bandleader for the short-lived TV series The New Show. Berg was drawn to the cheerful accordion sound in mbaqanga, the Black African street music from Johannesburg's Soweto township, and wanted to fuse Western and African music. Without hearing the music, Simon advised Berg to travel to South Africa and contact local musicians. Berg had been inspired by a bootleg cassette mixtape of obscure South African songs, and lent the cassette to Simon. Berg stipulated that Simon return the tape in a week, as it was a continual source of ideas for her, but Simon kept it. He first listened to it on a drive to Montauk, New York, where he was having a summer home built. He called the tape "very good summer music, happy music" that reminded him of 1950s rhythm and blues. He began improvising melodies over it as he listened in his car, and decided to use it to make his own album.
Simon asked his contacts at his label, Warner, to identify the artists on the tape. Through the South African record producer Hilton Rosenthal, Warner confirmed that the music was South African and played by the Boyoyo Boys. Simon considered buying the rights to his favorite song on the tape, "Gumboots", and using it to write his own song, as he had with the song "El Condor Pasa" in the 1960s. Instead, Rosenthal suggested that Simon record an album of South African music, and sent him dozens of records from South African artists.
In the 1980s, recording in South Africa was dangerous, and the United Nations had imposed a cultural boycott for its policy of apartheid, or forced racial segregation. The boycott forced states to "prevent all cultural, academic, sporting and other exchanges" with South Africa, and ordered writers, artists, musicians and "other personalities" to boycott it. Simon later told The New York Times: "I knew I would be criticized if I went, even though I wasn't going to record for the government ... or to perform for segregated audiences. I was following my musical instincts in wanting to work with people whose music I greatly admired."
Before leaving for Johannesburg, Simon contributed to "We Are the World", a charity single benefiting African famine relief. Simon discussed recording in South Africa with the "We Are the World" producers Quincy Jones and Harry Belafonte, who both encouraged him to go. Belafonte said he should first gain the approval of the African National Congress (ANC) to prevent trouble with apartheid concerns, but Simon said he did not want to make the project a political issue. The South African black musicians' union voted to let Simon come, as the exposure could benefit their music by placing it on an international stage. When Simon told Berg of his plans to record an album inspired by the tape she had lent him, their working relationship ended. She felt that Simon had taken her idea and left her with nothing.
Recording
In February 1985, Simon and his longtime engineer, Roy Halee, flew to Johannesburg, intending their visit to be secret. The Warner executives were uninterested in the project, viewing Simon as a bad investment due to the failure of his previous two solo albums. Simon felt their indifference worked in his favor, as it gave him more freedom. Halee believed the executives viewed him and Simon as "crazy".
Rosenthal used his connections to assemble musicians who had inspired Simon, including Lulu Masilela, Tao Ea Matsekha, General M. D. Shirinda and the Gaza Sisters and the Boyoyo Boys Band. Though musicians in Johannesburg were typically paid $15 an hour, Simon arranged to pay them $200 an hour, around triple the rate for top players in New York City. Simon said he "wanted to be as above board as I could possibly be", as many of the musicians did not know who he was and would not be lured by the promise of royalties alone. He also offered royalties to those he felt had contributed to composing songs.
Recording sessions took place at Ovation Studios. Halee worried the studio would be a "horror show" but was surprised to find it "very comfortable". He likened it to a garage, which Halee feared would be a problem for recording, and none of the musicians wore headphones. Jam sessions ranged from 10 to 30 minutes, and Simon and Halee intended to assemble an album from the recordings on their return home. Though the playing was technically simple, Simon found it difficult to mimic. Outside the studio, the public was hostile toward Simon, but the Musician's Union received him warmly.
Though Simon described the recording sessions as "euphoric", he recalled "tension below the surface" due to the effects of apartheid. The musicians would become anxious when recording continued into the evening, since they were prohibited from using public transportation or being on the streets after curfew. Simon recalled, "In the middle of the euphoric feeling in the studio, you would have reminders that you're living in an incredibly tense racial environment, where the law of the land was apartheid."
At the end of the two-week trip, Simon felt a relief from his personal turmoil and a revitalized passion for music. He and Halee returned to the Hit Factory studio in New York City to edit the material. Simon flew several South African musicians to New York to complete the record three months after the Johannesburg sessions. The sessions resulted in "You Can Call Me Al" and "Under African Skies". Simon began writing lyrics at his home in Montauk, New York, while listening to the recordings. The process was slow, but he determined he had sufficient material to begin rerecording. He played the tracks backward to "enhance their sound", interspersing gibberish to complete the rhythms.
Simon involved guest musicians, including the American singer Linda Ronstadt and his childhood heroes the Everly Brothers. During a trip to Louisiana with Richard "Dickie" Landry, Simon saw a performance by the Lafayette zydeco band Good Rockin' Dopsie and the Twisters, and recorded "That Was Your Mother" with them in a small studio behind a music store. He felt that the accordion, central to zydeco, would make a pleasing transition back to his own culture. Afterward, he contacted the Mexican-American band Los Lobos, with which he recorded "All Around the World or The Myth of Fingerprints" in Los Angeles.
Halee edited the album with new digital technology, transferring analog tape recordings to the digital workspace countless times. He said, "The amount of editing that went into that album was unbelievable ... without the facility to edit digital, I don't think we could have done that project." He used tape echo and delay on every song, and paid particular attention to the bass, saying, "The bassline is what the album is all about. It's the essence of everything that happened." Each song was mixed in about two days at the Hit Factory, where most of the vocal overdubs were recorded.
Music
Graceland incorporates genres including pop, rock, a cappella, zydeco, isicathamiya and mbaqanga. Mbaqanga, or "township jive", originated as the street music of Soweto, South Africa. The album was influenced by the work of the South African musicians Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu, and their band Juluka's Zulu-Western pop crossover music. Juluka was South Africa's first integrated pop band. Simon includes thanks to Clegg, Juluka, and Juluka's producer Hilton Rosenthal in the liner notes. He included American "roots" influences with tracks featuring zydeco musicians such as Rockin' Dopsie and Tex-Mex musicians.
Graceland alternates between playful and more serious songs. Simon thought of it as like a play: "As in a play, the mood should keep changing. A serious song may lead into an abstract song, which may be followed by a humorous song." On many songs, Simon and Halee employ a Synclavier to "enhance" the acoustic instruments, creating an electronic "shadow".
"The Boy in the Bubble" is a collaboration with the Lesotho group Tau Ea Matsekha. "Graceland" features the bassist Bakithi Kumalo and the guitarist Ray Phiri. Simon wrote in the original liner notes that it reminded him of American country music, and wrote: "After the recording session, Ray told me that he'd used a relative minor chord—something not often heard in South African music—because he said he thought it was more like the chord changes he'd heard in my music." The steel guitarist Demola Adepoju contributed to the track some months after its completion. "I Know What I Know" is based on music from an album by General M. D. Shirinda and the Gaza Sisters. Simon was attracted to their work due to the unusual style of guitar playing, as well as the "distinctive sound" of the women's voices. "Gumboots" is a re-recording (with additional saxophone solos) of the song with which Simon first found himself enamored from the cassette tape that spawned Graceland.