Paul Simon's 'Graceland'

actually i dunno... the chorus in particular seems like an improvisation over a vamp. the verses less so.

actually i dunno even more... it does sound a lot like a very fixed rhythmic pattern underlying nearly the whole thing, with the vocal melody arriving later and then accented with acoustic guitar, backing vocals, and keyboards to give a more shifting texture.

guess the bonus tracks on the upcoming super deluxe version haven't been announced, but they might shed a little more light onto the creation of the album.

Los Lobos wrote and played on everything and Paul Simon stole their ideas.

well, to be fair, i think ladysmith black mambazo stole from los lobos and then paul simon stole from them. the circle of life, hakuna matata.

paul simon made ladysmith balck mambazo play drums but they didnt want to

little known fact: randy newman's "sail away" is sung from the perspective of paul simon.

Paul Simon kept calling Ladysmith Black Mambazo "Art" and when LBM got annoyed Simon would smile blankly and affably.

Paul Simon enslaved Los Lobos in a burning hot Mexican factory with no windows where they worked 23 hours a day in the summer heat, writing every note of every Paul Simon album at gunpoint under the watchful eyes of guerilla rebels with sawed-off shotguns. Simon repaid their hard, thankless work by murdering their families and raping their children, in that order.

Paul Simon is actually Lou Reed.

Paul Simon made the singers suck his dick
― Mike Hanle y, Monday, December 17, 2001

that los lobos complaint seems a little farfetched to me, i mean if that was paul simon's m.o. we'd have heard much more about it right? he would've been sued a million times.

paul simon prob just decided he didnt like Los lobos

more like los locos amirite?

paul was like: "more like los blow-me-bros"

'los you want credit for what sry I cant hear u will all this money and African music in my ears'

los lobos more like those bozos wont be able to stop me, the great paul simon, from stealing all their cool music and girlfriends

How Will the Wolf Survive? Who cares, I'm Paul Simon.

paul simon killed baby jesus

His Electric Bass is a Terminator Seed

Okay so..

http://www.paulsimon.com/us/graceland25

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/apr/19/paul-simon-graceland-acclaim-outrage

docu looks great. it's showing as a 'Primetime Special' in the States it says here.

Can't wait to see this... especially after Berlinger's work on "Some Kind of Monster"

wish it'd been Paul Simon: Some Kind of Monster

Los Lobos finally break their horrible silence

interesting piece on this album: http://www.firstofthemonth.org/archives/2009/08/at_ease_in_azan.html

ollowing “Homeless,” Simon tells us, “I don’t want no part of this crazy love.” For a record that pretends to reclaim rock-n-roll verities, this is an odd stance. The celebration of crazy love, the crazier the better, has been at the heart of the music. To surrender such nutsiness may be the merest prudence, but it is untrue to the deepest impulses of the music Simon has laid claim to here.

an odd attitude

I don't know what "rock and roll verities" are now or were in 1986.

how the fuck does graceland even have anything to do with rock and roll verities?

what a weird thing to fixate on

token Foucault reference too

When the article concentrates on musicianship it's solid though.

Now, Paul Simon is not to be specially faulted if his last record matters less than the elimination of chattel slavery on this continent.

ok no i can't do this

that "now" comma

ollowing “Homeless,” Simon tells us, “I don’t want no part of this crazy love.” For a record that pretends to reclaim rock-n-roll verities, this is an odd stance. The celebration of crazy love, the crazier the better, has been at the heart of the music. To surrender such nutsiness may be the merest prudence, but it is untrue to the deepest impulses of the music Simon has laid claim to here.

how does someone write this and sleep at night?

the article's at least 80% bullshit, but i find it oddly...compelling, somehow? like, he's got sentence after sentence that makes no apparent sense at all ("the merest prudence"?), yet he retains that weird, arrogant, see-this-is-how-it-really-is attitude throughout. it's like someone crossed armond white with a drunk greil marcus.

the result of that union would have to be put down immediately, i would think, to spare itself and the human race.

i dunno. i think the basic thrust of the article is sound: paul simon used african musicians and music, at a time of great crisis in south africa, in a way that lent an aura of dramatic import and moment to graceland without ever really moving outside the small sphere of his own personal concerns. this may not have been simon's intent (a point conveniently elided), but it was nonetheless the effect. he refused to really engage with the political dimensions of the "material" he was using, choosing instead to throw sops to the idea of political engagement while concentrating more fully on music as music, the political as personal. it's a fair criticism, though not a particularly toothy one in my view.

it's like someone crossed armond white with a drunk greil marcus.

i suggest we kill it before it multiplies

I agree that it's smarter and more riveting than a piece that gets so many things wrong should be. But boy, the howlers.

from Foucault’s conclusion to Madness and Civilization: “The moment when, together, the work of art and madness are born and fulfilled is the beginning of the time when the world finds itself arraigned by that work of art and responsible for what it is.” I don’t think Graceland works that way.)

To surrender such nutsiness may be the merest prudence, but it is untrue to the deepest impulses of the music Simon has laid claim to here.

Anyone who was married to Carrie Fisher has got nothing to prove on the crazy love front.

http://www.thedreamerofmusic.org/BIOGRAPHY/WIVES/image011.jpg
just saw this pic and wondered what in the lord's name was the deal with the hat.

what to do when your roommate doesn't realize you're home and thusly is having loud sex in the living room

i dunno. i think the basic thrust of the article is sound: paul simon used african musicians and music, at a time of great crisis in south africa, in a way that lent an aura of dramatic import and moment to graceland without ever really moving outside the small sphere of his own personal concerns.

this is (a) already nearly conventional wisdom and (b) not very interesting anyway.

Just googled that hat for about 10 minutes to no avail :(

it's like, why so glum, hat-guy! your wife is a total fox!

new Graceland documentary airing on A&E tonight!

This is fascinating: he's so *abstract* about his songwriting; it's about the *patterns* in the rhythms.

it makes sense to me, i've always thought of his stuff as being very driven by rhythm and meter

i've watched that "Diamonds" performance on SNL so many times and i had no idea that they'd booked that appearance before the album release was delayed, and recorded that song while in New York for the show. nobody had ever heard that song before that broadcast! i can't even imagine how exciting that would've been.

whoa that is crazy

Thanks for the tip! Enjoying this.