The importance of Paul Simon's Graceland?

Correct. It was "Help Me Somebody," not "America Is Waiting." I used to pride myself on my musical memory, but I think it's starting to slip...

 

I think it’s a very good album with an overstated cultural importance, and the subsequent revelation of the shameful treatment of its collaborators, most notably Los Lobos, tarnishes the reputation of the work and Simon.

 

It's among his best work in my opinion.

 

I've always found Paul to kind of aimless and lost since the
Simon and Garfunkel breakup... grasping at the shiniest
object that caught his eye (Me and Julio) right from the
start of his solo career, and onto his next album (Loves
Me Like a Rock.) Yeah, let me take a stab at gospel (why
hello there Phoebe Snow) and maybe a movie soundtrack
will jump start my muse. Graceland was yet another gewgaw,
an entire album built on the back of someone else's innovation.

A novelty masquerading as glittering diadem.

 

Well it was the first ever CD that I bought. So it'll always be important to me!

Most of what could be said has already been articulated perfectly by others, so I won't repeat any of it.

I've grown to appreciate Rhythm Of The Saints a lot more in recent years. The sound of that album is incredible.

EG.

 

Good disc, but I thought There Goes Rhymin’ Simon was a more important release. Yes, a little more commercial, but
it’s such a diverse record. He’s bringing in Gospel, New Orleans, ballads, and future pop classics. Graceland was important, but Paul was all over the place on some other records before Graceland, and was already exploring ethnic
music elsewhere.

 

I can enjoy Graceland without having to associate it with any cultural significance. Had Simon not done anything significant from the time he went solo, and only participated in the 911 memorial service by singing the “Sound of Silence”....it would have been enough for me. I have a nice copy of Graceland. I like it.

 

I dunno. It sounds like 1980s Paul Simon to me.

Paul Simon [1983]:
Thinking back to the season before
Looking back through the cracks in the door
Two people were married
The act was outrageous
The bride was contagious
She burned like a bride
These events may have had some effect
On the man with the girl by his side
The arc of a love affair
His hands rolling down her hair
Love like lightning shaking till it moans

Paul Simon [1986]:
A man walks down the street
He says, "Why am I soft in the middle, now?
Why am I soft in the middle?
The rest of my life is so hard
I need a photo-opportunity
I want a shot at redemption
Don't want to end up a cartoon
In a cartoon graveyard"

It does have a nice flowing kind of free-association poetry to it that my be inspired by DB. But I would say it is certainly less random nonsensical than Byrne's lyrics of the period and definitely stands on its own whether it was influenced by David Byrne or not.

 

Q: How will the wolf survive? A: He won't.

 

Graceland was an excellent album ....

From memory one of the most important things it did was show the people of Africa that participated, that not everyone was Malcolm McLaren... and they all actually got paid and credited.

 

The Beatles and The Beach Boys both inspired one another during what is considered their most groundbreaking period. So, does this make Brian the hack, or McCartney...? Of course, neither.

Paul Simon was always looking outside of his world for inspiration (unlike, say, Woody "New-York-City-Is-The-Nexus-Of-The-Universe" Allan). But the temptation to sample the melting-pot of cross-cultural influence in his own city, meant he'd have to look beyond the more-easily-available inspirations at hand. He could have done One-Trick Pony II and still gotten all the promotion to make him look like the genius of the next century, by signing an event/documentary with Showtime or somesuch, and have half the fanbase believe it. Luckily for us, he had his ears engaged and his heart open for something other than whatever he was doing in the past. And when you're as big in the scene as he was, he could have 20-30 musical scouts doing his recon, all over the world. Who knows the specifics behind how that cassette got into his hand, and what prompted him to listen to it on a good day. All we need to know is, you don't change a paradigm without both inspiration and innovation working together in tandem. But. nobody who may or may not have been "pitching" him new ideas, was probably even aware they might have been doing it. Musicians musish, and that's all there is to it. It got into his hands, it got into his head, it got into his agenda.

 

Kinda harsh..doncha think?

 

Perfect album for 1980s yuppies who'd just bought their first CD player.

 

Aw. C’mon...

 

Well said.

I do love Graceland though; but enjoy There Goes Rhymin' Simon even more.

 

Paul Simon’s music with Art Garfunkel is his very best work.

 

Yea i kind of see where you're going with that, but I still find the 1983 example you've quoted to be much more conventional and traditionally "poetic" than the Graceland examples. Also, Byrne wasn't nonsensical or random in the slightest IMO, his lyrics right from the beginning had this amazing quality--like he was kind of blurting stuff out, but they still made perfect sense. Even as far back as the first song on the first TH album that quality is there:

Where, where is my common sense?
How did I get in a jam like this?
Believe, I believe in mystery
Love, love, love, love is simple as 1-2-3

Anyway! Enough about Byrne--don't want to derail thread.

 

Yeah to my mind none of his solo stuff comes close. Lots of good songs but nothing approaching the majesty of the best SG songs. Last Living Boy In New York is one of the all time greatest songs by anybody.

 

Yea! And no need to post a very unflattering pic! Give the guy a break. He's 78 years old.

 

Only the lighting!

 

perhaps one of the top five weird Paul Simon moments

 

I think it’s one of the greatest albums ever made. Remarkably good.

 

The worst song won!!!

 

It was an important album. Got caught up in the debate over whether it was derivative bordering on exploitative versus whether it exposed African music styles to a whole new audience while also just being a really good record.

 

If it weren't for The Rhythm of the Saints, I'd say Graceland was his best album.