So
I have to confess something I am now quite ashamed of. I didn’t really know much about Paul Simon until my mid 20s.
Even Simon and Garfunkel, I kinda knew their most famous songs but I didn’t pay attention to them so much. I knew they existed, that they had those 2 or 3 songs often used in movies and that’s about it.
Then one day I’m visiting a town with a buddy and we go to a music store that was selling some old vinyls, among which was “Graceland” by Paul Simon (I did know his full name and that he was “half of the band” and that point but that’s about it).
I don’t remember exactly what happened but I think I remember it as me sifting through a box of vinyls and picking it out because of the cover and that sort of Bayeux Tapestry artwork it had to it (I may not know my music as well as I should but I damn well know my art history). At which point my friend says something like “Oh, that’s a masterpiece, one of my favourites”. –
At this point I want to interject and say that my dear friend, whom I am very fond of, is probably the definition of textbook hipster: wealthy background but acting like he’s not, dressing a bit shoddily on purpose, living in the now expensive gentrified neighborhood of the formerly disenfranchised complaining about this inauthentic transformation while completely unaware of the fact that he is part of it, reading obscure stuff and starting conversations where he already thinks he won. The whole package basically.
– So when he said that about that vinyl I was thinking that it was another bunch of his hipster BS and told him “Yeah right, whatever…” and he responded along the lines of “Are you kidding me?! This really is amazing, I’m not kidding. You should listen to it sometime” and we then went about our day.
I did eventually listen to it at home shortly after that day and I was blown away to say the least. Really speechless. I felt like I missed a part of history!
So for what is worth, I thought I would express a few words about this masterpiece.
My first thought after listening to it was how did I know so much about ’80s music and yet have this pass by completely unnoticed? The second was why isn’t this album talked about ever today when there are ongoing discussions about relatively mediocre music of the times?
When I finished listening to it I was pretty sure it was the best album I ever heard, and I actually still stand by that thought today.
I find it simply amazing from start to finish.
The production, composition, instruments, lyrics, the singing, the melodies, the backing vocals.. it is all so perfect, for what little knowledge of music I have.
After listening to the album completely I looked it up to get a bit of information about its history and was fascinated. The fact that it was originally going to be a more classic American-sounding album, the title name and song obviously coming from the famous legendary residence of Elvis Presley, but that instead evolved through production and became what is know as a “World Music” album.
I didn’t know the term of “World Music” before reading about this album but it is definitely fitting and cannot think of a better example of it. Almost every song seems to have a foreign influence to it and it makes it that much more soulful, without ever coming off as vapid, ingenuine or exploitative.
The flow from start to finish is so satisfying, I cannot think of one weak song in the album, they all stand up on their own feet and could’ve all been released as singles as far as I’m concerned. The variety is exceptional too, you go from songs like the classic “You Can Call Me Al” to “Homeless” (featuring the scene-stealing Ladysmith Black Mazambo) which are very different from each other yet both fit perfectly in the overall context of the album. There is a certain openness of the songs that allow them to progress into something else very seamlessly, like for example in this amazing live rendition of “Gumboots” https://bit.ly/3d20Arh
If I had to choose one standout single, or at least the song that I hold a bit more dear to my heart it would have to be “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes”. I think the song best encapsulates what is so great about the album. I love the story of the song, the music is just beautiful as well as the vocals, both his and the backers. It just puts puts me in a really serene and good mood. His cooing voice and this slowly strumming electric guitar communicating with the fantastic backing vocals all the while discussing this almost mythical subject of an unreachable girl with this dreamlike description of having “diamonds on the soles of her shoes” makes for a really unique musical experience.
I have yet to get tired of this album, it was such a coincidental discovery but it’s almost like it was destiny, I cannot remember the last time I was so obsessed with an album from start to finish. I can listen to it every day.
I am still so shocked to have discovered this so late. The funny thing is that I was very much “in” pop culture, by which I mean I lived a relatively normal life in which I had a tv and internet and thought I had a general overview of at least the most significant things to have happened in music in the past decades, yet gems like this went by unnoticed. It’s not like I was in a cult or lived in a rural farm with no electricity, yet I feel so ignorant and embarrassed by not having known about this but at the same time am so grateful that I’ve discovered it and the rest of Paul Simon’s exceptional body of work.
I listened to the album through a streaming platform but now want to buy a vinyl player mainly to get that vinyl like I saw a few years ago in that store…
Now I wonder how many other hidden gems are out there, waiting to be found.
– A
Same Person, New Mistakes 