Imagine : Graceland

[Adam Blake]

I think they are, actually. And Status bloody Quo!

While we're here, let's have a toast to Dusty Springfield who was the first British musician to refuse to play to segregated audiences in South Africa and was unceremoniously booted out of the country as a result. That took some guts back then.

[NormanD]

She was deported, but George Formby was the first (?) to have taken a stand:

In 1946 Beryl and George toured South Africa shortly before formal racial apartheid was introduced, where they refused to play racially-segregated venues. According to Formby's biographer, when George was cheered by a black audience after embracing a small black girl who had presented his wife with a box of chocolates, National Party leader Daniel François Malan (who later introduced apartheid) phoned to complain; Beryl (his wife and manager) replied "Why don't you piss off, you horrible little man?"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Formby

[Adam Blake]

Formby was wonderful - and a wicked ukelele basher.

[AndyM]

One of those dreamy what ifs of musical history - a Formby/Dusty duet....... (I suppose Morrissey/Sandie Shaw is the nearest we got).

Re Queen and Sun City, (a) it's all the more appalling given that Freddie Mercury wasn't white, and (b) these days, the atrociously-haired Brian May still tries to equivocate about it, but Roger Taylor has the honesty to express regret.

Wasn't the protest single 'Sun City' the only record ever to feature Joey Ramone and Afrika Bambaataa??

[Gordon Neill]

Am I the only person on the planet that never did like 'Graceland'? Yes, it did help open doors for many people (me included). But I always thought the record itself was dull. A smart career move for someone who'd lost his creative spark. But dull.

[AndyM]

You are not alone, Gordon, and I think 'dull' summarises my feelings about it. And the Brazilian re-run a few years later was even worse. I've yet to watch the documentary, so maybe I'll have a change of heart, but whatever the impact of the album socio-culturally, I've never warmed to any of it musically. All a bit polite, and way down in quality from Simon's peak years.

For all the effect it had on opening ears to African music, from another (no doubt perverse)standpoint, it confirmed 'world music' as stuff that social workers with iffy beards danced badly to. I've long since grown out of that snipey viewpoint, but if it had a grain of truth the blame is directly traceable to 'Graceland'. Well, that and the Gypsy bleedin' Kings.

[Con Murphy]

I like the album. I was only vaguely aware of US singer-songwriter solipsism before it, but this opened a whole new world to me - a world of flared trousers and comb-overs where lyrics about marriage breakups and middle-aged spread were considered the height of urban sophistication. Ah, it all seemed so far-off and exotic at the time. Unfortunately I didn't like any of his other stuff so I ended up sticking to the indestructible beat of Soweto and the like. But even after a quarter of a century the title-track alone is worth the price of admission.

[Jamie Renton]

Hello Con, we don't hear from you nearly often enough round these parts nowadays. Thanks for putting it all in perspective for us.

[Adam Blake]

Interesting. We may have hit upon an obvious but subtle faultline here. I was astonished to see the record described here by intelligent music lovers as "dull". Over-polished, yes, in some senses ridiculous in the incongruity of the lyrics with the music, but surely a record with such sublime musicianship as "Graceland" could not be dull. And then I realised, you make your evaluations almost entirely upon the quality of the songs. I make mine almost entirely on the quality of the musicianship. This explains much. Sorry if this is blindingly obvious but I've only just thought of it.

I have often smarted at Andy's tart insinuations (yes, you, you insinuating tart) that we old lags at SOTW are all beholden to some nebulous concept of "authenticity" whilst he, happily unburdened, dances away to only the choicest 80s electro-pop. (I exaggerate and caricature to make a point.) I remember once being asked why I liked dirty old blues so much. I couldn't come up with a better answer than "a chronic lack of bullshit". Sorry and all that. But maybe that's what Con is referring to (great to have you back, Con) and why I never listen to "Graceland" anymore, despite the fact that I know I like the noise it makes.

[Rob Hall]

I like the noise it makes.

Bingo.

[Adam Blake]

I exaggerate and caricature to make a point.

Actually, I failed dismally to make a point.

[Ted]

I didn't like it.

Around the time it came out I got an enthusiastic and thorough kicking from five Metropolitan police officers in a quiet corner of the tube station by the South African Embassy. I know it's unfair to associate any of theis with poor old Paul Simon. But it seemed quite important at the time to support the ANC.

Although as PC W389 Steven Evans did quite rightly say to me at the time, "If this was faarking South Africa you'd be going home in a box, caant"

[Con Murphy]

Yes, the politics of the album were problematic to say the least. The AAM is the only politically-motivated organisation I've ever belonged to, or am likely to belong, and I couldn't bring myself to cross their picket-line at the RAH. But I do have a sneaking regard for anyone who doesn't let politicians boss them around, so in that respect I sympathise with Ray Phiri's frustration over that particular issue. Cultural boycotts just seem so Soviet Union to me. I prefer to judge people individually on their actions - you play to a white audience in an apartheid state, I don't buy your album or go to your concerts (not that Queen care I'm sure). You collaborate with black musicians from the same apartheid state - well, my sympathy is with the artists not the politicians, whatever their stripe.

[Ted]

I did quite like the sound of it, but also, by the time it came out I'd discovered Clifton Chenier (those AA demos often involved detours into Dobells..) I'm not sure if The Indestructible Beat albums were actually out by then, but when they were, they seemed vastly preferable to Simon's overindulged whining.

It didn't survive the great vinyl cull of 88.

[AndyM]

I have often smarted at Andy's tart insinuations (yes, you, you insinuating tart) that we old lags at SOTW are all beholden to some nebulous concept of "authenticity" whilst he, happily unburdened, dances away to only the choicest 80s electro-pop.

Ha! I have my moments of agonising over authenticity - nobody who loves English folk as much as me can avoid it. But 'Graceland' is still dull. Nothing on it is a fifteenth as good as Malcolm McLaren's 'Soweto'. Or, more pertinently, 'Free Nelson Mandela'.