Paul Simon’s Graceland & country music’s global history
If you lived in a home that loved music in the 1990s and 2000s, chances are your family owned a CD of Paul Simon’s 1986 album Graceland. And even if they didn’t, maybe you heard « You Can Call Me Al » and « Graceland » on classic radio in the car. And maybe, you pretended you weren’t listening — but actually you loved it.
I remember long drives between the UK, where I was born, and the Netherlands, where I grew up, my parents’ radio playing in the background. As soon as I had my own CD player I’d try to block out the sounds with my own music, but I’d secretly hit pause when « Graceland » came on. Its rolling sense of motion and reflection felt suited to the journey. We’d all stare out at the road ahead and think about where we’d come from, and where we were going.
Dolly Parton meets Youssou N’Dour.
The idea to make the album first struck Paul Simon while he was in his own car, listening to a cassette a friend had given to him labelled « Accordion Jive Hits Vol. II. » Before long he was off to Johannesburg to work with the South African musicians whose songs had energized him. Since South Africa at the time was deeply entrenched in anti-apartheid freedom struggles, Simon was accused of breaching a UN-approved cultural boycott supported by the Artists Against Apartheid movement. Some critics would question the power dynamics, and the album remains a go-to example in debates about musical imperialism and cultural appropriation. Had Simon credited and paid the South African artists fairly enough? Was Graceland extractive?
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- Other artists accused of violating the boycott — Rod Stewart, Queen — did so for performance fees (and promised not to return). Simon’s motives were different; to work with local artists. He had also turned down lucrative offers to perform. Still, resolution 35/206 from the UN General Assembly was clear: « The United Nations General Assembly requests all states to prevent all cultural, academic, sporting, and other exchanges with South Africa, appeals to writers, artists, musicians, and other personalities to boycott South Africa, and urges all academic and cultural institutions to terminate all links with South Africa. » (« Paul Simon’s Graceland: the acclaim and the outrage », Guardian, 2012). ↩︎
- The Zambian music pioneer Alick Nkhata honed his banjo chops while entertaining British Colonial Auxiliary Forces in Myanmar. ↩︎
- Jessie Brent, « From Hawaii to Nashville to Lagos: A Pedal Steel Primer », in Afropop Worldwide (5 October 2017). ↩︎
- See Kostas Bezos and The White Birds (2017) and the forthcoming record African Steel (2025). ↩︎
- From a radio interview I conducted with Peter One on my radio show « Reimagining Country » (May, 2022) NTS Radio. ↩︎