Graceland is the seventh solo studio album by the American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was produced by Simon, engineered by Roy Halee, and released on August 25, 1986, by Warner Bros. Records. It incorporates multiple genres, including pop, rock, a cappella, zydeco, and South African styles such as isicathamiya and mbaqanga.
In the early 1980s, Simon's relationship with his former musical partner Art Garfunkel had deteriorated, his marriage to the actress Carrie Fisher had collapsed, and his previous record, Hearts and Bones (1983), had been a commercial failure. In 1984, after a period of depression, Simon became fascinated by a bootleg cassette of mbaqanga, South African street music. He and Halee spent two weeks in Johannesburg recording with South African musicians. Further recordings were held in the US with American musicians, including Linda Ronstadt, the Everly Brothers, Rockin' Dopsie and the Twisters, and Los Lobos. Simon toured with South African musicians, performing their music and songs from Graceland.
Graceland became Simon's most successful album and his highest-charting album in over a decade, with estimated sales of more than 16 million copies worldwide. It won the 1987 Grammy for Album of the Year and is frequently cited as one of the best albums in history. In 2006, it was added to the US National Recording Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important".
Organizations such as Artists United Against Apartheid criticized Simon for breaking the cultural boycott on South Africa imposed for its policy of apartheid, while others accused him of appropriating the music of another culture. Simon responded that Graceland was a political statement that showcased collaboration between black and white people and raised international awareness of apartheid. Some praised him for helping popularize African music in the West. <!-- This information is cited in the article body. See WP:CITELEAD-->
Background
thumb|150px|left|Paul Simon, seen here in 1982, underwent a personal and commercial downturn in the early 1980s.
Following a series of hit records released in the 1970s, Simon's career declined. His relationship with his former musical partner Art Garfunkel had again deteriorated; his sixth solo studio album, Hearts and Bones (1983), achieved the lowest sales of his career; and his marriage to the actress Carrie Fisher collapsed. "I had a personal blow, a career setback, and the combination of the two put me into a tailspin", he recalled.
In 1984, Simon agreed to produce an album by the Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Heidi Berg, who had played in the house band for Saturday Night Live and been the bandleader for the short-lived The New Show. Berg was drawn to the cheerful accordion sound in mbaqanga, the Black African street music from Johannesburg's Soweto township, and wanted her album to fuse Western and African music. Without hearing the music, Simon advised Berg to travel to South Africa and contact local musicians. Berg had been inspired by a bootleg cassette mixtape of obscure South African songs, and lent the cassette to Simon so that he could understand the direction she wanted to go. Berg stipulated that Simon return the tape in a week, as it was a continual source of ideas for her, but Simon kept it. He first listened to it on a drive to Montauk, New York, where he was having a summer home built. He called the tape "very good summer music, happy music" that reminded him of 1950s rhythm and blues. He began improvising melodies over it as he listened in his car, Jam sessions ranged from 10 to 30 minutes, and Simon and Halee intended to assemble an album from the recordings on their return home. Though the playing was technically simple, Simon found it difficult to mimic. Outside the studio, the public was hostile toward Simon, but the Musician's Union received him warmly.
Though Simon described the recording sessions as "euphoric", he recalled "tension below the surface" due to the effects of apartheid. The musicians would become anxious when recording continued into the evening, since they were prohibited from using public transportation or being on the streets after curfew. The album was influenced by the work of the South African musicians Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu, and their band Juluka's Zulu-Western pop crossover music. Juluka was South Africa's first integrated pop band. Simon includes thanks to Clegg, Juluka, and Juluka's producer Hilton Rosenthal in the liner notes. He included American "roots" influences with tracks featuring zydeco musicians such as Rockin' Dopsie and Tex-Mex musicians.
Graceland alternates between playful and more serious songs. Simon thought of it as like a play: "As in a play, the mood should keep changing. A serious song may lead into an abstract song, which may be followed by a humorous song." In the song "Under African Skies", "the figure of Joseph becomes the dual image of a dispossessed African black man and the New Testament Joseph." In contrast to Hearts and Bones, Graceland subject matter is more upbeat. Simon made an effort to write simply without compromising the language. Composing more personal songs took him significantly longer, as it involved "a lot of avoidance going on". She confirmed she had a habit of brushing her hair from her forehead, and said she felt privileged to be in one of Simon's songs.
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Graceland was released by Warner Bros. with little promotion in August 1986. Before its release, Simon speculated that he was no longer "a viable commercial force in popular music". That year, Rolling Stone David Fricke said the album had become "a daily soundtrack in urban yuppie condos and suburban living rooms and on radio airwaves from Australia to Zimbabwe". As of 2014, Graceland was estimated to have sold more than 16 million copies.
In 2004, Graceland was reissued with three previously unreleased demo tracks. In 2011, it was reissued in a 25th-anniversary edition with further demos, a live concert DVD, and a documentary. In June 2018, Sony Music and Legacy Records issued Graceland: The Remixes, featuring remixes of Graceland songs by artists including Paul Oakenfold, Groove Armada, and Thievery Corporation.
thumb|Miriam Makeba and Simon (1986)
Tour
The Graceland tour began on February 1, 1987. Simon was accompanied by an ensemble of 24 black South Africans, including the singer Miriam Makeba, the trumpeter Hugh Masekela, the guitarist Ray Phiri, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Showtime aired these performances for a TV special and financed most of the costs associated with gear transportation, sound reinforcement, and recording.
Critical reception
Graceland received widespread acclaim upon release. Rolling Stone Rob Tannenbaum characterized it as "lovely, daring and accomplished". Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote: "With his characteristic refinement, Mr. Simon has fashioned that event into the rock album equivalent of a work of literature." In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau deemed it Simon's best record since his 1972 self-titled album, as well as "a tremendously engaging and inspired piece of work".
Retrospective reviews have remained favorable. According to AllMusic's William Ruhlmann, "Graceland became the standard against which subsequent musical experiments by major artists were measured." Andy Gill of The Independent wrote: "The character of the base music here is overwhelming: complex, ebullient and life-affirming, and in yoking this intricate dance music to his sophisticated New Yorker sensibility, Simon created a transatlantic bridge that neither pandered to nor patronised either culture." It was ranked No. 84 in a 2005 survey by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time.
Graceland was ranked 81st on the 2003 list of Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, as "an album about isolation and redemption that transcended 'world music' to become the whole world's soundtrack." The ranking increased to 71st in the 2012 revision and 46th in the 2020 list. In 2000 it was voted number 43 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. The song "Graceland" was named #485 in the 2004 list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2006, Graceland was added to the US National Recording Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important".
{|class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Publication
! Country
! Rank
! List
|-
| rowspan="5"| 1986
|-
| Rolling Stone
| rowspan="2"|US
| style="text-align:center;"| *
| The Year In Records
|-
| The Village Voice
| style="text-align:center;"| 1
| Albums of the Year
|-
| New Musical Express
| rowspan="2"|UK
| style="text-align:center;"| 6
| Albums of the Year
|-
| Q
| style="text-align:center;"| *
| Albums of the Year
|-
| rowspan="2"| 1987
| Stereo Review
| rowspan="4"|US
| *
| Record of the Year Awards
|-
| rowspan="2"| Rolling Stone
| style="text-align:center;"| 56
| The Best Albums of the Last Twenty Years
|-
|1989
| style="text-align:center;"| 5
| The 100 Best Albums of the Eighties
|-
|1993
|Entertainment Weekly
| style="text-align:center;"| 4
|The 100 Greatest CDs of All Time
|-
|1997
|The Guardian
| UK
| style="text-align:center;"| 69
|The 100 Best Albums Ever
|-
|1999
|NPR
| rowspan="5"|US
| style="text-align:center;"| *
|The 300 Most Important American Records of the 20th Century
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2002
| Blender
| style="text-align:center;"| 60
| The 100 Greatest American Albums of All-Time
|-
| Pitchfork
| style="text-align:center;"| 85
| Top 100 Favorite Records of the 1980s
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2003
|USA Today
| style="text-align:center;"| 26
| Top 40 Albums of All Time
|-
|Rolling Stone
| style="text-align:center;"| 81
| The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
|-
|Time
| rowspan="3" |US
| style="text-align:center;"| *
|All-Time 100 Albums
|-
|2012
|Slant Magazine
| style="text-align:center;"| 19
|Best Albums of the 1980s
|-
|2020
|Rolling Stone
|46
|The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
|}
Grammy Awards
|-
| style="width:35px; text-align:center;" rowspan="3"|1987|| rowspan="2"|Graceland || Album of the Year ||
|-
|Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male ||
|-
| style="text-align:center;"|1988 || Record of the Year ||
|-