Think back through recent decades to some of the truly great and defining albums in rock history. Surely, most people would place Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys, and then the truly transformative and highly influential Sgt. Pepper's by the Beatles, back in the 1960's. Almost everyone would acknowledge that Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon belongs on such a list, and I would argue that The Wall does, too. The eighties, I will get to in a moment, because the album being discussed in this blog, and the documentary about that album on the occasions of it's 25th anniversary, came in the eighties.
I remember really being amazed by two albums in particular in the 1990's - U2's Achtung Baby!, and Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic by the Chili Peppers in the early nineties. There were some other great albums that came during that awesome first half of the nineties, but those two really stood apart (at least for me).
More recently, in the first decade of this new millennium, I would place Green Day's American Idiot in that category. It was a political statement that made a huge impact. It had a little something for everyone- some anger and protest, frustration, as well as good, solid music. It came at a time when such an album was necessary. I would also place Incubus's A Crow Left of the Murder on that list as well, although it was not nearly as popular as Green Day's album was.
Now, the eighties are a bit more tricky, one might think, right? I mean, here's the so-called "Me Decade", and the music was kind of a reflection of that, right? Countless nameless bands that became one hit wonders, charting the Billboards briefly with some catchy tune, and then falling back away to obscurity, for the most part. Revived occasionally on the radio stations that reminisce about the eighties, and on late night infomercials, offering you a great deal with albums filled with eighties hits ( but we can only offer such a bargain for a limited time only, so call NOW, while supplies last!). Of course, those infomercials, like all infomercials, seem to air over and over again, to repeat ad nausea. Eighties music certainly has it's admirers, but it has it's fair share of detractors, as well. It was an age of music that sounded very different than anything that had come before, but much of that was due to synthesizers, which some people view as hardly qualifying as a real instruments. Thus, many feel that popular music from this era sounds fake and overly processed. They may have a point.
But that said, there are also some unbelievable albums to have come out during the eighties! I was a bit of a metal head back then, particularly in the latter half of the decade, and Voivod's Nothingface was just an unbelievable record that simply blew me away! It just sounds like nothing else that had come before, and that's saying something! It sounds so futuristic and surreal, and I played it to death, naturally. They had some other incredible albums, including one that might have been a huge commercial success under other circumstances with The Outer Limits. Somehow, such a great group remained on the periphery of the popular music scene, enjoying a decent following (I hesitate to say cult following, but it just may be applicable in this case), but never exploding onto the scene.
Another album that I definitely personally think deserves strong mention would be an album by Dire Straits that came out in 1983, Love Over Gold. It has only five songs, but man, those songs are simply incredible! Every note on that album sounds perfectly in place. The first song that opens the album, Telegraph Road, is probably my personal favorite rock song of all time. It's long - about eleven minutes or so long, and starts off very slowly, before picking up speed and intensity. Again, every note, every lyric, the imagery, everything about it, just seems perfect to me! What an unbelievable song, and an incredibly, often neglected, but certainly underrated, album!
There is another album from the eighties that belongs on that list, though. That would be Paul Simon's Graceland.
Listen to the album, and it is so upbeat and lively it just makes you want to move. It is one of those albums that can literally change your mood, and make you feel better! That's not something that many albums, or even individual songs, can boast. But it's true for an entire album.
The thing is, the back story behind Paul Simon's album is quite interesting, as well. Anybody who knows me well, or has been keeping up with these blogs with some degree of regularity, knows that I have, and long have had, a fascination with South Africa. This album has obvious links to South Africa, yet it is not without controversy. Because this album, which came out in 1986 and which was largely made starting in 1985, with Paul Simon visiting South Africa, came during the dark and divisive days of apartheid. Thus, it was not without some degree of controversy, since this was essentially a white American who comes to an officially racist nation, at a time when the African National Congress (ANC) was urging a total blanket of isolation from the rest of the world community, in an attempt to isolate South Africa, in hopes of forcing change. During the Carter administration, sanctions had been in place, and Pretoria knew that it did not have a friend in the White House. But Reagan came in, and one of his first actions was to lift these sanctions and do business again with South Africa. His approach was known as "constructive engagement", where officially, he was trying to maintain good relations with the country, and to urge change, but do so more softly. Some who were more cynical of the Regan administration and their intents suggested that American businesses were trying to suck out as many profits out of an unfair system as they could, while it lasted. In fact, America's foreign policy towards South Africa was a dividing point, both here and abroad. America's Friendly relations with Pretoria did not go unnoticed in South African circles, and that included the ANC and many other activists. There was an economic embargo, and the United States would fully join it in 1986, the year Graceland came out, when the Congress essentially overrode Reagan's desire for friendlier relations, and his opposition to isolation and economic embargoes towards South Africa.
Paul Simon had released Hearts and Bones in 1983, but it was a disappointment. He talks a little about that in this documentary, in fact. He was used to having at least one big hit per album, but that album had just been a big disappointment, through and through. He needed something to bounce back strong with.
At some point, he had been exposed to South African music, and was completely enraptured by it. He found himself listening to it incessantly, unable to stop. He needed to find out more about it, and began to ask around. Eventually, that led to his going to South Africa to meet with some of those same incredible musicians, with their unbelievable, and highly energetic, style of music. He worked with them, tried to get very specific sounds. He generally knew what he wanted, but it was not automatic. It took a bit of trial and error, but he eventually got better and better ideas of where he wanted to take the thing, where he wanted to go with it.
He spent nearly two weeks in South Africa, working hard and trying to accumulate as much material as he could. When he returned back home to the United States, he continued the process, at one point bringing some of the South African musicians to the States for additional work.
It took a lot of processing, but the end result was the album that became a smash hit: Graceland.
Yet, the album was not without controversy. Many blacks here in the United States and in South Africa were incensed that Simon would just take it upon his own to go to a racist country in order to try and get a pick up for an arguably sagging musical career.
This film documents all of that, the musicianship, the political controversies, the mixed bag of emotions from all sides. It has Oliver Tambo's son (Oliver Tambo was a prominent leader in the anti-apartheid ANC) confronting Paul Simon all these years later, with both sides sitting and discussing their own side of the story.
It is all fascinating to watch, and lends an extra layer that perhaps was not entirely visible up until now, an allows one who really enjoys this album (like me) to more fully appreciate the back story of how this brilliant album came into being.
Also, it features a reunion of Paul Simon and some of the wonderful South African musicians that he worked with a quarter of a century ago, to produce what will likely forever remain the defining album of his musical career.
This movie is a must for any Paul Simon and/or Graceland fans, fans of South African music, or people who are interested in the anti-apartheid movement of the 1980's. It is entertaining and informative, and I strongly recommend it!
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