Happy birthday, Paul Simon! I spent part of the weekend listening to my 1987 one-on-one interview with Josepeh Shabalala, the songwriter of Ladysmith Black Mambazo. And at one point I asked him, What parts of Homeless did you write and what parts did Simon write? And Shabalala went into great detail, saying that he came up with, among other things, the verse that goes, Strong, winds, strong winds, many dead, tonight it could be you. And he wrote the rhythmic bit after Somebody say when Ladysmith Black Mambazo goes deh deh deh deh deh. Graceland was such a growth spurt -- almost on par with the Beatles metamorphosis -- that, today, when Simon gives concerts, fans clamor for that material as much as they do for the S&G stuff. And the influence of Graceland has resounded down the decades; Ive heard recent concerts by Vampire Weekend, Dave Matthews, Brett Dennen and numerous other artists who draw heavily from that 86 disc. (Ants Marching sounds quite like a Graceland outtake.) That he would have ever eclipsed his Simon and Garfunkel oeuvre is astonishing, one of the great wonders of pop music. So heres to Paul Simon, who began great and evolved into something even greater. https://youtube/watch?v=KT6mlW8NlCU
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 16:24:22 +0000