Graceland is Paul Simon's mid-life crisis. At once new and old, the album marked a crossroads not only for its creator, but for all the heavy hearts who were searching for new ways to be familiar to themselves. Some bought Ferraris; Simon went to South Africa in violation of a United Nations cultural boycott to make an album that would evoke the musical traditions of two cultures and draw a line between his own past and future.
Joining forces with esteemed local musicians like Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Tao Ea Matsekha, Simon seamlessly blended the traditional South African style known as Mbaqanga whose three-chord structures and background harmonies reminded him of the R&B music he had loved as a child—with his own elegant pop melodies. Resounding rhythms and hopping basslines dance around Zulu shouts in "I Know What I Know"; nimble guitar lines mingle with accordion bursts on "Gumboots"; and Ladysmith Black Mambazo's haunting call-and-response moans on "Homeless" sound like a map from Africa to America and back.
At the center is Simon, a middle-aged storyteller peering forward at the prospect of becoming a "cartoon in a cartoon graveyard," crying over spilled love, and crafting some hope from the comforts and misfortunes of the past. Upon its release, Graceland’s unpopular political status was quickly surmounted by its captivating grace and beauty, convincing any listener that the horrors of apartheid were simply no match for the power of artistic brotherhood.
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