Paul Simon – Graceland (1986) {25th Anniversary Edition ‘2012} [HDTracks FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

In 1986, Graceland sold 14 million copies worldwide and garnered both the Album and Song of the Year Grammy in 1987. It generated three hit singles and it kept Paul Simon and the Graceland tour on the road for five years. Its music was heard across the globe. Today, its music and its reputation still reach generations of music enthusiasts yet so many are unaware of how pivotal that one album was during the 1980s, how it helped birth the idea of World Music and revived the career of one of America’s most important songwriters. Graceland’s 25th anniversary CD features the original album with bonus tracks including a unreleased tracks audio documentary produced in 2012 with Paul Simon discussing the writing, inspiration and recording of the song ‘Graceland’.

With Graceland, Paul Simon hit on the idea of combining his always perceptive songwriting with the little-heard mbaqanga music of South Africa, creating a fascinating hybrid that re-enchanted his old audience and earned him a new one. It is true that the South African angle (including its controversial aspect during the apartheid days) was a powerful marketing tool and that the catchy music succeeded in presenting listeners with that magical combination: something they’d never heard before that nevertheless sounded familiar. As eclectic as any record Simon had made, it also delved into zydeco and conjunto-flavored rock & roll while marking a surprising new lyrical approach (presaged on some songs on Hearts and Bones); for the most part, Simon abandoned a linear, narrative approach to his words, instead drawing highly poetic (“Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes”), abstract (“The Boy in the Bubble”), and satiric (“I Know What I Know”) portraits of modern life, often charged by striking images and turns of phrase torn from the headlines or overheard in contemporary speech. An enormously successful record, Graceland became the standard against which subsequent musical experiments by major artists were measured.

Tracklist:
01 – The Boy In The Bubble
02 – Graceland
03 – I Know What I Know
04 – Gumboots
05 – Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes
06 – You Can Call Me Al
07 – Under African Skies
08 – Homeless
09 – Crazy Love, Vol II
10 – That Was Your Mother
11 – All Around The World Or The Myth Of Fingerprints
12 – Homeless (Demo)
13 – Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes (Alternate Version)
14 – All Around The World Or The Myth Of Fingerprints (Early Version)
15 – You Can Call Me Al
16 – Crazy Love
17 – The Story of “Graceland” as told by Paul Simon