‘It was a damn unicorn’: the pioneering, divisive power of Paul Simon’s Graceland at 40
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Paul Simon recorded Graceland during February 1985 sessions in Johannesburg with bands including General MD Shirinda and the Gaza Sisters, Tao Ea Matsekha, and the Boyoyo Boys, after discovering mbaqanga music on a bootleg tape played during drives to his Montauk beach home.
- Ashley Kahn's new book Days of Miracle and Wonder details that Simon paid South African musicians triple the daily rate of American union musicians, though credited musicians including Los Lobos, Rockin' Dopsie, and guitarist Ray Phiri later contested the songwriting credits.
- The UN's special committee against apartheid censured Simon for violating the 1980 cultural boycott and planned to add him to a violators' list; the decision was reversed after Simon wrote that he understood the ban targeted performing, not recording.
- Before the sessions, Harry Belafonte urged Simon to contact the African National Congress, but Simon declined, arguing that the power of art trumped laws.
- Graceland entered the Billboard 200 at No. 94 in September 1986 and ultimately peaked at No. 3 the following April, just after Grammy wins; its lead single "You Can Call Me Al" only caught on at pop radio the spring after release—Kahn calls it "a damn unicorn."
- At a Howard University Q&A, a young Mark Batson—who would later produce for Beyoncé and Eminem—publicly challenged Simon on how he could justify "taking over this music" and the broader pattern of Black art being "stolen" by white artists.
- Simon built the album from the rhythm up rather than from acoustic guitar, enlisting bassist Bakithi Kumalo and drummer Isaac Mtshali, later flying both to New York for additional sessions where he shared rough mixes with David Byrne, Cyndi Lauper, and Philip Glass.
Why it matters: Simon paid South African musicians triple the union rate yet refused to coordinate with the ANC—creating a template for ethically complicated cross-cultural pop that artists from Vampire Weekend to Lorde still navigate. The 40-year persistence of the appropriation debate suggests Graceland's contradictions haven't been resolved; they've been inherited.
Ask SkimNews
