Graceland

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Over the weekend, I saw a program about Paul Simon's trip to South Africa in the 1980's, which resulted in the Graceland album.

I hadn't paid attention to all of that in the 80's and found the program very interesting.  Simon went, as a musician, to listen to and play with musicians he admired and respected.  At that time, South Africa was in the throes of apartheid, and everything South African was supposed to be boycotted by the rest of the world.

Even the music of those who were under the heels of apartheid..........

Apparently Simon was naive about how bad things were in South Africa, and had no idea that he was ignoring sanctions. (He took a huge amount of heat, after he got back to the USA, for having gone, for having recorded music there, for having made the album, you name it.)

He and the musicians he met in Africa made some incredible music, which became the Graceland album.

I had heard some of the music before -- "Call Me Al" -- but hadn't paid much attention to it.

"Call Me Al" is my new favorite song.




It has a good beat, and you can dance to it.


"I can call you Betty, and Betty, when you call me, you can call me Al......."

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