Paul Simon: Graceland Classic Albums

COMMENTATOR: Live from Los Angeles,

the 29th annual Grammy awards.

BOTH: And the album of the year is...

Unbelievable! That's beautiful!

The crowd is happy!

GRACELAND!

I'd like to thank the singers and musicians from South Africa who worked with me on Graceland,

who live, along with other South African artists and their countrymen,

under one of the most repressive regimes on the planet today

and still they are able to produce

music of great power and nuance and joy.

THEY SING A SOUTH AFRICAN SONG

We were influenced by American music. It was influenced by us.

It was sharing information, so it was a two-way traffic.

We used Paul as much as Paul used us.

There was no abuse.

He came at the right time to break South African music more into the mainstream market.

If he has sold more than 14 million copies worldwide of Graceland, that says a lot.

Over 14 million people in the world know what South African music is.

Graceland was a particularly benign record.

I think it described

South African culture in a way that was very accurate.

It was certainly not complete.

It didn't touch on the anger that was pervasive,

but it did touch on the other part of the culture where people laughed,

where there was dancing, where life was being celebrated.

The global village and the vocabulary are getting smaller because we are speaking one language.

But it's the search for one's self...

..that you end up finding yourself in somebody else's thing, you know.

It's something in the air. It's not controlled by any individual.

When there is a good songwriter somewhere, he'll touch the rest of the world with just one word.

-#

-It was a dry wind and it swept across the desert

-#

-And it curled into the circle of birth

-#

-And the dead sand was falling on the children

-#

-The mothers and the fathers and the automatic earth

-#

-These are the days of miracle and wonder

-#

-This is the long-distance call

-#

-The way the camera follows us in slo-mo

-#

-The way we look to us all Oh, yeah

-#

-The way we look to a distant constellation

-#

-That's dying in a corner of the sky

-#

-These are the days of miracle and wonder

-#

-Don't cry, baby, don't cry, don't cry...

-#

Let's roll back.

I think we always knew that this would be the start of the album.

I mean, it began so unusually and the sound of those drums at the top

sounded so African...

that it really was like an announcement that said, "You haven't heard this before."

HEAVY DRUMS AND ACCORDION

-#

-It was a slow day and the sun was beating

-#

-On the soldiers by the side of the road

-#

-There was a bright light, a shattering of shop windows

-#

-The bomb in the baby carriage was wired to the radio

-#

-These are the days of miracle and wonder

-#

-This is the long-distance call

-#

-The way the camera follows us in slo-mo...

-#

My favourite track is "The Boy In The Bubble".

It represents that whole feel and experience - a very dark,

brooding quality about it.

And, er, to me it most represents the whole trip,

the whole concept and the whole feel of recording in that studio over there.

These were originally jams. Basically, they were jams - 10, 15 minutes, half an hour.

And lo and behold maybe a song would come out of that.

It was important to record these guys with good eye contact, close together.

Not everybody in their own little room.

Let's try to control the leakage the best we can,

so the eye contact and the feel is in the room.

And record it, so back in New York we can delete that, add this,

add these four bars, put these four over here, these three bars here,

and be able do that without a mess.

What we added to the accordion to make the sound deeper was...

We added a synthesizer to deepen the sound.

-Like this.

-MUSIC GETS DEEPER

-In proportion...

Similarly, with the drums...

Here's the sample added to the snare.

STEADY DRUM BEAT

This happens quite a bit in Graceland.

Sounds are added to the original sounds to make things sound deeper.

Over here...

BELLS CHIME

Well, here's bells.

They're tucked in the background just to give things a natural echo sound.

Here's me singing voices to fit in with the accordion.

VOCAL TRACK IS ADDED

I'm just making up sounds.

-#

-These are the days of miracle and wonder

-#

-This is the lo-ong-distance ca-all

-#

-The way the camera follows us in slo-mo

-#

-The way we look to us all, oh, yeah

-#

-The way we look to a distant constellation

-#

-That's dying in a corner of the sky

-#

-These are the days of miracle and wonder

-#

-Don't cry, baby, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry...

-#

It was clear that Paul

was coming to the end of writing songs the way he had written before.

He said to me a number of times that he wasn't interested in writing hits.

He wasn't interested.

Here was a man at a very crucial place in his career,

looking for something to do, for a larger canvas to work on.

It's important to look at it in the context of Paul's music at that time.

It was a difficult time for me.

I started to work on an album

that became Hearts And Bones.

When I did a reunion concert with Art Garfunkel, half a million people showed up.

Then we decided to go out and do some concerts - a classic mistake.

The album came out - an album that had been announced as Simon and Garfunkel -

now came out as this solo album.

I was exhausted. I didn't do any work to promote it. I just put it out.

And it was a flop.

And in the midst of all of that touring,

um, I got married.

And, er...

I married Carrie Fisher

in the middle of that tour.

You know, I mean...

What was I thinking? Certainly not thinking about life.

You actually have to stop.

Marriage is a hard thing to... to...er, to do.

You need to concentrate on that. Not everything can happen at once.

All kinds of mistakes on top of mistakes, on top of mistakes.

So now I had, you know, a personal blow in my life,

and a career setback.

And the combination of the two put me into a tailspin.

Around that time, I was building a house in Montauk, Long Island.

And while I drove out, I would listen to this tape that a friend had given me.

And I really liked that tape.

After weeks of driving back and forth and listening to the tape,

I thought, "What is this tape? This is my favourite tape.

"I wonder who this is." And that's when things perked up.

That led me to asking the people at Warner Brothers to trace them for me.

They traced it to South Africa,

and in early 1985 I set off with Roy Halee to begin this.

And in a very good mood, too. I said, "This is going to be fun."

Warner Brothers had never heard of a recording process like this.

They thought - I'm sure - when we were doing this, that Paul Simon and Roy Halee were crazy.

You can't make a record like that. How can you go to Africa? You don't even have a song.

I'm sure, I KNOW they thought we were both nuts.

I said I have one big advantage going by being as cold as I am.

Nobody is paying any attention to me. I can do this all, you know, very privately.

Nobody will ask, "Can you send us a copy? Can we hear it?" None of that will happen.

I had finished with my disappointments and sorrows.

WOMEN SING IN ZULU

'My father was a musician.

'I grew up with musicians. I'm comfortable with musicians. I hang out with musicians.

'Studios are friendly environments to me.'

There's nothing in a studio you can't solve.

It's not the same as life. You'll figure it out one way or the other.

It's a happy work environment.

-#

-I'll sing what I said

-#

-We come and we go

-#

-That's a thing I keep in the back of my head

-#

-I'll sing what I have said

-#

-We come and we go-o

-#

-It's a thing that I keep in the back of my head...

-#

I was having a ball, recording it.

To record these guys for a guy like me, from my background - everything so organised.

Hearing the rawness, the earthiness of this, I was in seventh heaven.

It was getting good grooves and coming back and rewriting it.

There was nothing really written.

All of Paul's albums - anything I ever did - songs were written in the studio.

Paul loved to write and create great things in the studio.

But in the studio, Paul would say, "Wait till you hear this!"

and you'd hear Mrs Robinson. There it is.

Here there's nothing. It's an idea, a concept, nothing on paper.

So it was a gamble, I guess.

We cut another track with the Tao Ea Matsekha group.

I only liked the drums. I kept them in and we overdubbed on these drums.

DRUM BEAT

To my ear, certain words or certain sounds that became words,

sometimes those words formed a phrase and it was interesting.

Sometimes it was banal. Sometimes it made no sense, like "I'm going to Graceland."

That phrase sang very well against what was happening in the track.

It was comfortable to sing that, so I sang it,

thinking all along that I would replace it.

Until I realised I'm not going to replace it. It's always going to be in my head.

-#

-I'm going to Graceland, Graceland Memphis, Tennessee

-#

-I'm going to Graceland...

-#

I was concerned that that lyric, with all those words, was very wordy.

Rhythmically, they didn't fit.

He would alter the way he would sing. He would phrase it thousands of different ways to make it work.

It would always feel uncomfortable.

There were times we both thought, "We're not going to get this."

But Paul, with his spirit, "I'm going to get this."

At first I thought I had a problem.

Soon after that, I began to think, "No. Now I have an adventure.

"Instead of resisting what's going on, I'll go with it.

"And I'll be carried along and find out where we're going.

"Instead of assuming I'm captain of the ship, I'm just a passenger."

-#

-The Mississippi Delta was shining like a national guitar

-#

-I am following the river down the highway

-#

-Through the cradle of the civil war

-#

-I'm going to Graceland, Graceland Memphis, Tennessee

-#

-I'm going to Graceland

-#

-Poor boys and pilgrims with families

-#

-And we are going to Graceland

I always think of this shape -

meaning that you begin and the possibilities are going to go out this way.

It means you have a good story to tell, as opposed to this shape,

which means in the second verse or something, you've finished.

So you want to begin in a way that leaves a lot of possibility.

Sometimes you play something and you don't know what it is.

Later, if the person you're working with has more information than you,

you end up knowing what you are playing.

What I heard him play was great, but it lacked something.

Hence, I ended up saying to him, "Why don't you put a minor there?"

I could hear him playing a straight...

Then I thought that if I went to the minor instead of the major...

HE MOVES TO THE MINOR

This is what I played against Ray's electric guitar on Graceland.

When he played it up here,

I played it over here.

Except I used a lighter pick.

HE HUMS THE MELODY

Graceland is my favourite record.

Favourite record, my favourite...

song that I ever wrote.

This is it, the best I ever did.

HE HUMS THE MELODY

Perfect.

It begins so relaxed. There's no lyrics.

It's taking its time.

-#

-The Mississippi Delta was shining like a national guitar...

-#

'Good opening line.'

-#

-I am following the river down the highway

-#

-Through the cradle of the civil war

-#

-I'm going to Graceland, Graceland Memphis, Tennessee...

-#

-#

-Umbada-ba-dah.

-#

-In the major, but if I want to go...

-#

-Bo-doh, bo-boh, bo-oh, Dee-doh, doh-un-doh, bo-boh.

-#

I can make it major or minor.

-#

-My travelling companion is nine years old

-#

-The child of my first marriage...

-#

I don't know why I like that. I guess there are a lot of first marriages.

-#

-..received in Graceland...

-#

'Now the lick is under the lyrics.'

-#

-She comes back to tell me she's go-o-one...

-#

Under.

-#

-As if I didn't know that As if I didn't know my own bed...

-#

Now it's not...

-#

-As if I'd...

-#

There's the lick again.

-#

-..her hair from her forehead

-#

-And she said lo-oo-sing love is like a window in your heart...

-#

'I found that line touching.'

-#

-Everybody sees you're blown apart

-#

-Everybody sees the wind blo-ow

-#

-I'm going to Graceland

-#

-Memphis, Tennessee I'm going to Graceland...

-#

-I didn't sing Graceland twice here. The first time, I'm going,

-#

-Graceland, Graceland.

-#

This time, I only sing it once. Each time, I vary it.

-#

-..ghosts and empty sockets, are looking at ghosts and empties...

-#

The only line I'd rewrite.

-#

-But I've reason to believe we all will be received in Graceland...

-#

We've got the Everly Brothers. Let's see what they sound like.

# Poor boys and pilgrims with families

# And we are going to Graceland.

# My travelling companions are ghosts and empty sockets

# I'm looking at ghosts and empties... #

Too many words.

# But I've reason to believe We all will be received in Graceland... #

This was a very in-depth compositional effort.

It wasn't just a question of taking a few rhythms and a few drummers.

This was a real composition...

that was made on the basis of that material.

Ah...but...so...ah...

So he elevated this research that turned into this record.

He elevated that enterprise into something I don't think anyone has done since.

It's been recomposed and processed by the way Paul worked on it.

-#

-I'm going to Graceland...

-#

No "Memphis, Tennessee". I'm not talking about Memphis, now.

Memphis was only in the beginning. Now we're in another place.

-#

-..obliged to defend Every love, every ending Or maybe there's no obligations now

-#

-Maybe I've a reason to believe We all will be received in Graceland...

-#

When I was there, when I first went there, Nelson Mandela was in prison.

And although I always thought there would be a peaceful resolution to the politics of South Africa,

I never thought it would be this fast.

The younger generation was ready and hungry for the outside world,

tired of being ostracised, ready to celebrate their own culture.

And so did black South Africans feel that way.

Because when I was there to record,

they were listening to American music.

They weren't listening to their own music.

That was already passe.

South African music was oppressed as the people were.

But there was a lot of apartheid in the music.

I remember it was called "gaffle" music, you know. Bantu music, it was called.

But we listened to American music and Rock 'n' Roll, The Beatles, Paul Simon.

It's not unusual that cultures misjudge their own history's value, that they're willing to discard it.

I mean, American culture's doing it.

What emerged from Graceland,

as an album and as a tour,

was that, for the most part,

it made a very powerful point gently.

It wasn't an album that said, "There's terrible evil here."

It said, "There's incredible beauty here."

That was a very powerful point.

And in conjunction with the world's anger towards South Africa -

the attack on the fortress of apartheid -

the walls eventually cracked and I think Graceland was a factor in that.

People could think, who hadn't thought this before,

"How can people be treated so inhumanely,

"when they have so much to give the world?"

# Emaweni webaba

Silale maweni

# Webaba

Silale maweni

# Webaba

-#

-Silale maweni

# Webaba

-#

-Silale maweni

-#

-Webaba silale maweni

# Webaba

Silale maweni

# Webaba

Silale maweni

# Webaba

Silale maweni

-#

-Webaba silale maweni

-#

-Webaba silale maweni...

-#

Sing. # Homeless

# Homeless

# Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake

# Homeless

# Homeless

# Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake... #

I don't think I'm a good "angry" writer.

I can be an angry person and even articulate my anger in speech, but I'm not a good angry songwriter.

I think that's why Graceland came out,

feeling the way that it did.

Black Mambazo is also not an angry group

and has done an enormous amount for South Africa and for people.

After we met with Paul Simon in 1985,

and we promised each other that we were going to do something together,

and he composed the song alone. # Homeless, homeless

# Moonlight sleeping Chai, chai, chai. #

# Homeless

# Homeless

# Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake... #

I listened to their records a lot.

Then I tried to write a melody that would be something like a Black Mambazo melody.

And we listened and we read the letter from him,

"Joseph, here's the song."

And then, when we listened to the lyrics, it was beautiful!

The time came and we went to join Paul Simon in London.

# Too-loo lo Too-loo lo

# Too-loo-lo loo loo loo loo loo-loo lo

# Too-loo lo, Too-loo lo Many dead Tonight it could be you... #

This is the first little rehearsal in London.

# ..Tonight it could be you

# Homeless

# Homeless

# Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake... #

I don't know what happened when we got into the studio.

It felt like, "Hoo! Where to begin? Where to start?"

We started to work. Ooh! This language is a little bit hard, talking to him.

And he's a polite man.

I told the guys, "Don't worry. He's very good. He's a polite man."

He said, "Joseph, how do you think about this song?" I said, "Very good. Do you have something...?"

"Yes. We have something."

And then we sing that part and we come to "Homeless"

and it's a little bit difficult to blend the voices -

an American voice, African voice.

The first day, it was tough. We're just touching there and then.

Many people were trying to help us and that was confusing me.

Ah! I said, "OK."

And Paul discovered that there was something wrong.

He said, "Joseph, let us tape this."

We taped it and he said, "Right. Just go and relax.

"We see each other tomorrow. OK?"

At the beginning, it felt a little strained, strange,

like they weren't sure. Everybody was feeling everybody out.

And it was hard because they don't produce a lot of sound.

They are tricky to record. The bass voices are soft. But it warmed up the second day.

HE HUMS HOMELESS MELODY

-#

-Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake

-#

-And we are homeless...

-#

-That's how they sang it.

-#

-Homeless Moonlight mm-mm, mm-mm...

-#

I think I did it...

I think I didn't use a major chord. I think I used minor...

-#

-Bah-dah...

-#

-Yeah.

-

-#

-Di dah-dum.

-#

-But they wouldn't use...

They'd sing...

-#

-Bah lah-dah

-#

-Lee-dah

-#

-Dee dah-dah Do dee-dah dum.

-#

But I was playing...

-#

-Homeless Homeless

-#

-Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake

-#

-And we are homeless Ho...

-#

When we got into the studio, I said, "Paul, we have something."

And Paul said, "Yes!"

And Paul just, I remember when he said, "Everybody in this studio must go outside."

We'd begin it # Emaweni webaba... #

We sang those parts # Silale maweni

# Silale maweni, silale maweni

# Webaba silale maweni

# Webaba silale maweni. #

And Paul said, "Yes! That's beautiful!"

And then, "Joseph, I was listening to your record. There's another part in your record...

"E-i-i. E-i-i-ee. E-i-i-ee." And I was confused.

"What is that, Paul?"

"In your record - E-i-i-ee."

I said. "No. Hih-ih, hih-ih." He said, "Yes!"

-# Hih-ih, hih-ih, hih-ih

-Somebody say

-Hih-ih, hih-ih

-#

-Somebody sing

-Hello, hello, hello

-#

-Somebody say

-Ih, hih-ih, hih-ih

-#

-Somebody cry

-Why, why, why?

-#

-Somebody say

-Ih, hih-ih, hih-ih

-#

-Somebody sing

-Hello, hello, hello

-#

-Somebody say

-Ih, hih-ih, hih-ih

-#

-Somebody cry

-Why, why, why?

-#

-Kulumani

# Kuluman, Kulumani sizwe Singenze njani

# Baya jabula abasi thanda

# Yo-oh. #

This type of music originated from Zulu songs and dances.

We grew up on the farm. Now, people - each and every one of us - singing and dancing.

When we were at home, it was beautiful because there were men, women,

young, old, grandmother, grandfather, when there's something, they come together

and share the sound, the music.

But it started to be lonely when people left their loved ones and went into town to work.

Now they started to try to find the place where they can get together and sing.

The music, it's always political because the truth is political.

That's why, when we started to sing, our people were very happy

and we just make them have power.

It was high time that South African artists and international artists should highlight

the importance of exposing the evils of the past eras of South Africa, like the apartheid era.

Culture can't be owned by an individual.

It can be shared by us all.

But a lot of people were saying negative things -

"This white man has used our black brothers' music."

But then you ask yourself, "Where were they?"

I didn't feel that I was going to South Africa

to come back and then express a South African outrage -

"I'll tell the world how you guys are feeling."

I really didn't feel comfortable with that.

My feeling was I'm playing with musicians that I have the highest respect for.

And the way I can show my respect is to write the best possible song

from my heart that I can write.

Not to say, "I'll write the best possible song from your heart." I felt that was presumptuous.

The most unfortunate thing about the beast in us is that we always find wrong when it is right

and we find right when it is wrong.

Some things that are beautiful can be turned into an ugly thing

just for the sake of scoring political points.

If Paul came to record the album, he would have been in the blacklist,

but he went a step further because he didn't politicise it by simply writing about what was happening.

He said, "No. Who am I to talk about people's situations?

"Why don't I get those people to come on and let us share these beautiful rhythms with the world?"

# Joseph's face was black as night

# The pale yellow moon shone in his eyes

# His path was marked

# By the stars in the southern hemisphere

# And he walked his days

# Under African skies

-#

-This is the story of how we begin to remember

SHE SINGS IN ZULU

-#

-This is the powerful pulsing of love in the vein

-#

-After the dream of falling and calling your name out

-#

-These are the roots of rhythm And the roots of rhythm remain...

-#

I think one of the things about really good art is that it should be there to evoke.

Paul asked me if I had an image for him.

He wanted something on the song we were going to sing. He asked what I remembered from my childhood.

The thing I love most in Arizona is the St Xavier mission,

which is the most beautiful mission in North America.

I told him about that.

That's why he has "In early mem'ry, mission bells are ringing round my nursery door."

Everybody has their own scenario that can unfold under an African sky.

It's an idea of possibility.

It's a story-telling thing like in the African tradition,

whereby you find that musicians are storytellers.

They've got to document every happening.

His lyrics end up complementing the rhythm,

or the rhythm complementing the lyric.

Also he's got the subject that says, "It's you. It's me."

# In early mem'ry

# Mission music was ringing 'round my nursery door

# I said, "Take this child, Lord, from Tucson, Arizona

# Give her the wings to fly through harmony

# And she won't bother you no more

# This is the story of how we begin to remember

# This is the powerful pulsing of love in the vein

# After the dream of falling and calling your name out

# These are the roots of rhythm And the roots of rhythm remain

-# Kaoomba oomba oomba oh

-O-o-oh

-# Kaoomba oomba oomba oh

-O-o-oh

-# Kaoomba oomba oomba o-o-o-o-o-oh

-O-o-oh

-# Kaoomba oomba oomba o-o-o-o-o-oh

-O-o-o-o-o-oh...

-#

South Africans almost look down upon the music that came from South Africa.

I guess because of the political situation, we were made to, sort of, feel embarrassed about the music.

In South Africa, you grew up with blinkers on.

Take them off, and you could see what was going on.

PENNY WHISTLE MUSIC

I heard penny whistle music on every corner.

Every kid was playing a penny whistle along with a guitar player.

As a teenager, I used to go to the townships. We'd spend hours there.

This is the way I absorbed a lot of the music from there.

It was only when Paul Simon came out with Graceland that people said,

"Wow! We've got all this gold here."

I think somebody used that phrase once.

And, er, then people started realising

that it's such a great fountain of music that comes from South Africa.

MUSIC: "You Can Call Me Al"

BASS GUITAR PLAYS

It took me a long time before I could begin to write.

I loved the track so much for a long time I thought,

"Just put the tracks out because you can't do any better than this.

"Anything I put on here is just going to make it worse."

So it took a while before I had the courage to write over these tracks.

-#

-Shoo-ca do-do-do Shoo-ca de-de-de...

-#

Not that I particularly wanted to solo,

but...a lot of voices, a lot of voices, singing instruments

to create a smoother rhythm sound.

Here comes the bass.

-That's the background sample.

-#

-Mm-mm.

-#

Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The bass, I'll solo it...

HE PLAYS BASS SOLO

That bass solo break...

It was my birthday, May 10th.

I said to Paul, "I don't know what you're going to do to this part, but I have an idea.

"I'd like to play something. It's my birthday today. He said, "Wow! OK."

So, um, then, you know, I came up with this bass line...

And then a...

-There's an overdub on the bass.

-#

-Mwah, mwah.

-#

Two basses happening.

-#

-Mwah.

-#

It sounded conventional, so we took the first bar of the solo...

Spliced it...

Flipped it and made the second half of the solo the backwards tape of the first half of the solo.

Backwards.

OK.

FULL BACKING TRACK

OK.

Here's another backwards...

-#

-If you'll be my bodyguard...

-#

If you leave whistling a tune, or tapping your foot, that's the single. That's what they listen for.

# Oo-oo-oo-ooh Oo-oo-oo-oo-ooh

-#

-I can call you Betty

-Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-ooh

You Can Call Me Al had the hook.

-And it had the groove.

-#

-Dah-da-da dah.

-#

What a great hook. That's a great hook.

-#

-If you'll be my bodyguard I can be your long-lost pal...

-#

They said, "Make a video."

-#

-I can call you Betty And, Betty, when you call me You can call me Al...

-#

It was bad. It was really bad.

I said, "You can't put this out. This is... You just can't put this out."

Then, Lorne Michaels, the producer of Saturday Night Live, said, "Do one with Chevy.

"Chevy knows the words. Let him sing it."

So we organised it quickly and did that.

-#

-A man walks down the street It's a street in a strange world

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-Maybe it's the Third World Maybe it's his first time around

-#

-Doesn't speak the language He holds no currency...

-#

Although I do think the Chevy Chase video,

because it was funny and very light,

you tend to think of the song as funny.

It is, but with something much more to say.

So in a certain sense, it undercut the power of what that song meant.

-#

-I can call you Betty And, Betty, when you call me You can call me Al. Call me...

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You Can Call Me Al, I mean, lyrically, if I can remember,

"A man walks down the street." That's a version of "a guy walks into a bar".

"There was a rabbi, a minister and a priest..."

An old set-up - a man walks down the street.

-#

-A man walk down the street He says, "Why am I...?

-#

"Why am I soft in the middle? The rest of my life is so hard." It's a joke.

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-..shot at redemption...

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-"Don't want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard."

That was me. I was writing about myself.

I guess I was saying, like any artist,

"I don't want to be an irrelevancy. I hope I'm not irrelevant."

-#

-Don't want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard...

-#

And from there, it's associative thinking.

"A cartoon in a cartoon graveyard", bone-diggers.

Graveyard - bones.

Bone-diggers. Bone-diggers - dogs.

"Dogs in the moonlight." Moonlight's in a lot of songs.

-#

-Don't want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard Bone-digger

-#

-Bone-digger Dogs in the moonlight

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-Far away my well-lit door...

-#

It's scary. In my mind, there's a graveyard. I can hear dogs howling at night...

But it's cosy inside with lots of lights. It's not scary here.

"Mr Beerbelly, Beerbelly. Get these mutts away from me. I don't find this stuff amusing any more."

It's like enough of this garbage. I'm afraid. Death is coming. Oh-oh.

Like, OK.

Verse two is a variation on the first.

-#

-"Why am I short of attention?" Got a short little span of attention...

-#

"The short little span of... short little span of attention." That was, er, that was a penis joke.

"Short little span of attention and, oh, my nights are so long.

"Now where's my wife and family?",

which, at the time, I didn't have.

"Where's my wife and family? What if I die here?" A lot of fears.

"Who will be my role model?" Just fears, a guy's fears.

Now he's piling up these fears.

From my perspective as a songwriter, in a sense I had no sympathy for the guy by the second verse.

He has too many complaints.

And by then, I think I had, "If you'll be my bodyguard, I'll be your long-lost pal."

So if we can make an alliance, maybe I won't be in so much trouble.

I'll look out for you. you look out for me. I'll call you Betty. You call me Al.

We'll make a deal. That'll be our deal against all these modern things that we have to fear.

By the third verse,

it's time to say what this is all about.

"A man walks down a street in a strange world. Maybe it's the Third World."

This is obvious - I'm talking about Africa.

-#

-A man walks down the street It's a street in a strange world Maybe it's the Third World...

-#

"Maybe it's his first time around. Doesn't speak the language." Me.

"He holds no currency. He's a foreign man.

"Surrounded by the sound." It was an amazing place.

-#

-Cattle in the marketplace Scatterlings and orphanages...

-#

"Cattle in the marketplace." It's a faraway place.

You can imagine cattle in the streets and the marketplace.

-#

-He looks around, around Sees angels in the architecture...

-#

"He looks around, sees angels in the architecture."

It has become a spiritual journey now, a spiritual adventure.

That's what that song was about.

And that was a pretty accurate description of my journey.

-#

-A man walks down the street It's a street in a strange world

-#

-Maybe it's the Third World Maybe it's his first time around

-#

-Doesn't speak the language Holds no currency

-#

-He is a foreign man He is surrounded by the sound

-#

-The sound There's cattle in the marketplace Scatterlings and orphanages

-#

-He looks around, around He sees angels in the architecture

-#

-They're spinning in infinity He says, "Amen! Hallelujah!"

-#

-If you'll be my bodyguard I can be your long-lost pal

-#

-I can call you Betty And, Betty, when you call me You can call me Al...

-#

The whole process of this writing came from a deep analysis of what was going on in the tracks.

Because the African musicians were playing what they'd normally play

in a way that was different from the way American musicians that I was familiar with would play.

I was coming out of folk-rock. That was pretty symmetrical.

It didn't change from verse to verse.

Their patterns altered in some subtle way and I was either playing in the studio when that happened,

or in the control room, and wasn't aware of what the pattern was at all.

I didn't realise there had been a variation in the pattern, either intentional or unintentional

until many months later when I was writing.

I'd work on songs and say it's good. The first verse is good, the second is not so good,

The third verse, that's good. Things are good, except...

Why doesn't the second verse work?

I mean, OK, now I'm really going to listen to the second verse.

Now... Putting aside my assumption that it's exactly the same and should work,

which I stayed with for a long time. It should work, so that's it.

I'm not going to change because it's supposed to work.

Then I would begin to listen and I'd say, "Sure enough, there's a variation in here.

"There's a variation that I'm not taking into account."

And that degree of listening...

was my education.

That's... That's what I learned.

I learned to listen on a level I had never experienced before.

He pulled it off. He did it.

He slaved over it. He sweated blood over it.

My gums bled over it.

Unbelievable. Just unbelievable.

-#

-People say she's crazy She got diamonds on the soles of her shoes

-#

-Well, that's one way to lose these walking blues

-#

-Diamonds on the soles of her shoes...

-#

Diamonds on the soles of her shoes was a phrase I had written down, but hadn't used.

Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes was the last song we recorded.

It was never intended to be on the album.

The album was originally supposed to come out in June 1986

and we were going to play Saturday Night Live.

Everybody was here, the whole band. We were all going to do the show.

Then Warner Brothers said they'd prefer to release this in the fall.

So Roy and I said, "Why don't we try another song?"

RAY PHIRI: It was more a jam than a song.

Then the following day we were at the Hit Factory.

After two takes, it was in.

Because we were having such fun, we'd developed a working relationship that said something.

You find that even by # Zoh ba-dibbi-dibbi-dibbi do-ba dibbi-duh bib-ba zah ba-dum bo

# Bi-dum boom-boom beh. # It is in reply to...

He answers...

That's how... That's what makes it very exciting.

The singing is very relaxed, too.

It just feels like everybody was very comfortable.

I tried to write a part here in words.

I couldn't think of anything, so we left it as a horn solo.

Not even a horn solo, I probably wrote this part as a background.

-#

-Oo-ooh-oo...

-#

Nothing here. Just letting it go, I guess.

-#

-Oo-ooh-oo...

-#

Letting the band play.

-#

-She makes the sign of the teaspoon He makes the sign of the wave...

-#

-'Domesticity.'

-#

-The poor boy changes clothes and puts on aftershave...

-#

-#

-To compensate for his ordinary shoes...

-#

I love that. "He compensates for his ordinary shoes."

-#

-She said, "Honey, take me dancing" But they...

-#

Finishing the record and going to play it back for Warner Brothers,

having them look at each other and wonder what this was all about!

It was a lot of fun.

Then to see the success, man... Woo!

What if it hadn't worked? I've thought that at the first night of an opera.

What if they laugh? What if it doesn't work?

And you've put all this into it. And you have to have that confidence in the work.

Even though, in fact, you don't really know.

I think that was particularly true for Graceland. In retrospect, it was an instant classic.

So what was to worry about? But I don't think Paul knew that.

Graceland was going to college for me. Rhythmically. Everything.

But also just in the sense of...

in a sense of playing the world, a larger world.

-#

-Ta na na-na na

-Ta na na-na...

-#

The ability to interweave the cultures,

to me, it's obvious to interweave them musically.

We're just taking songs and having a musical discussion

across a language barrier without any problems.

And understanding each other.

-#

-Ta na na-na na Ta na na-na...

-#

And that was, like, Graceland.

That's what that album had - an unusual degree of understanding

amongst people who had just met.

Subtitles by Alison Dilly BBC - 1997