0:00:02 > 0:00:05This programme contains some strong language
0:00:05 > 0:00:07- # Somebody say- heh, heh, heh
0:00:07 > 0:00:09- # Somebody sing- hello, hello, hello
0:00:09 > 0:00:12- # Somebody say- heh, heh, heh
0:00:12 > 0:00:15- # Somebody cry- why, why, why?
0:00:15 > 0:00:17# Kuluman
0:00:17 > 0:00:19# Kulumani, kulumani sizwe. #
0:00:19 > 0:00:21Over a quarter of a century ago,
0:00:21 > 0:00:25Paul Simon travelled to Johannesburg in South Africa to record tracks
0:00:25 > 0:00:29with a group of township musicians for the album that would become
0:00:29 > 0:00:32perhaps his greatest achievement - Graceland.
0:00:32 > 0:00:37It was a project that became marred in controversy. Nelson Mandela
0:00:37 > 0:00:40was still in prison and apartheid was very much in force in South Africa.
0:00:42 > 0:00:47An international boycott prevented artists performing in South Africa,
0:00:47 > 0:00:50but Simon ignored it, determined to collaborate in person
0:00:50 > 0:00:56with the black artists whose music he loved so intensely.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00The turbulence around Graceland followed Simon and his collaborators
0:01:00 > 0:01:03here to London's Albert Hall, where they performed
0:01:03 > 0:01:05in front of sold-out audiences.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09Ladies and gentlemen, Hugh Masekela.
0:01:19 > 0:01:20Outside, however,
0:01:20 > 0:01:25there were angry cries and crowds of anti-apartheid protesters.
0:01:25 > 0:01:29For me, tonight's film tells a truly remarkable story
0:01:29 > 0:01:34about the tension between creative freedom and political responsibility.
0:01:34 > 0:01:38Paul Simon, the curious - some might say the arrogant artist -
0:01:38 > 0:01:41just follows his ears to South Africa, falls in love
0:01:41 > 0:01:44with the genius of the township musicians,
0:01:44 > 0:01:46and with the music he encounters there.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49# Kuluman, kulumani sizwe
0:01:49 > 0:01:51# Singenze njani
0:01:51 > 0:01:55# Baya jabula abasi thanda Yo ho. #
0:01:55 > 0:01:57In tonight's Imagine,
0:01:57 > 0:02:00the filmmaker Joe Berlinger follows Simon
0:02:00 > 0:02:03as he travels back to South Africa for an emotional reunion
0:02:03 > 0:02:07with the musicians who played with him on Graceland and who discuss,
0:02:07 > 0:02:10with remarkable candour, the controversy that surrounded
0:02:10 > 0:02:16the making of what is now regarded as one of the truly great albums.
0:02:43 > 0:02:45VINYL CRACKLES
0:02:45 > 0:02:48FAINT APPLAUSE GROWS
0:02:48 > 0:02:50INTRO TO: "The Boy In The Bubble"
0:02:56 > 0:03:00A remarkable album called Graceland, by singer Paul Simon,
0:03:00 > 0:03:03- grew out of a trip that he made to South Africa.- The Graceland album
0:03:03 > 0:03:06started out a cross-cultural experiment. It has become
0:03:06 > 0:03:10a worldwide hit. Five million copies have been sold so far.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13I really wasn't thinking that Graceland was going to have
0:03:13 > 0:03:18this kind of effect on people. I didn't think of it as anything other than a really interesting...
0:03:18 > 0:03:22- Something you loved.- Yes, right - it was a music... Exactly.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24But you can't miss the political side, you know.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26Paul Simon's Graceland is a big success,
0:03:26 > 0:03:30but it's also controversial because Simon recorded the album in South Africa
0:03:30 > 0:03:33and critics say he should have had nothing to do with a racist country.
0:03:33 > 0:03:37The conscience of the world must be awakened to the horror
0:03:37 > 0:03:39of apartheid in South Africa.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41We are calling upon all international artists
0:03:41 > 0:03:44to stay away from our country. What made you go there?
0:03:44 > 0:03:46I was invited there.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48I was invited by black musicians.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50# I'm going to Graceland
0:03:50 > 0:03:51# Graceland
0:03:51 > 0:03:53# Memphis Tennessee
0:03:53 > 0:03:55# I'm going to Graceland... #
0:03:55 > 0:04:00When the artist gets into some sort of disagreement with politics,
0:04:00 > 0:04:04why are the politicians designated to be the ones to tell us,
0:04:04 > 0:04:07the artists, what to do, and we're supposed to follow, otherwise
0:04:07 > 0:04:10- we're not good citizens...?- I hear you, man. You're not allowed
0:04:10 > 0:04:14to think, not allowed feel or have a political opinion.
0:04:14 > 0:04:15It's nonsense, man.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19# We will all be received in Graceland... #
0:04:22 > 0:04:25I remember when Graceland first came out, there was some
0:04:25 > 0:04:28controversy about it and so it was just one of those things, like...
0:04:28 > 0:04:31Oh, well, controversy - I'm not going to buy THAT album.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34But when I went to hear him perform
0:04:34 > 0:04:39in a concert in Chicago, I was infected by the music.
0:04:40 > 0:04:45# And she said losing love is like a window in your heart... #
0:04:45 > 0:04:49Graceland was the Paul Simon record that rocked a little harder
0:04:49 > 0:04:51than some of the ones just before that.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53The ones just before had great songs, but this one
0:04:53 > 0:04:57had a little bit more low-end going on.
0:04:57 > 0:04:58# I'm going to Graceland
0:04:58 > 0:05:02# Memphis, Tennessee I'm going to Graceland... #
0:05:02 > 0:05:04Music is the most unifying thing I've ever seen.
0:05:04 > 0:05:10- Cultures have been swapping information...- It's only 12 notes, man. Until God gives us 13,
0:05:10 > 0:05:15we all got the same materials to work with for 500 years. 12 notes.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18This is what music is. It's the voice of God, you know?
0:05:18 > 0:05:22- Don't you think?- Yeah, I do.
0:05:25 > 0:05:30- 'Your number one news and talk station.- All right, I mentioned
0:05:30 > 0:05:34'Paul Simon - he's currently visiting South Africa, commemorating
0:05:34 > 0:05:38'the 25th anniversary of the release of Graceland. He plans to reunite
0:05:38 > 0:05:41'the South African musicians involved with the original project.'
0:05:41 > 0:05:44The last time I was here was when we played...
0:05:44 > 0:05:46It was a long time ago.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49It was a long time ago.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51I expect to see a lot of changes.
0:05:51 > 0:05:56As any place would be, after a couple of decades.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59Anyway, we'll see. We'll see what we get.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02# This is the story of how we begin to remember
0:06:05 > 0:06:10# This is the powerful pulsing of love in the vein. #
0:06:10 > 0:06:14I'm trying to imagine it's the next few days and get my focus right.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18Going back into a rehearsal kind of frame of mind...
0:06:19 > 0:06:22..see where everybody's at, like...
0:06:22 > 0:06:24Thinking about Ray...
0:06:24 > 0:06:28Well, I haven't seen Ray now since 1991.
0:06:28 > 0:06:30Oh, man - Ray!
0:06:30 > 0:06:33Isaac I haven't seen...even longer.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36- Isaac!- Nice to see you!
0:06:36 > 0:06:39Barney I haven't seen in a really long time.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41Oh, my God! Barney's father!
0:06:43 > 0:06:46# His path was marked
0:06:46 > 0:06:50# By the stars in the southern hemisphere
0:06:50 > 0:06:53# And he walked the length of his days
0:06:53 > 0:06:56# Under African skies. #
0:06:57 > 0:07:02'We had an intense period of time together and then we separated
0:07:02 > 0:07:06'and went our separate ways, so we're always attached by Graceland.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10'And now, with this reunion, we'll finally get the chance to talk about
0:07:10 > 0:07:15'how we made the record and going on tour. That'll be interesting
0:07:15 > 0:07:16'to me, cos it's the same event,'
0:07:16 > 0:07:18but everybody's story is different.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20SYNCOPATED BREATHS
0:07:20 > 0:07:22APPLAUSE
0:07:32 > 0:07:35Paul Simon is going to be giving - listen to this, this is exciting -
0:07:35 > 0:07:39an exclusive and intimate performance this Thursday evening
0:07:39 > 0:07:41in Johannesburg.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44Paul would like to invite a few select listeners
0:07:44 > 0:07:46to attend the event. That could be you.
0:07:54 > 0:07:59I think all of us, we are like, "Oh, boy, this performance, man.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01We have to get back into Graceland
0:08:01 > 0:08:05and just do it one more time, 25 years later.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12Here I was, living in South Africa and then
0:08:12 > 0:08:15here comes a particular individual, called Paul Simon.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21For me, music is the closest thing to religion.
0:08:21 > 0:08:26And if it's utilised in the right way, it can inform
0:08:26 > 0:08:32and bring people closer and they can find solutions to their problems.
0:08:32 > 0:08:34And Graceland did that.
0:08:39 > 0:08:44I've been doing music professionally since I'm 15 years old
0:08:44 > 0:08:49and in many ways, Graceland was the most significant achievement of my career.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53'I really think that the next generation still has a pretty deep
0:08:53 > 0:08:57'connection to Graceland. For a lot of people my age,'
0:08:57 > 0:09:00it was really evocative of being on like, road trips with their family
0:09:00 > 0:09:03when they were five or six years old
0:09:03 > 0:09:05and, for us, we have specific songs
0:09:05 > 0:09:09where I think you can totally make the Graceland connection.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16My perspective is that what Paul Simon was doing
0:09:16 > 0:09:17had a beauty to it
0:09:17 > 0:09:20and he had a great idea, a creative idea,
0:09:20 > 0:09:25to mix his music and his rhythms and his ingenuity with some
0:09:25 > 0:09:27that he had found in South Africa.
0:09:27 > 0:09:31But at that moment in time...
0:09:32 > 0:09:34..it was not...
0:09:35 > 0:09:37..helpful.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42There was this inconvenient thing called apartheid.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44It got in the way.
0:09:45 > 0:09:50Apartheid was a system made to divide the people of South Africa
0:09:50 > 0:09:53on the basis of colour of skin.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55The white South Africans
0:09:55 > 0:09:57were dominating everything
0:09:57 > 0:09:58under protection by law
0:09:58 > 0:10:01and the whole apartheid system
0:10:01 > 0:10:05intentionally, deliberately set out to prove
0:10:05 > 0:10:08that black people were most inferior beings on Earth.
0:10:08 > 0:10:12And people of South Africa did not take this lying down
0:10:12 > 0:10:13and we fought.
0:10:13 > 0:10:18We were fighting for our land, for our identity -
0:10:18 > 0:10:21we had a job to do. And it was a serious job.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24And we saw Paul Simon coming
0:10:24 > 0:10:28as a threat and we saw it as an issue,
0:10:28 > 0:10:31because it was not sanctioned
0:10:31 > 0:10:33as we saw it, by the liberation movement
0:10:33 > 0:10:37and the situation was not about Paul Simon, it was about
0:10:37 > 0:10:40the liberation of the people of South Africa.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46The criticism and the attacks on the album and on me
0:10:46 > 0:10:48was very hurtful. And, er...
0:10:48 > 0:10:53I don't really know what the internal debate was here.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57I mean, I know what the result was.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00But I don't know who said what and why.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04From the South African side of things,
0:11:04 > 0:11:07there's a lot that I don't know. A lot.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13So, I was just thinking to myself, it's a bit surreal,
0:11:13 > 0:11:17what's going on here, because the first time I saw you, it was on an album cover!
0:11:17 > 0:11:20We didn't meet, but we had that sort of relationship
0:11:20 > 0:11:26- over the cultural boycott...- Right. - And here you are, 25 years later.
0:11:26 > 0:11:28I know you are a brilliant artist.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30I've respected you all my life.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34I know that you had no malintent in going and I do think
0:11:34 > 0:11:41it's regrettable, that with the brilliance of what you did with these musicians,
0:11:41 > 0:11:47there was this conflagration around it on a political level.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50Well, this misunderstanding is really unfortunate
0:11:50 > 0:11:54and it's been on my mind for all this time,
0:11:54 > 0:11:56so I'll tell you my story,
0:11:56 > 0:11:59then you tell me your story!
0:12:01 > 0:12:07I was given a cassette... It was called Accordion Jive Hits,
0:12:07 > 0:12:09by the Boyoyo Boys.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14I used to play this tape all the time and...
0:12:14 > 0:12:16after about three weeks of it, I said, you know,
0:12:16 > 0:12:18this is my favourite music.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22I'm not interested in listening to anything else.
0:12:22 > 0:12:27I found out that it came from South Africa, so I asked my record label,
0:12:27 > 0:12:29do we know anybody in South Africa?
0:12:29 > 0:12:33They said yes, this producer, Hilton Rosenthal.
0:12:36 > 0:12:38I had the call from Paul Simon and he said
0:12:38 > 0:12:40that one of the cuts
0:12:40 > 0:12:43on side two, I think, was called Gumboots...
0:12:43 > 0:12:45And could I do some research?
0:12:45 > 0:12:48I asked Paul at that time what he wanted to do with the song.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51He said he had written some lyrics and he wasn't sure what
0:12:51 > 0:12:54he was going to do, but that he just wanted to record the song.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11Paul put the cassette in, played this thing and he sang and I said
0:13:11 > 0:13:16to him, you know, you can just do that here in New York,
0:13:16 > 0:13:19just get a couple of great players and, you know... You've got the
0:13:19 > 0:13:22instrumentation, players can certainly do that. He looked at me,
0:13:22 > 0:13:28like... "What?" He said, "No, no, no, no. I'm going down there."
0:13:31 > 0:13:36I really wanted to do that music. But I was very aware of what was going on politically
0:13:36 > 0:13:38in South Africa,
0:13:38 > 0:13:45so I called up Harry Belafonte and, who I've known for many, many years.
0:13:45 > 0:13:47When I spoke to Paul, I said...
0:13:47 > 0:13:49I think it's great that you're going,
0:13:49 > 0:13:53I think you should just let the ANC know, let Oliver Tambo
0:13:53 > 0:13:55and the leadership know.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59The ANC - the African National Congress -
0:13:59 > 0:14:03was the voice of black South Africans. I can introduce you
0:14:03 > 0:14:08to the powers that prevail, to let them know what you're doing
0:14:08 > 0:14:13so you can have all the necessary... passes on it.
0:14:13 > 0:14:19And I saw right then and there that Paul resisted the idea.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23Paul, as I recall, declared that the power of art and the voice of
0:14:23 > 0:14:30the artist was supreme and that to go to any one group or another
0:14:30 > 0:14:35for whatever reason, to beg the right to passage was against his instinct.
0:14:38 > 0:14:43It was an adventure that seemed irresistible to me.
0:14:43 > 0:14:49And, of course, I was fascinated and intimidated by the fact that
0:14:49 > 0:14:51I'm coming to South Africa.
0:14:52 > 0:14:54Er...
0:14:54 > 0:14:57And I didn't tell Harry, you know.
0:14:58 > 0:15:00Which I probably shoulda done.
0:15:00 > 0:15:02Except, it's like your dad, you know, when your dad says,
0:15:02 > 0:15:05"don't take the car", but you really have a date that you really want
0:15:05 > 0:15:08- to go on... You decide you're going to take the car anyway.- Mm.
0:15:08 > 0:15:10HUM OF PLANE ENGINE
0:15:16 > 0:15:19So I came with my engineer and...
0:15:19 > 0:15:23I was immediately struck by the extreme racial tension.
0:15:23 > 0:15:28Coming from a country that WAS racially tense,
0:15:28 > 0:15:34I was absolutely unprepared for... what it felt like in the air.
0:15:34 > 0:15:39The law of the land was apartheid. Mandela was still in jail.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42De Klerk was the president.
0:15:42 > 0:15:44I was uncomfortable.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49But, we got into the studio and began to record with this group
0:15:49 > 0:15:51called Tau Ea Matsekha.
0:15:52 > 0:15:57It was very exciting to see these South African groups come in.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00I was already familiar with their records.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03There was this accordion player named Forere and he didn't know
0:16:03 > 0:16:07who I was, he didn't speak English, but our interaction
0:16:07 > 0:16:10was really interesting, because you'd give him a signal
0:16:10 > 0:16:13and say go and he'd just start to play.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15Stand by, here we go.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20And then everyone would fall in behind him.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37He was playing a melody on the accordion that I wanted him to play
0:16:37 > 0:16:40and we got a really great sound. It was kind of
0:16:40 > 0:16:44all over the place and needed to be edited and changed around...
0:16:44 > 0:16:49When we started jamming in the studio with Paul,
0:16:49 > 0:16:54I didn't know him. I saw this guy with... With cowboy boots, you know?
0:16:54 > 0:16:57And I was kind of asking myself, "what is this guy trying to do?"
0:16:57 > 0:17:03because he's trying to, you know, fuse pop music, plus African music.
0:17:05 > 0:17:10The first day, the feeling in the room was little strained.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12That's what I sensed.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16They're very shy. "Am I doing the right thing?"
0:17:16 > 0:17:20And it was really something to see them change
0:17:20 > 0:17:22during the course of the session.
0:17:22 > 0:17:27All of a sudden, we're a bunch of musicians in this room, having fun.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38Bakithi played the fretless bass and when he plays a groove,
0:17:38 > 0:17:41the guy lights up. You know? He just lights up.
0:17:41 > 0:17:47It's incredible. And his intonation and his articulation was phenomenal.
0:17:48 > 0:17:53I was just working as a mechanic and then one day, I got this call
0:17:53 > 0:17:57from the boss and he said, "Hey, Paul Simon is in town", you know?
0:17:57 > 0:18:00"He's looking for some musicians" and I said Paul Simon?
0:18:00 > 0:18:02Who is Paul Simon?
0:18:02 > 0:18:05I mean, I had no idea and then the guy tried to explain
0:18:05 > 0:18:09to me, singing all the songs, like the songs from Simon and Garfunkel
0:18:09 > 0:18:12and I'm like... It doesn't ring a bell!
0:18:15 > 0:18:19And then I take my bass and I go to the studio and so I meet Paul
0:18:19 > 0:18:25and Roy Halee the engineer and they're like, hey, man - you know - let's play some grooves!
0:18:26 > 0:18:31Every groove we play, Paul just love it and then he will stop
0:18:31 > 0:18:35and change it, but we didn't know, I mean... Why? The groove is so good,
0:18:35 > 0:18:39why is he changing? But he needed another part that we didn't know.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42Then he'll break and give us different chords
0:18:42 > 0:18:45and then we learn different things
0:18:45 > 0:18:48and it was like going back to music school.
0:18:50 > 0:18:52The initial recording sessions in Johannesburg
0:18:52 > 0:18:55were planned pretty quietly.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59I contacted the representatives of the groups that Paul
0:18:59 > 0:19:03wanted to work with, including producer Koloi Lebona.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07Hilton said could you organise the musicians
0:19:07 > 0:19:10that would play on the session?
0:19:10 > 0:19:14So I brought Bakithi Kumalo,
0:19:14 > 0:19:16I brought Vusi Khumalo, the drummer,
0:19:16 > 0:19:20and I brought Forere, who plays piano accordion.
0:19:22 > 0:19:27What attracted me was the way Forere combines what his left hand
0:19:27 > 0:19:30and his right hand is playing on the accordion
0:19:30 > 0:19:32and I think that's exactly what drew Paul Simon
0:19:32 > 0:19:35to be, like, entranced with this music.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44HE SINGS
0:19:47 > 0:19:52We are at the house of the piano accordion player, Forere Motloheloa.
0:19:53 > 0:19:54We've come here to fetch him
0:19:54 > 0:19:58for this Graceland reunion project.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02This was the original melody that Paul Simon turned into
0:20:02 > 0:20:03"Boy In The Bubble", yes?
0:20:03 > 0:20:08And what he say is that he's paying tribute to a beautiful woman
0:20:08 > 0:20:11that he has found and that he's happy with.
0:20:15 > 0:20:20He says the solitude of the place combined with the landscape
0:20:20 > 0:20:24gives him so much time to think of beautiful things
0:20:24 > 0:20:26that he then translates into the music.
0:20:28 > 0:20:33When Forere came to me, he was working in the mines.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37The way he plays a piano accordion is the voicing -
0:20:37 > 0:20:42how he's adapting it to suit the traditional Basotho melodies
0:20:42 > 0:20:46and that's what led to the birth of Boy In The Bubble.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49WOMAN ULLULATES
0:20:49 > 0:20:53INTRO TO "Boy In The Bubble"
0:21:01 > 0:21:05Do you think it'd be interesting to hear him sing HIS song?
0:21:05 > 0:21:10- We'll see if we can combine the two songs.- So he begins, it's a verse form.
0:21:10 > 0:21:14I answer, verse form. He comes back, verse form.
0:21:14 > 0:21:16- HE TRANSLATES - After that,
0:21:16 > 0:21:22we'll go to the chorus again - he sings again and I sing against him.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27This is the way it happened for me. This is what happened in the studio.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30Somebody would play and I'd say that's good, let's do that
0:21:30 > 0:21:33then let's go here, then let's go there, then let's do this...
0:21:33 > 0:21:38Oh, no - then Bakithi, you play here... Let's try it again and let's do it this way.
0:21:38 > 0:21:43Trial and error. So we'll try it now, see how many errors we make(!)
0:21:43 > 0:21:47# It was a slow day The sun was beating on the soldiers
0:21:47 > 0:21:49# By the side of the road
0:21:50 > 0:21:54# A bright light A shattering of shop windows
0:21:54 > 0:21:57# The bomb in the baby carriage was wired to the radio... #
0:21:57 > 0:22:00FORERE SINGS HIS OWN LYRICS
0:22:08 > 0:22:10When Paul Simon was in South Africa
0:22:10 > 0:22:13in 1985, it was at a moment
0:22:13 > 0:22:15of high struggle.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18The apartheid regime were at their most vicious.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20GUNSHOTS
0:22:20 > 0:22:21It was very scary.
0:22:21 > 0:22:23I was just a kid growing up there,
0:22:23 > 0:22:27but I had no idea why there was so much problem
0:22:27 > 0:22:31and people are running, the cops, they come in the middle of the night, counting people.
0:22:31 > 0:22:36There was a point some time where I couldn't eat for two days because there was no food.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39My parents, they didn't know where they'd get the food
0:22:39 > 0:22:42the next day, so you've just got to hang in there.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45Because the apartheid regime were at their most vicious,
0:22:45 > 0:22:49we had to ensure that by all means necessary, they are isolated.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52The General Assembly of the United Nations
0:22:52 > 0:22:54called for economic sanctions
0:22:54 > 0:22:56oil embargo, sports boycott
0:22:56 > 0:22:59and cultural boycott of South Africa.
0:22:59 > 0:23:04Part of the cultural boycott was to call on all people
0:23:04 > 0:23:07who are engaged in cultural activities
0:23:07 > 0:23:09not to cooperate with South Africa.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12What would the ANC hope that artists of other nations might do to help?
0:23:12 > 0:23:16I think firstly, we'd like them to obey the cultural boycott
0:23:16 > 0:23:18of South Africa to the letter.
0:23:18 > 0:23:21We had been saying to artists all over the world,
0:23:21 > 0:23:25at this point in the history of South Africa,
0:23:25 > 0:23:31the expression of your support must be non-participatory.
0:23:32 > 0:23:33You can't go there.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36The way in which you interact with other peoples
0:23:36 > 0:23:39is on a free basis, between free people.
0:23:41 > 0:23:46I remember talking about the issue of Paul Simon, that I did not think
0:23:46 > 0:23:47that it was correct for him to come.
0:23:49 > 0:23:51# The way we look to a distant constellation
0:23:51 > 0:23:54# That's dying in the corner of the sky... #
0:23:54 > 0:23:58When I brought musicians to the Graceland session,
0:23:58 > 0:23:59I was patently aware
0:23:59 > 0:24:02at the time that there was a cultural boycott.
0:24:02 > 0:24:08It was risky, but our music is always regarded as like Third World music
0:24:08 > 0:24:10and I thought,
0:24:10 > 0:24:15if our music gets a chance to be part of mainstream music,
0:24:15 > 0:24:19surely that can't do any harm? So, when Paul Simon came,
0:24:19 > 0:24:22I deliberately...withheld
0:24:22 > 0:24:27some of the risks involved in doing this thing.
0:24:27 > 0:24:29I thought, what the heck?
0:24:29 > 0:24:33This is a chance in a million, we must do this.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36HE SINGS
0:24:41 > 0:24:43APPLAUSE
0:24:46 > 0:24:47That's it.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02# She looked me over I guess she thought I was all right
0:25:02 > 0:25:05# All right in a sort of a limited way for an off night
0:25:05 > 0:25:09# She said, "Don't I know you from the cinematographer's party?"
0:25:09 > 0:25:13# I said who am I to blow against the wind?
0:25:13 > 0:25:16# I know what I know I'll sing what I said
0:25:16 > 0:25:19# We come and we go... #
0:25:19 > 0:25:22This song was originally recorded with the General Shirinda
0:25:22 > 0:25:28- and the Gaza Sisters. They're Shangaan.- The Shangaan sound was electric guitar-based,
0:25:28 > 0:25:30with a pop band around it and some very strange -
0:25:30 > 0:25:32to Western ears, anyway -
0:25:32 > 0:25:35strange sounds of the female vocalists
0:25:35 > 0:25:38doing a wailing sound in the background.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40# Ooooh! #
0:25:40 > 0:25:42It's different, because it's like...
0:25:42 > 0:25:45you're singing out of tune sometimes,
0:25:45 > 0:25:48but that is how it should sound like, you understand?
0:26:00 > 0:26:04When General Shirinda came into the studio, they came in with
0:26:04 > 0:26:07the whole family - mothers and children...
0:26:08 > 0:26:10It was like a party.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26I was in South Africa for a very short time - like, maybe ten
0:26:26 > 0:26:31or 12 days - recording frantically, and it was exhilarating.
0:26:31 > 0:26:32It was really amazing.
0:26:35 > 0:26:39The album that preceded Graceland, Hearts And Bones,
0:26:39 > 0:26:44was a relative commercial failure and my reaction to that,
0:26:44 > 0:26:47rather than thinking, "Oh, I'm dead,"
0:26:47 > 0:26:50my reaction to that was, "Well, good -
0:26:50 > 0:26:52"the next time I make a record,
0:26:52 > 0:26:54"nobody will be looking over my shoulder,"
0:26:54 > 0:26:58which is what they do, what they had been doing for years and years.
0:26:58 > 0:27:00"What's the hit on this album? What's it going to be?"
0:27:00 > 0:27:05Because I had an unbroken string of hits from Simon and Garfunkel
0:27:05 > 0:27:09up until Hearts And Bones. So, that was in my mind when I went
0:27:09 > 0:27:12to South Africa. Well, I can do whatever I want here
0:27:12 > 0:27:16and I'm not going to get calls from the record company every week
0:27:16 > 0:27:20saying "how's it going" or "can you send us something, we're dying to hear it?"
0:27:20 > 0:27:24They just...you know, left me alone, and that was good.
0:27:30 > 0:27:35With those groups that I knew, like General Shirinda and the Gaza Sisters,
0:27:35 > 0:27:39I really had a clear idea of what I really liked
0:27:39 > 0:27:43and what I wanted to record. Some of those songs, where...
0:27:43 > 0:27:44there's co-writing,
0:27:44 > 0:27:49that's because they were based on tracks that I had heard
0:27:49 > 0:27:52and I could point to their record and say can you play this,
0:27:52 > 0:27:56but change it a little bit here? And whatever writing was shared,
0:27:56 > 0:28:00we would share the credit and share the royalties.
0:28:00 > 0:28:05I thought about writing political songs about the situation,
0:28:05 > 0:28:09but I'm not actually very good at it. Here's an interesting thing -
0:28:09 > 0:28:13when I recorded with General Shirinda a song that became
0:28:13 > 0:28:18I Know What I Know, I asked him, what that's about?
0:28:18 > 0:28:21And he said, "You know, it's about...
0:28:21 > 0:28:26"Remember the '60s when girls wore really short skirts?
0:28:26 > 0:28:27"Wasn't that great?"
0:28:28 > 0:28:31That's what it was about.
0:28:31 > 0:28:36So...I said, you know... They aren't making up political music.
0:28:37 > 0:28:39They're making up pop music.
0:28:39 > 0:28:41These songs are pop music.
0:28:52 > 0:28:56What of the other verse, about the chicken...?
0:28:56 > 0:28:58Oh, the other one... It says...
0:28:58 > 0:29:01HE SINGS
0:29:01 > 0:29:05It means... Slaughter an owl...
0:29:06 > 0:29:08..because there's no chicken
0:29:08 > 0:29:11and you cut the head and throw it away.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14The body will look like a chicken, so don't worry,
0:29:14 > 0:29:16we will eat it in the train!
0:29:16 > 0:29:20We'll eat it on the train. It'll look like a chicken.
0:29:20 > 0:29:22Cut off the head of the owl,
0:29:22 > 0:29:24it'll look like a chicken.
0:29:24 > 0:29:28Then, you know... Nobody will know, we'll eat it on the train(!)
0:29:28 > 0:29:29That's what it meant.
0:29:32 > 0:29:37So I realised that instead of writing a song like Biko,
0:29:37 > 0:29:40the Peter Gabriel song - which I love - in fact, I recorded it.
0:29:40 > 0:29:43That is a great example of a political song.
0:29:43 > 0:29:47My idea was... They play their best, I'm going to play my best.
0:29:47 > 0:29:50I'm going to give them my best shot. I didn't come in here
0:29:50 > 0:29:54promising to do anything other than to make a really great record.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57They didn't say, "Come in here and tell our story".
0:29:57 > 0:30:01They just said, "Yeah, you can come in and we'll play with you".
0:30:01 > 0:30:03# I know what I know
0:30:03 > 0:30:04# I'll sing what I sing
0:30:04 > 0:30:06# We come and we go
0:30:06 > 0:30:09# That's a thing that I keep in the back of my head
0:30:09 > 0:30:11# Whoo whoo whoo whoo
0:30:11 > 0:30:14# Whoo whoo whoo! #
0:30:20 > 0:30:22LAUGHTER
0:30:22 > 0:30:26The sessions were great. But the racial tension in South Africa
0:30:26 > 0:30:31was at such a level that it was palpable, even in the studio.
0:30:31 > 0:30:35Here's a kind of an example of what it was like. The Boyoyo Boys
0:30:35 > 0:30:39came into the studio and I said you know, play this and they couldn't
0:30:39 > 0:30:45play it and when they came back the next day, they still couldn't play.
0:30:45 > 0:30:47And I'm really frustrated - this is terrible, you know?
0:30:47 > 0:30:53And...one of the white engineers, or assistant engineers said,
0:30:53 > 0:30:58"Well, now you see what we're talking about here? This is what with talking about."
0:30:58 > 0:31:01You know? I mean... "They can't do it.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04"They tell you they can, but they can't do it."
0:31:04 > 0:31:05It WAS a racist comment.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09Did it bother me? It stunned me.
0:31:09 > 0:31:12You know? Er...
0:31:12 > 0:31:14I didn't know.
0:31:16 > 0:31:21The epiphany comes from the next day, when Ray Phiri comes in.
0:31:21 > 0:31:27Ray comes in with his band, which was probably the top band
0:31:27 > 0:31:30in South Africa - it was called Stimela
0:31:30 > 0:31:32and the drummer was Isaac Mtshali.
0:31:32 > 0:31:35So they came in and I was playing with them and said,
0:31:35 > 0:31:38"well, that's good. Why don't we do that?"
0:31:38 > 0:31:40He said, "I can do that and then...
0:31:40 > 0:31:44"Then I'll overdub another part on top of it".
0:31:44 > 0:31:48And I'm still thinking about the Boyoyo boys, so I say, "Yeah, yeah,
0:31:48 > 0:31:51"just get THAT and I'll be happy", you know?
0:31:52 > 0:31:56So... He does, he gets it, and I think, "Well, that's pretty good."
0:31:56 > 0:31:59He says, "Let me do the overdub now."
0:31:59 > 0:32:03So I say, "Yeah, OK, go ahead, try it."
0:32:03 > 0:32:05And it's...great.
0:32:05 > 0:32:09And suddenly I realise, you know, the guy's brilliant.
0:32:09 > 0:32:13I was ready to buy into the... into the racist thing.
0:32:13 > 0:32:19You know, they fed it to me. They give it to you, you know?
0:32:19 > 0:32:22So...you get a big South African...
0:32:22 > 0:32:24lesson.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29'We were all just meeting for the first time.
0:32:29 > 0:32:33'They didn't know my political beliefs and I didn't know theirs.
0:32:33 > 0:32:35'I knew that Stimela was a number-one group,
0:32:35 > 0:32:39'but I didn't know that they were known as a group
0:32:39 > 0:32:42'that was provocative to the police.'
0:32:42 > 0:32:48Sometimes, at the gig, the police are waiting for us.
0:32:48 > 0:32:50They say, "Where are those Stimelas?
0:32:50 > 0:32:53"We want those Stimelas. Where are they?"
0:32:56 > 0:33:00They come with this teargas and they put teargas all over the place,
0:33:00 > 0:33:01people went like this.
0:33:04 > 0:33:08I'm not afraid. If I have to die, and I die onstage,
0:33:08 > 0:33:10I'll be the happiest.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13But if I have to die on the street when somebody does that,
0:33:13 > 0:33:15that would be cowardly.
0:33:16 > 0:33:20As a musician, I could see that things are bad,
0:33:20 > 0:33:23but we keep on... singing the song, man.
0:33:23 > 0:33:25You know?
0:33:25 > 0:33:27MUSIC: Intro to "You Can Call Me Al"
0:33:27 > 0:33:29One day Ray started playing the riff...
0:33:29 > 0:33:31Bwee-dap-bap-bap, bwee-dap-bap-bap.
0:33:38 > 0:33:40After we recorded the backing track,
0:33:40 > 0:33:44next morning I picked Paul up on the way to the studio
0:33:44 > 0:33:47and I said to him, "I have a feeling that yesterday
0:33:47 > 0:33:50"at least one of the hits from this album was recorded."
0:33:50 > 0:33:56# If you be my bodyguard, I could be your long-lost pal
0:33:58 > 0:34:00# I can call you Betty
0:34:00 > 0:34:03# Betty, when you call me you can...
0:34:03 > 0:34:05- AUDIENCE:- # Call me Al
0:34:05 > 0:34:08# Call me Al... #
0:34:09 > 0:34:12- Let me tell you my story.- Good.
0:34:12 > 0:34:15Um... I had been in exile for a while,
0:34:15 > 0:34:19and, um, I went to live in England.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23These people were hunting my father, Oliver Tambo, as a terrorist.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26As the president of the ANC, he was an icon of human rights
0:34:26 > 0:34:30and I grew up surrounded by revolutionaries.
0:34:30 > 0:34:35Our home was a hub for all exiles, so I met a lot of people in that time
0:34:35 > 0:34:40who showed me that this was actually a united struggle.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43And we formed Artists Against Apartheid to enforce
0:34:43 > 0:34:45- this cultural boycott.- Mm-hm.
0:34:45 > 0:34:49Because we genuinely felt that if you go there
0:34:49 > 0:34:56you become part of apartheid's attempt to gain international legitimacy
0:34:56 > 0:35:00and pull itself out of the sanctions that was gripping the country.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03And so, when you came to South Africa,
0:35:03 > 0:35:07it wasn't the ideal form of cultural exchange.
0:35:07 > 0:35:13- They weren't free people, Paul, and...- Then why did they say, "Come"?
0:35:13 > 0:35:16- Well...- Do you think they were all selfish that they did it?
0:35:16 > 0:35:20- For three times union scale? - Yeah, I think if you went anywhere in the world
0:35:20 > 0:35:23and you said, "Paul Simon wants to perform with you,"
0:35:23 > 0:35:25people would pretty much say, "Yes, I'll do that."
0:35:25 > 0:35:30Yes, but I treated them as equals, they treated me as equals.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33We treated each other as musicians.
0:35:33 > 0:35:38We didn't have anything to do with colour, race.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42It was purely music, and it wasn't lost on any of them
0:35:42 > 0:35:47- because here I come back 25 years later and those people are my dear friends.- Mm.
0:35:47 > 0:35:52- Joseph!- Hey!- Ah, my brother! - Where is my hug?
0:35:52 > 0:35:55You come back with it. Ahhh!
0:35:55 > 0:35:59'It was very special to work with Paul Simon,'
0:35:59 > 0:36:02because, many, many years,
0:36:02 > 0:36:06it was very, very difficult to work together with a white person.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11But when we started to work with Paul Simon we didn't see a difference.
0:36:11 > 0:36:16We didn't see that he's white or I'm black, I just see him as my brother.
0:36:16 > 0:36:23- You good?- Do it again.- Do it again? I would do it for ever.- Yeah!
0:36:23 > 0:36:27- I'm so glad to see you, my friend. - Oh, thank you so much.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30'Joseph Shabalala from Ladysmith Black Mambazo came into the studio,'
0:36:30 > 0:36:36and that's the group that I knew from a British documentary called The Rhythm Of Resistance.
0:36:36 > 0:36:38- PRESENTER:- In townships outside the white cities,
0:36:38 > 0:36:40music happens everywhere.
0:36:40 > 0:36:42The Ladysmith Black Mambazo are a group who've found
0:36:42 > 0:36:44exceptional commercial success.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47They draw on the Zulu tradition of the male vocal group
0:36:47 > 0:36:50to create a unique blend of African and Western harmonies.
0:36:50 > 0:36:55THEY SING IN ZULU LANGUAGE
0:36:55 > 0:36:58The sound of Ladysmith Black Mambazo,
0:36:58 > 0:37:01it's a sound of everything that surrounds us.
0:37:01 > 0:37:03Because we grew up in the farm.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06Birds singing, wind blowing,
0:37:06 > 0:37:08frogs singing and...
0:37:08 > 0:37:11- some small insect... - HE LAUGHS
0:37:11 > 0:37:13So the music is... It's there all the time.
0:37:13 > 0:37:16HE SINGS IN ZULU LANGUAGE
0:37:16 > 0:37:21'When I got a call, I just ran to my cousin.'
0:37:21 > 0:37:26"Hey, I talked to somebody! His name is Paul Simon.
0:37:26 > 0:37:31"He want to see me." I was proud of that. "He want to see me.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34"He want to talk to me!"
0:37:34 > 0:37:36And the guy said, "Go there! Go there! Don't make a mistake.
0:37:36 > 0:37:40"Please go there! And come back and tell us."
0:37:40 > 0:37:45'Joseph Shabalala was very quiet in the studio.'
0:37:45 > 0:37:47He was just kind of mysterious and quiet.
0:37:47 > 0:37:52'So I wasn't sure whether he liked what I was doing
0:37:52 > 0:37:55'or whether he liked me.'
0:37:55 > 0:37:57And he gave me, like, ten or 12 albums,
0:37:57 > 0:38:00which I used to listen to every night.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03I used to, you know, listen to 'em on my...
0:38:03 > 0:38:06I would fall asleep listening to them.
0:38:06 > 0:38:08And I just totally became just...
0:38:09 > 0:38:11..um...
0:38:12 > 0:38:17You know, er...bewitched by Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
0:38:18 > 0:38:21Because they were so beautiful.
0:38:25 > 0:38:30I thought it was so beautiful that I was totally intimidated.
0:38:30 > 0:38:35They were so good at what they did and it was so contained
0:38:35 > 0:38:38that I didn't really know at the time
0:38:38 > 0:38:42how I could possibly fit into their world
0:38:42 > 0:38:47and didn't know whether they wanted me to fit into their world.
0:38:51 > 0:38:57Paul was so polite. Paul has a special magic. Nobody has that magic.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00He just come to me like a baby.
0:39:00 > 0:39:05Like, "Father... can you teach me something?"
0:39:05 > 0:39:09THEY SING IN ZULU LANGUAGE
0:39:13 > 0:39:16And we hugged. That was my first time to hug.
0:39:16 > 0:39:18Especially a white man.
0:39:18 > 0:39:23When I finished that, I said, "Ooh, I'm in jail now."
0:39:23 > 0:39:28And Paul Simon was talking and I forgot about that.
0:39:28 > 0:39:32"Oh, yes, and, Joseph... Paul Simon from New York City.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35"I just listen to your record
0:39:35 > 0:39:38"and I think you can do something together."
0:39:38 > 0:39:42I'm a person who is just like... When you talk about music to me,
0:39:42 > 0:39:46let's do it now. And I said, "Yes, Paul, let's do it!" and he said,
0:39:46 > 0:39:51"Right, Joseph. I'll let you know where, when."
0:39:51 > 0:39:54So we decided that I would write a song
0:39:54 > 0:39:57and we would record outside of South Africa.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00I didn't want to go back to South Africa.
0:40:00 > 0:40:05I wasn't comfortable. I wanted to get out of there.
0:40:10 > 0:40:12We took it back to New York,
0:40:12 > 0:40:15and that's where the work really started. Putting it all together,
0:40:15 > 0:40:18it was a heck of an undertaking.
0:40:25 > 0:40:28The challenge on this album was there were no songs,
0:40:28 > 0:40:34no arrangement. So the challenge was editing, editing, editing,
0:40:34 > 0:40:37and lots of editing. You know, taking things from here and putting
0:40:37 > 0:40:41them there, take that out, put it over here, and re-copying things.
0:40:42 > 0:40:46If you heard what the tracks were originally, without his magic
0:40:46 > 0:40:51and his echo and his devices that he used,
0:40:51 > 0:40:54it wouldn't sound so huge and so mysterious.
0:41:00 > 0:41:04So we finished all our editing, we made tracks that had some
0:41:04 > 0:41:09semblance of a song there, and he went out and tried desperately
0:41:09 > 0:41:14to put words to each one. And he did. And he slaved at it,
0:41:14 > 0:41:15it was awfully hard,
0:41:15 > 0:41:18because there's so much going on in those tracks.
0:41:18 > 0:41:20You know, they are very busy tracks.
0:41:29 > 0:41:34Paul came back from Africa and we met on holiday that year,
0:41:34 > 0:41:38we were at the same place in the summer on Long Island.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41I'd known him for a little while as a friend,
0:41:41 > 0:41:45and he talked about this music, and I said, have you got it?
0:41:45 > 0:41:47Let's hear it. So we went out in the car
0:41:47 > 0:41:49and he played it on the car stereo.
0:41:50 > 0:41:53'When I was writing back at home, I would write a verse,'
0:41:53 > 0:41:56it would be fine, then I would write another verse
0:41:56 > 0:41:59and it wouldn't be fine, I would write another verse and it would be fine.
0:41:59 > 0:42:01It's all good, except that verse -
0:42:01 > 0:42:03I don't know why that verse isn't good.
0:42:03 > 0:42:07It should be, it seems like it's exactly the same as the others.
0:42:07 > 0:42:12And I'm doing the lyrics in the same rhythm, I really don't get it.
0:42:12 > 0:42:17I was really frustrated by not being able to get the lyrics to fit.
0:42:17 > 0:42:20And then I'd say, let me really listen to what is going on.
0:42:20 > 0:42:26And when I started to really listen, then I realised that the guitar part
0:42:26 > 0:42:32was playing a different symmetry than I had assumed it was playing.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36And the bass was doing something that was much more important
0:42:36 > 0:42:41and that you really might be better off following what the bass was doing.
0:42:43 > 0:42:45INAUDIBLE
0:42:49 > 0:42:51'So I began to think about that, the rhythm, what that meant,
0:42:51 > 0:42:55'and what effect that would have on the lyrics,'
0:42:55 > 0:43:01and what effect that would have on storytelling. And I began to raise the bar for my own writing.
0:43:01 > 0:43:06# Fat Charlie the archangel swooped into the room
0:43:08 > 0:43:11# He said, "I have no opinion about this"
0:43:11 > 0:43:14# And I have no opinion about that... #
0:43:17 > 0:43:20'So I ended up writing abstract or ironic or...
0:43:20 > 0:43:24'But in either case, sort of sophisticated lyrics'
0:43:24 > 0:43:27to what were sophisticated rhythms.
0:43:28 > 0:43:31Two, one, two, three...
0:43:47 > 0:43:51'So you get a song like Graceland, where, you know,'
0:43:51 > 0:43:54in the middle of the song there is a girl in New York City
0:43:54 > 0:43:56who calls herself the human trampoline.
0:43:56 > 0:43:58# There is a girl in New York City
0:43:58 > 0:44:01# She calls herself a human trampoline... #
0:44:01 > 0:44:07A lyric that would never appear in a South African song. I mean,
0:44:07 > 0:44:11it's a very New York lyric. I wrote it while I was walking past
0:44:11 > 0:44:14the Museum of Natural History, actually.
0:44:14 > 0:44:19# And I'm going to Graceland, to Graceland... #
0:44:19 > 0:44:20And I kept singing this chorus,
0:44:20 > 0:44:23"I'm going to Graceland, I'm going to Graceland."
0:44:23 > 0:44:26And I was thinking, of course, that will go away
0:44:26 > 0:44:31because the song is not about Elvis Presley or Graceland, I mean,
0:44:31 > 0:44:36it's a South African record. But it wouldn't go away. Finally,
0:44:36 > 0:44:41I said, it's not going away, I'd better go to Graceland. I've never
0:44:41 > 0:44:44been. I'd better make that trip and see... Maybe there's something
0:44:44 > 0:44:49about this that I'm supposed to find out. And had I not made that trip,
0:44:49 > 0:44:53I wouldn't have been able to write the landscape that is
0:44:53 > 0:44:55the first verse about the Mississippi Delta
0:44:55 > 0:44:57shining like a national guitar.
0:44:57 > 0:44:59# Shining like a national guitar...
0:45:03 > 0:45:06# I'm following the river down the highway
0:45:06 > 0:45:08# Through the cradle of civil war... #
0:45:08 > 0:45:11And so the song took on a bigger meaning.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15# I'm going to Graceland, Graceland, in Memphis... #
0:45:15 > 0:45:22It was a metaphor for a state of grace. I was taking absurdist lyrics
0:45:22 > 0:45:25which I thought had no place with this rhythm track,
0:45:25 > 0:45:29and finally saying, well, maybe it does have a place.
0:45:30 > 0:45:34Sometimes when I'm falling, flying, tumbling in turmoil -
0:45:34 > 0:45:38this was something else that I was doing, was a lot of syllables.
0:45:38 > 0:45:40# This is what she means
0:45:40 > 0:45:44# She means we're bouncing into Graceland... #
0:45:44 > 0:45:46"This is what she means, she means we're bouncing into Graceland" -
0:45:46 > 0:45:49which was also something that I hadn't done,
0:45:49 > 0:45:53which was taking the chorus word and putting it into the verse.
0:45:53 > 0:45:58Usually, the chorus has its own repetitive phrase or word,
0:45:58 > 0:46:02and you don't hear that word in the verse. But now I was saying, well,
0:46:02 > 0:46:06there's no reason to separate. They can bleed back and forth.
0:46:06 > 0:46:14That's the beginning of saying, actually, these patterns that felt restrictive are not...
0:46:14 > 0:46:16They needn't be there.
0:46:18 > 0:46:25# I may be obliged to defend every love every ending... #
0:46:25 > 0:46:28I remember he would invite me over to hear what he was doing.
0:46:28 > 0:46:32We did that a lot in those days. We still do.
0:46:32 > 0:46:34He would have the backing tracks
0:46:34 > 0:46:39and he would play those to me and sing the words. Really...
0:46:39 > 0:46:43At some point, I said, "Paul, this is going to be a really, really good record."
0:46:55 > 0:46:56That's very good, guys.
0:46:56 > 0:47:00'That was a great gift that I received'
0:47:00 > 0:47:05from making the trip to South Africa, and, you know,
0:47:05 > 0:47:08and collaborating with African musicians.
0:47:10 > 0:47:14# Somebody cry, why, why, why? #
0:47:14 > 0:47:16'It wasn't until I got home that I started to think,
0:47:16 > 0:47:19'I could write a song for Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
0:47:19 > 0:47:23'So I wrote Homeless, imitating them,'
0:47:23 > 0:47:27and sent the demo to them and said, "You can use this
0:47:27 > 0:47:31"or you can change it, add to it if you want,
0:47:31 > 0:47:34"or change it completely if you want. Do anything you want to it."
0:47:36 > 0:47:39# Homeless, homeless
0:47:39 > 0:47:42# Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake... #
0:47:42 > 0:47:46After two weeks, we saw the cassette came in the post office from Paul.
0:47:46 > 0:47:52And then we put the cassette to play, so he was playing a piano
0:47:52 > 0:47:53and singing only two lines -
0:47:53 > 0:47:57"homeless, homeless, moonlight sleeping on the midnight lake".
0:47:57 > 0:48:01# Homeless, homeless
0:48:01 > 0:48:05# The moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake... #
0:48:05 > 0:48:08And then he was doing some other noise like...
0:48:08 > 0:48:10And then when we thought, we said,
0:48:10 > 0:48:14"Oh, maybe he was trying to say, "Gr-rr" and do all those things.
0:48:14 > 0:48:19They wrote back and said, yeah, they liked it and they had some ideas.
0:48:19 > 0:48:24And we decided to go to Abbey Road Studios in London.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28- London!- First-class.- London!
0:48:28 > 0:48:32THEY SING IN ZULU LANGUAGE
0:48:38 > 0:48:41In London, we were taken to the studio,
0:48:41 > 0:48:45and that was the first time for us as a group to meet Paul Simon.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48Wow! It was wonderful.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51It felt so good and so exciting. So the microphones
0:48:51 > 0:48:55were set there and then we got there. We started to sing the song.
0:49:00 > 0:49:04But the song didn't want to work the first day.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08Our producer, here at home in the western coast was trying to help.
0:49:08 > 0:49:11"No, guys, just sing it like this. Maybe Paul wants this."
0:49:13 > 0:49:17And there was so many people trying to help. We tried the song
0:49:17 > 0:49:20from two o'clock until six in the evening.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30'And then the song didn't want to work at all. Paul Simon said, "OK,
0:49:30 > 0:49:34'"let's call it a day and we will see tomorrow."'
0:49:34 > 0:49:38We went back to our hotel very disappointed,
0:49:38 > 0:49:43because usually Ladysmith Black Mambazo will record 12 songs a day.
0:49:43 > 0:49:46But this time, only one song, we couldn't make it.
0:49:46 > 0:49:50We were so disappointed. And then we got to the hotel,
0:49:50 > 0:49:54we had dinner and then we got together, we prayed.
0:49:54 > 0:49:59Our prayer was very, you know, deep that day.
0:49:59 > 0:50:04I remember that I was so concerned. No, I've never failed in anything,
0:50:04 > 0:50:07so this is no time to fail now.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10And then so we practised the song until 12 midnight,
0:50:10 > 0:50:12and then the song was together.
0:50:14 > 0:50:18- I should come over here.- 'The next day when we went to the studio
0:50:18 > 0:50:21'and Joseph Jacks walked up to Paul Simon and said,'
0:50:21 > 0:50:23"We have been practising.
0:50:23 > 0:50:27"So we want you to listen to what we have been practised."
0:50:27 > 0:50:29THEY SING
0:50:33 > 0:50:35We just looked at one another - OK, guys.
0:50:35 > 0:50:38HE SINGS
0:50:38 > 0:50:40Just like I'm angry.
0:50:40 > 0:50:44HE SINGS IN ZULU LANGUAGE
0:50:44 > 0:50:46And then Paul...
0:50:46 > 0:50:48# Homeless... #
0:50:48 > 0:50:55I nearly faint. I thought he was going to wait until we finished,
0:50:55 > 0:50:58and he gets it in the right position.
0:51:02 > 0:51:05# Homeless
0:51:05 > 0:51:07# Homeless
0:51:07 > 0:51:10# Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake
0:51:10 > 0:51:13# Homeless, homeless
0:51:13 > 0:51:17# Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake
0:51:17 > 0:51:20# Homeless, homeless
0:51:20 > 0:51:24# The moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake
0:51:24 > 0:51:27# Homeless, homeless... #
0:51:27 > 0:51:30'I think it took two takes. They had it so perfectly.
0:51:30 > 0:51:34'The beginning of the song is a folk song, a traditional song.
0:51:34 > 0:51:36'I said, "Well, what does it mean?"
0:51:36 > 0:51:40'They said, "Oh, we are far away from home and we are sleeping'
0:51:40 > 0:51:44"and our fists are our pillows." I said, "Oh, that's beautiful."
0:51:47 > 0:51:50In two hours, the song was finished.
0:51:50 > 0:51:55We were so excited and so satisfied and then we said,
0:51:55 > 0:51:58"Ooof! This is it. Wonderful."
0:52:01 > 0:52:04# Somebody sing... #
0:52:04 > 0:52:07I enjoyed to work with Paul Simon, it was just like,
0:52:07 > 0:52:12it's my younger brother or elder brother. Who is this guy?
0:52:12 > 0:52:15He was hiding himself in America - this is my brother.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18I called him brother every day.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22Brother. Because of the music. Music is something like prayer.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27# Homeless, homeless
0:52:27 > 0:52:33# Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake. #
0:52:35 > 0:52:38Then we decided that we would get Ray and Bakiti,
0:52:38 > 0:52:42and Isaac and form a kind of studio band.
0:52:42 > 0:52:46And I invited them and Ladysmith to come to New York
0:52:46 > 0:52:51to finish the album. And everybody was getting really excited.
0:52:57 > 0:53:00First they got off the plane and were met by a limo, you know,
0:53:00 > 0:53:03and a white driver, and they drove into Manhattan.
0:53:03 > 0:53:06I used to see a limo in the movies,
0:53:06 > 0:53:10and in South Africa, I don't remember seeing any limo anywhere,
0:53:10 > 0:53:13you understand what I'm saying?
0:53:13 > 0:53:16And it was a cool thing to be in the limo
0:53:16 > 0:53:18and you are served whisky and that kind of thing.
0:53:18 > 0:53:21You know, you are being treated like a musician.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25I remember - was it Bakiti or Isaac?
0:53:25 > 0:53:29He said, "We want to go to Central Park, where do we go to get a permit?"
0:53:29 > 0:53:32I said, "You don't need a permit, you just go.
0:53:32 > 0:53:34"You can go anywhere you want."
0:53:34 > 0:53:38Those guys were coming from an imprisoned society
0:53:38 > 0:53:41into freedom for the first time. It was very touching.
0:53:43 > 0:53:46They were free. Free.
0:53:53 > 0:53:58'The record was supposed to come out in the spring of '86,
0:53:58 > 0:54:01'and we were booked to do Saturday Night Live,'
0:54:01 > 0:54:04and Warner Brothers decided to postpone the record until the fall,
0:54:04 > 0:54:07but we were booked for Saturday Night Live.
0:54:07 > 0:54:11So I said, "We're all here, we might as well try to do another track."
0:54:11 > 0:54:15So we did what became Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes.
0:54:15 > 0:54:20They were doing the song, then they stopped, and Paul Simon said,
0:54:20 > 0:54:25"Can you play this song? I'm just doing this song,
0:54:25 > 0:54:27Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31And then Joseph just took a piece of paper
0:54:31 > 0:54:36and then the pen and then he wrote it down. Only a few words.
0:54:36 > 0:54:38What were the words?
0:54:38 > 0:54:40HE SPEAKS ZULU
0:54:50 > 0:54:53# She's rich girl She don't try to hide it
0:54:53 > 0:54:57# Got diamonds on the soles of her shoes
0:54:57 > 0:54:58# He's a poor boy
0:54:58 > 0:55:04# Empty as a pocket, he's empty as a pocket with nothing to lose... #
0:55:04 > 0:55:07The lyrics means...
0:55:07 > 0:55:09HE SPEAKS ZULU
0:55:09 > 0:55:12It's not usual...
0:55:12 > 0:55:15HE SPEAKS ZULU
0:55:15 > 0:55:17But in our days...
0:55:17 > 0:55:18HE SPEAKS ZULU
0:55:18 > 0:55:22We see those things happen.
0:55:22 > 0:55:23HE SPEAKS ZULU
0:55:23 > 0:55:26The women, they can take care of themselves.
0:55:26 > 0:55:30# I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes... #
0:55:32 > 0:55:37We decided to put Ladysmith at the end of the track, and they
0:55:37 > 0:55:42had never sung with musicians before, they always sang a cappella.
0:55:44 > 0:55:48We were there, maybe, not even two hours time. And then
0:55:48 > 0:55:51Paul Simon said, at the end, let's do this.
0:55:51 > 0:55:53# Da-na-na-na, da-na-na-na-na. #
0:55:53 > 0:55:56Everybody was having a good time.
0:56:02 > 0:56:08After that, we went to do Saturday Night Live. And everybody was
0:56:08 > 0:56:13very nervous about that. That audience, they are very mean.
0:56:13 > 0:56:17We didn't care because we knew we believed what we had was a gift.
0:56:17 > 0:56:21We sing for you - if you like it, you like it, if you don't, you don't.
0:56:22 > 0:56:26And we went on the show, and we sang the songs that weren't out
0:56:26 > 0:56:29- on the record yet.- Do you think people are going to like this,
0:56:29 > 0:56:30- what you're doing?- I'm not sure.
0:56:30 > 0:56:32That's why I have this expression on.
0:56:37 > 0:56:41Ladies and gentlemen, Paul Simon with Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
0:56:41 > 0:56:43APPLAUSE
0:56:49 > 0:56:53THEY SING IN ZULU LANGUAGE
0:56:59 > 0:57:03# She's a rich girl She don't try to hide it
0:57:03 > 0:57:07# Diamonds on the soles of her shoes
0:57:07 > 0:57:10# He's a poor boy Empty as a pocket
0:57:10 > 0:57:14# Empty as a pocket with nothing to lose
0:57:14 > 0:57:16- # Sing ta-na-na- Ta-na-na
0:57:16 > 0:57:17# Ta-na-na-na
0:57:17 > 0:57:21# She got diamonds on the soles of her shoes
0:57:21 > 0:57:25- # Ta-na-na- Ta-na-na... #
0:57:25 > 0:57:27And then we sang the song. We performed it with confidence.
0:57:27 > 0:57:32# People say she's crazy, she's got diamonds on the soles of her shoes
0:57:34 > 0:57:38# Well, that's way to lose these walking boots
0:57:38 > 0:57:42# Diamonds on the soles of her shoes. #
0:57:42 > 0:57:44Everyone was kind of in awe.
0:57:44 > 0:57:47It was unlike anything that had been on the show before.
0:57:47 > 0:57:49And you felt it in the studio,
0:57:49 > 0:57:51you knew it was happening in the country.
0:57:51 > 0:57:53It was just, "boom".
0:57:59 > 0:58:04'The cheering and the sound in the studio from the audience,'
0:58:04 > 0:58:08it was so loud that I kind of lost my place in one of the things.
0:58:08 > 0:58:12It was really surprising. Nobody had ever heard it before.
0:58:16 > 0:58:20Them being on the show was a revolution in taste.
0:58:20 > 0:58:26It was the synthesis of two cultures and the obvious affection that
0:58:26 > 0:58:30they had for Paul and Paul had for them was the perfect moment.
0:58:36 > 0:58:39Ladysmith Black Mambazo became the hippest act on the planet.
0:58:39 > 0:58:43Everybody wanted Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
0:58:43 > 0:58:46They became international stars and remain so.
0:58:48 > 0:58:51So, almost two years after I first went to South Africa,
0:58:51 > 0:58:54the record finally came out.
0:58:56 > 0:58:58There's so much despair coming out of South Africa,
0:58:58 > 0:59:02so many haunting issues of debt and oppression. It's sometimes hard
0:59:02 > 0:59:05to remember that life there does go on in all of its forms.
0:59:05 > 0:59:09And a celebration of the black life of South Africa can be heard
0:59:09 > 0:59:12in this country in a remarkable album called Graceland.
0:59:13 > 0:59:17All artists who have long careers periodically hit dead ends.
0:59:17 > 0:59:20And if you're going to keep a career going, you have to keep being
0:59:20 > 0:59:25a kid again. And that is in a way what he did with Graceland,
0:59:25 > 0:59:28to be a kid again, to go back to three chords,
0:59:28 > 0:59:30to be bouncing around,
0:59:30 > 0:59:32to be making joyous, danceable music.
0:59:35 > 0:59:39It's my favourite album of all time.
0:59:39 > 0:59:43It just sort of opened up a space inside of you.
0:59:43 > 0:59:50For myself, my deep and now abiding interest in South Africa
0:59:50 > 0:59:53was stirred by first listening to Graceland.
0:59:55 > 0:59:58Simon's work Graceland recently won a Grammy for album of the year.
0:59:58 > 1:00:02But somewhere around three weeks after it came out,
1:00:02 > 1:00:09the first criticism came. Which I was completely unprepared for.
1:00:09 > 1:00:12And the criticism was...
1:00:13 > 1:00:16"You broke the UN cultural boycott."
1:00:16 > 1:00:19- NEWSREADER:- Paul Simon has run into political problems in South Africa.
1:00:19 > 1:00:22The African National Congress
1:00:22 > 1:00:25protested his recording in South Africa - a violation, they said,
1:00:25 > 1:00:27of the UN cultural boycott.
1:00:28 > 1:00:32The album had the controversy around it. It was very vexed,
1:00:32 > 1:00:34going to South Africa at that time.
1:00:34 > 1:00:37And you got the feeling Paul Simon had gone into it
1:00:37 > 1:00:40on a stealth mission and collaborated with the South Africans.
1:00:40 > 1:00:43He was collaborating, it turned out, with the right South Africans,
1:00:43 > 1:00:47but the whole project seemed a little odd.
1:00:47 > 1:00:50A lot of the press picked it up in the United States -
1:00:50 > 1:00:54Rolling Stone amongst them - and kind of saw an opportunity to
1:00:54 > 1:01:00beat up on a famous guy who may be made a mistake. So they were all
1:01:00 > 1:01:06"Paul Simon didn't ask permission from the UN
1:01:06 > 1:01:09"and is on the blacklist from the UN."
1:01:11 > 1:01:15The intensity of the criticism really did surprise me.
1:01:15 > 1:01:19And part of the criticism was, "Here is this white guy from
1:01:19 > 1:01:25"New York. And he came in and ripped off these poor, innocent guys."
1:01:25 > 1:01:29There is an aspect of this album that bothered me initially.
1:01:29 > 1:01:33You have this rich white guy singing on top of these
1:01:33 > 1:01:35South African singers.
1:01:35 > 1:01:38To demonstrate how his work melded with that of the South Africans,
1:01:38 > 1:01:41he first played a track of a popular local band.
1:01:41 > 1:01:43MUSIC PLAYS
1:01:43 > 1:01:47And then the same tune after it had been Simonised...
1:01:47 > 1:01:49To me at the time it seemed like the tourist picture.
1:01:49 > 1:01:52"Here is me in front of the Taj Mahal in my T-shirt waving."
1:01:52 > 1:01:55And that bothered me at the time. At this point, it doesn't.
1:01:55 > 1:01:59I think he was right, and he was ahead of me.
1:01:59 > 1:02:03You know, he was saying, we can make this amalgam work,
1:02:03 > 1:02:07this combination work. And I think a lot of people at the time
1:02:07 > 1:02:11had this knee-jerk reaction of, you know, "rich, privileged white guy,
1:02:11 > 1:02:13"poor country, must be bad."
1:02:13 > 1:02:17How can you justify going there, taking all of this music from this
1:02:17 > 1:02:21country? It's nothing but stealing. It ain't nothing but stealing.
1:02:21 > 1:02:23ISOLATED APPLAUSE
1:02:23 > 1:02:26How can you just go and tell me, "Oh, I went there..."
1:02:26 > 1:02:28Graceland is a collaboration.
1:02:28 > 1:02:32You don't believe that it's possible to have a collaboration?
1:02:32 > 1:02:35It's always an interesting debate. It's happened all the way
1:02:35 > 1:02:38through history, particularly through black history.
1:02:38 > 1:02:40Do you believe that a collaboration is possible
1:02:40 > 1:02:45- between musicians?- Between you and them? No.- Why?- You don't understand.
1:02:45 > 1:02:49- Why, because I'm white and they're South African?- You don't understand.
1:02:49 > 1:02:53With the Beatles, we actually recycled American black music
1:02:53 > 1:03:00to Americans. We came over and we were really doing a lot of Motown.
1:03:00 > 1:03:05But a lot of white kids hadn't heard Motown.
1:03:05 > 1:03:07You don't understand the music.
1:03:07 > 1:03:11Well, you are saying something that they, these musicians,
1:03:11 > 1:03:13in fact, disagree with.
1:03:13 > 1:03:18I accepted Paul's music and what he'd done the minute it came out -
1:03:18 > 1:03:23I had no resistance to that. I am a fan of his,
1:03:23 > 1:03:27and I like very much, so much, what he's done. And to have
1:03:27 > 1:03:32that album, in particular, which was filled with moments of great genius,
1:03:32 > 1:03:38and delight, a lot of that welcoming however was under the understanding,
1:03:38 > 1:03:43or at least the belief, that he would square what he was doing
1:03:43 > 1:03:47with the powers who led the resistance to apartheid.
1:03:47 > 1:03:52Which was the ANC. It never dawned on me that that was not the case,
1:03:52 > 1:03:55and I didn't know that that was not the case until Paul
1:03:55 > 1:04:01called and we met in my home. And he explained to me that he had
1:04:01 > 1:04:05this crisis, or this obstacle before him.
1:04:05 > 1:04:08Harry said, "You should talk to the ANC."
1:04:08 > 1:04:13So when I met with the ANC, I said, "Hey, I have no fight with the ANC,
1:04:13 > 1:04:17"we have no fight with the ANC. We support the ANC,
1:04:17 > 1:04:21"we'd be willing to do concerts for you." And they said,
1:04:21 > 1:04:23"Look, here is the problem.
1:04:23 > 1:04:26"You went to South Africa, but you didn't ask us.
1:04:28 > 1:04:34"And the way, the way we are structured is if you...
1:04:34 > 1:04:37"You have to ask ANC if you're going to do anything."
1:04:39 > 1:04:43So I said, "Oh, really? Is that the kind of government you are going to be?"
1:04:43 > 1:04:47You know, does that mean I have to, you know, we have to show you
1:04:47 > 1:04:50what kind of lyrics we're going to write, or if
1:04:50 > 1:04:53the musicians' union decides to vote this way and you don't like
1:04:53 > 1:04:56the way to vote, then you will change it around?
1:04:56 > 1:04:59I mean, so, I mean, that's just a government that just...
1:04:59 > 1:05:03You're going to fuck the artists like all kinds of governments.
1:05:03 > 1:05:06What are we talking about here?
1:05:06 > 1:05:10- What was their response? - The guy's response was, "Hey,
1:05:10 > 1:05:12"personally, I agree with you. But that's what the policy is."
1:05:14 > 1:05:18When you have a boycott, it's not flexible. For many people,
1:05:18 > 1:05:24that was the issue. Is Paul Simon busting the gates of the cultural
1:05:24 > 1:05:30boycott open? We were part of this international sanctions campaign,
1:05:30 > 1:05:35which was cultural and sports and business and military.
1:05:35 > 1:05:38And in all of those areas, it wasn't about,
1:05:38 > 1:05:45"Well, we have a military embargo, but this American tank,
1:05:45 > 1:05:50"that one can go through." You know, it was complete.
1:05:50 > 1:05:53And it was complete for a reason.
1:05:53 > 1:05:56Because you can't ask of everyone what you don't ask of one.
1:05:57 > 1:06:03Hugh is here, here comes Hugh now. Hi, Hugh. How you doing?
1:06:03 > 1:06:09'Hugh is one of the great South African musicians.
1:06:09 > 1:06:14'He is an international star, and he was a political exile.
1:06:14 > 1:06:18'Hugh connected up with me in London and we began to talk about touring.'
1:06:18 > 1:06:21And I don't think that I could have done it without him.
1:06:21 > 1:06:23B-flat, size 1.
1:06:27 > 1:06:31Paul had just come from South Africa and he said,
1:06:31 > 1:06:33"Listen, I just did this thing
1:06:33 > 1:06:36"and I would really like to take it all over the world. You interested?"
1:06:36 > 1:06:38I said, of course.
1:06:47 > 1:06:52And I said to Paul, it would be good to pull in, like, Miriam Makeba,
1:06:52 > 1:06:55because I was anticipating the troubles also.
1:06:55 > 1:06:58Here now is Miriam Makeba.
1:06:58 > 1:06:59APPLAUSE
1:07:02 > 1:07:08Miriam Makeba became the most visible African artist in the 1960s
1:07:08 > 1:07:10when nobody had heard of artists from South Africa.
1:07:10 > 1:07:13She was the first artist to really break that.
1:07:13 > 1:07:14And she was the first person
1:07:14 > 1:07:19to conscientise not only the world but America, especially, about
1:07:19 > 1:07:22- what was happening in South Africa. - Would you not resist if you
1:07:22 > 1:07:25were allowed no rights in your own country?
1:07:25 > 1:07:27We had been away from home
1:07:27 > 1:07:32by that time, me and Miriam, over 25 years. In exile.
1:07:32 > 1:07:36I spoke to Miriam, she was interested, and I knew it was
1:07:36 > 1:07:39going to be great. We were going to be like pigs in mud
1:07:39 > 1:07:41with all that was going to happen.
1:07:41 > 1:07:45APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
1:07:59 > 1:08:03# The sun was beating on the soldier by the side of the road
1:08:05 > 1:08:09# There was a bright light A shattering of shop windows
1:08:09 > 1:08:12# As the bomb in the baby carriage was wired to the radio
1:08:12 > 1:08:16# These other days of miracle and wonder
1:08:16 > 1:08:19# This is the long distance call... #
1:08:19 > 1:08:24By the time we did the Graceland tour, and you saw the physical
1:08:24 > 1:08:27presence of Africans and whites and the melange,
1:08:27 > 1:08:34the mixture of races and cultures, that was a supreme moment.
1:08:34 > 1:08:38He wanted to demonstrate that he wasn't all the things
1:08:38 > 1:08:42that were inferred by the fact that he had broken the boycott.
1:08:42 > 1:08:45So by putting Miriam Makeba and Ladysmith Black Mambazo
1:08:45 > 1:08:49and the whole...as you say,
1:08:49 > 1:08:54back there, he did a lot to balance social conflict,
1:08:54 > 1:09:01or social contradiction. And in that context, I think,
1:09:01 > 1:09:07he declared to the audiences that he faced where his deeper self resided.
1:09:11 > 1:09:13I remember when we were on tour,
1:09:13 > 1:09:17especially in Europe during the winter times,
1:09:17 > 1:09:23every time Black Mambazo went on the stage and started singing...
1:09:23 > 1:09:28HE SINGS IN ZULU LANGUAGE
1:09:34 > 1:09:39..I would feel tears coming. Here I am, I am an African boy,
1:09:39 > 1:09:41I'm in the middle of the snow.
1:09:41 > 1:09:45And people have come to this show, they have 50,000 people
1:09:45 > 1:09:48filled up in the stadium. And I would be crying, like,
1:09:48 > 1:09:52"Damn. We are really seeing the world."
1:09:56 > 1:10:00Now, at the time, the boycott stated that
1:10:00 > 1:10:02South African musicians could not play
1:10:02 > 1:10:05anywhere in the world. Paul decided
1:10:05 > 1:10:08that it was a risk he was prepared to take.
1:10:08 > 1:10:12Touring with Graceland was actually quite tense at times,
1:10:12 > 1:10:14particularly in Europe.
1:10:14 > 1:10:18Before every concert, the police would come with bomb-sniffing dogs
1:10:18 > 1:10:20and go through the whole theatre.
1:10:20 > 1:10:24We had a couple of theatres evacuated, and shows
1:10:24 > 1:10:27postponed because of bomb threats.
1:10:27 > 1:10:30NEWSREEL: 'The day he arrived, a hand grenade was thrown at a building
1:10:30 > 1:10:33'housing sound equipment to be used during the concerts.
1:10:33 > 1:10:37'A group calling itself the Azanian National Liberation Army
1:10:37 > 1:10:39'claimed responsibility. More violence was threatened
1:10:39 > 1:10:42'unless Simon called off the tour.'
1:10:42 > 1:10:46I remember when we were in London, especially, we performed
1:10:46 > 1:10:51at the Royal Albert Hall - I think we were there for 10 days or so -
1:10:51 > 1:10:53and of course we had the anti-apartheid movement
1:10:53 > 1:10:55protesting.
1:10:55 > 1:10:58'Outside the Albert Hall, leaflets critical of the activities
1:10:58 > 1:11:02'of the star are presented to his bemused fans.'
1:11:03 > 1:11:06At one point, somebody
1:11:06 > 1:11:09called the hotel in London
1:11:09 > 1:11:12and ordered the South Africans to go back home.
1:11:12 > 1:11:15I was in a room with Ray Phiri,
1:11:15 > 1:11:18and Ray says, "Asante, do you believe this?
1:11:18 > 1:11:20"We face apartheid every day,
1:11:20 > 1:11:24"and you're ordering us to go home - are you crazy?!"
1:11:24 > 1:11:27I've never seen Ray so angry!
1:11:27 > 1:11:32I remember, I got a call at the hotel in London -
1:11:32 > 1:11:34I've got to go and see the ANC.
1:11:34 > 1:11:37I went to a pub, when I met some of the...
1:11:37 > 1:11:39senior members of the movement,
1:11:39 > 1:11:42who wanted to know what I was doing.
1:11:42 > 1:11:46And I told them that no, we had to perform.
1:11:46 > 1:11:49Perform with whom? With Paul Simon.
1:11:49 > 1:11:53They told me, "Don't you know that there's a cultural boycott?"
1:11:53 > 1:11:57I said, "OK, tell me, like I'm a seven-year-old, teach me
1:11:57 > 1:12:00"what did I do wrong. I don't understand it, I'm the victim here.
1:12:00 > 1:12:02"I live in South Africa.
1:12:02 > 1:12:05"How can you victimise the victim twice?"
1:12:05 > 1:12:09Ladies and gentlemen, Hugh Masekela.
1:12:19 > 1:12:23That militant approach was at the core of the criticism
1:12:23 > 1:12:26that was levelled against me,
1:12:26 > 1:12:31and had it not been for Hugh Masekela and for Miriam Makeba
1:12:31 > 1:12:35and Ray Phiri, and all the South Africans who were on the tour,
1:12:35 > 1:12:38who said, "Stop, what are you doing?"
1:12:38 > 1:12:41You know? "We WANT to be out here, we WANT to show our music"...
1:12:41 > 1:12:45There's a train that comes from Namibia
1:12:45 > 1:12:47and Malawi...
1:12:47 > 1:12:51From Lesotho, from Botswana, from Swaziland,
1:12:51 > 1:12:55from all the hinterlands of southern and central Africa,
1:12:55 > 1:12:59this train carries young and old African men who are conscripted
1:12:59 > 1:13:02to come and work on contract
1:13:02 > 1:13:06in the golden mineral mines of Johannesburg.
1:13:06 > 1:13:08There would be press conferences all the time.
1:13:08 > 1:13:11And the press conferences were, like, just people who were
1:13:11 > 1:13:14just hoping that I had made some kind of ridiculous mistake.
1:13:14 > 1:13:17But when it hit the fan,
1:13:17 > 1:13:19Hugh and Miriam, I mean, they could barely be contained.
1:13:19 > 1:13:21Hugh would say,
1:13:21 > 1:13:24"What did you ever do for South Africa?"
1:13:24 > 1:13:28I mean, there were times when we really had to, like,
1:13:28 > 1:13:30hold him back! He wanted to...
1:13:30 > 1:13:33Hugh wanted to be in a fight. So mostly,
1:13:33 > 1:13:38we were trying to explain that we were
1:13:38 > 1:13:42as anti-apartheid as could be, that Hugh
1:13:42 > 1:13:46was an exile, that Miriam was not allowed to come back
1:13:46 > 1:13:48for the burial of her daughter,
1:13:48 > 1:13:51that we were very much against the regime.
1:13:51 > 1:13:54..and think about the loved ones that they left behind
1:13:54 > 1:13:57and may never see again, because...
1:13:57 > 1:13:59'We used to have furious arguments'
1:13:59 > 1:14:01about the boycott, you know?
1:14:01 > 1:14:03Because I said, I just said,
1:14:03 > 1:14:06"It's great, and it's helping South Africa."
1:14:06 > 1:14:10But when you start to like also ban South African musicians,
1:14:10 > 1:14:15who can't make contact with the outside world - outstanding artists -
1:14:15 > 1:14:18they can't be hard on people who are already suffering in South Africa.
1:14:18 > 1:14:22You can't witch-hunt your people - this show is going to be a smash,
1:14:22 > 1:14:28and it's going to play to many people who have never heard of South Africa.
1:14:32 > 1:14:34When I was in exile in Botswana,
1:14:34 > 1:14:36I had thought...
1:14:36 > 1:14:40of, er, joining the ANC.
1:14:40 > 1:14:43But over the years I've learned that
1:14:43 > 1:14:46if an artist, or anybody, has really something to say
1:14:46 > 1:14:50about their concerns for the wellbeing of people,
1:14:50 > 1:14:54then they're in the wrong place if they join a political party,
1:14:54 > 1:14:58because they have to then follow the strict rules of the party.
1:14:58 > 1:15:02And I've never been able to, like, live under rules.
1:15:05 > 1:15:08We went to Zimbabwe. Paul wanted to give
1:15:08 > 1:15:10South Africans a chance to witness
1:15:10 > 1:15:14what we have been giving the people in Europe,
1:15:14 > 1:15:18in America, all over the world, so he chose
1:15:18 > 1:15:21to do it in Zimbabwe. A lot of South Africans came over
1:15:21 > 1:15:24to witness this, and it was beautiful.
1:15:24 > 1:15:27Ladies and gentlemen, comrades and friends,
1:15:27 > 1:15:30this is Graceland in concert 1987.
1:15:30 > 1:15:34CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS
1:15:36 > 1:15:38She's been in political exile now for 27 years.
1:15:38 > 1:15:43They call her Mama Africa, the queen of South African music,
1:15:43 > 1:15:45Miriam Makeba.
1:15:45 > 1:15:50CROWD CHEERS AND SCREAMS, MUSIC STARTS
1:15:56 > 1:16:01# Joseph's face was black as night
1:16:01 > 1:16:04# The pale yellow moon
1:16:04 > 1:16:07# Shone in his eyes
1:16:08 > 1:16:13# This is the story of how we begin to remember
1:16:13 > 1:16:15SHE REPLIES IN SWAHILI
1:16:15 > 1:16:19# This is the powerful pulsing of love in the vein
1:16:22 > 1:16:27# After the dream of falling and calling your name out
1:16:29 > 1:16:31# These are the roots of rhythm
1:16:31 > 1:16:35# And the roots of rhythm remain... #
1:16:35 > 1:16:38The Zimbabwe concert meant a lot to me,
1:16:38 > 1:16:41and to a lot of us, because
1:16:41 > 1:16:43it was great for South Africans to get together,
1:16:43 > 1:16:45not just black South Africans,
1:16:45 > 1:16:47but black and white South Africans,
1:16:47 > 1:16:50which is something that was never done.
1:16:50 > 1:16:53# In early memory
1:16:53 > 1:16:56# Sounds of music were ringing round
1:16:56 > 1:17:01# Were ringing round my grandmother's door... #
1:17:01 > 1:17:05Everybody knew how important this moment is. It was amazing,
1:17:05 > 1:17:07because Masekela them and Miriam them
1:17:07 > 1:17:10embraced the whole project, and really,
1:17:10 > 1:17:12made sure we're doing it right.
1:17:12 > 1:17:15It's very important to be unified.
1:17:15 > 1:17:18They really prepped us really nice, and set an example for us.
1:17:18 > 1:17:24HE PLAYS INTRO TO NKOSI SIKELEL' IAFRIKA
1:17:24 > 1:17:31# Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika... #
1:17:31 > 1:17:34I think the idea of us singing the South African anthem,
1:17:34 > 1:17:36it came from Paul.
1:17:36 > 1:17:38It was the forbidden one at that time.
1:17:38 > 1:17:41As soon as we start the song,
1:17:41 > 1:17:43Paul would step back,
1:17:43 > 1:17:46because he didn't understand the lyrics, you know.
1:17:46 > 1:17:50But I think after... two or three days,
1:17:50 > 1:17:54we said, "No. Paul, you have to learn the lyrics,
1:17:54 > 1:17:57"because we are all one here,
1:17:57 > 1:18:01"and this is about you and all of us,
1:18:01 > 1:18:03"so you need to learn the lyrics." So we taught him!
1:18:03 > 1:18:08# Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika... #
1:18:08 > 1:18:10'To be standing on the stage'
1:18:10 > 1:18:13with people whose lives were scarred by apartheid
1:18:13 > 1:18:16was very, very powerful.
1:18:16 > 1:18:19I really felt privileged
1:18:19 > 1:18:21and honoured to be asked to be a part of it.
1:18:21 > 1:18:25# Thina lusapho lwayo. #
1:18:25 > 1:18:28CROWD SCREAMS AND CHEERS
1:18:28 > 1:18:31As Graceland became a phenomenon, people began
1:18:31 > 1:18:35to put a very clear human face
1:18:35 > 1:18:38on the victims of apartheid.
1:18:38 > 1:18:42Suddenly, here's Joseph Shabalala, here's Miriam Makeba,
1:18:42 > 1:18:46here's suddenly these charismatic, gifted people,
1:18:46 > 1:18:49and they are...revealing
1:18:49 > 1:18:52a...a magical world.
1:18:52 > 1:18:54THEY PLAY AND SING
1:18:54 > 1:18:57And people said, "Oh, my God, what do you mean
1:18:57 > 1:19:01"that that's going on there? This is really a crime."
1:19:01 > 1:19:03Not that they didn't think it before,
1:19:03 > 1:19:08but suddenly, it became a very powerful, emotional,
1:19:08 > 1:19:13realisation - and that is what was going on with Graceland.
1:19:18 > 1:19:20But you can't forget that all of them
1:19:20 > 1:19:25who had performed with you out there returned to a country in which
1:19:25 > 1:19:27they had no citizenship and no rights.
1:19:27 > 1:19:31So, as people themselves,
1:19:31 > 1:19:34it may have been good for them in terms of their careers,
1:19:34 > 1:19:36it may have been a wonderful thing
1:19:36 > 1:19:39in terms of spreading knowledge of our music,
1:19:39 > 1:19:42but, you know, they are... they are individuals,
1:19:42 > 1:19:46and we were a nation under apartheid.
1:19:46 > 1:19:49And so whatever was good for the nation
1:19:49 > 1:19:54came first, not what is good for a few individuals.
1:19:54 > 1:19:58But what did the artists have to say about that?
1:19:58 > 1:20:02Because my experience, from my own country,
1:20:02 > 1:20:06and in general, is that there's a certain hierarchy.
1:20:06 > 1:20:09At the top are the politicians -
1:20:09 > 1:20:13and behind the politicians are the mysterious people
1:20:13 > 1:20:14who have money and power.
1:20:14 > 1:20:17After that comes the warriors.
1:20:17 > 1:20:22Then comes the economists, who say, "This is how a structure must be."
1:20:22 > 1:20:26And somewhere down the list comes the artist.
1:20:26 > 1:20:28- Mmm.- And when the artist comes in,
1:20:28 > 1:20:32the politician says, "We really need you to come and play
1:20:32 > 1:20:35"for this fundraiser." "Oh, we have a very important dinner, we'd
1:20:35 > 1:20:38"like you to come and sing a few songs acoustically after dinner."
1:20:38 > 1:20:41The artists are always treated
1:20:41 > 1:20:45as if we worked for... the politicians.
1:20:45 > 1:20:50AUDIENCE APPLAUDS AND CHEERS
1:20:55 > 1:20:56Thank you.
1:20:56 > 1:20:59Thank you and welcome...
1:20:59 > 1:21:01to this, er, reunion of
1:21:01 > 1:21:05the 25th anniversary of the release of Graceland.
1:21:05 > 1:21:09These are the musicians who played on the record
1:21:09 > 1:21:11and toured with us,
1:21:11 > 1:21:13and it's been a great joy for me
1:21:13 > 1:21:18reunite with them after so many years.
1:21:35 > 1:21:39That was the flaw in the cultural boycott -
1:21:39 > 1:21:42saying, "We won't let you come over here
1:21:42 > 1:21:44"and record, and bring what you know
1:21:44 > 1:21:47"to intermingle with what we know, so that WE can grow,
1:21:47 > 1:21:51"so that we ALL can grow, and so that we all can grow
1:21:51 > 1:21:56"the deep truth that artists speak."
1:21:58 > 1:22:00# The Mississippi Delta
1:22:00 > 1:22:02# Was shining like a national guitar
1:22:06 > 1:22:09# I am following the river down the highway
1:22:09 > 1:22:12# Through the cradle of the civil war
1:22:14 > 1:22:16# I'm going to Graceland, Graceland
1:22:16 > 1:22:20# Memphis, Tennessee I'm going to Graceland... #
1:22:21 > 1:22:25If there's anything that can conquer the world,
1:22:25 > 1:22:28music, a song - you don't have to understand the language,
1:22:28 > 1:22:32you just have to understand the feel. I mean, it's 13 notes,
1:22:32 > 1:22:36and all - every musician plays...we're all playing
1:22:36 > 1:22:39around 13 notes.
1:22:46 > 1:22:50# It's a turn-around jump shot It's everybody jump start
1:22:50 > 1:22:54# It's every generation throws a hero up the pop charts
1:22:54 > 1:22:58# Medicine is magical, and magical is art
1:22:58 > 1:23:01# The boy in the bubble The baby with the baboon heart... #
1:23:01 > 1:23:04Music evolved the way the album predicted.
1:23:04 > 1:23:07A lot of people make music this way now. It's early sampling.
1:23:07 > 1:23:10The album uses something from elsewhere and puts you on top of it,
1:23:10 > 1:23:13and is a layered assemblage
1:23:13 > 1:23:16and places and ideas, and... welcome to hip-hop.
1:23:16 > 1:23:20INTRO TO "Bodyguard"
1:23:27 > 1:23:30# A man walks down the street, he says,
1:23:30 > 1:23:32# Why am I soft in the middle now?
1:23:32 > 1:23:36# Why am I soft in the middle? the rest of my life is so hard
1:23:36 > 1:23:38# I need a photo opportunity
1:23:38 > 1:23:40# I want a shot at redemption
1:23:40 > 1:23:43# Don't want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard... #
1:23:43 > 1:23:47You can call me Al is really the story of somebody
1:23:47 > 1:23:49like me who just,
1:23:49 > 1:23:53you know, goes to Africa with no idea, and ends up
1:23:53 > 1:23:57having some extraordinary spiritual experience.
1:23:59 > 1:24:02# he looks around, around He sees angels... #
1:24:02 > 1:24:05"Angels in the architecture, spinning in infinity...
1:24:05 > 1:24:06"Amen, hallelujah."
1:24:06 > 1:24:09And starts off with, "Why am I soft in the middle?
1:24:09 > 1:24:11"The rest of my life is so hard."
1:24:11 > 1:24:14Self-obsessed...person
1:24:14 > 1:24:17becomes aware.
1:24:17 > 1:24:23# Emaweni we baba
1:24:20 > 1:24:23Silala emaweni
1:24:23 > 1:24:27# Emaweni we baba
1:24:25 > 1:24:27Silala emaweni
1:24:27 > 1:24:30# Emaweni we baba
1:24:28 > 1:24:30Silala emaweni
1:24:30 > 1:24:34# We baba Silala emaweni... #
1:24:34 > 1:24:38When Mandela finally was let out of jail,
1:24:38 > 1:24:40everybody was ecstatic.
1:24:40 > 1:24:43- NEWSREEL:- 'Thousands of people gathered,
1:24:43 > 1:24:45'waiting for the first words
1:24:45 > 1:24:47'in more than 27 years from Nelson Mandela.'
1:24:47 > 1:24:50I greet you all
1:24:50 > 1:24:53in the name of peace,
1:24:53 > 1:24:58democracy and freedom for all!
1:24:58 > 1:25:00# And we are homeless
1:25:00 > 1:25:02# Homeless
1:25:02 > 1:25:06# We're moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake... #
1:25:06 > 1:25:09And then, ironically, we had the pleasure of being invited by the ANC
1:25:09 > 1:25:13to come and perform in South Africa -
1:25:13 > 1:25:15at Mandela's invitation.
1:25:15 > 1:25:16In the news this morning,
1:25:16 > 1:25:19Paul Simon opened his South African tour last night,
1:25:19 > 1:25:20with a concert in Johannesburg.
1:25:20 > 1:25:24The UN and the ANC
1:25:24 > 1:25:26believe that the cultural boycott should be lifted,
1:25:26 > 1:25:28and they've made that announcement.
1:25:30 > 1:25:33'I've never gone into any of these struggles
1:25:33 > 1:25:35'not believing it was going to end.'
1:25:35 > 1:25:37All oppression has to end.
1:25:37 > 1:25:41And I think that art played a huge role in defeating
1:25:41 > 1:25:45the apartheid system - ALL the artists.
1:25:45 > 1:25:48And I think Paul was one of them.
1:25:48 > 1:25:51I think the thing is, we ARE today free.
1:25:51 > 1:25:54- Yes.- And the journey to freedom
1:25:54 > 1:25:57was not a straight road,
1:25:57 > 1:26:01and there are those, like yourself, who have,
1:26:01 > 1:26:05in some people's view, a misunderstood legacy,
1:26:05 > 1:26:07when it comes to the cultural boycott.
1:26:07 > 1:26:09But that doesn't go to you.
1:26:09 > 1:26:13It goes to a political situation which was forced on all of us.
1:26:13 > 1:26:17# Many deaths tonight, it could be you... #
1:26:17 > 1:26:20The power of art, it lasts,
1:26:20 > 1:26:23because the political dispute that we had,
1:26:23 > 1:26:26- it has really gone. - That's it.- But the music
1:26:26 > 1:26:29- still brings people together. - That's it.
1:26:29 > 1:26:33So, er, that's it, I make my case on behalf of artists.
1:26:33 > 1:26:37- Ha-ha-ha!- And I apologise to you if I...if my
1:26:37 > 1:26:39lack of...awareness caused you
1:26:39 > 1:26:42any feelings that I was harming the cause.
1:26:42 > 1:26:44- I certainly never meant it.- I know. - You know that.- I know.- Good.
1:26:44 > 1:26:47# Somebody said... #
1:26:47 > 1:26:49We let bygones be bygones.
1:26:49 > 1:26:52We're welcoming to all, and that includes Paul Simon,
1:26:52 > 1:26:55because we have no malice towards you.
1:26:55 > 1:26:58- We do not consider you somebody who...- I know that.
1:26:58 > 1:27:01..who tried to stop our struggle.
1:27:01 > 1:27:04We consider you somebody who fell into the whirlpool
1:27:04 > 1:27:06of that struggle,
1:27:06 > 1:27:09did beautiful, creative things within it,
1:27:09 > 1:27:12but who was subject to the political storms
1:27:12 > 1:27:14- that were raging at the time. - Mm-hmm.
1:27:14 > 1:27:17But we love you, you're a brother.
1:27:17 > 1:27:19And, um, you have our respect.
1:27:19 > 1:27:22- I'm happy to hear it. - OK, man.- Thank you.- Ha-ha!
1:27:22 > 1:27:26# Kulumani sizwe
1:27:26 > 1:27:28# Singenze njani
1:27:28 > 1:27:31# Baya jabula abasi thanda
1:27:31 > 1:27:33# Yo, wo. #
1:27:43 > 1:27:48AUDIENCE APPLAUDS AND CHEERS AS GUITAR PLAYS
1:28:03 > 1:28:05Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
1:28:05 > 1:28:07# People say she's crazy
1:28:07 > 1:28:10# She got diamonds on the soles of her shoes
1:28:12 > 1:28:16# Well, that's one way to lose these walking blues
1:28:16 > 1:28:19# Diamonds on the soles of your shoes
1:28:21 > 1:28:23# She's physically forgotten
1:28:23 > 1:28:27# And then she slipped into my pocket with my car keys
1:28:27 > 1:28:29# She says, you've taken me for granted
1:28:29 > 1:28:32# Because I please you
1:28:32 > 1:28:35# Wearing these diamonds
1:28:37 > 1:28:40# And I could say, whoo-oo-oo
1:28:40 > 1:28:44# Ooo-oo-oo, oo-oo, oo-oo
1:28:44 > 1:28:48# As if everybody knows what I'm talking about... #