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COMMENTATOR: Live from Los Angeles, | 0:00:23 | 0:00:27 | |
the 29th annual Grammy awards. | 0:00:27 | 0:00:30 | |
BOTH: And the album of the year is... | 0:00:32 | 0:00:35 | |
Unbelievable! That's beautiful! | 0:00:36 | 0:00:38 | |
The crowd is happy! | 0:00:38 | 0:00:39 | |
GRACELAND! | 0:00:39 | 0:00:42 | |
I'd like to thank the singers and musicians from South Africa who worked with me on Graceland, | 0:00:45 | 0:00:52 | |
who live, along with other South African artists and their countrymen, | 0:00:52 | 0:01:00 | |
under one of the most repressive regimes on the planet today | 0:01:00 | 0:01:05 | |
and still they are able to produce | 0:01:05 | 0:01:09 | |
music of great power and nuance and joy. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:14 | |
THEY SING A SOUTH AFRICAN SONG | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
We were influenced by American music. It was influenced by us. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:27 | |
It was sharing information, so it was a two-way traffic. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:32 | |
We used Paul as much as Paul used us. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:34 | |
There was no abuse. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:39 | |
He came at the right time to break South African music more into the mainstream market. | 0:01:39 | 0:01:46 | |
If he has sold more than 14 million copies worldwide of Graceland, that says a lot. | 0:01:46 | 0:01:53 | |
Over 14 million people in the world know what South African music is. | 0:01:53 | 0:01:58 | |
Graceland was a particularly benign record. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:04 | |
I think it described | 0:02:04 | 0:02:08 | |
South African culture in a way that was very accurate. | 0:02:08 | 0:02:13 | |
It was certainly not complete. | 0:02:13 | 0:02:16 | |
It didn't touch on the anger that was pervasive, | 0:02:16 | 0:02:21 | |
but it did touch on the other part of the culture where people laughed, | 0:02:21 | 0:02:27 | |
where there was dancing, where life was being celebrated. | 0:02:27 | 0:02:32 | |
The global village and the vocabulary are getting smaller because we are speaking one language. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:50 | |
But it's the search for one's self... | 0:02:50 | 0:02:52 | |
..that you end up finding yourself in somebody else's thing, you know. | 0:02:55 | 0:03:01 | |
It's something in the air. It's not controlled by any individual. | 0:03:01 | 0:03:07 | |
When there is a good songwriter somewhere, he'll touch the rest of the world with just one word. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:14 | |
-# -It was a dry wind and it swept across the desert | 0:03:14 | 0:03:18 | |
-# -And it curled into the circle of birth | 0:03:18 | 0:03:20 | |
-# -And the dead sand was falling on the children | 0:03:21 | 0:03:25 | |
-# -The mothers and the fathers and the automatic earth | 0:03:25 | 0:03:28 | |
-# -These are the days of miracle and wonder | 0:03:28 | 0:03:32 | |
-# -This is the long-distance call | 0:03:32 | 0:03:35 | |
-# -The way the camera follows us in slo-mo | 0:03:35 | 0:03:38 | |
-# -The way we look to us all Oh, yeah | 0:03:38 | 0:03:41 | |
-# -The way we look to a distant constellation | 0:03:41 | 0:03:44 | |
-# -That's dying in a corner of the sky | 0:03:44 | 0:03:47 | |
-# -These are the days of miracle and wonder | 0:03:48 | 0:03:51 | |
-# -Don't cry, baby, don't cry, don't cry... -# | 0:03:51 | 0:03:55 | |
Let's roll back. | 0:03:58 | 0:03:59 | |
I think we always knew that this would be the start of the album. | 0:04:04 | 0:04:09 | |
I mean, it began so unusually and the sound of those drums at the top | 0:04:09 | 0:04:15 | |
sounded so African... | 0:04:15 | 0:04:18 | |
that it really was like an announcement that said, "You haven't heard this before." | 0:04:18 | 0:04:26 | |
HEAVY DRUMS AND ACCORDION | 0:04:26 | 0:04:30 | |
-# -It was a slow day and the sun was beating | 0:04:46 | 0:04:50 | |
-# -On the soldiers by the side of the road | 0:04:50 | 0:04:53 | |
-# -There was a bright light, a shattering of shop windows | 0:04:53 | 0:04:57 | |
-# -The bomb in the baby carriage was wired to the radio | 0:04:57 | 0:05:00 | |
-# -These are the days of miracle and wonder | 0:05:00 | 0:05:04 | |
-# -This is the long-distance call | 0:05:04 | 0:05:07 | |
-# -The way the camera follows us in slo-mo... -# | 0:05:08 | 0:05:11 | |
My favourite track is "The Boy In The Bubble". | 0:05:11 | 0:05:14 | |
It represents that whole feel and experience - a very dark, | 0:05:14 | 0:05:20 | |
brooding quality about it. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:23 | |
And, er, to me it most represents the whole trip, | 0:05:23 | 0:05:27 | |
the whole concept and the whole feel of recording in that studio over there. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:33 | |
These were originally jams. Basically, they were jams - 10, 15 minutes, half an hour. | 0:05:38 | 0:05:47 | |
And lo and behold maybe a song would come out of that. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:51 | |
It was important to record these guys with good eye contact, close together. | 0:05:56 | 0:06:03 | |
Not everybody in their own little room. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:06 | |
Let's try to control the leakage the best we can, | 0:06:06 | 0:06:10 | |
so the eye contact and the feel is in the room. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:15 | |
And record it, so back in New York we can delete that, add this, | 0:06:15 | 0:06:20 | |
add these four bars, put these four over here, these three bars here, | 0:06:20 | 0:06:25 | |
and be able do that without a mess. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:28 | |
What we added to the accordion to make the sound deeper was... | 0:06:34 | 0:06:38 | |
We added a synthesizer to deepen the sound. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:45 | |
-Like this. -MUSIC GETS DEEPER -In proportion... | 0:06:48 | 0:06:52 | |
Similarly, with the drums... | 0:06:55 | 0:06:58 | |
Here's the sample added to the snare. | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
STEADY DRUM BEAT | 0:07:01 | 0:07:03 | |
This happens quite a bit in Graceland. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:07 | |
Sounds are added to the original sounds to make things sound deeper. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:13 | |
Over here... | 0:07:15 | 0:07:21 | |
BELLS CHIME | 0:07:17 | 0:07:21 | |
Well, here's bells. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:23 | |
They're tucked in the background just to give things a natural echo sound. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:35 | |
Here's me singing voices to fit in with the accordion. | 0:07:35 | 0:07:39 | |
VOCAL TRACK IS ADDED | 0:07:39 | 0:07:43 | |
I'm just making up sounds. | 0:07:43 | 0:07:45 | |
-# -These are the days of miracle and wonder | 0:07:48 | 0:07:51 | |
-# -This is the lo-ong-distance ca-all | 0:07:51 | 0:07:55 | |
-# -The way the camera follows us in slo-mo | 0:07:55 | 0:07:59 | |
-# -The way we look to us all, oh, yeah | 0:07:59 | 0:08:02 | |
-# -The way we look to a distant constellation | 0:08:03 | 0:08:05 | |
-# -That's dying in a corner of the sky | 0:08:05 | 0:08:08 | |
-# -These are the days of miracle and wonder | 0:08:09 | 0:08:13 | |
-# -Don't cry, baby, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry... -# | 0:08:13 | 0:08:17 | |
It was clear that Paul | 0:08:22 | 0:08:25 | |
was coming to the end of writing songs the way he had written before. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:31 | |
He said to me a number of times that he wasn't interested in writing hits. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:37 | |
He wasn't interested. | 0:08:37 | 0:08:40 | |
Here was a man at a very crucial place in his career, | 0:08:40 | 0:08:44 | |
looking for something to do, for a larger canvas to work on. | 0:08:44 | 0:08:50 | |
It's important to look at it in the context of Paul's music at that time. | 0:08:50 | 0:08:56 | |
It was a difficult time for me. | 0:08:59 | 0:09:02 | |
I started to work on an album | 0:09:02 | 0:09:04 | |
that became Hearts And Bones. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:08 | |
When I did a reunion concert with Art Garfunkel, half a million people showed up. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:15 | |
Then we decided to go out and do some concerts - a classic mistake. | 0:09:15 | 0:09:21 | |
The album came out - an album that had been announced as Simon and Garfunkel - | 0:09:21 | 0:09:28 | |
now came out as this solo album. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:32 | |
I was exhausted. I didn't do any work to promote it. I just put it out. | 0:09:34 | 0:09:40 | |
And it was a flop. | 0:09:40 | 0:09:42 | |
And in the midst of all of that touring, | 0:09:42 | 0:09:46 | |
um, I got married. | 0:09:46 | 0:09:49 | |
And, er... | 0:09:49 | 0:09:52 | |
I married Carrie Fisher | 0:09:52 | 0:09:54 | |
in the middle of that tour. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:57 | |
You know, I mean... | 0:09:57 | 0:09:59 | |
What was I thinking? Certainly not thinking about life. | 0:10:01 | 0:10:06 | |
You actually have to stop. | 0:10:06 | 0:10:09 | |
Marriage is a hard thing to... to...er, to do. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:15 | |
You need to concentrate on that. Not everything can happen at once. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:20 | |
All kinds of mistakes on top of mistakes, on top of mistakes. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:25 | |
So now I had, you know, a personal blow in my life, | 0:10:27 | 0:10:32 | |
and a career setback. | 0:10:32 | 0:10:34 | |
And the combination of the two put me into a tailspin. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:39 | |
Around that time, I was building a house in Montauk, Long Island. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:55 | |
And while I drove out, I would listen to this tape that a friend had given me. | 0:10:55 | 0:11:02 | |
And I really liked that tape. | 0:11:02 | 0:11:04 | |
After weeks of driving back and forth and listening to the tape, | 0:11:04 | 0:11:09 | |
I thought, "What is this tape? This is my favourite tape. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:14 | |
"I wonder who this is." And that's when things perked up. | 0:11:14 | 0:11:19 | |
That led me to asking the people at Warner Brothers to trace them for me. | 0:11:19 | 0:11:26 | |
They traced it to South Africa, | 0:11:26 | 0:11:28 | |
and in early 1985 I set off with Roy Halee to begin this. | 0:11:28 | 0:11:35 | |
And in a very good mood, too. I said, "This is going to be fun." | 0:11:35 | 0:11:40 | |
Warner Brothers had never heard of a recording process like this. | 0:12:17 | 0:12:22 | |
They thought - I'm sure - when we were doing this, that Paul Simon and Roy Halee were crazy. | 0:12:22 | 0:12:28 | |
You can't make a record like that. How can you go to Africa? You don't even have a song. | 0:12:28 | 0:12:36 | |
I'm sure, I KNOW they thought we were both nuts. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:40 | |
I said I have one big advantage going by being as cold as I am. | 0:12:45 | 0:12:50 | |
Nobody is paying any attention to me. I can do this all, you know, very privately. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:58 | |
Nobody will ask, "Can you send us a copy? Can we hear it?" None of that will happen. | 0:12:58 | 0:13:04 | |
I had finished with my disappointments and sorrows. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:13 | |
WOMEN SING IN ZULU | 0:13:13 | 0:13:16 | |
'My father was a musician. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:28 | |
'I grew up with musicians. I'm comfortable with musicians. I hang out with musicians. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:35 | |
'Studios are friendly environments to me.' | 0:13:35 | 0:13:38 | |
There's nothing in a studio you can't solve. | 0:13:38 | 0:13:42 | |
It's not the same as life. You'll figure it out one way or the other. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:47 | |
It's a happy work environment. | 0:13:47 | 0:13:50 | |
-# -I'll sing what I said | 0:13:50 | 0:13:52 | |
-# -We come and we go | 0:13:52 | 0:13:54 | |
-# -That's a thing I keep in the back of my head | 0:13:54 | 0:13:57 | |
-# -I'll sing what I have said | 0:13:57 | 0:14:00 | |
-# -We come and we go-o | 0:14:00 | 0:14:02 | |
-# -It's a thing that I keep in the back of my head... -# | 0:14:02 | 0:14:07 | |
I was having a ball, recording it. | 0:14:07 | 0:14:09 | |
To record these guys for a guy like me, from my background - everything so organised. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:16 | |
Hearing the rawness, the earthiness of this, I was in seventh heaven. | 0:14:16 | 0:14:23 | |
It was getting good grooves and coming back and rewriting it. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:30 | |
There was nothing really written. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:32 | |
All of Paul's albums - anything I ever did - songs were written in the studio. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:38 | |
Paul loved to write and create great things in the studio. | 0:14:38 | 0:14:43 | |
But in the studio, Paul would say, "Wait till you hear this!" | 0:14:43 | 0:14:49 | |
and you'd hear Mrs Robinson. There it is. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:52 | |
Here there's nothing. It's an idea, a concept, nothing on paper. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:58 | |
So it was a gamble, I guess. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
We cut another track with the Tao Ea Matsekha group. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:13 | |
I only liked the drums. I kept them in and we overdubbed on these drums. | 0:15:13 | 0:15:20 | |
DRUM BEAT | 0:15:20 | 0:15:22 | |
To my ear, certain words or certain sounds that became words, | 0:15:22 | 0:15:29 | |
sometimes those words formed a phrase and it was interesting. | 0:15:29 | 0:15:33 | |
Sometimes it was banal. Sometimes it made no sense, like "I'm going to Graceland." | 0:15:33 | 0:15:40 | |
That phrase sang very well against what was happening in the track. | 0:15:40 | 0:15:46 | |
It was comfortable to sing that, so I sang it, | 0:15:46 | 0:15:50 | |
thinking all along that I would replace it. | 0:15:50 | 0:15:54 | |
Until I realised I'm not going to replace it. It's always going to be in my head. | 0:15:54 | 0:16:02 | |
-# -I'm going to Graceland, Graceland Memphis, Tennessee | 0:16:02 | 0:16:07 | |
-# -I'm going to Graceland... -# | 0:16:07 | 0:16:09 | |
I was concerned that that lyric, with all those words, was very wordy. | 0:16:11 | 0:16:17 | |
Rhythmically, they didn't fit. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:20 | |
He would alter the way he would sing. He would phrase it thousands of different ways to make it work. | 0:16:20 | 0:16:27 | |
It would always feel uncomfortable. | 0:16:27 | 0:16:30 | |
There were times we both thought, "We're not going to get this." | 0:16:30 | 0:16:35 | |
But Paul, with his spirit, "I'm going to get this." | 0:16:35 | 0:16:39 | |
At first I thought I had a problem. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:43 | |
Soon after that, I began to think, "No. Now I have an adventure. | 0:16:43 | 0:16:48 | |
"Instead of resisting what's going on, I'll go with it. | 0:16:48 | 0:16:53 | |
"And I'll be carried along and find out where we're going. | 0:16:53 | 0:16:58 | |
"Instead of assuming I'm captain of the ship, I'm just a passenger." | 0:16:58 | 0:17:03 | |
-# -The Mississippi Delta was shining like a national guitar | 0:17:11 | 0:17:16 | |
-# -I am following the river down the highway | 0:17:18 | 0:17:22 | |
-# -Through the cradle of the civil war | 0:17:22 | 0:17:26 | |
-# -I'm going to Graceland, Graceland Memphis, Tennessee | 0:17:26 | 0:17:31 | |
-# -I'm going to Graceland | 0:17:31 | 0:17:33 | |
-# -Poor boys and pilgrims with families | 0:17:35 | 0:17:38 | |
-# -And we are going to Graceland | 0:17:38 | 0:17:41 | |
I always think of this shape - | 0:17:42 | 0:17:46 | |
meaning that you begin and the possibilities are going to go out this way. | 0:17:46 | 0:17:52 | |
It means you have a good story to tell, as opposed to this shape, | 0:17:52 | 0:17:57 | |
which means in the second verse or something, you've finished. | 0:17:57 | 0:18:02 | |
So you want to begin in a way that leaves a lot of possibility. | 0:18:03 | 0:18:08 | |
Sometimes you play something and you don't know what it is. | 0:18:08 | 0:18:12 | |
Later, if the person you're working with has more information than you, | 0:18:12 | 0:18:17 | |
you end up knowing what you are playing. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:21 | |
What I heard him play was great, but it lacked something. | 0:18:21 | 0:18:26 | |
Hence, I ended up saying to him, "Why don't you put a minor there?" | 0:18:26 | 0:18:32 | |
I could hear him playing a straight... | 0:18:32 | 0:18:37 | |
Then I thought that if I went to the minor instead of the major... | 0:18:40 | 0:18:44 | |
HE MOVES TO THE MINOR | 0:18:47 | 0:18:51 | |
This is what I played against Ray's electric guitar on Graceland. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:56 | |
When he played it up here, | 0:18:56 | 0:18:58 | |
I played it over here. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:01 | |
Except I used a lighter pick. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:11 | |
HE HUMS THE MELODY | 0:19:13 | 0:19:16 | |
Graceland is my favourite record. | 0:19:33 | 0:19:37 | |
Favourite record, my favourite... | 0:19:38 | 0:19:41 | |
song that I ever wrote. | 0:19:41 | 0:19:43 | |
This is it, the best I ever did. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:46 | |
HE HUMS THE MELODY | 0:19:46 | 0:19:50 | |
Perfect. | 0:19:51 | 0:19:53 | |
It begins so relaxed. There's no lyrics. | 0:19:58 | 0:20:01 | |
It's taking its time. | 0:20:05 | 0:20:07 | |
-# -The Mississippi Delta was shining like a national guitar... -# | 0:20:10 | 0:20:14 | |
'Good opening line.' | 0:20:14 | 0:20:17 | |
-# -I am following the river down the highway | 0:20:17 | 0:20:20 | |
-# -Through the cradle of the civil war | 0:20:20 | 0:20:24 | |
-# -I'm going to Graceland, Graceland Memphis, Tennessee... -# | 0:20:25 | 0:20:29 | |
-# -Umbada-ba-dah. -# -In the major, but if I want to go... | 0:20:29 | 0:20:34 | |
-# -Bo-doh, bo-boh, bo-oh, Dee-doh, doh-un-doh, bo-boh. -# | 0:20:34 | 0:20:39 | |
I can make it major or minor. | 0:20:39 | 0:20:41 | |
-# -My travelling companion is nine years old | 0:20:41 | 0:20:45 | |
-# -The child of my first marriage... -# | 0:20:45 | 0:20:48 | |
I don't know why I like that. I guess there are a lot of first marriages. | 0:20:48 | 0:20:53 | |
-# -..received in Graceland... -# | 0:20:53 | 0:20:55 | |
'Now the lick is under the lyrics.' | 0:20:58 | 0:21:01 | |
-# -She comes back to tell me she's go-o-one... -# | 0:21:02 | 0:21:05 | |
Under. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:06 | |
-# -As if I didn't know that As if I didn't know my own bed... -# | 0:21:06 | 0:21:11 | |
Now it's not... | 0:21:11 | 0:21:14 | |
-# -As if I'd... -# | 0:21:14 | 0:21:16 | |
There's the lick again. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:18 | |
-# -..her hair from her forehead | 0:21:18 | 0:21:20 | |
-# -And she said lo-oo-sing love is like a window in your heart... -# | 0:21:22 | 0:21:27 | |
'I found that line touching.' | 0:21:27 | 0:21:30 | |
-# -Everybody sees you're blown apart | 0:21:30 | 0:21:33 | |
-# -Everybody sees the wind blo-ow | 0:21:34 | 0:21:37 | |
-# -I'm going to Graceland | 0:21:37 | 0:21:40 | |
-# -Memphis, Tennessee I'm going to Graceland... -# | 0:21:40 | 0:21:44 | |
-I didn't sing Graceland twice here. The first time, I'm going, -# -Graceland, Graceland. -# | 0:21:44 | 0:21:50 | |
This time, I only sing it once. Each time, I vary it. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:55 | |
-# -..ghosts and empty sockets, are looking at ghosts and empties... -# | 0:21:55 | 0:22:00 | |
The only line I'd rewrite. | 0:22:00 | 0:22:03 | |
-# -But I've reason to believe we all will be received in Graceland... -# | 0:22:03 | 0:22:09 | |
We've got the Everly Brothers. Let's see what they sound like. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:15 | |
# Poor boys and pilgrims with families | 0:22:15 | 0:22:19 | |
# And we are going to Graceland. | 0:22:19 | 0:22:22 | |
# My travelling companions are ghosts and empty sockets | 0:22:24 | 0:22:28 | |
# I'm looking at ghosts and empties... # | 0:22:28 | 0:22:30 | |
Too many words. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:32 | |
# But I've reason to believe We all will be received in Graceland... # | 0:22:32 | 0:22:37 | |
This was a very in-depth compositional effort. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:42 | |
It wasn't just a question of taking a few rhythms and a few drummers. | 0:22:42 | 0:22:47 | |
This was a real composition... | 0:22:47 | 0:22:49 | |
that was made on the basis of that material. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:54 | |
Ah...but...so...ah... | 0:22:54 | 0:22:57 | |
So he elevated this research that turned into this record. | 0:22:57 | 0:23:03 | |
He elevated that enterprise into something I don't think anyone has done since. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:09 | |
It's been recomposed and processed by the way Paul worked on it. | 0:23:09 | 0:23:14 | |
-# -I'm going to Graceland... -# | 0:23:14 | 0:23:16 | |
No "Memphis, Tennessee". I'm not talking about Memphis, now. | 0:23:16 | 0:23:21 | |
Memphis was only in the beginning. Now we're in another place. | 0:23:22 | 0:23:27 | |
-# -..obliged to defend Every love, every ending Or maybe there's no obligations now | 0:23:27 | 0:23:34 | |
-# -Maybe I've a reason to believe We all will be received in Graceland... -# | 0:23:35 | 0:23:41 | |
When I was there, when I first went there, Nelson Mandela was in prison. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:50 | |
And although I always thought there would be a peaceful resolution to the politics of South Africa, | 0:23:50 | 0:23:57 | |
I never thought it would be this fast. | 0:23:57 | 0:24:01 | |
The younger generation was ready and hungry for the outside world, | 0:24:01 | 0:24:06 | |
tired of being ostracised, ready to celebrate their own culture. | 0:24:06 | 0:24:12 | |
And so did black South Africans feel that way. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:16 | |
Because when I was there to record, | 0:24:16 | 0:24:19 | |
they were listening to American music. | 0:24:19 | 0:24:22 | |
They weren't listening to their own music. | 0:24:22 | 0:24:26 | |
That was already passe. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
South African music was oppressed as the people were. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:35 | |
But there was a lot of apartheid in the music. | 0:24:35 | 0:24:38 | |
I remember it was called "gaffle" music, you know. Bantu music, it was called. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:45 | |
But we listened to American music and Rock 'n' Roll, The Beatles, Paul Simon. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:55 | |
It's not unusual that cultures misjudge their own history's value, that they're willing to discard it. | 0:24:55 | 0:25:02 | |
I mean, American culture's doing it. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:06 | |
What emerged from Graceland, | 0:25:11 | 0:25:14 | |
as an album and as a tour, | 0:25:14 | 0:25:17 | |
was that, for the most part, | 0:25:17 | 0:25:22 | |
it made a very powerful point gently. | 0:25:22 | 0:25:27 | |
It wasn't an album that said, "There's terrible evil here." | 0:25:29 | 0:25:35 | |
It said, "There's incredible beauty here." | 0:25:35 | 0:25:39 | |
That was a very powerful point. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:44 | |
And in conjunction with the world's anger towards South Africa - | 0:25:44 | 0:25:49 | |
the attack on the fortress of apartheid - | 0:25:49 | 0:25:55 | |
the walls eventually cracked and I think Graceland was a factor in that. | 0:25:55 | 0:26:00 | |
People could think, who hadn't thought this before, | 0:26:00 | 0:26:05 | |
"How can people be treated so inhumanely, | 0:26:05 | 0:26:09 | |
"when they have so much to give the world?" | 0:26:09 | 0:26:14 | |
# Emaweni webaba | 0:26:14 | 0:26:19 | |
Silale maweni | 0:26:17 | 0:26:19 | |
# Webaba | 0:26:19 | 0:26:22 | |
Silale maweni | 0:26:20 | 0:26:22 | |
# Webaba | 0:26:22 | 0:26:24 | |
-# -Silale maweni | 0:26:24 | 0:26:26 | |
# Webaba | 0:26:26 | 0:26:28 | |
-# -Silale maweni | 0:26:28 | 0:26:29 | |
-# -Webaba silale maweni | 0:26:29 | 0:26:33 | |
# Webaba | 0:26:33 | 0:26:37 | |
Silale maweni | 0:26:34 | 0:26:37 | |
# Webaba | 0:26:37 | 0:26:40 | |
Silale maweni | 0:26:38 | 0:26:40 | |
# Webaba | 0:26:40 | 0:26:44 | |
Silale maweni | 0:26:41 | 0:26:44 | |
-# -Webaba silale maweni | 0:26:44 | 0:26:47 | |
-# -Webaba silale maweni... -# | 0:26:47 | 0:26:51 | |
Sing. # Homeless | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
# Homeless | 0:26:54 | 0:26:56 | |
# Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake | 0:26:56 | 0:27:00 | |
# Homeless | 0:27:00 | 0:27:02 | |
# Homeless | 0:27:02 | 0:27:04 | |
# Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake... # | 0:27:04 | 0:27:08 | |
I don't think I'm a good "angry" writer. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:12 | |
I can be an angry person and even articulate my anger in speech, but I'm not a good angry songwriter. | 0:27:12 | 0:27:21 | |
I think that's why Graceland came out, | 0:27:21 | 0:27:24 | |
feeling the way that it did. | 0:27:24 | 0:27:27 | |
Black Mambazo is also not an angry group | 0:27:27 | 0:27:31 | |
and has done an enormous amount for South Africa and for people. | 0:27:31 | 0:27:35 | |
After we met with Paul Simon in 1985, | 0:27:39 | 0:27:42 | |
and we promised each other that we were going to do something together, | 0:27:42 | 0:27:47 | |
and he composed the song alone. # Homeless, homeless | 0:27:47 | 0:27:52 | |
# Moonlight sleeping Chai, chai, chai. # | 0:27:52 | 0:27:57 | |
# Homeless | 0:27:57 | 0:27:58 | |
# Homeless | 0:27:58 | 0:28:00 | |
# Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake... # | 0:28:00 | 0:28:04 | |
I listened to their records a lot. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:07 | |
Then I tried to write a melody that would be something like a Black Mambazo melody. | 0:28:07 | 0:28:14 | |
And we listened and we read the letter from him, | 0:28:14 | 0:28:18 | |
"Joseph, here's the song." | 0:28:18 | 0:28:21 | |
And then, when we listened to the lyrics, it was beautiful! | 0:28:21 | 0:28:26 | |
The time came and we went to join Paul Simon in London. | 0:28:26 | 0:28:32 | |
# Too-loo lo Too-loo lo | 0:28:32 | 0:28:34 | |
# Too-loo-lo loo loo loo loo loo-loo lo | 0:28:34 | 0:28:39 | |
# Too-loo lo, Too-loo lo Many dead Tonight it could be you... # | 0:28:39 | 0:28:44 | |
This is the first little rehearsal in London. | 0:28:44 | 0:28:49 | |
# ..Tonight it could be you | 0:28:49 | 0:28:51 | |
# Homeless | 0:28:51 | 0:28:53 | |
# Homeless | 0:28:53 | 0:28:54 | |
# Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake... # | 0:28:54 | 0:28:58 | |
I don't know what happened when we got into the studio. | 0:28:58 | 0:29:03 | |
It felt like, "Hoo! Where to begin? Where to start?" | 0:29:03 | 0:29:07 | |
We started to work. Ooh! This language is a little bit hard, talking to him. | 0:29:07 | 0:29:14 | |
And he's a polite man. | 0:29:14 | 0:29:17 | |
I told the guys, "Don't worry. He's very good. He's a polite man." | 0:29:17 | 0:29:23 | |
He said, "Joseph, how do you think about this song?" I said, "Very good. Do you have something...?" | 0:29:23 | 0:29:30 | |
"Yes. We have something." | 0:29:30 | 0:29:32 | |
And then we sing that part and we come to "Homeless" | 0:29:32 | 0:29:37 | |
and it's a little bit difficult to blend the voices - | 0:29:37 | 0:29:44 | |
an American voice, African voice. | 0:29:44 | 0:29:46 | |
The first day, it was tough. We're just touching there and then. | 0:29:46 | 0:29:51 | |
Many people were trying to help us and that was confusing me. | 0:29:51 | 0:29:57 | |
Ah! I said, "OK." | 0:29:57 | 0:29:59 | |
And Paul discovered that there was something wrong. | 0:29:59 | 0:30:04 | |
He said, "Joseph, let us tape this." | 0:30:04 | 0:30:07 | |
We taped it and he said, "Right. Just go and relax. | 0:30:07 | 0:30:11 | |
"We see each other tomorrow. OK?" | 0:30:11 | 0:30:14 | |
At the beginning, it felt a little strained, strange, | 0:30:17 | 0:30:21 | |
like they weren't sure. Everybody was feeling everybody out. | 0:30:21 | 0:30:26 | |
And it was hard because they don't produce a lot of sound. | 0:30:26 | 0:30:30 | |
They are tricky to record. The bass voices are soft. But it warmed up the second day. | 0:30:30 | 0:30:37 | |
HE HUMS HOMELESS MELODY | 0:30:37 | 0:30:40 | |
-# -Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake | 0:30:40 | 0:30:44 | |
-# -And we are homeless... -# | 0:30:44 | 0:30:46 | |
-That's how they sang it. -# -Homeless Moonlight mm-mm, mm-mm... -# | 0:30:46 | 0:30:52 | |
I think I did it... | 0:30:52 | 0:30:54 | |
I think I didn't use a major chord. I think I used minor... | 0:30:54 | 0:30:59 | |
-# -Bah-dah... -# -Yeah. | 0:30:59 | 0:31:02 | |
- -# -Di dah-dum. -# -But they wouldn't use... | 0:31:02 | 0:31:06 | |
They'd sing... | 0:31:08 | 0:31:09 | |
-# -Bah lah-dah | 0:31:09 | 0:31:13 | |
-# -Lee-dah | 0:31:13 | 0:31:14 | |
-# -Dee dah-dah Do dee-dah dum. -# | 0:31:14 | 0:31:19 | |
But I was playing... | 0:31:19 | 0:31:21 | |
-# -Homeless Homeless | 0:31:21 | 0:31:24 | |
-# -Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake | 0:31:24 | 0:31:28 | |
-# -And we are homeless Ho... -# | 0:31:28 | 0:31:31 | |
When we got into the studio, I said, "Paul, we have something." | 0:31:32 | 0:31:37 | |
And Paul said, "Yes!" | 0:31:37 | 0:31:40 | |
And Paul just, I remember when he said, "Everybody in this studio must go outside." | 0:31:40 | 0:31:47 | |
We'd begin it # Emaweni webaba... # | 0:31:47 | 0:31:51 | |
We sang those parts # Silale maweni | 0:31:51 | 0:31:55 | |
# Silale maweni, silale maweni | 0:31:55 | 0:31:58 | |
# Webaba silale maweni | 0:31:58 | 0:32:02 | |
# Webaba silale maweni. # | 0:32:02 | 0:32:06 | |
And Paul said, "Yes! That's beautiful!" | 0:32:06 | 0:32:09 | |
And then, "Joseph, I was listening to your record. There's another part in your record... | 0:32:09 | 0:32:15 | |
"E-i-i. E-i-i-ee. E-i-i-ee." And I was confused. | 0:32:15 | 0:32:19 | |
"What is that, Paul?" | 0:32:19 | 0:32:22 | |
"In your record - E-i-i-ee." | 0:32:22 | 0:32:25 | |
I said. "No. Hih-ih, hih-ih." He said, "Yes!" | 0:32:25 | 0:32:28 | |
-# Hih-ih, hih-ih, hih-ih -Somebody say -Hih-ih, hih-ih | 0:32:28 | 0:32:33 | |
-# -Somebody sing -Hello, hello, hello | 0:32:33 | 0:32:36 | |
-# -Somebody say -Ih, hih-ih, hih-ih | 0:32:36 | 0:32:38 | |
-# -Somebody cry -Why, why, why? | 0:32:38 | 0:32:41 | |
-# -Somebody say -Ih, hih-ih, hih-ih | 0:32:41 | 0:32:44 | |
-# -Somebody sing -Hello, hello, hello | 0:32:44 | 0:32:47 | |
-# -Somebody say -Ih, hih-ih, hih-ih | 0:32:47 | 0:32:49 | |
-# -Somebody cry -Why, why, why? | 0:32:49 | 0:32:53 | |
-# -Kulumani | 0:32:53 | 0:32:55 | |
# Kuluman, Kulumani sizwe Singenze njani | 0:32:55 | 0:33:01 | |
# Baya jabula abasi thanda | 0:33:01 | 0:33:04 | |
# Yo-oh. # | 0:33:04 | 0:33:06 | |
This type of music originated from Zulu songs and dances. | 0:33:08 | 0:33:14 | |
We grew up on the farm. Now, people - each and every one of us - singing and dancing. | 0:33:14 | 0:33:21 | |
When we were at home, it was beautiful because there were men, women, | 0:33:24 | 0:33:30 | |
young, old, grandmother, grandfather, when there's something, they come together | 0:33:30 | 0:33:37 | |
and share the sound, the music. | 0:33:37 | 0:33:40 | |
But it started to be lonely when people left their loved ones and went into town to work. | 0:33:40 | 0:33:46 | |
Now they started to try to find the place where they can get together and sing. | 0:33:56 | 0:34:02 | |
The music, it's always political because the truth is political. | 0:34:06 | 0:34:11 | |
That's why, when we started to sing, our people were very happy | 0:34:11 | 0:34:16 | |
and we just make them have power. | 0:34:16 | 0:34:21 | |
It was high time that South African artists and international artists should highlight | 0:34:23 | 0:34:31 | |
the importance of exposing the evils of the past eras of South Africa, like the apartheid era. | 0:34:31 | 0:34:38 | |
Culture can't be owned by an individual. | 0:34:38 | 0:34:42 | |
It can be shared by us all. | 0:34:42 | 0:34:45 | |
But a lot of people were saying negative things - | 0:34:45 | 0:34:50 | |
"This white man has used our black brothers' music." | 0:34:50 | 0:34:53 | |
But then you ask yourself, "Where were they?" | 0:34:55 | 0:35:00 | |
I didn't feel that I was going to South Africa | 0:35:05 | 0:35:09 | |
to come back and then express a South African outrage - | 0:35:09 | 0:35:15 | |
"I'll tell the world how you guys are feeling." | 0:35:15 | 0:35:21 | |
I really didn't feel comfortable with that. | 0:35:21 | 0:35:24 | |
My feeling was I'm playing with musicians that I have the highest respect for. | 0:35:24 | 0:35:31 | |
And the way I can show my respect is to write the best possible song | 0:35:31 | 0:35:38 | |
from my heart that I can write. | 0:35:38 | 0:35:41 | |
Not to say, "I'll write the best possible song from your heart." I felt that was presumptuous. | 0:35:41 | 0:35:48 | |
The most unfortunate thing about the beast in us is that we always find wrong when it is right | 0:35:48 | 0:35:56 | |
and we find right when it is wrong. | 0:35:56 | 0:35:59 | |
Some things that are beautiful can be turned into an ugly thing | 0:35:59 | 0:36:04 | |
just for the sake of scoring political points. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:09 | |
If Paul came to record the album, he would have been in the blacklist, | 0:36:09 | 0:36:13 | |
but he went a step further because he didn't politicise it by simply writing about what was happening. | 0:36:13 | 0:36:22 | |
He said, "No. Who am I to talk about people's situations? | 0:36:22 | 0:36:27 | |
"Why don't I get those people to come on and let us share these beautiful rhythms with the world?" | 0:36:27 | 0:36:34 | |
# Joseph's face was black as night | 0:36:48 | 0:36:55 | |
# The pale yellow moon shone in his eyes | 0:36:55 | 0:37:01 | |
# His path was marked | 0:37:01 | 0:37:05 | |
# By the stars in the southern hemisphere | 0:37:05 | 0:37:08 | |
# And he walked his days | 0:37:08 | 0:37:11 | |
# Under African skies | 0:37:11 | 0:37:16 | |
-# -This is the story of how we begin to remember | 0:37:16 | 0:37:20 | |
SHE SINGS IN ZULU | 0:37:20 | 0:37:23 | |
-# -This is the powerful pulsing of love in the vein | 0:37:23 | 0:37:27 | |
-# -After the dream of falling and calling your name out | 0:37:30 | 0:37:34 | |
-# -These are the roots of rhythm And the roots of rhythm remain... -# | 0:37:36 | 0:37:42 | |
I think one of the things about really good art is that it should be there to evoke. | 0:37:42 | 0:37:50 | |
Paul asked me if I had an image for him. | 0:37:50 | 0:37:56 | |
He wanted something on the song we were going to sing. He asked what I remembered from my childhood. | 0:37:56 | 0:38:03 | |
The thing I love most in Arizona is the St Xavier mission, | 0:38:03 | 0:38:07 | |
which is the most beautiful mission in North America. | 0:38:07 | 0:38:11 | |
I told him about that. | 0:38:11 | 0:38:14 | |
That's why he has "In early mem'ry, mission bells are ringing round my nursery door." | 0:38:14 | 0:38:21 | |
Everybody has their own scenario that can unfold under an African sky. | 0:38:21 | 0:38:27 | |
It's an idea of possibility. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:30 | |
It's a story-telling thing like in the African tradition, | 0:38:30 | 0:38:35 | |
whereby you find that musicians are storytellers. | 0:38:35 | 0:38:39 | |
They've got to document every happening. | 0:38:39 | 0:38:43 | |
His lyrics end up complementing the rhythm, | 0:38:43 | 0:38:47 | |
or the rhythm complementing the lyric. | 0:38:47 | 0:38:51 | |
Also he's got the subject that says, "It's you. It's me." | 0:38:51 | 0:38:55 | |
# In early mem'ry | 0:38:55 | 0:39:01 | |
# Mission music was ringing 'round my nursery door | 0:39:01 | 0:39:09 | |
# I said, "Take this child, Lord, from Tucson, Arizona | 0:39:10 | 0:39:17 | |
# Give her the wings to fly through harmony | 0:39:17 | 0:39:20 | |
# And she won't bother you no more | 0:39:20 | 0:39:24 | |
# This is the story of how we begin to remember | 0:39:24 | 0:39:29 | |
# This is the powerful pulsing of love in the vein | 0:39:31 | 0:39:36 | |
# After the dream of falling and calling your name out | 0:39:38 | 0:39:44 | |
# These are the roots of rhythm And the roots of rhythm remain | 0:39:45 | 0:39:50 | |
-# Kaoomba oomba oomba oh -O-o-oh | 0:39:51 | 0:39:57 | |
-# Kaoomba oomba oomba oh -O-o-oh | 0:39:57 | 0:40:04 | |
-# Kaoomba oomba oomba o-o-o-o-o-oh -O-o-oh | 0:40:04 | 0:40:11 | |
-# Kaoomba oomba oomba o-o-o-o-o-oh -O-o-o-o-o-oh... -# | 0:40:11 | 0:40:18 | |
South Africans almost look down upon the music that came from South Africa. | 0:40:20 | 0:40:26 | |
I guess because of the political situation, we were made to, sort of, feel embarrassed about the music. | 0:40:26 | 0:40:33 | |
In South Africa, you grew up with blinkers on. | 0:40:33 | 0:40:39 | |
Take them off, and you could see what was going on. | 0:40:39 | 0:40:42 | |
PENNY WHISTLE MUSIC | 0:40:42 | 0:40:45 | |
I heard penny whistle music on every corner. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:49 | |
Every kid was playing a penny whistle along with a guitar player. | 0:40:49 | 0:40:54 | |
As a teenager, I used to go to the townships. We'd spend hours there. | 0:40:54 | 0:41:00 | |
This is the way I absorbed a lot of the music from there. | 0:41:00 | 0:41:05 | |
It was only when Paul Simon came out with Graceland that people said, | 0:41:08 | 0:41:13 | |
"Wow! We've got all this gold here." | 0:41:13 | 0:41:17 | |
I think somebody used that phrase once. | 0:41:17 | 0:41:20 | |
And, er, then people started realising | 0:41:20 | 0:41:24 | |
that it's such a great fountain of music that comes from South Africa. | 0:41:24 | 0:41:30 | |
MUSIC: "You Can Call Me Al" | 0:41:42 | 0:41:46 | |
BASS GUITAR PLAYS | 0:41:54 | 0:41:58 | |
It took me a long time before I could begin to write. | 0:42:03 | 0:42:08 | |
I loved the track so much for a long time I thought, | 0:42:08 | 0:42:12 | |
"Just put the tracks out because you can't do any better than this. | 0:42:12 | 0:42:17 | |
"Anything I put on here is just going to make it worse." | 0:42:17 | 0:42:21 | |
So it took a while before I had the courage to write over these tracks. | 0:42:21 | 0:42:27 | |
-# -Shoo-ca do-do-do Shoo-ca de-de-de... -# | 0:42:27 | 0:42:31 | |
Not that I particularly wanted to solo, | 0:42:31 | 0:42:35 | |
but...a lot of voices, a lot of voices, singing instruments | 0:42:35 | 0:42:43 | |
to create a smoother rhythm sound. | 0:42:43 | 0:42:46 | |
Here comes the bass. | 0:42:46 | 0:42:49 | |
-That's the background sample. -# -Mm-mm. -# | 0:42:51 | 0:42:54 | |
Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The bass, I'll solo it... | 0:42:54 | 0:42:59 | |
HE PLAYS BASS SOLO | 0:42:59 | 0:43:02 | |
That bass solo break... | 0:43:08 | 0:43:10 | |
It was my birthday, May 10th. | 0:43:10 | 0:43:14 | |
I said to Paul, "I don't know what you're going to do to this part, but I have an idea. | 0:43:14 | 0:43:21 | |
"I'd like to play something. It's my birthday today. He said, "Wow! OK." | 0:43:21 | 0:43:26 | |
So, um, then, you know, I came up with this bass line... | 0:43:26 | 0:43:32 | |
And then a... | 0:43:40 | 0:43:42 | |
-There's an overdub on the bass. -# -Mwah, mwah. -# | 0:43:51 | 0:43:55 | |
Two basses happening. | 0:43:55 | 0:43:57 | |
-# -Mwah. -# | 0:43:57 | 0:43:59 | |
It sounded conventional, so we took the first bar of the solo... | 0:44:01 | 0:44:07 | |
Spliced it... | 0:44:09 | 0:44:11 | |
Flipped it and made the second half of the solo the backwards tape of the first half of the solo. | 0:44:12 | 0:44:19 | |
Backwards. | 0:44:21 | 0:44:23 | |
OK. | 0:44:26 | 0:44:28 | |
FULL BACKING TRACK | 0:44:28 | 0:44:31 | |
OK. | 0:44:33 | 0:44:34 | |
Here's another backwards... | 0:44:35 | 0:44:38 | |
-# -If you'll be my bodyguard... -# | 0:44:38 | 0:44:41 | |
If you leave whistling a tune, or tapping your foot, that's the single. That's what they listen for. | 0:44:41 | 0:44:48 | |
# Oo-oo-oo-ooh Oo-oo-oo-oo-ooh | 0:44:48 | 0:44:53 | |
-# -I can call you Betty -Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-ooh | 0:44:53 | 0:44:58 | |
You Can Call Me Al had the hook. | 0:45:02 | 0:45:04 | |
-And it had the groove. -# -Dah-da-da dah. -# | 0:45:04 | 0:45:08 | |
What a great hook. That's a great hook. | 0:45:08 | 0:45:12 | |
-# -If you'll be my bodyguard I can be your long-lost pal... -# | 0:45:12 | 0:45:17 | |
They said, "Make a video." | 0:45:17 | 0:45:19 | |
-# -I can call you Betty And, Betty, when you call me You can call me Al... -# | 0:45:19 | 0:45:25 | |
It was bad. It was really bad. | 0:45:25 | 0:45:28 | |
I said, "You can't put this out. This is... You just can't put this out." | 0:45:28 | 0:45:35 | |
Then, Lorne Michaels, the producer of Saturday Night Live, said, "Do one with Chevy. | 0:45:35 | 0:45:42 | |
"Chevy knows the words. Let him sing it." | 0:45:42 | 0:45:45 | |
So we organised it quickly and did that. | 0:45:45 | 0:45:49 | |
-# -A man walks down the street It's a street in a strange world | 0:45:52 | 0:45:55 | |
-# -Maybe it's the Third World Maybe it's his first time around | 0:45:55 | 0:45:59 | |
-# -Doesn't speak the language He holds no currency... -# | 0:45:59 | 0:46:03 | |
Although I do think the Chevy Chase video, | 0:46:03 | 0:46:06 | |
because it was funny and very light, | 0:46:06 | 0:46:10 | |
you tend to think of the song as funny. | 0:46:10 | 0:46:15 | |
It is, but with something much more to say. | 0:46:15 | 0:46:19 | |
So in a certain sense, it undercut the power of what that song meant. | 0:46:19 | 0:46:26 | |
-# -I can call you Betty And, Betty, when you call me You can call me Al. Call me... -# | 0:46:29 | 0:46:37 | |
You Can Call Me Al, I mean, lyrically, if I can remember, | 0:46:37 | 0:46:42 | |
"A man walks down the street." That's a version of "a guy walks into a bar". | 0:46:42 | 0:46:49 | |
"There was a rabbi, a minister and a priest..." | 0:46:49 | 0:46:53 | |
An old set-up - a man walks down the street. | 0:46:53 | 0:46:57 | |
-# -A man walk down the street He says, "Why am I...? -# | 0:46:57 | 0:47:00 | |
"Why am I soft in the middle? The rest of my life is so hard." It's a joke. | 0:47:00 | 0:47:06 | |
-# -..shot at redemption... -# -"Don't want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard." | 0:47:06 | 0:47:13 | |
That was me. I was writing about myself. | 0:47:13 | 0:47:17 | |
I guess I was saying, like any artist, | 0:47:17 | 0:47:21 | |
"I don't want to be an irrelevancy. I hope I'm not irrelevant." | 0:47:21 | 0:47:25 | |
-# -Don't want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard... -# | 0:47:25 | 0:47:30 | |
And from there, it's associative thinking. | 0:47:30 | 0:47:34 | |
"A cartoon in a cartoon graveyard", bone-diggers. | 0:47:34 | 0:47:39 | |
Graveyard - bones. | 0:47:39 | 0:47:41 | |
Bone-diggers. Bone-diggers - dogs. | 0:47:41 | 0:47:44 | |
"Dogs in the moonlight." Moonlight's in a lot of songs. | 0:47:47 | 0:47:51 | |
-# -Don't want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard Bone-digger | 0:47:51 | 0:47:56 | |
-# -Bone-digger Dogs in the moonlight | 0:47:56 | 0:47:59 | |
-# -Far away my well-lit door... -# | 0:47:59 | 0:48:02 | |
It's scary. In my mind, there's a graveyard. I can hear dogs howling at night... | 0:48:02 | 0:48:08 | |
But it's cosy inside with lots of lights. It's not scary here. | 0:48:08 | 0:48:13 | |
"Mr Beerbelly, Beerbelly. Get these mutts away from me. I don't find this stuff amusing any more." | 0:48:13 | 0:48:20 | |
It's like enough of this garbage. I'm afraid. Death is coming. Oh-oh. | 0:48:20 | 0:48:25 | |
Like, OK. | 0:48:25 | 0:48:28 | |
Verse two is a variation on the first. | 0:48:28 | 0:48:30 | |
-# -"Why am I short of attention?" Got a short little span of attention... -# | 0:48:30 | 0:48:36 | |
"The short little span of... short little span of attention." That was, er, that was a penis joke. | 0:48:36 | 0:48:44 | |
"Short little span of attention and, oh, my nights are so long. | 0:48:44 | 0:48:50 | |
"Now where's my wife and family?", | 0:48:50 | 0:48:53 | |
which, at the time, I didn't have. | 0:48:53 | 0:48:56 | |
"Where's my wife and family? What if I die here?" A lot of fears. | 0:48:56 | 0:49:01 | |
"Who will be my role model?" Just fears, a guy's fears. | 0:49:01 | 0:49:05 | |
Now he's piling up these fears. | 0:49:05 | 0:49:08 | |
From my perspective as a songwriter, in a sense I had no sympathy for the guy by the second verse. | 0:49:08 | 0:49:16 | |
He has too many complaints. | 0:49:16 | 0:49:19 | |
And by then, I think I had, "If you'll be my bodyguard, I'll be your long-lost pal." | 0:49:19 | 0:49:27 | |
So if we can make an alliance, maybe I won't be in so much trouble. | 0:49:27 | 0:49:33 | |
I'll look out for you. you look out for me. I'll call you Betty. You call me Al. | 0:49:33 | 0:49:39 | |
We'll make a deal. That'll be our deal against all these modern things that we have to fear. | 0:49:39 | 0:49:47 | |
By the third verse, | 0:49:48 | 0:49:50 | |
it's time to say what this is all about. | 0:49:50 | 0:49:54 | |
"A man walks down a street in a strange world. Maybe it's the Third World." | 0:49:54 | 0:49:59 | |
This is obvious - I'm talking about Africa. | 0:49:59 | 0:50:03 | |
-# -A man walks down the street It's a street in a strange world Maybe it's the Third World... -# | 0:50:03 | 0:50:09 | |
"Maybe it's his first time around. Doesn't speak the language." Me. | 0:50:09 | 0:50:14 | |
"He holds no currency. He's a foreign man. | 0:50:14 | 0:50:18 | |
"Surrounded by the sound." It was an amazing place. | 0:50:18 | 0:50:22 | |
-# -Cattle in the marketplace Scatterlings and orphanages... -# | 0:50:22 | 0:50:27 | |
"Cattle in the marketplace." It's a faraway place. | 0:50:27 | 0:50:31 | |
You can imagine cattle in the streets and the marketplace. | 0:50:31 | 0:50:35 | |
-# -He looks around, around Sees angels in the architecture... -# | 0:50:35 | 0:50:40 | |
"He looks around, sees angels in the architecture." | 0:50:40 | 0:50:44 | |
It has become a spiritual journey now, a spiritual adventure. | 0:50:44 | 0:50:49 | |
That's what that song was about. | 0:50:49 | 0:50:52 | |
And that was a pretty accurate description of my journey. | 0:50:52 | 0:50:56 | |
-# -A man walks down the street It's a street in a strange world | 0:50:58 | 0:51:02 | |
-# -Maybe it's the Third World Maybe it's his first time around | 0:51:02 | 0:51:05 | |
-# -Doesn't speak the language Holds no currency | 0:51:05 | 0:51:09 | |
-# -He is a foreign man He is surrounded by the sound | 0:51:09 | 0:51:13 | |
-# -The sound There's cattle in the marketplace Scatterlings and orphanages | 0:51:13 | 0:51:18 | |
-# -He looks around, around He sees angels in the architecture | 0:51:18 | 0:51:23 | |
-# -They're spinning in infinity He says, "Amen! Hallelujah!" | 0:51:23 | 0:51:27 | |
-# -If you'll be my bodyguard I can be your long-lost pal | 0:51:27 | 0:51:31 | |
-# -I can call you Betty And, Betty, when you call me You can call me Al... -# | 0:51:34 | 0:51:41 | |
The whole process of this writing came from a deep analysis of what was going on in the tracks. | 0:51:41 | 0:51:48 | |
Because the African musicians were playing what they'd normally play | 0:51:51 | 0:51:56 | |
in a way that was different from the way American musicians that I was familiar with would play. | 0:51:56 | 0:52:05 | |
I was coming out of folk-rock. That was pretty symmetrical. | 0:52:07 | 0:52:12 | |
It didn't change from verse to verse. | 0:52:12 | 0:52:15 | |
Their patterns altered in some subtle way and I was either playing in the studio when that happened, | 0:52:15 | 0:52:24 | |
or in the control room, and wasn't aware of what the pattern was at all. | 0:52:24 | 0:52:31 | |
I didn't realise there had been a variation in the pattern, either intentional or unintentional | 0:52:31 | 0:52:38 | |
until many months later when I was writing. | 0:52:38 | 0:52:42 | |
I'd work on songs and say it's good. The first verse is good, the second is not so good, | 0:52:42 | 0:52:49 | |
The third verse, that's good. Things are good, except... | 0:52:49 | 0:52:53 | |
Why doesn't the second verse work? | 0:52:54 | 0:52:57 | |
I mean, OK, now I'm really going to listen to the second verse. | 0:52:57 | 0:53:02 | |
Now... Putting aside my assumption that it's exactly the same and should work, | 0:53:02 | 0:53:09 | |
which I stayed with for a long time. It should work, so that's it. | 0:53:09 | 0:53:14 | |
I'm not going to change because it's supposed to work. | 0:53:14 | 0:53:19 | |
Then I would begin to listen and I'd say, "Sure enough, there's a variation in here. | 0:53:19 | 0:53:26 | |
"There's a variation that I'm not taking into account." | 0:53:26 | 0:53:31 | |
And that degree of listening... | 0:53:34 | 0:53:36 | |
was my education. | 0:53:37 | 0:53:40 | |
That's... That's what I learned. | 0:53:40 | 0:53:43 | |
I learned to listen on a level I had never experienced before. | 0:53:43 | 0:53:47 | |
He pulled it off. He did it. | 0:53:47 | 0:53:50 | |
He slaved over it. He sweated blood over it. | 0:53:50 | 0:53:54 | |
My gums bled over it. | 0:53:54 | 0:53:56 | |
Unbelievable. Just unbelievable. | 0:53:56 | 0:53:59 | |
-# -People say she's crazy She got diamonds on the soles of her shoes | 0:54:03 | 0:54:08 | |
-# -Well, that's one way to lose these walking blues | 0:54:09 | 0:54:13 | |
-# -Diamonds on the soles of her shoes... -# | 0:54:13 | 0:54:16 | |
Diamonds on the soles of her shoes was a phrase I had written down, but hadn't used. | 0:54:16 | 0:54:22 | |
Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes was the last song we recorded. | 0:54:22 | 0:54:26 | |
It was never intended to be on the album. | 0:54:26 | 0:54:29 | |
The album was originally supposed to come out in June 1986 | 0:54:29 | 0:54:33 | |
and we were going to play Saturday Night Live. | 0:54:33 | 0:54:38 | |
Everybody was here, the whole band. We were all going to do the show. | 0:54:40 | 0:54:45 | |
Then Warner Brothers said they'd prefer to release this in the fall. | 0:54:45 | 0:54:50 | |
So Roy and I said, "Why don't we try another song?" | 0:54:50 | 0:54:55 | |
RAY PHIRI: It was more a jam than a song. | 0:54:55 | 0:54:59 | |
Then the following day we were at the Hit Factory. | 0:54:59 | 0:55:03 | |
After two takes, it was in. | 0:55:03 | 0:55:06 | |
Because we were having such fun, we'd developed a working relationship that said something. | 0:55:06 | 0:55:14 | |
You find that even by # Zoh ba-dibbi-dibbi-dibbi do-ba dibbi-duh bib-ba zah ba-dum bo | 0:55:14 | 0:55:20 | |
# Bi-dum boom-boom beh. # It is in reply to... | 0:55:20 | 0:55:24 | |
He answers... | 0:55:28 | 0:55:30 | |
That's how... That's what makes it very exciting. | 0:55:47 | 0:55:51 | |
The singing is very relaxed, too. | 0:55:51 | 0:55:54 | |
It just feels like everybody was very comfortable. | 0:55:54 | 0:55:57 | |
I tried to write a part here in words. | 0:55:57 | 0:56:00 | |
I couldn't think of anything, so we left it as a horn solo. | 0:56:05 | 0:56:10 | |
Not even a horn solo, I probably wrote this part as a background. | 0:56:10 | 0:56:15 | |
-# -Oo-ooh-oo... -# | 0:56:22 | 0:56:24 | |
Nothing here. Just letting it go, I guess. | 0:56:24 | 0:56:27 | |
-# -Oo-ooh-oo... -# | 0:56:27 | 0:56:29 | |
Letting the band play. | 0:56:29 | 0:56:32 | |
-# -She makes the sign of the teaspoon He makes the sign of the wave... -# -'Domesticity.' | 0:56:36 | 0:56:41 | |
-# -The poor boy changes clothes and puts on aftershave... -# | 0:56:41 | 0:56:46 | |
-# -To compensate for his ordinary shoes... -# | 0:56:46 | 0:56:49 | |
I love that. "He compensates for his ordinary shoes." | 0:56:49 | 0:56:53 | |
-# -She said, "Honey, take me dancing" But they... -# | 0:56:53 | 0:56:56 | |
Finishing the record and going to play it back for Warner Brothers, | 0:56:56 | 0:57:01 | |
having them look at each other and wonder what this was all about! | 0:57:01 | 0:57:06 | |
It was a lot of fun. | 0:57:06 | 0:57:09 | |
Then to see the success, man... Woo! | 0:57:09 | 0:57:12 | |
What if it hadn't worked? I've thought that at the first night of an opera. | 0:57:12 | 0:57:18 | |
What if they laugh? What if it doesn't work? | 0:57:18 | 0:57:23 | |
And you've put all this into it. And you have to have that confidence in the work. | 0:57:23 | 0:57:29 | |
Even though, in fact, you don't really know. | 0:57:29 | 0:57:33 | |
I think that was particularly true for Graceland. In retrospect, it was an instant classic. | 0:57:33 | 0:57:39 | |
So what was to worry about? But I don't think Paul knew that. | 0:57:39 | 0:57:44 | |
Graceland was going to college for me. Rhythmically. Everything. | 0:57:44 | 0:57:50 | |
But also just in the sense of... | 0:57:50 | 0:57:54 | |
in a sense of playing the world, a larger world. | 0:57:54 | 0:57:58 | |
-# -Ta na na-na na -Ta na na-na... -# | 0:57:59 | 0:58:03 | |
The ability to interweave the cultures, | 0:58:03 | 0:58:06 | |
to me, it's obvious to interweave them musically. | 0:58:06 | 0:58:11 | |
We're just taking songs and having a musical discussion | 0:58:11 | 0:58:16 | |
across a language barrier without any problems. | 0:58:16 | 0:58:20 | |
And understanding each other. | 0:58:20 | 0:58:23 | |
-# -Ta na na-na na Ta na na-na... -# | 0:58:23 | 0:58:27 | |
And that was, like, Graceland. | 0:58:27 | 0:58:29 | |
That's what that album had - an unusual degree of understanding | 0:58:29 | 0:58:35 | |
amongst people who had just met. | 0:58:35 | 0:58:38 | |
Subtitles by Alison Dilly BBC - 1997 | 0:59:11 | 0:59:15 |