Post by the Scribe on Apr 5, 2020 11:24:16 GMT
FLASHBACK: LINDA RONSTADT GUESTS ON PAUL SIMON'S "GRACELAND" 1986
ultimateclassicrock.com/linda-ronstadt-collaborations/
streamable.com/3r796v
companion threads:
conservatism.freeforums.net/thread/5648/african-skies?page=1&scrollTo=11459
conservatism.freeforums.net/thread/7828/snl-saturday-night-live
Paul Simon's joyous, vibrant Graceland, released 30 years ago today, remains one of the most beloved albums in pop history. And also one the most controversial. Simon had ventured to South Africa to record the album with local musicians, ignoring an international boycott set in place by the United Nations Anti-Apartheid Committee. "What gives [governments] the right to wear the cloak of morality?" he railed at the time. "Their morality comes out of the barrel of a gun."
Though striving to make art that transcended politics, Simon quickly found himself at the center of a dire human-rights crisis. To some he represented a rebellious hero taking a stand against bureaucracy and totalitarian regimes; to others he was a naïve fool who undermined the anti-apartheid cause. Still more felt he was a little more than a common thief. "The intensity of the criticism really did surprise me," he reflected years later. "Part of the criticism was 'Here's this white guy from New York, and he ripped off these poor innocent guys.'"
The fundamental debate hinges on a double-pronged query: Was Simon right in breaking the boycott, and did he have the right to make the album at all?
The latter question is made more complicated by the passage of time. Terms like "cultural appropriation" barely existed when Graceland was recorded. Whether you call it "borrowing," "paying homage to," "riffing on" or "stealing," white artists had been incorporating traditionally black music into their work for most of the 20th century. But Graceland was groundbreaking for wearing its influence for all to see. South African musicians and singers were invited to share the spotlight with Simon, giving many of them mainstream international exposure for the first time. Still, some elements of the project remain problematic. Famed South African trombonist and anti-apartheid activist Jonas Gwangwa summed up the thoughts of countless black artists when confronted with Graceland's success: "So, it has taken another white man to discover my people?" Simon's insistence that the album was a true collaboration is arguable, but at the very least Graceland provided a platform to a group who were legally prohibited from participating on an international stage.
There are many who would argue that the South Africa cultural boycott was a deeply flawed strategy that did more harm than good for the black population it was put in place to support. This view was shared by practically all of the musicians who played with Simon on Graceland. "In South Africa, we had no opportunity," recalled saxophonist Barney Rachabane in 2012, "You could have dreams, but they never come true. It really destroys you. But Graceland opened my eyes and set a tone of hope in my life."
Yet this uplifting revelation is countered by Dali Tambo, founder of Artists Against Apartheid, who felt that Simon put the showbiz ambitions of a handful of local musicians above the struggles of a nation. "We were fighting for our land, for our identity," he told The New York Times. "We had a job to do, and it was a serious job. And we saw Paul Simon coming as a threat because it was not sanctioned ... by the liberation movement."
The Graceland saga is a tale of black, white and a sprawling gray area. As the album turns 30, here is the story of its creation as told through 10 little-known facts.
Paul Simon - Paul Simon: The Story of Graceland (EPK-Vevo Version)
Linda Ronstadt's appearance on the album also sparked a major controversy.
With her string of soulful hits, Linda Ronstadt hardly seems like a lightning rod for controversy. Yet her vocal cameo on the Graceland track "Under African Skies" caused nearly as much of a firestorm as Simon's decisions to employ South African musicians and record in Johannesburg.
The trouble stemmed from her six appearances at a South African luxury resort called Sun City in May 1983. She had been approached to appear as a last-minute replacement act for the strange duo of Frank Sinatra and boxer Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini. Bookers apparently told Ronstadt that the venue was located in the semi-independent (and semi-fictitious) territory of Bophuthatswana. Though nominally integrated, this area was effectively the South African equivalent of a North American Indian reservation, where many displaced black individuals were relocated. Either Ronstadt misunderstood the geopolitical complexities of the region, or had fallen victim to a promoter's ruse to lure international superstars to their resort. In any event, she accepted the $500,000 fee.
While conscious of South Africa's abysmal human-rights practices, she claimed that she was unaware of an official boycott until she had already arrived at Sun City. "I had two days to decide [to come]," she told Rolling Stone at the time. "I talked to everyone. I called friends of mine at Motown. Their story was: 'Black artists go, so we can't tell you not to go.'" Even after learning of the cultural ban, the singer remained defiant. "The last place for a boycott is in the arts. I don't like being told I can't go somewhere." Though she repeatedly maintained that her appearances were not an endorsement of the South African government, Ronstadt received worldwide condemnation for the concerts.
Simon himself had turned down prior offers to perform at Sun City. But given Ronstadt's troubled relationship with South Africa, his choice to feature her prominently on Graceland comes with conflicting implications. The lyrics to "Under African Skies" were composed with Ronstadt's direct input, contrasting her youthful memories in the American Southwest with the natural serenity of an African sunset. "He called me up one day and said, 'I'm having a hard time writing. Give me some images from your childhood,'" she later recalled. "I said, 'OK, I grew up in Tucson near the San Javier Mission.' I've loved that place and considered it my spiritual homeland. I told him about the mission, and he included that part in the song."
To Simon, the purpose of the track was to both celebrate music's power to nourish the soul and also illustrate how we are all united under the same sky. But not everyone viewed it with such tenderhearted optimism. Nelson George of Billboard likened the choice of Ronstadt to "using gasoline to put out birthday candles." Legendary rock writer Robert Christgau was another cynic. "Even if the lyric called for total U.S. divestiture, Ronstadt's presence on Graceland would be a slap in the face to the world anti-apartheid movement," he wrote at the time. "A deliberate, considered, headstrong slap in the face."
www.rollingstone.com/music/features/paul-simons-graceland-10-things-you-didnt-know-w435711
SWEET REVENGE
Paul Simon's Graceland: 1987 Album of the Year
Under African Skies
Monday, February 6, 2012
In this short song-- two verses, one chorus-- Simon pays tribute to two remarkable singers.
The first is the man who started, and still leads, the South African chorus Ladysmith Black Mambazo. His name is Joseph Shabalala (accent on the first "la"). The verse, however, reveals precious little. We learn only that he is "black" and "African," and we might infer from the mention of the "moon" and "stars" that he liked to take walks at night.
The second verse seems to refer to Linda Ronstadt, a powerful singer with an enormous range, both vocally and genre-wise. As the song correctly reports, Ronstadt is from "Tucson, Arizona."
"Mission music" would be hymns emanating from the "missions," Catholic missionary churches (including The Alamo, in Texas) that dot the Southwest, which often had bells (the "ringing" in the song). What relationship a young Ronstadt had with such music I cannot find. Perhaps it was sung to her by her parents or grandparents, perhaps she joined a choir, perhaps he simply heard it as she passed by the church doors. In any event, the song suggests it was an influence on her music.
The word "harmony" seems to refer simply to "music." While Ronstadt has had several successful duets, notably with Aaron Neville of The Neville Brothers, the large majority of her work is as a solo vocalist.
Lastly, the idea that Ronstadt would ask no more of God than a beautiful voice and the ability to use it-- "Take this child, Lord... give her the wings to fly through harmony/ And she won’t bother you no more"-- is again a matter of speculation. I cannot speak to her religion, intensity of religious practice, or feelings on religious matters whatsoever, although that information may be available elsewhere. The lyrics suggest, however, that Ronstadt's relationship with religion can at least be described as aloof.
Why is it necessary to discuss where, and from what background, a musician comes? The answer is offered in the chorus: "This is the story of how we begin to remember... These are the roots of rhythm."
The story of the singer, in other words, is the story of the songs. In order to learn about the music he had loved his whole life, Simon had to trace the lineage of the sounds back to their sources... which was the point of the Graceland project altogether.
Simon found, on his journey, Joseph, a man whose lifetime in Africa, and African music, was a treasure-trove for Simon. He also discovered, or perhaps realized, that he had had fellow travelers on this road.
Ronstadt, his contemporary, was one. After a life of singing pop, rock, country, and jazz-- and two years after recording this song with Simon-- she recorded an album whose Spanish title means "Songs from My Father," who was (among other things) of Mexican descent. But she had already explored the rich variety of American song, as Simon had, in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s.
What else do the stories convey? "This is the powerful pulsing of love in the vein." The basic rhythms of all music are traceable to the human heartbeat. But blood is only in the vein because love put it there, and the loves and heartbeats-- the people, soul and body-- who came before... and their stories.
When does one become very aware of one's heartbeat? Upon awakening from a nightmare: "After the dream of falling and calling your name out."
And, in this moment of despair, of fright, what does one's heartbeat do? Calms one down. It reassures the dreamer that he is still alive and safe. Similarly, music can have that reassuring effect on the throes of living itself.
The stories and the heartbeats form and inform the music. These things are ever new, but ever the same. There is both freedom and solidity in that.
"These are the stories of how we begin to remember"-- the stories of the musicians are the stories of the music, and the stories and songs both recall the past. "This is the powerful pulsing of love"-- these rhythms come from those heartbeats.
"These," then, "are the roots of rhythm," Simon concludes, "and the roots of rhythm remain." They were there, waiting for Simon to discover them, decades and oceans away from where he was born.
How wonderful to know that they will always be there, whenever we need to look for them.
NOTE:
Simon performed this song as part of his Graceland concert in Africa. Ronstadt did not join him on stage for this number; instead, Miriam Makeba did. She is known as "Mama Africa" on her home continent, but has an international hit called "Pata Pata" in the 1970s. She lived in exile for decades due to her opposition to South African apartheid. In her honor, Simon wrote new lyrics to the song for her to sing that were about her life instead of Ronstadt's.
IMPACT:
2012 marks the 25th anniversary of the Graceland release. It is being marked by the release of a documentary of the making of the album. The film's title comes from the title of this song: Paul Simon: Under African Skies. There is another documentary about the album, part of the "Classic Albums" series of videos.
paulsimonsongs.blogspot.com/2012/02/under-african-skies.html
Paul Simon Linda Ronstadt Saturday Night Live Promo
SNL Under African Skies performance:
streamable.com/o2bpt
additional notes
Linda and the Trio were nominated for album of the year at the 30th Grammy Awards Ceremony and she won RECORD OF THE YEAR from her duet with James Ingram on Somewhere Out There. Good and busy year for Linda.
ultimateclassicrock.com/linda-ronstadt-collaborations/
streamable.com/3r796v
Paul called me up one day and said, “I’m having a hard time on this work; I’m stuck. Give me an idea, something I can see.” I happened to be in Tucson when he called. “Give me something you saw or thought of when you were growing up.” Immediately, I thought of visiting the San Xavier del Bac Mission, where we used to spend a lot of time. It was built in the 1600s, just south of Tucson, founded by Father Kino. [San Xavier was founded as a Catholic mission by Father Eusebio Kino in 1692.] It’s just meant to be one of the most beautiful missions in North America. Just gorgeous. It was built on a sacred spot, one of the Indians’ sacred mountains. So it feels like a holy spot, regardless of what religion you subscribe to, or even if you’re like me and don’t subscribe to any religion. It feels like a really resident, amazing place. So I told Paul about that, and he put that in there, and then we all sang harmonies all the time when I was a kid growing up. The whole family sang. We all sang in harmony, everybody knew how to sing harmony. So that’s how he wound up with those lyrics.
companion threads:
conservatism.freeforums.net/thread/5648/african-skies?page=1&scrollTo=11459
conservatism.freeforums.net/thread/7828/snl-saturday-night-live
Paul Simon's joyous, vibrant Graceland, released 30 years ago today, remains one of the most beloved albums in pop history. And also one the most controversial. Simon had ventured to South Africa to record the album with local musicians, ignoring an international boycott set in place by the United Nations Anti-Apartheid Committee. "What gives [governments] the right to wear the cloak of morality?" he railed at the time. "Their morality comes out of the barrel of a gun."
Though striving to make art that transcended politics, Simon quickly found himself at the center of a dire human-rights crisis. To some he represented a rebellious hero taking a stand against bureaucracy and totalitarian regimes; to others he was a naïve fool who undermined the anti-apartheid cause. Still more felt he was a little more than a common thief. "The intensity of the criticism really did surprise me," he reflected years later. "Part of the criticism was 'Here's this white guy from New York, and he ripped off these poor innocent guys.'"
The fundamental debate hinges on a double-pronged query: Was Simon right in breaking the boycott, and did he have the right to make the album at all?
The latter question is made more complicated by the passage of time. Terms like "cultural appropriation" barely existed when Graceland was recorded. Whether you call it "borrowing," "paying homage to," "riffing on" or "stealing," white artists had been incorporating traditionally black music into their work for most of the 20th century. But Graceland was groundbreaking for wearing its influence for all to see. South African musicians and singers were invited to share the spotlight with Simon, giving many of them mainstream international exposure for the first time. Still, some elements of the project remain problematic. Famed South African trombonist and anti-apartheid activist Jonas Gwangwa summed up the thoughts of countless black artists when confronted with Graceland's success: "So, it has taken another white man to discover my people?" Simon's insistence that the album was a true collaboration is arguable, but at the very least Graceland provided a platform to a group who were legally prohibited from participating on an international stage.
There are many who would argue that the South Africa cultural boycott was a deeply flawed strategy that did more harm than good for the black population it was put in place to support. This view was shared by practically all of the musicians who played with Simon on Graceland. "In South Africa, we had no opportunity," recalled saxophonist Barney Rachabane in 2012, "You could have dreams, but they never come true. It really destroys you. But Graceland opened my eyes and set a tone of hope in my life."
Yet this uplifting revelation is countered by Dali Tambo, founder of Artists Against Apartheid, who felt that Simon put the showbiz ambitions of a handful of local musicians above the struggles of a nation. "We were fighting for our land, for our identity," he told The New York Times. "We had a job to do, and it was a serious job. And we saw Paul Simon coming as a threat because it was not sanctioned ... by the liberation movement."
The Graceland saga is a tale of black, white and a sprawling gray area. As the album turns 30, here is the story of its creation as told through 10 little-known facts.
Paul Simon - Paul Simon: The Story of Graceland (EPK-Vevo Version)
Linda Ronstadt's appearance on the album also sparked a major controversy.
With her string of soulful hits, Linda Ronstadt hardly seems like a lightning rod for controversy. Yet her vocal cameo on the Graceland track "Under African Skies" caused nearly as much of a firestorm as Simon's decisions to employ South African musicians and record in Johannesburg.
The trouble stemmed from her six appearances at a South African luxury resort called Sun City in May 1983. She had been approached to appear as a last-minute replacement act for the strange duo of Frank Sinatra and boxer Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini. Bookers apparently told Ronstadt that the venue was located in the semi-independent (and semi-fictitious) territory of Bophuthatswana. Though nominally integrated, this area was effectively the South African equivalent of a North American Indian reservation, where many displaced black individuals were relocated. Either Ronstadt misunderstood the geopolitical complexities of the region, or had fallen victim to a promoter's ruse to lure international superstars to their resort. In any event, she accepted the $500,000 fee.
While conscious of South Africa's abysmal human-rights practices, she claimed that she was unaware of an official boycott until she had already arrived at Sun City. "I had two days to decide [to come]," she told Rolling Stone at the time. "I talked to everyone. I called friends of mine at Motown. Their story was: 'Black artists go, so we can't tell you not to go.'" Even after learning of the cultural ban, the singer remained defiant. "The last place for a boycott is in the arts. I don't like being told I can't go somewhere." Though she repeatedly maintained that her appearances were not an endorsement of the South African government, Ronstadt received worldwide condemnation for the concerts.
Simon himself had turned down prior offers to perform at Sun City. But given Ronstadt's troubled relationship with South Africa, his choice to feature her prominently on Graceland comes with conflicting implications. The lyrics to "Under African Skies" were composed with Ronstadt's direct input, contrasting her youthful memories in the American Southwest with the natural serenity of an African sunset. "He called me up one day and said, 'I'm having a hard time writing. Give me some images from your childhood,'" she later recalled. "I said, 'OK, I grew up in Tucson near the San Javier Mission.' I've loved that place and considered it my spiritual homeland. I told him about the mission, and he included that part in the song."
To Simon, the purpose of the track was to both celebrate music's power to nourish the soul and also illustrate how we are all united under the same sky. But not everyone viewed it with such tenderhearted optimism. Nelson George of Billboard likened the choice of Ronstadt to "using gasoline to put out birthday candles." Legendary rock writer Robert Christgau was another cynic. "Even if the lyric called for total U.S. divestiture, Ronstadt's presence on Graceland would be a slap in the face to the world anti-apartheid movement," he wrote at the time. "A deliberate, considered, headstrong slap in the face."
www.rollingstone.com/music/features/paul-simons-graceland-10-things-you-didnt-know-w435711
SWEET REVENGE
Paul Simon's Graceland: 1987 Album of the Year
Under African Skies
Monday, February 6, 2012
In this short song-- two verses, one chorus-- Simon pays tribute to two remarkable singers.
The first is the man who started, and still leads, the South African chorus Ladysmith Black Mambazo. His name is Joseph Shabalala (accent on the first "la"). The verse, however, reveals precious little. We learn only that he is "black" and "African," and we might infer from the mention of the "moon" and "stars" that he liked to take walks at night.
The second verse seems to refer to Linda Ronstadt, a powerful singer with an enormous range, both vocally and genre-wise. As the song correctly reports, Ronstadt is from "Tucson, Arizona."
"Mission music" would be hymns emanating from the "missions," Catholic missionary churches (including The Alamo, in Texas) that dot the Southwest, which often had bells (the "ringing" in the song). What relationship a young Ronstadt had with such music I cannot find. Perhaps it was sung to her by her parents or grandparents, perhaps she joined a choir, perhaps he simply heard it as she passed by the church doors. In any event, the song suggests it was an influence on her music.
The word "harmony" seems to refer simply to "music." While Ronstadt has had several successful duets, notably with Aaron Neville of The Neville Brothers, the large majority of her work is as a solo vocalist.
Lastly, the idea that Ronstadt would ask no more of God than a beautiful voice and the ability to use it-- "Take this child, Lord... give her the wings to fly through harmony/ And she won’t bother you no more"-- is again a matter of speculation. I cannot speak to her religion, intensity of religious practice, or feelings on religious matters whatsoever, although that information may be available elsewhere. The lyrics suggest, however, that Ronstadt's relationship with religion can at least be described as aloof.
Why is it necessary to discuss where, and from what background, a musician comes? The answer is offered in the chorus: "This is the story of how we begin to remember... These are the roots of rhythm."
The story of the singer, in other words, is the story of the songs. In order to learn about the music he had loved his whole life, Simon had to trace the lineage of the sounds back to their sources... which was the point of the Graceland project altogether.
Simon found, on his journey, Joseph, a man whose lifetime in Africa, and African music, was a treasure-trove for Simon. He also discovered, or perhaps realized, that he had had fellow travelers on this road.
Ronstadt, his contemporary, was one. After a life of singing pop, rock, country, and jazz-- and two years after recording this song with Simon-- she recorded an album whose Spanish title means "Songs from My Father," who was (among other things) of Mexican descent. But she had already explored the rich variety of American song, as Simon had, in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s.
What else do the stories convey? "This is the powerful pulsing of love in the vein." The basic rhythms of all music are traceable to the human heartbeat. But blood is only in the vein because love put it there, and the loves and heartbeats-- the people, soul and body-- who came before... and their stories.
When does one become very aware of one's heartbeat? Upon awakening from a nightmare: "After the dream of falling and calling your name out."
And, in this moment of despair, of fright, what does one's heartbeat do? Calms one down. It reassures the dreamer that he is still alive and safe. Similarly, music can have that reassuring effect on the throes of living itself.
The stories and the heartbeats form and inform the music. These things are ever new, but ever the same. There is both freedom and solidity in that.
"These are the stories of how we begin to remember"-- the stories of the musicians are the stories of the music, and the stories and songs both recall the past. "This is the powerful pulsing of love"-- these rhythms come from those heartbeats.
"These," then, "are the roots of rhythm," Simon concludes, "and the roots of rhythm remain." They were there, waiting for Simon to discover them, decades and oceans away from where he was born.
How wonderful to know that they will always be there, whenever we need to look for them.
NOTE:
Simon performed this song as part of his Graceland concert in Africa. Ronstadt did not join him on stage for this number; instead, Miriam Makeba did. She is known as "Mama Africa" on her home continent, but has an international hit called "Pata Pata" in the 1970s. She lived in exile for decades due to her opposition to South African apartheid. In her honor, Simon wrote new lyrics to the song for her to sing that were about her life instead of Ronstadt's.
IMPACT:
2012 marks the 25th anniversary of the Graceland release. It is being marked by the release of a documentary of the making of the album. The film's title comes from the title of this song: Paul Simon: Under African Skies. There is another documentary about the album, part of the "Classic Albums" series of videos.
paulsimonsongs.blogspot.com/2012/02/under-african-skies.html
Paul Simon Linda Ronstadt Saturday Night Live Promo
SNL Under African Skies performance:
streamable.com/o2bpt
additional notes
Linda and the Trio were nominated for album of the year at the 30th Grammy Awards Ceremony and she won RECORD OF THE YEAR from her duet with James Ingram on Somewhere Out There. Good and busy year for Linda.
