I seemed to remember you having dpne a reaction to the MTV video around six months ago (and thought it had been pulled by the Tube) but maybe I mixed it up wit somebody else posting a reaction to it? :) Anyway, this is an amazing song both in the studio and live and Kumalo's rapid, funky basslines are killer stuff. 💗💗
Dude ! How can you not just sit down and listen to the whole album? My wife and kids and I listened it nonstop for a least a year. Easily in my top five of all time!
I did the same thing. I haven't heard this in a while, and I found myself mouthing the words as if I had heard the album yesterday. Yup I'm thinking about how my neighbors got to listen to this album, all the time.
Paul Simon should be declared a national treasure. His lyrics are anthems of the common man, expressing feelings relevant to all ages, using imagery of his surroundings to paint a picture of life. Great song and reaction. Blessings all. Peace.
Watching you react to 'our' music is making me realise that all our 'boomer' music we just took for granted, everyday we had all this wonderful and varied music at our fingertips on tap!! Boy were we so fkucing lucky!!😁😁🇬🇧
The last major crowd in Central Pk was for Simon in 91. The crowd filled the center of the park to enjoy Simon, who received an award from Mayor Dinkins for the work done for the children of NY and his civil rights work. Afterward the park changed its location for concerts to the Summer Stage.
@@futuregenerationz it doesn’t always work out that way but I try my best! I feel like the studio is always better to hear first so you can understand the improvised (or lack thereof) nature of live ones. Thank you for watching !
Yes, groundbreaking album and I love the live DVD taped in Harare (formerly Salisbury, Rhodesia, another white apartheid state up till 1980). The song where Hugh Masekela and the three backing singing/dancing girls belt out "Bring him Back! /I want to see him walking down the streets of Soweto with Winnie Mandela / TOMORROW!!" can bring a big lump to my throat - Nelson Mandela was still in confinement at the time. Or later when Miriam Makeba invites Paul Simon to meet her in a future free South Africa... ♥❤
Yes, this is from a show in South Africa, some time in the mid-90s? There's also the beautiful concert video filmed in Zimbabwe during the original Graceland tour (some of the musicians involved were exiles and could not go back to SA at the time, Masekela for example). Thousands of fans had come over from South Africa to get to see the music played live, the audience is vibrant and mixed, black and white...Paul looking elated and sometimes very moved; he didn't want to see the album in itself as a political record but on stage at that show you can tell he knows he has become part of a wind of change that will grow bigger and more unstoppable.
The video was blocked because of the Graceland video so I might have to check it out more on my own time. But the other video i did from it was great too :)
Oh man, the live performance was excellent. I mean totally awesome. That performance got me up and rocking this morning. I'm thankful for it because I had a lot of things to do, but I'm going to do them with a smile on my face, instead of a scowl. The quality of the visual was superb and Paul looked as good as he ever has and I loved his close ups and I loved it absolutely true. Emotion of happiness that he was spreading to the rest of us.
Great choice Loved the live version especially This brings back fun memories from the college years 87-91 I remember me and my goofy loveable friends would sing "You Can Call Me Al" to any obnoxious fraternity boy 😅
🎼Paul Simon was in Zimbabwe in 1987. There will never be another songwriter like him. He was born a Libra ♎️(the scales of balance) and is a legend in his own time at 83 years old. ☮️💟
I wondered if that was Hugh Masakela playing trumpet. He was from South Africa, but moved to the US to escape apartheid and became a successful instrumental recording artist, back when instrumentals made the pop charts (Grazing In The Grass was his big hit). He played the Monterey Pop Festival with his band, and also sat in with The Byrds on So You Wanna Be A Rock & Roll Star (and also played on the studio version). Trivia: in 1966, Masakela was producing some demos for an expatriate South African singer named Letta Mbulu, and he hired David Crosby and Chris Hillman from The Byrds to play on the demo session. The music was totally out of their comfort zone (African/jazz/pop), but Hillman was so creatively inspired by the session that he went home and wrote his first song: Time Between, a country song completely different musically from what he'd been playing at the session. It was one of four Hillman songs that ended up on The Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday album, and Hillman was so grateful to Masakela for unleashing his creativity that he returned the favour and asked Hugh to play on Rock & Roll Star.
Hugh Masekela on trumpet here was a huge international star. He was regarded as the father of South African jazz. His biggest hit in the USA was an instrumental cover of “Grazing in the Grass.”
According to Paul, the names Al & Betty come from a party he attended at the NY City apartment of a famous conductor/composer. When they arrived, the conductor introduced them to the other guests as Al & Betty, having no clue as to who they were. The thing was they, nor other guests corrected him. He went on to say that it was a running joke for them for years until they split up. The other lyrics were that of a man (Paul) contemplating his life, when he found himself strolling through that town in S Africa.
L33, Graceland is one of the truly great masterworks in rock history. Not a track that’s not superlative. My personal fave is Boy in the Bubble. Check out the whole album, it’s truly epic.
@@L33Reacts l was the first assistant on the project..so we began with very very basic ideas,nothing that could even be described as songs..Paul had returned from Africa with cassettes of sounds,riffs and ideas he had heard there..and that was the start of the album..Over the first few weeks these were developed into the structures that grew into the songs we now know..Eg..Paul would get the band to just play..we were in A1 at Hit Factory..They jammed,riffed and wandered thru lots of ideas..sometimes for 1/2 hr at a time..we recorded it all on 2tr..Paul sat in the control room and took notes..He would then go into the studio and say..ok..lets begin with this riff...then transition into this one..then this break etc etc..and over time,the songs skeleton would appear...l remember the bass break well..The record took months to make..but it went platinum so no one cared..At the same time l was working with Roy on Art Garfunkels Animals Xmas,Co written with the great Jimmy Webb..Paul and Artie were not getting on at the time and each of them would collar me in the lounge to interrogate me about the others project..lt wasn't always fun...ln the 80s and 90s l worked at Electric Lady and Hit Factory studios in NYC and at Criteria studios in Miami..with artists Inc Paul and Artie,Hall n Oates,Springsteen,Huey Lewis,Allman Bros,the Clash,Robert Palmer,Bowie etc..l was very very lucky..love the show..
I saw the live tour with all of the South African singers and musicians in 1987. Still one of the top five concerts I've ever seen. Simon performed his songs but let them have the stage as much as possible. The live video is from the concert in Zimbabwe (I think it is the original lineup) because South Africa was still under apartheid and they refused to perform there.
The whole concert/album was/is a rhythm and percussion explosion. Above all, the singers from the "Ladysmith Black Mambazo" did a very great job in dancing and singing! Best wishes @all from Hamburg / Germany
Paul Simon and David Byrne (Talking Heads) released albums in 1986 and 1988 and were criticized at the time by some for "stealing" African beats, but in truth they gave full credit to the musicians they employed. Simon's "Graceland" and the Talking Heads' "Naked" are both very listenable, funky albums. I have a particular affection for the Talking Heads album, I listened to it constantly when it came out -- on cassette, of course.
That makes me mad honestly because they are highlighting a wonderful culture and employing musicians from the area they are paying homage to… I hate that argument. If they had never done those albums who knows if that would have picked up over here in the states… the world is a better place when we all get along and work together like this video shows
My wife and I went through hell trying to conceive. After 10 years in two world class fertility clinics with no success, we as a couple were drowning and so we quit trying. Sue accepted that it wasn’t going to happen and I accepted that God hated me. One day Sue showed me pictures of a family member with “their” future son. His name was Nicholas. With adoption it doesn’t always work out but I agreed to try which meant Sue did everything and I signed papers. She picked the country, and the agency and I picked the sex. And so it was our turn. We came back from a vacation to an email with a picture of a boy named Francisco. He was a newborn. Sue fell in love immediately. I felt he looked like Charles Bronson in Death Wish and feigned my excitement. I wanted a boy and he was a boy. At least there was that. I still wasn’t sure I could love someone else’s baby. I was forty something going on eleven. I needed to grow up. Fast. Like most things in my life, my initial response is the exact opposite of what is good for me. I’m not easy to know. When this tiny stranger was five months old I got to hold him for the first time. He was soft, heavy and strong. He grabbed me and held on and fell right to sleep. I felt the weight of him pushing against me with each breath. He was sweaty and I was sweaty and he left a giant wet stain on my shoulder. I saw it and thought we melted into one. He saved my life that day. The feeling never left me. I love seeing him coming towards me, I think about him when he’s away at a friend’s house or at school. I miss him even when he’s in the other room. I never realized how instantly he would become my baby. One touch is all it took. So eighteen years ago we took our boy home from Guatemala. He was six months old. He was beautiful. He still teaches me something new every day. He makes me laugh always. He’s sacred to me, my son. I’m the man from the third verse. A man walks down the street It’s a street in a strange world Maybe it’s the third world Maybe it’s his first time around He doesn’t speak the language He holds no currency He is a foreign man He is surrounded by the sound, the sound Cattle in the marketplace Scatterlings and orphanages. He looks around, around He sees angels in the architecture Spinning in infinity He says, “Amen!” and “Hallelujah!” - Paul Simon I like these lyrics only he left out the part about a man adopts Franco...or maybe that's the "Hallelujah" part... Eighteen years ago Sue & I met 5 month old Francisco Jose Smith in a hotel lounge in Guatemala City...it was love at first site and the single greatest day of our lives...so as time flies now we continue to be thankful, to be a family, to rock each others world. Amen! Hallelujah!
Amen and Hallelujah! I saw my 11 month daughter old face to face 28 years ago and brought her home from Romania. We’ve been through so much together and in all this time I’ve never been able to put into words my feelings as eloquently as you have. Thank you so much for your comment! Bless you, your son and your entire family. 🩷
Amen and Hallelujah! I saw my 11 month daughter old face to face 28 years ago and brought her home from Romania. We've been through so much together and in all this time l've never been able to put into words my feelings as eloquently as you have. Thank you so much for your comment! Bless you, your son and your entire family.🩷
My fav from this album is The boy in the bubble. As brazilian, I love The obvious child, that he recorded with a brazilian group of percussionists. But this one is from his next album.
My ultimate favorite is Paul Simon. I've watched many of your reactions and, based on that, I think these are the songs and lyrics you would like from him: Simon & Garfunkel era - Kathy's Song, Sound of Silence, April Come She Will, I Am A Rock, Homeward Bound, Save the Life of My Child, Bookends Theme, America, The Boxer. Solo ear - Duncan, Peace Like a River, Some Folks Lives Roll Easy, American Tune, One Trick Pony (live), How The Heart Approaches What It Yearns, God Bless The Absentee, Think Too Much (b), Train in the Distance, Oh Marion, Hearts and Bones, The Boy in the Bubble, The Obvious Child, The Cool Cool River, She Moves On, Darling Lorraine, So Beautiful So What. Hang in there and let Paul Simon help you along. 👍
'Graceland' was a huge controversy when released. There was a UN boycott of South Africa at the time, against the apartheid white government there and part of the boycott was a rule prohibiting artists from performing there. Simon's argument was that he wasn't performing in South Africa, he was recording with local musicians and showcasing their talent to the world. The critics, unsurprisingly, were critical, but then South African musicians in exile, led by Hugh Masakela and his ex-wife Miriam Makeba, started speaking up in Simon's favor and the Zimbabwe concert was arranged as a consequence. The pictures of thousands of black and white South Africans who crossed the border to come to the concert, dance together and share the audience space was revolutionary and unthinkable at the time. It was a big blow to apartheid. Nelson Mandela was freed from prison three years later and apartheid was as good as broken.
Brother Paul's lyrics also speak to me on a deep level. There are some lines in My Little Town that astound me every time I hear it. Carry on, friend! And thank you for bringing light to an old man's darkness...
Thanks, Lee. I never saw the concert before.They were rocking! I totally agree with you about cultures trying to get along. Unfortunately, what we're seeing today are bad examples. I appreciate your lovely outlook on different cultures.
Great show, '87, Toronto. Great album's worth of material. 😊 I was looking at Hugh Maskela, and thinking...???? It is though. Cool. 😎🎺🎶 Irresistible groove. Treat yourself to the official video, you caught a brief glimpse. 🖖🏼😁❤️🍁❤️✨️🕊
I may be the first in history to notice this.. or not, but they lyrics to this almost read like a Talking Heads song. "A man walks down the street He says, "Why am I short of attention? Got a short little span of attention And, whoa, my nights are so long Where's my wife and family? What if I die here? Who'll be my role model Now that my role model is gone, gone?"
I think the theme of being upstaged and pushed to the side in this song (and the superb video with Chevy Chase) may have been influenced by Paul's experiences, fifteen years earlier, of performing "Bridge Over Troubled Water" with Art Garfunkel. Paul was very proud of his song, he knew it was a major achievement and that Art was giving it his best - but he himself had nothing to do on stage when it was performed (they did it live months before the release of the album), because it's driven by the piano and there's no guitar! So Paul would just step back into the shadows to the side of the stage and watch Art and the band perform this knockout ballad. "The crowd would stomp and cheer at the end, overcome with admiration, and I would watch, thinking: "That's my song, man. I wrote that song. Thank you very much!". I know it's not a pleasant thing to be musing on, but I admit I did think that way. And I was also aware that I wouldn't have felt that way two years earlier" (from an interview with Simon a few years later). The strain within the duo was setting in hard, and it showed during the sessions, but not on the actual music of the album they were recording. After the LP was finished and became a massive hit, he felt relieved, but also knew that it would be near impossible to follow it up with another S&G album.
My bass player hated covering this one. He couldn’t manage it on his Precision and had to use my 66 Fender Jazz to manage it (strings much closer together for a guitar player like me). Superb song, superb album.
Adrian Belew (Buh-Lou) on Guitar Synth. Sang lead on City of Tiny Lights in Zappa's live band (you reacted to it). Also in 1980s KIng Crimson. Played with Bowie & Talking Heads. Several solo albums. He is the twang bar king. :)
When you look at what kind of music that was on the charts back when this album came there was absolutely nothing else out there that sounded like this record at the time. So it could've been a huge flop, but this is Paul Simon we are talking about so it had no choice but to be the huge album it became.
I once saw an interview with Paul Simon where he explains that this song started with a joke about erectile dysfunction. "Why I am soft in the middle now? The rest of my life is so hard". And somehow, starting from there he writes the 3d verse of this song, one of the best lyrics ever. "Spinning in infinity"
Oh ow, I thought that was Hugh Masekela on flugelhorn (?) . I bought my fist Masekela album in 1970. You might want to check him out. Quite a few of his songs addressed the evils of apartheid in South Africa. 'Grazing in the Grass' was his big hit in the U.S. BTW I still have the Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints CDs. Favorites for doing housework or just dancing around the house.
🌸 before I watch the video I will give you an FYI which you may already have known or someone may have already said it... the Betty and the Al that he talks about, I guess the story behind that is that he and his wife at the time were at a party in New York that was being given by a big French composer and he not only introduced Paul and his wife as Betty and Al but he called them that all nite long.....lol Paul said apparently that's what this dude thought their names were 🤣
I don't know if anybody mentioned this already but if you haven't seen the video with Chevy Chase for this song, it is funny. Make a nice pick me up, if needed.
PLEASE🙏 PLEASE🙏 Ndlovu Youth Choir NESSUM DORMA Official video It will blow your mind Sorry at the exchange rate I can’t afford to pay and get ahead in the queue PLEASE 🙏
Such a good song to do in concert. "He saw angels in the architecture"!! What a line! Just a reminder that PRE-OBAMA, the races in America were totaly cool with each other. Just sayin'.
"Angels in the Architecture" is a piece of modern classical music composed by Frank Ticheli. It's also the name of one of my favorite ballet pieces, choreographed by Mark Godden and set to Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring.
@@submandave1125 Yes, Frank Tichell's "Angels in the Architecture" was inspired by and saw its first performance at the Sydney Opera House in July of 2008. Paul Simon write "You Can Call Me Al" which included the phrase "angels in the architecture" 38 years earlier in 1986. So it begs the question: "Did Tichell use Paul Simon's phrase as the title for his composition?"
Your statement about race in America before Obama is completely untrue. Jim Crow laws enforcing segregation were in effect until the 1960s, and even after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, many states were very slow to enact them. Interracial marriage was against the law in quite a few states until Loving v. Virginia in 1967 (those laws were not taken off the books in some states until 2000). Lynchings were common, and not just in the South, until 1968. There were race riots across the US in the 1970s. In states that did not have Jim Crow laws on the books, there was a discriminatory practice known as redlining in effect until 1968. Any kind of internet search will give you more examples if you still don't believe me.
I’m sorry I couldn’t get the studio video through the blocks. The Graceland was blocked too sadly but I got that one up at least 😂
Just as long as you get to see the whole video with Chevy Chase. That’s a hilarious cornerstone of my childhood 😂
I was wondering 😂
But you did at least see the video?
I seemed to remember you having dpne a reaction to the MTV video around six months ago (and thought it had been pulled by the Tube) but maybe I mixed it up wit somebody else posting a reaction to it? :) Anyway, this is an amazing song both in the studio and live and Kumalo's rapid, funky basslines are killer stuff. 💗💗
Dude ! How can you not just sit down and listen to the whole album? My wife and kids and I listened it nonstop for a least a year. Easily in my top five of all time!
It’s hard for certain bands and artists (Paul included) to not go and listen to the whole catalog lol
Great album, in fact I'll listen to it tomorrow in the car. No wife so I can play it LOUD!!😂🇬🇧🇬🇧
@@L33ReactsRhythm of the Saints (the next one) is, for my money, even better. It's aged fantastically well.
I did the same thing. I haven't heard this in a while, and I found myself mouthing the words as if I had heard the album yesterday.
Yup I'm thinking about how my neighbors got to listen to this album, all the time.
Paul Simon should be declared a national treasure. His lyrics are anthems of the common man, expressing feelings relevant to all ages, using imagery of his surroundings to paint a picture of life. Great song and reaction. Blessings all. Peace.
I agree Shirley
Paul Simon was an amazing songwriter, at times poetic
Watching you react to 'our' music is making me realise that all our 'boomer' music we just took for granted, everyday we had all this wonderful and varied music at our fingertips on tap!! Boy were we so fkucing lucky!!😁😁🇬🇧
Yes. For sure. Y’all were so lucky. It’s a damn desert now. Sure you find an oasis here or there but in totality it’s the damn gobi desert
Such a fun song! He went through this total African phase and it was delightful on so many levels. Loved seeing it live, thank you Lee.
The last major crowd in Central Pk was for Simon in 91. The crowd filled the center of the park to enjoy Simon, who received an award from Mayor Dinkins for the work done for the children of NY and his civil rights work. Afterward the park changed its location for concerts to the Summer Stage.
I really appreciate that you hear and familiarize the artistic recording before the live performance.
@@futuregenerationz it doesn’t always work out that way but I try my best! I feel like the studio is always better to hear first so you can understand the improvised (or lack thereof) nature of live ones. Thank you for watching !
❤ love me some Paul Simon... such elegant poetry ❤
This was absolutely huge in the 80s and it sounds fantastic live. Great reaction Lee!
It really does sound great live… a perfect show song. so much energy! Thank you for watching, my friend
Yes, groundbreaking album and I love the live DVD taped in Harare (formerly Salisbury, Rhodesia, another white apartheid state up till 1980). The song where Hugh Masekela and the three backing singing/dancing girls belt out "Bring him Back! /I want to see him walking down the streets of Soweto with Winnie Mandela / TOMORROW!!" can bring a big lump to my throat - Nelson Mandela was still in confinement at the time. Or later when Miriam Makeba invites Paul Simon to meet her in a future free South Africa...
♥❤
I love how Paul Simon is at the big, important concert in South Africa and he’s just his unpretentious self in a T-shirt.
@@WendyDarling1974 so unassuming and unpretentious…. I love him hahaha such a good dude
Yes, this is from a show in South Africa, some time in the mid-90s? There's also the beautiful concert video filmed in Zimbabwe during the original Graceland tour (some of the musicians involved were exiles and could not go back to SA at the time, Masekela for example). Thousands of fans had come over from South Africa to get to see the music played live, the audience is vibrant and mixed, black and white...Paul looking elated and sometimes very moved; he didn't want to see the album in itself as a political record but on stage at that show you can tell he knows he has become part of a wind of change that will grow bigger and more unstoppable.
Joyful & beautiful. Thank you to Paul and that incredible South African band.
It was unlike everything else on the radio when it came out. Still stands out today! Great pick Gail! And thanks L33 for doing what you do! ☮️❤️🎶
Thank you my friend. It means the world to me .
Diamonds on the Soles of His Shoes is a must listen. ❤😊
Drummer reacts to "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" (Live) by Paul Simon
ruclips.net/video/Cf1f6K8tCgk/видео.html
I did it a few months ago! Amazing video :)
@@L33Reacts oops, my bad. 🤪
You can't go wrong with anything you choose from Graceland, imo 👍😃💜
The video was blocked because of the Graceland video so I might have to check it out more on my own time. But the other video i did from it was great too :)
That fretless bass adds so much character to the album. All the percussion does to be fair.
Oh man, the live performance was excellent. I mean totally awesome. That performance got me up and rocking this morning. I'm thankful for it because I had a lot of things to do, but I'm going to do them with a smile on my face, instead of a scowl. The quality of the visual was superb and Paul looked as good as he ever has and I loved his close ups and I loved it absolutely true. Emotion of happiness that he was spreading to the rest of us.
The video for this is great
It's a classic
Paul uses every instrument known to man. ❤😂
Loved this live performance. What a talent Paul Simon is. Loved your commentary too! Thanks.
haha the music video for this song is pretty wild.
I watched it like 20 minutes ago 😂😂😂they had too much fun with the videos back then I love it
'Spinning in infinity'💫
One of his best.
I agree. That was amazing 🤩
Great choice Loved the live version especially
This brings back fun memories from the college years 87-91
I remember me and my goofy loveable friends would sing
"You Can Call Me Al" to any obnoxious fraternity boy 😅
🎼Paul Simon was in Zimbabwe in 1987. There will never be another songwriter like him. He was born a Libra ♎️(the scales of balance) and is a legend in his own time at 83 years old. ☮️💟
Great song, great review ❤
@@loisrogers9042 thank you Lois 🙏🙏 I appreciate you watching !
I wondered if that was Hugh Masakela playing trumpet. He was from South Africa, but moved to the US to escape apartheid and became a successful instrumental recording artist, back when instrumentals made the pop charts (Grazing In The Grass was his big hit). He played the Monterey Pop Festival with his band, and also sat in with The Byrds on So You Wanna Be A Rock & Roll Star (and also played on the studio version).
Trivia: in 1966, Masakela was producing some demos for an expatriate South African singer named Letta Mbulu, and he hired David Crosby and Chris Hillman from The Byrds to play on the demo session. The music was totally out of their comfort zone (African/jazz/pop), but Hillman was so creatively inspired by the session that he went home and wrote his first song: Time Between, a country song completely different musically from what he'd been playing at the session. It was one of four Hillman songs that ended up on The Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday album, and Hillman was so grateful to Masakela for unleashing his creativity that he returned the favour and asked Hugh to play on Rock & Roll Star.
Yes it was. Also Miriam Makes i think in the the same concert.
This was what we used to call cultural appreciation
Hugh Masekela on trumpet here was a huge international star. He was regarded as the father of South African jazz. His biggest hit in the USA was an instrumental cover of “Grazing in the Grass.”
Such a celebration! Thank you L33
Thank you for watching 🙏🙏 you rock!
The entire "Graceland" album is genius, not a bad song on it. Decades later, it is stil in regular rotation on my playlist.
Check out the official video
It’s great
I will! I tried to get it past the blocks but it wouldn’t work :(
According to Paul, the names Al & Betty come from a party he attended at the NY City apartment of a famous conductor/composer. When they arrived, the conductor introduced them to the other guests as Al & Betty, having no clue as to who they were. The thing was they, nor other guests corrected him. He went on to say that it was a running joke for them for years until they split up. The other lyrics were that of a man (Paul) contemplating his life, when he found himself strolling through that town in S Africa.
L33, Graceland is one of the truly great masterworks in rock history. Not a track that’s not superlative. My personal fave is Boy in the Bubble. Check out the whole album, it’s truly epic.
I plan on it, my friend. Both songs I’ve heard from it have been excellent
l was the assistant engineer on this record at Hit Factory..Roy Hallee was the engineer..
@@michaelabbott9080 no shit really!? How were the sessions? It sounds great! Very deep sound to the whole rhythmic structure of it. Great work.
@@L33Reacts l was the first assistant on the project..so we began with very very basic ideas,nothing that could even be described as songs..Paul had returned from Africa with cassettes of sounds,riffs and ideas he had heard there..and that was the start of the album..Over the first few weeks these were developed into the structures that grew into the songs we now know..Eg..Paul would get the band to just play..we were in A1 at Hit Factory..They jammed,riffed and wandered thru lots of ideas..sometimes for 1/2 hr at a time..we recorded it all on 2tr..Paul sat in the control room and took notes..He would then go into the studio and say..ok..lets begin with this riff...then transition into this one..then this break etc etc..and over time,the songs skeleton would appear...l remember the bass break well..The record took months to make..but it went platinum so no one cared..At the same time l was working with Roy on Art Garfunkels Animals Xmas,Co written with the great Jimmy Webb..Paul and Artie were not getting on at the time and each of them would collar me in the lounge to interrogate me about the others project..lt wasn't always fun...ln the 80s and 90s l worked at Electric Lady and Hit Factory studios in NYC and at Criteria studios in Miami..with artists Inc Paul and Artie,Hall n Oates,Springsteen,Huey Lewis,Allman Bros,the Clash,Robert Palmer,Bowie etc..l was very very lucky..love the show..
I saw the live tour with all of the South African singers and musicians in 1987. Still one of the top five concerts I've ever seen. Simon performed his songs but let them have the stage as much as possible. The live video is from the concert in Zimbabwe (I think it is the original lineup) because South Africa was still under apartheid and they refused to perform there.
The whole concert/album was/is a rhythm and percussion explosion. Above all, the singers from the "Ladysmith Black Mambazo" did a very great job in dancing and singing! Best wishes @all from Hamburg / Germany
First time I've seen that concert. Absolutely, terrific.
Paul Simon and David Byrne (Talking Heads) released albums in 1986 and 1988 and were criticized at the time by some for "stealing" African beats, but in truth they gave full credit to the musicians they employed. Simon's "Graceland" and the Talking Heads' "Naked" are both very listenable, funky albums. I have a particular affection for the Talking Heads album, I listened to it constantly when it came out -- on cassette, of course.
That makes me mad honestly because they are highlighting a wonderful culture and employing musicians from the area they are paying homage to… I hate that argument. If they had never done those albums who knows if that would have picked up over here in the states… the world is a better place when we all get along and work together like this video shows
Graceland is Paul's best solo album, IMO.
Hearts and Bones is his best album IMO.
My wife and I went through hell trying to conceive. After 10 years in two world class fertility clinics with no success, we as a couple were drowning and so we quit trying. Sue accepted that it wasn’t going to happen and I accepted that God hated me. One day Sue showed me pictures of a family member with “their” future son. His name was Nicholas. With adoption it doesn’t always work out but I agreed to try which meant Sue did everything and I signed papers. She picked the country, and the agency and I picked the sex. And so it was our turn. We came back from a vacation to an email with a picture of a boy named Francisco. He was a newborn. Sue fell in love immediately. I felt he looked like Charles Bronson in Death Wish and feigned my excitement. I wanted a boy and he was a boy. At least there was that. I still wasn’t sure I could love someone else’s baby. I was forty something going on eleven. I needed to grow up. Fast.
Like most things in my life, my initial response is the exact opposite of what is good for me. I’m not easy to know. When this tiny stranger was five months old I got to hold him for the first time. He was soft, heavy and strong. He grabbed me and held on and fell right to sleep. I felt the weight of him pushing against me with each breath. He was sweaty and I was sweaty and he left a giant wet stain on my shoulder. I saw it and thought we melted into one. He saved my life that day. The feeling never left me. I love seeing him coming towards me, I think about him when he’s away at a friend’s house or at school. I miss him even when he’s in the other room. I never realized how instantly he would become my baby. One touch is all it took.
So eighteen years ago we took our boy home from Guatemala. He was six months old. He was beautiful. He still teaches me something new every day. He makes me laugh always. He’s sacred to me, my son.
I’m the man from the third verse.
A man walks down the street
It’s a street in a strange world
Maybe it’s the third world
Maybe it’s his first time around
He doesn’t speak the language
He holds no currency
He is a foreign man
He is surrounded by the sound, the sound
Cattle in the marketplace
Scatterlings and orphanages.
He looks around, around
He sees angels in the architecture
Spinning in infinity
He says, “Amen!” and “Hallelujah!”
- Paul Simon
I like these lyrics only he left out the part about a man adopts Franco...or maybe that's the "Hallelujah" part...
Eighteen years ago Sue & I met 5 month old Francisco Jose Smith in a hotel lounge in Guatemala City...it was love at first site and the single greatest day of our lives...so as time flies now we continue to be thankful, to be a family, to rock each others world.
Amen! Hallelujah!
Amen and Hallelujah! I saw my 11 month daughter old face to face 28 years ago and brought her home from Romania. We’ve been through so much together and in all this time I’ve never been able to put into words my feelings as eloquently as you have. Thank you so much for your comment! Bless you, your son and your entire family. 🩷
Amen and Hallelujah! I saw my 11 month daughter old face to face 28 years ago and brought her home from Romania. We've been through so much together and in all this time l've never been able to put into words my feelings as eloquently as you have. Thank you so much for your comment! Bless you, your son and your entire family.🩷
My fav from this album is The boy in the bubble. As brazilian, I love The obvious child, that he recorded with a brazilian group of percussionists. But this one is from his next album.
Fantastic Song and album!❤❤❤
My ultimate favorite is Paul Simon. I've watched many of your reactions and, based on that, I think these are the songs and lyrics you would like from him:
Simon & Garfunkel era - Kathy's Song, Sound of Silence, April Come She Will, I Am A Rock, Homeward Bound, Save the Life of My Child, Bookends Theme, America, The Boxer.
Solo ear - Duncan, Peace Like a River, Some Folks Lives Roll Easy, American Tune, One Trick Pony (live), How The Heart Approaches What It Yearns, God Bless The Absentee, Think Too Much (b), Train in the Distance, Oh Marion, Hearts and Bones, The Boy in the Bubble, The Obvious Child, The Cool Cool River, She Moves On, Darling Lorraine, So Beautiful So What. Hang in there and let Paul Simon help you along. 👍
Rhymin'Simon. Great reaction.
'Graceland' was a huge controversy when released. There was a UN boycott of South Africa at the time, against the apartheid white government there and part of the boycott was a rule prohibiting artists from performing there. Simon's argument was that he wasn't performing in South Africa, he was recording with local musicians and showcasing their talent to the world. The critics, unsurprisingly, were critical, but then South African musicians in exile, led by Hugh Masakela and his ex-wife Miriam Makeba, started speaking up in Simon's favor and the Zimbabwe concert was arranged as a consequence. The pictures of thousands of black and white South Africans who crossed the border to come to the concert, dance together and share the audience space was revolutionary and unthinkable at the time. It was a big blow to apartheid. Nelson Mandela was freed from prison three years later and apartheid was as good as broken.
Brother Paul's lyrics also speak to me on a deep level. There are some lines in My Little Town that astound me every time I hear it.
Carry on, friend! And thank you for bringing light to an old man's darkness...
Another Paul who is so great! The Zimbabwe crowd❤️
Lots to love about this track, but for me it’s the fretless base that’s so unique and pairs so well with the penny whistle
That whole album is great.
"Who writes like that?"
Well, Paul Simon did, obviously!
😂😂😂 he’s insanely gifted with his words
@@L33Reacts Another whose words are amazing and unexpected is Elvis Costello. Just for fun, I'd suggest 'The World and His Wife'.
Thanks, Lee. I never saw the concert before.They were rocking! I totally agree with you about cultures trying to get along. Unfortunately, what we're seeing today are bad examples. I appreciate your lovely outlook on different cultures.
Thanks y'all!
Great show, '87, Toronto. Great album's worth of material. 😊
I was looking at Hugh Maskela, and thinking...???? It is though. Cool.
😎🎺🎶
Irresistible groove. Treat yourself to the official video, you caught a brief glimpse.
🖖🏼😁❤️🍁❤️✨️🕊
I may be the first in history to notice this.. or not, but they lyrics to this almost read like a Talking Heads song.
"A man walks down the street
He says, "Why am I short of attention?
Got a short little span of attention
And, whoa, my nights are so long
Where's my wife and family?
What if I die here?
Who'll be my role model
Now that my role model is gone, gone?"
Great recording and 🎶!
Genius
Song is catchier than it aught'a be...
🎶🎶🎵🎶🔥💃✌️🇺🇸☮️🕊️
I think the theme of being upstaged and pushed to the side in this song (and the superb video with Chevy Chase) may have been influenced by Paul's experiences, fifteen years earlier, of performing "Bridge Over Troubled Water" with Art Garfunkel. Paul was very proud of his song, he knew it was a major achievement and that Art was giving it his best - but he himself had nothing to do on stage when it was performed (they did it live months before the release of the album), because it's driven by the piano and there's no guitar! So Paul would just step back into the shadows to the side of the stage and watch Art and the band perform this knockout ballad. "The crowd would stomp and cheer at the end, overcome with admiration, and I would watch, thinking: "That's my song, man. I wrote that song. Thank you very much!". I know it's not a pleasant thing to be musing on, but I admit I did think that way. And I was also aware that I wouldn't have felt that way two years earlier" (from an interview with Simon a few years later).
The strain within the duo was setting in hard, and it showed during the sessions, but not on the actual music of the album they were recording. After the LP was finished and became a massive hit, he felt relieved, but also knew that it would be near impossible to follow it up with another S&G album.
My bass player hated covering this one. He couldn’t manage it on his Precision and had to use my 66 Fender Jazz to manage it (strings much closer together for a guitar player like me). Superb song, superb album.
I could have sworn this was featured in a movie soundtrack, but I can't find it.
Adrian Belew (Buh-Lou) on Guitar Synth. Sang lead on City of Tiny Lights in Zappa's live band (you reacted to it). Also in 1980s KIng Crimson. Played with Bowie & Talking Heads. Several solo albums. He is the twang bar king. :)
I'm more into the studio version, maybe for the bass alone.
Bass playing is insane over there
When you look at what kind of music that was on the charts back when this album came there was absolutely nothing else out there that sounded like this record at the time. So it could've been a huge flop, but this is Paul Simon we are talking about so it had no choice but to be the huge album it became.
I once saw an interview with Paul Simon where he explains that this song started with a joke about erectile dysfunction. "Why I am soft in the middle now? The rest of my life is so hard". And somehow, starting from there he writes the 3d verse of this song, one of the best lyrics ever. "Spinning in infinity"
It’s absolutely insane the amount of talent that one man has. And that one man is Paul Simon lol
Oh ow, I thought that was Hugh Masekela on flugelhorn (?) . I bought my fist Masekela album in 1970. You might want to check him out. Quite a few of his songs addressed the evils of apartheid in South Africa. 'Grazing in the Grass' was his big hit in the U.S. BTW I still have the Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints CDs. Favorites for doing housework or just dancing around the house.
Graceland would be on my deserted island albums list.
🌸 you've got to watch the official video that it flipped on the screen for a second Chevy Chase is in it with him and it's so hilarious
I watched it earlier! Absolutely a riot haha
Any song from the album Hearts and Bones by Paul
I’ll keep that one in mind! Thank you Mark!
@@L33Reacts You really should Lee. Actually, it's his best album. You heard it here first!
@markvamos You are a man of supremely good taste. Hearts and Bones is Paul Simon's best album as far as I'm concerned.
🌸 before I watch the video I will give you an FYI which you may already have known or someone may have already said it... the Betty and the Al that he talks about,
I guess the story behind that is that he and his wife at the time were at a party in New York that was being given by a big French composer
and he not only introduced Paul and his wife as Betty and Al but he called them that all nite long.....lol
Paul said apparently that's what this dude thought their names were 🤣
Paul Simon did for African music what the English wave in the 60s did for American blues musicians....
You should check out the video version with Paul and Chevy Chase sometime. It's cute.
I think he's already seen it and posted a reaction vid, but it got taken down (for copyright reasons?)
I don't know if anybody mentioned this already but if you haven't seen the video with Chevy Chase for this song, it is funny. Make a nice pick me up, if needed.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Is that Horns or Adrian Belew on guitar ?
Us boomers got to listen to a good tune or two, didn't we?
Dude, it’s African rhyme a different dance move required 😁
Paul was groovin! lol
PLEASE🙏 PLEASE🙏
Ndlovu Youth Choir
NESSUM DORMA
Official video
It will blow your mind
Sorry at the exchange rate I can’t afford to pay and get ahead in the queue PLEASE 🙏
Catchy song but I never liked it. My least favorite of anything that Paul Simon has written.
Such a good song to do in concert. "He saw angels in the architecture"!! What a line!
Just a reminder that PRE-OBAMA, the races in America were totaly cool with each other. Just sayin'.
"Angels in the Architecture" is a piece of modern classical music composed by Frank Ticheli. It's also the name of one of my favorite ballet pieces, choreographed by Mark Godden and set to Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring.
?!?
?!?
@@submandave1125 Yes, Frank Tichell's "Angels in the Architecture" was inspired by and saw its first performance at the Sydney Opera House in July of 2008.
Paul Simon write "You Can Call Me Al" which included the phrase "angels in the architecture" 38 years earlier in 1986.
So it begs the question: "Did Tichell use Paul Simon's phrase as the title for his composition?"
Your statement about race in America before Obama is completely untrue. Jim Crow laws enforcing segregation were in effect until the 1960s, and even after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, many states were very slow to enact them. Interracial marriage was against the law in quite a few states until Loving v. Virginia in 1967 (those laws were not taken off the books in some states until 2000). Lynchings were common, and not just in the South, until 1968. There were race riots across the US in the 1970s. In states that did not have Jim Crow laws on the books, there was a discriminatory practice known as redlining in effect until 1968. Any kind of internet search will give you more examples if you still don't believe me.