Paul Simon - Graceland - Transparent Vinyl

Clear Classics! Experience this excellent-sounding album reissued on transparent vinyl.

Graceland is the seventh solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Paul Simon, released on August 25, 1986. Graceland became Simon's most successful studio album and his highest-charting album in over a decade; it is estimated to have sold up to 16 million copies worldwide. It was lauded by critics, won the 1987 Grammy for Album of the Year, and is frequently cited as one of the best albums of all time.

Released during the tense final years of apartheid, Paul Simon's Graceland introduced the buoyant textures of South African township music to vast international audiences. Simon’s collaborative genius—which calls on Los Lobos, Zydeco legend Good Rockin’ Dopsie, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo—invented a new musical language and earned a 1987 GRAMMY® for Album of the Year. The fractured narratives and emotionally fragile characters are unforgettable—whether it's the divorcé and his kid en route to Graceland, the unattainable girl with diamonds on the soles of her shoes, or the soft-in-the-middle hero of “You Can Call Me Al."

The album features an eclectic mixture of musical styles including pop, a cappella, zydeco, isicathamiya, rock, and mbaqanga. Mbaqanga, or "township jive", originated as the street music of Soweto, South Africa. The album was strongly influenced by the earlier work of South African musicians Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu, and their band Juluka's Zulu-Western pop crossover music. Juluka was South Africa's first integrated pop band. Simon includes thanks to Clegg, Juluka, and Juluka's producer Hilton Rosenthal in the "Special Thanks" citation in Graceland's liner notes. He included American "roots" influences with tracks featuring zydeco musicians such as Rockin' Dopsie and Tex-Mex musicians.

Graceland alternates between playful and more serious songs. Simon thought of it as like a play: "As in a play, the mood should keep changing. A serious song may lead into an abstract song, which may be followed by a humorous song." On many songs, Simon and Halee employ a Synclavier to "enhance" the acoustic instruments, creating an electronic "shadow".

1. The Boy In The Bubble

2. Graceland

3. I Know What I Know

4. Gumboots

5. Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes

6. You Can Call Me Al

7. Under African Skies

8. Homeless

9. Crazy Love, Vol 2

10. That Was Your Mother

11. All Around The World or The Myth Of Fingerprints