The ‘Graceland’ song Paul Simon called “the weakest” despite inspiring the whole thing
What do you do when your band breaks up – and your relationship ends soon after? For Paul Simon, the answer was simple: travel.
Graceland was made amidst a period of emotional strife. He’d just about recovered from the end of Simon and Garfunkel when a potential reunion came together then collapsed, bringing that sadness back up as the two old friends reconvened only to fight some more.
Then, there was the matter of love. Simon and Carrie Fisher’s attachment is one for the ages, despite how messy it was. After meeting in the mid-1970s, the pair then married in 1983. “This is how I love you, baby,” he’d crooned on his last album, Hearts and Bones, but now here he was in 1985, divorced.
How do you navigate that? Well, it’s simple, you throw yourself into a project, and you get far, far away.
For Simon, that faraway place was South Africa, as the artist was given a tape by a friend amidst the pain. It was a tape of South African recordings called Accordion Jive Hits No 2, and something about it sparked Simon up. Especially, one track called ‘Gumboota’. Simon loved it so much that during the saddest period, it moved him to go seek those sounds out.
He wanted to record that material and, specifically, he decided he wanted to record it with those musicians. Suddenly, ‘Gumboota’ gave him a mission and a purpose as he went to find the band, The Boyoyo Boys.
However, it was a controversial one. At the time, there was a boycott against South Africa due to apartheid. Musicians and artists, as they always are, were at the forefront of this, and during his personal mission, Simon crossed the picket line to the outrage of many peers.
But there was no stopping him, and at least Simon did fully embed himself in the country’s culture as he began working with local artists and producers, getting so inspired that he decided to stay longer and make a whole album: Graceland.
His version of that initial sparking track was the beginning of it all, and he called his take simply ‘Gumboots’. However, by the end, it was the song he liked the least.
Part of that is probably proximity bias. Everyone generally likes their newest work more, and so the first track soured quicker. But also, part of it came down the the chaos of its recording as Simon found himself let down. Despite being the inspiration, he found The Boyoyo Boys quite disappointing before finding other local musicians he liked better. That tainted the track as he said, “If it wasn’t that ‘Gumboots’ led me into the whole project, I would have dropped ‘Gumboots’ from the album. Because I think it’s the weakest of the South African cuts.”
But, in honour of the record’s initial inspiration, he kept it there to acknowledge the journey.
