“My musical instincts”: Why Paul Simon didn’t want ‘Graceland’ to be seen as political
When Paul Simon went to South Africa in 1985, he wasn’t chasing a statement. Anyone incorporating world music into their material is almost always immediately viewed in a certain way. Somehow, doing so unintentionally brings in all the weight and nuances of an entire culture while commenting on the political nature of such a convergence and why it exists in the first place. But this wasn’t Graceland.
Everything about this choice could (and was) seen as part of a broader political move. After all, in the 1980s, the boycott of South Africa was something Simon supported, even if he seemed to do so in a sort of unorthodox way. Or what some people viewed as not stringent enough (for instance, his refusal to join names like Bob Dylan on the charity single ‘Sun City’ because “you’ve got to give people a chance to say, ‘I shouldn’t have done that'”).
This is probably also what made his choice to actually travel there look a little like a betrayal, even if his moves up until that point teetered towards a more neutral position. “There were people who said I shouldn’t go,” Simon told The New York Times in 1986, explaining, “South Africa is a supercharged subject surrounded with a tremendous emotional velocity. I knew I would be criticised if I went.”
So why did he? Well, in short: because he wanted to make music. Or, as he put it, “I was following my musical instincts”.
As such, Graceland wasn’t ever intended to be political at all. As much as you might argue the impossibility of such a claim, especially during a time of intense strife, and the implications of shunning that in favour of a nice little trip, Graceland was all about celebrating the sound of South Africa, not so much its politics. That said, you might look at a song like ‘Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes’ and wonder how that could be, when really all it is is a play on expectation (“I mean everybody here would know exactly what I was talking about”).
With Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Simon turned a blind eye to any kind of criticism, stalling his paranoia about what was to come upon his return to instead focus on the unique musical culture of South Africa. As a result, Graceland was always meant to stand alone, confident in its ability to completely detach itself from the rest of the discourse by staying in its own independent lane, no matter how much others argued this would never be the case, all things considered.
And, despite the initial backlash, there’s no denying the fact that Simon succeeded. Not just commercially, but when you look at how much the record has withstood the test of time, almost severing itself entirely from the political climate it emerged from, it’s like Simon knew the importance of his mission enough to risk his entire reputation along the way. It takes a lot of guts to go against the grain in the way that he did, but it certainly had no lingering impact on his legacy or even the lasting popularity of the record.
By going with his gut, Simon ended up shifting the mood a bit, didn’t he? Folk who’d barely glanced at South Africa’s music scene were suddenly paying attention. All this brilliant talent that had been left knocking about in the shadows finally had a bit of light on it. Truth be told, if Simon hadn’t jumped on that plane when he did, who knows how long they’d have been left waiting, arms folded, for anyone to take them seriously.
