Remember that African-sounding Paul Simon album that everybody got excited about? You know, the one with “You Can Call Me Al” and “Gumboots” on it? That was Graceland, and it came out 25 years ago.
To commemorate the album’s quarter-century of residence in America’s musical memory, the indefatigable Simon has announced a 2012 tour featuring Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the group that sang on the original Grammy-winning album. His tour is expected to coincide with the release of a documentary and a box set of the original Graceland.
The original album introduced Ladysmith and other African artists to the world stage, marking a watershed moment in cross-cultural musical collaboration. But Simon was criticized for breaking what was then a global cultural boycott of South Africa’s apartheid regime, and for what some saw as exploitation of the African musicians.
Nevertheless, the album caught on, topping the UK charts for six weeks and peaking at number 3 on the Billboard 200.
Simon returned to South Africa in July to perform with the group and with trumpeter Hugh Masekela; that performance will be included in the upcoming documentary.
He told Billboard, “the documentary took me back to the artistic aspects and the political aspects of making Graceland and the controversy that surrounded it and how it was resolved, plus what remains of it and what we learn from it.”