25 years ago I wrote an article recommending a boycott of Graceland and of anything else Paul Simon-y due to his ignoring the International communities refusal to conduct business with South Africa till the end of Apartheid.
Like the man said, I was so much older than and now, well, Graceland is a definable masterpiece and if Black South African musicians got a career out of it… Later other questions showed up. Los Lobos claimed Paul Simon, invited to the studio to play with him, stole their backing tracks. Simon's reply? "Sue me".
Later still, questions arose to how much Simon actually paid these musicians, bands like Lady Smith Black Manzaboo and people like Hugh Maekele,
25 years later I would bet the rent Los Lobos haven't forgiven Somon but certainly a cornerstone of the Westernization of Global music is worth self-celebrating. Alyson deals with the tour elsewhere, what interests me is how the politics is lost in time. There is no modern comparison to Simon's affront: apartheid existed in South Africa and the only possible response to the minority white rule was to remove the country from civilized society, even if the cost effected Black African musicians. But the flipside was great music and the opening of African music to a Western markets to Ladysmith Black Manzaboo crossing over. Art trumps politics yet still the price feels ways too high/
Today, if Simon hadn't "crossed the picket Line", we would have truly missed out and NOTHING WOULD HAVE BEEN GAINED. It goes to a post I wrote a couple of days ago about how art was more important than politics.
Simon claims he will be answering some of those question in a documentary to be added to the box set. I wonder if he deals with the question of intellectual theft?