It’s hard to believe that Paul Simon released his album “Graceland” over 25 years ago. Crazy, but true… That album has and will always be one of my favorites, just like Paul Simon will always be one of my favorite musicians.
I saw that there was a documentary called ‘Under African Skies” coming out about the making of the album a while back, and have looked for it off and on since. I’ve wanted to buy it on Amazon, iTunes and tried to find it on NetFlix. Not available (Well, I guess Amazon had this on BluRay, but I don’t have a BluRay player. If I can’t stream, I guess I don’t watch). Then this last week I saw it was on Hulu Plus. Well, I’ve never had a Hulu account, but I wanted to see the documentary and signed up.
I enjoyed the documentary and thought I’d post about it here. People who were around when that album came out probably remember the controversy that surrounded it. Back then, South Africa was in Apartheid hell, and there were all sorts of boycotts against that nation. One of those boycotts included Artists Against Apartheid, which strongly discouraged musicians from visiting, recording, or touring with South African musicians. Paul Simon seemed to think that it would be more productive to go to South Africa and record his new album “Graceland” in a South African Studio with South African musicians. Then he went on tour with those musicians in support of that album. I can see both sides of the controversy, Apartheid was an incredibly ugly thing, but I personally am glad Paul Simon chose to do what he thought was right. “Graceland” is a gem! And if you like the album, I’d definitely recommend you watch this documentary too.
