The All-TIME 100 Albums: Graceland by Paul Simon

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The All-TIME 100 Albums

38 of 101

By Josh Tyrangiel Published: November 13, 2006

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ALBUM: Graceland

YEAR RELEASED: 1986 LABEL: Warner Brothers ARTIST: Paul Simon

TIME 100 ALBUMS PODCASTS

PODCAST: Welcome to the All-TIME 100 Albums - the musical compilations of the last half-century that need no introduction. That said, listen in below as music critics Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light introduce the list and talk about the top albums of the 1950s and '60s.

PODCAST: We know. Twenty-nine of the 100 greatest albums of all time come in the 1970s, and Pink Floyd isn't there. Play this podcast to learn why we picked the titles we did, and if you have something to say, tell us about it using the talkback link below.

PODCAST: Maybe it's a Sign O' The Times that you're listening to critics' audio recordings about great music, but this podcast about how we chose the best albums of the 1980s really is a Thriller. Give it a listen below.

PODCAST: Here's music even the younger set will know by heart. Listen to selected clips from the 1990s through present day as music critic Josh Tyrangiel discusses his picks.

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The story goes that Simon heard a tape called Gumboots: Accordion Jive Hits, Volume II and immediately hopped a flight to Soweto to learn more about the township jive called mbaqanga. It's not true (it was months before he went to South Africa) but it is the most spontaneous thing the world's most rational songwriter is even rumored to have done, and that sense of liberation and adventure is all over Graceland. In addition to throwing his ears open to a host of new players and singers—Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Boyoyo Boys, Tao Ea Matsekha and, back in the U.S., the Mexican-American group Los Lobos—Graceland was the first album Simon ever made in which the rhythm tracks were recorded first, and the exuberant, propulsive tempos make even his gorgeous lament "Losing love/ Is like a window in your heart/ Everybody sees you're blown apart," seem buoyant. The only thing about Graceland that didn't create joy was the initial response of the United Nations, which blacklisted Simon upon the album's release for violating the cultural boycott of South Africa. Did they think he was jamming with Pik Botha?