Paul Simon, Graceland: The African Concert (1987 TV Special) User Reviews

A good live show

[Jeremy_Urquhart · 7/10 · 14 November 2022]

Graceland is a fantastic album. I guess it's frontloaded, given its first eight songs are all great, and then its last three songs aren't bad... but are nevertheless the weakest songs on the album. I was excited to watch this live performance, but wish it had been the whole album played live and in order, with maybe some of the other songs added to the end or the beginning. It might be a weird complaint, but I feel like the flow of it all would've been better that way.

Still, it was a nice (and novel) way to listen to a familiar album, reinterpreted and changed up here and there for the purpose of playing it live. Enjoyed most of the guest musicians, too, and it stands out from many other concert films of its time by taking place in Africa, and occasionally having some interesting cutaways.

Awesome, Spellbinding, Brilliant. Superlatives fail me.

[cckkab · 10/10 · 10 March 2007]

This is the TV version, and there may be more comments or info under one of the DVD versions, e.g. Graceland: The African Concert (1987) (V).

Recorded live in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1987. The tracklist features seventeen songs including 'You Can Call Me Al', 'Graceland', 'Diamonds On The Soles Of My Shoes', 'Hello My Baby', 'Homeless', 'Stimela', 'Gumboots' and 'Whispering Bells'.

Paul Simon is a tremendous artist and mixed with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba the result is tremendous.

T Shirts proclaiming 'Free Nelson Mandela' appear in the audience, and the musicians make several references to the politics of the time. Recall 1987 and the shame of the then government of South Africa. It is filmed in Harare, the capital of neighbouring Harare.At one stage, we see a street poster asking us to support Mugabe, who wit the benefit of hindsight now 20 years later, has unfortunately turned out to be a first class despot, and an incompetent one at that.

The music is first class, the singing tremendous, and the download conveys the atmosphere of the event. If you are a Paul Simon fan this is essential. Also essential is Classic Albums: Paul Simon - Graceland (1997) (V), a documentary on the making of the album, and its suite. Also downloadable.