💿 How Good Is It Really 💿 Graceland

Music
1

Unsurprisingly Funeral goes into the top 10:

Leaderboard
Position Album Rating
1 Spirit Of Eden 9.06
2 Homogenic 8.97
3 The Velvet Underground & Nico 8.83
4 Didn’t It Rain 8.80
4 Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven 8.80
6 Hounds Of Love 8.79
7 Illmatic 8.70
8 Funeral 8.66
9 Maxinquaye 8.63
10 Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain 8.59
11 A Love Supreme 8.52
12 It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back 8.51
13 Endtroducing
. 8.51
14 Marquee Moon 8.47
15 3 Feet High And Rising 8.46
16 The Sophtware Slump 8.45
17 Spiderland 8.44
18 Untrue 8.43
19 Kid A 8.41
20 Low 8.36
21 White Pony 8.34
22 Illinois 8.34
23 Loveless 8.24
24 Pet Sounds 8.22
25 Violator 8.22
26 Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space 8.20
27 Rounds 8.05
28 69 Love Songs 7.99
29 Mezzanine 7.98
30 Master Of Puppets 7.98
31 100 Broken Windows 7.97
32 Tago Mago 7.92
33 Turn On The Bright Lights 7.91
34 Ys 7.83
35 The Blue Album 7.71
36 Siamese Dream 7.64
37 The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill 7.54
38 It’s A Shame About Ray 7.52
39 Like A Prayer 7.46
40 Is This It 7.40
41 1989 6.80
42 Achtung Baby 6.73
43 Rio 6.58
44 Definitely Maybe 5.90
45 Hot Fuss 5.56

This week another of my ATD albums: It’s Paul Simon - Graceland. How good is it really?

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0 voters
2

Best track:

  • The Boy In The Bubble
  • Graceland
  • I Know What I Know
  • Gumboots
  • Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes
  • You Can Call Me Al
  • Under African Skies
  • Homeless
  • Crazy Love, Vol. II
  • That Was Your Mother
  • All Around The World Or The Myth Of Fingerprints

0 voters

3

Nest week’s album:

  • Patti Smith - Horses
  • BeyoncĂ© - Lemonade
  • Robyn - Body Talk
  • The Breeders - Last Splash
  • Janet Jackson - Control

0 voters

1 Like
4

Hate the smug afro-beat appropriating prick

9 Likes
5

The first album in the top 10 I genuinely don’t think can make any claim to be there TBH.

Anyway I have given Graceland a 10 and part of that is how ingrained on my past it is.

Recall my dad telling me what a National Guitar was and then realising that was the cover if Brothers in Arms


Recently bought it on clear heavyweight vinyl and it looks great as it spins like an optical illusion.

6

This.

2 Likes
7

Have no opinion on his work, but the Hot Club de Paris cover of ‘You Can Call Me Al’ absolutely slaps.

1 Like
8

My mate jokes about Call Me Al being triggering: 10 years or so back our friends got married and gave 30 min DJ slots to each friend who wanted one.

My mate carefully curated his playlist slaving over it for ages and no one danced but a mate got up next and started his set with Call Me Al and immediately filled the dancefloor.

11 Likes
10

Probably in my top 10 of all time, an album I can always rely upon to put a massive smile on my face. The title track is so wistful and haunting. Probably loads more I could say about it.

3 Likes
11

Listened to it on Sunday - was sick of it as a kid as my mum played it loads. But I really love it now. I love Paul Simon full stop though (although he sounds like a bit of a dick in real life) This lyric in particular kills me every single time (it’s about Carrie Fisher apparently)

She comes back to tell me she’s gone
As if I didn’t know that
As if I didn’t know my own bed
As if I’d never noticed
The way she brushed her hair from her forehead
And she said, “losing love
Is like a window in your heart
Everybody sees you’re blown apart
Everybody sees the wind blow”

18 Likes
12

Yeah, unfortunately he does doesn’t he

I was going to say that the second verse of Graceland (the song) i.e. what you’ve quoted, is one of the greatest achievements in popular music

5 Likes
13

Also the self titled Paul Simon record where he has his hood up on the cover is an 11/10. Incredible record

14

Just after this one

Asking only workman’s wages
I come looking for a job
But I get no offers
Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue
I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome
I took some comfort there

1 Like
15

Ftfy

13 Likes
17

Just want to say that for those that like the album the Graceland episode of Classic Albums is well worth watching if you haven’t seen it. It’s on Prime and you can probably find it on youtube as well

4 Likes
18

I LOVE Simon and Garfunkel but can’t get on with Graceland

19

One summer when I was a student a bunch of went down to Cornwall and I had to ride in the car of someone who was a friend but I didn’t really know very well and it was a bit awkward, and the only tape they had was Graceland, which I didn’t really know anything about. My first instinct was “oh, this is where Vampire Weekend get it from”, but songs like Graceland and Diamonds really stuck with me. Can’t say I love the album particularly but it’s pretty, pretty good.

3 Likes
20

Still never felt the need to listen to any of his other albums.

Only know the few big songs of S&G too.

21

Not sure if it was that but I recall my mind being slightly blown by the bassist explaining somewhere that the solo in Call Me Al is actually half the length, the other half being it run backwards.

1 Like
22

I’ve been listening to Hearts And Bones quite a lot recently. There’s a great song on it called Cars Are Cars, you should give it a listen

4 Likes