#81 Graceland - Paul Simon

Regardless of how great this album is, for it's cajan undertones and African influences and whatnot, I really couldn't get over the song, "I know what I know" because here you have this beautiful singer with such a melodious voice juxtaposed with a loquacious cacophony of rapping chipmunks.  What the F*ck is going on in the background of this song?  I looked all over youtube to find an original recording of the song so you could HEAR what I'm talking about for those of you who have not heard this album.  When it's done live, it's not so bad although the lyrics of the song are still pathetic.  (wow, he can rhyme money with funny!) But the original recording.  God Bless.  He must have been sleeping with the chipmunk or something to have approved this.  Anyway, this is the only recording I could find, and someone decided to draw some crap to entertain you, but whatever, just listen to the song.  If you want to fast forward to what I'm talking about you'll need to move the cursor to the time ".50" so 50 seconds into this crap:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogkSc32zaOo

That's about all I have to say about this album.  Not really worth your time, I don't know why people go crazy over it.  It would have been pretty good, but I seriously could not get over Paul Simon and the rapping chipmunks.

I did like: "Graceland" "You can Call me Al" and "The Boy in the Bubble" (sort of)

Rolling Stone's Mag and website schpeal:

Frustrated by the experience of writing good songs that didn't come to life in the studio, Simon set out "to make really good tracks," as he later put it. "I thought, 'I have enough songwriting technique that I can reverse this process and write this song after the tracks are made.' " Simon risked severe criticism by going to South Africa (then under apartheid) and working with the best musicians from the black townships. With the fluid energy and expertise of guitarist Ray Phiri and the vocal troupe Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Simon created an album about isolation and redemption that transcended "world music" to become the whole world's soundtrack.