Paul Simon’s Graceland and how the masterpiece was made

Paul Simon’s Graceland and how the masterpiece was made

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold June 18, 2026 Duration: 33:18

‘Graceland’ was an almighty gamble for Paul Simon, a costly, high-risk departure from the music he’d been making and a complex international venture. And a game-changing, worldwide triumph. When Ashley Kahn taught a course about it at New York University, Simon turned up to contribute. His book ‘Days Of Miracle And Wonder’ tells the story of what inspired the album, the way it was recorded and the global reaction when it arrived in 1986. We talk to him here about …

 

… the bootleg cassette of township jive that inspired the Graceland project 

 

… fraying relations with Art Garfunkel and Carrie Fisher

 

... his habit of playing unfinished tracks to people – David Byrne, Philip Glass, Neil Diamond – while singing the vocal into their ear

 

… the extraordinary way he apologised for the failure of One Trick Pony

 

… how Bakithi Kumalo’s bass solo on You Can Call Me Al is a palindrome – “first half forwards, second half reversed!”

 

… the advice Quincy Jones gave him about South Africa’s cultural boycott

 

… the key role of Roy Halee, engineer and long-time creative collaborator

 

... the Johannesburg sessions that “started with rhythm and worked backwards”

 

… Kind Of Blue, A Love Supreme, other albums that merit a book to themselves

 

… the details you hear in the tracks’ last seconds

 

… and the Grammy telecast that cemented the album’s US success.

 

Order copies of ‘Days of Miracle And Wonder’ here: https://geni.us/DaysofMiracleandWonder

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear


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There’s a particular kind of conversation about music that happens between friends who’ve spent a lifetime immersed in it-not as distant critics, but as participants in the culture. That’s the atmosphere you’ll find in Word In Your Ear, a podcast from Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, and Alex Gold. With a collective eighty years of writing and broadcasting for titles like Smash Hits and Mojo, and shows from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" to VH-1, they don’t just recount history; they unpack the stories behind it with the ease of a shared laugh. This podcast grew naturally from their work on the late, great magazine The Word, where they began recording over thirteen years ago, building a dedicated following who found something genuinely special in the mix. Each episode weaves together music, commentary, history, and interviews, moving seamlessly from deep-dive analysis of a seminal album to a frank chat with a surprising guest, all delivered with the warmth and wit of a late-night chat. It feels less like a formal show and more like you’ve been invited to pull up a chair in a room where the anecdotes are plentiful and the expertise is worn lightly. The result is a consistently engaging listen that treats music not as a museum piece but as a living, breathing part of our lives.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Word In Your Ear
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