Paul Simon Graceland (25th Anniversary Edition)

TAS Super LP List! Special Merit: Informal
Michael Fremer Rated 10 out of 10 for Music, 10 out of 10 for Sound!
Grammy Winning Album! Pressed at RTI!
Collectible Poster & Limited Time MP3 Download of Album + 3 Bonus Songs!
Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time - Rated 46/500!
Album of the Year Grammy Awards 1987
Song of the Year Grammy Awards 1988
14 Million Plus units sold!
25th Anniversary Reissue of Paul Simon's Ground-Breaking Album "Graceland" Which Features the Hit "You Can Call Me Al".
"In many ways, Graceland was the most extraordinary experience in my entire career.... The insight into rhythm was the great gift that I received from making the trip to South Africa, and collaborating with African musicians." - Paul Simon
The story of the making of Graceland and the controversy it created, is told in "Under African Skies," a full-length documentary from two-time Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger. The film debuted at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, kicking off the year-long celebration commemorating the 25th anniversary of Simon's musical and cultural achievement with Graceland.
The universal appeal of the music of Graceland proved more powerful and enduring than the political hotbed attending its creation. In 1986, the album sold 14 million copies worldwide, and received universal praise from critics around the globe.
Paul Simon, a 12-time Grammy Award-winner, and composer of then two Grammy-awarded albums of the year (Bridge Over Troubled Water, Still Crazy After All These Years) traveled to South Africa to record with local artists. Simon and the members of Ladysmith Black Mambazo subsequently performed on TV's Saturday Night Live and appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone.
By January of 1987, "You Can Call Me Al" was everywhere and Graceland won Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards in 1987. Then, in an unprecedented carryover, the album garnered the Grammy for Song of the Year with its title track in 1988. The album generated three hit singles and kept Paul Simon and the Graceland tour on the road for five years.
During his distinguished career Paul Simon has been the recipient of many honors and awards including 12 Grammy Awards, three of which ("Bridge Over Troubled Water", "Still Crazy After All These Years" and "Graceland") were albums of the year. In 2003 he was given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for his work as half of the duo Simon and Garfunkel. He is a member of The Songwriters Hall of Fame, a recipient of their Johnny Mercer Award and is in the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Simon and Garfunkel and as a solo artist. His song "Mrs. Robinson" from the motion picture "The Graduate" was named in the top ten of The American Film Institute's 100 Years 100 Songs.
Graceland not only put South African music on the radar, it forever changed the way we listen to pop and rock music, its influences are still shaping the music made today 25 years after the original release. Audiophile mastering from the Original Analog Master Tapes by Ryan k. Smith at Sterling Sound assisted by original engineer Greg Calbi and pressed on 180 gram HQ vinyl at RTI.
Graceland never sounded better than this, the increased resolution and low frequency control over the original mastering brings new life to this timeless rock/pop and World Music fusion masterpiece. A well deserved celebration and a true Audiophile gift for all music lovers.
"Prior to Graceland, the music of South Africa was largely unknown outside the country, except to a small minority of world music fans ..." - Peter Gabriel
"Graceland continues to provide rewards to its listeners and remains a pivotal listening experience for writers, artists and fans. "Paul Simon's Graceland played a greatly significant role in removing the standoffish dread Western culture harbored toward South Africa during its internal struggle against apartheid, humanizing both a country's soul-searching hunger for liberation and its simultaneous outpouring of cathartic creative expression." - Timothy White, Billboard
"If there's an album easily pointed to as one that not only stood the test of time, but sounds fresher than ever, it would be Graceland. Repeated plays do not diminish the listening pleasure thank to the musical content and Roy Halee’s superb engineering." - Michael Fremer
"This lacquer cut processed and pressed at RTI on 180 gram vinyl sounds dramatically superior to the original in every way. The overall tonal balance is far superior. The low bass is as powerful as on the original but much better controlled. If the opening drum "thwacks" on "Boy In the Bubble", don't sound deep, ultra-tight and tuneful, blame your system, not the record. You are guaranteed to hear heretofore hidden musical details and parts that on the original slipped through the musical cracks." - Michael Fremer, www.analogplanet.com, Music 10/10, Sound 10/10!
"...[Q]uiet-as-a-whisper LP... the tribal rhythms, percolating guitar lines, midrange thump of Baghiti Khumalo's fretless bass, and haunting vocal incantations of Ladysmith Black Mambazo are as fresh today as when first introduced to mainstream audiences." - Greg Cahill, The Absolute Sound, October 2012

Features:

• 25th Anniversary Edition of the Grammy Winning Album!
• 180 Gram Vinyl
• Mastered at Sterling Sound
• Pressed at RTI
• Collectible Poster
• Limited Time MP3 Download of Album + 3 Bonus Songs
• Includes 1986 Liner Notes by Paul Simon

Selections:

Side A
1. The Boy in the Bubble
2. Graceland
3. I Know What I Know
4. Gumboots
5. Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes
Side B
1. You Can Call Me Al
2. Under African Skies
3. Homeless
4. Crazy Love, Vol. II
5. That Was Your Mother
6. All Around The World or The Myth of Fingerprints