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'Graceland' Has Lost Nothing, Gained A 32 | JUNE.8.2012 | FRIDAY WEEKENDER: STAYING IN LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER | LEXGO.COM MUSIC ALBUM REVIEWS CRITIC’S PICK Neil Young and Crazy Horse Americana Listening to the open- ing of Americana, Neil Young’s brutish electric update of mostly folk keepsakes, is like climb- ing into an automobile that has spent the past few years stashed in a barn. The engine, some- what unwillingly, turns over. Then come groans, sparks and wheezing hesitancy as things click into gear. Finally, once awakened, the jalopy runs in a manner that is ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO as trustworthy as it is gloriously unfashionable. That’s pretty much what happens when Young and South African musicians Joseph Shabalala, left, Miriam Makeba and Ray Phiri shared the stage with Paul Simon his garage band Crazy Horse, which has been on blocks during a two-day concert in Harare, Zimbabwe, in February 1987, Simon’s first public performance in Africa. for close to eight years, get Americana’s album-opening version of Oh, Susannah rolling. Forget the sunny strides and Southern imagery. Here, guitars crank and flop about ‘Graceland’ has lost nothing, gained a lot before coalescing around a rumbling bass line. The title is chanted like a zombie mantra, the fuzzy guitar breaks fade By Randy Lewis Peter Gabriel, David Byrne and in and out like a far-off radio station, and the lyrics’ sugges- Los Angeles Times tion of doomed love takes on an almost Gothic accent. Quincy Jones, among others. Voilà! A folk tune we used to sing in grade school has It might seem that there’d It also incorporates Simon’s become a post-grunge guitar rock anthem. be little left to say about Paul 1986 performance on Saturday The reinvention continues on Clementine, the Western Simon’s watershed 1986 album Night Live, for which he was staple that, in Young’s hands, opens like a war chant Graceland, which was reissued joined by the dazzling Ladysmith before transforming the vision of lost love introduced Tuesday in a deluxe four-disc troupe before any of the songs on Oh Susannah into one of long-dead love. With a 25th-anniversary box set. from the album had been released. melancholy air that recalls I’ve Been Waiting for You, Simon collected Grammy Beyond the film, there’s from Young’s self-titled 1968 debut solo album, this Awards for the title track and the another disc with studio outtakes, Clementine sheds its innocence quickly, reeling from a album as record and song of the including a jaw-dropping early country yarn into a full-blown ghost story (“Now she’s year, it was No. 71 on Rolling As noted in her review for take of Diamonds on the Soles dead. I draw the line”). Stone’s list of the 500 all-time the Los Angeles Times recently, of Her Shoes that is largely just A one-two punch of the murder ballads Tom Dula and greatest albums , and it introduced Simon’s vocal and bassist Baghiti Gallows Pole follow. Then Americana lightens up so one film critic Betsy Sharkey lauded senses that more than just the dark narratives present in millions of listeners to the wonders Berlinger for the riveting portrait Khumalo running gloriously wild these songs, although seldom so vividly, are fueling the of the music of South Africa’s as Simon returned to South Africa and funky over the fretboard of music. Much of the drive comes from Crazy Horse, the Ladysmith Black Mambazo, last year on the 25th anniversary his instrument. The same disc has no-frills trio that has always pushed Young to some of his among its other attributes. of his sessions there. He met with an audio interview with Simon most immediate and arresting work. But the new boxed set does Dali Tambo, one of the founders talking about the making of the Among the diversions: the doo-wop pop of Get a help shed new light on the music of Artists Against Apartheid, who title track that illuminates how Job, hardly what one would call Americana, although and the entire project with the had criticized Simon for flouting this cross-cultural collaboration this version is good, cranky fun; Travel On, which surges various bonus features that now the boycott. Their discussion a gestated. with gospel-esque fervor; and This Land Is Your Land, accompany the original album. quarter-century later isn’t without The fourth disc captures the ( Americana’s only disappointment, as its massive vocal Chief among them is the tension, even though both offer 1987 concert Simon gave in chorus sounds too clean for an album so blissfully grimy. disc containing Joe Berlinger’s unqualified expressions of respect Zimbabwe on his Graceland tour, But by the time Jesus’ Chariot (She’ll Be Comin’ Round fascinating documentary Under for the work of the other. where he was joined by South the Mountain) rolls around, the skies turn stormy again for African Skies, laying out the African pop musicians Miriam an electric arrangement that makes the song seem less like Simon’s take is that art Makeba and Hugh Masekela. a spiritual and more than an apocalyptic omen (“We will controversy of Simon violating transcends politics and that kill the old red rooster when she comes”). the United Nations’ cultural boy- artists should not always be To paraphrase Rod Stewart, Wayfarin’ Stranger is the lone acoustic reflection, but cott of South Africa’s racist apart- subservient to politicians. That every album indeed might tell its tone is no less severe. Again, the ruminations come heid system when he recorded view can sound self-serving, a story, but some stories are from a spirit drifting far from home. But Young’s brittle several tracks in Johannesburg coming from Simon, but he gets dramatically more compelling than and contained version, like all of Americana, isn’t folky with members of Ladysmith Black some heavyweight support in others. The story of Graceland is nostalgia. It is a of blast clear and present urgency. Mambazo and other musicians supplemental interviews from one of the most compelling in all WALTER TUNIS, CONTRIBUTING MUSIC WRITER from the region. Paul McCartney, Harry Belafonte, of pop music. .
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