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1 Graceland Revisited Author(s): Charles Hamm Source: Popular Music, Vol. 8, No. 3, African Music (Oct., 1989), pp Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: Accessed: 07/03/ :39 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Popular Music.

2 Graceland revisited Middle Eight Charles Hamm Does more need to be said about Paul Simon's Graceland? Yes, in my opinion, for two reasons: discourse to date has focused on the reception of the album in America and Western Europe; and this discourse has been largely innocent of historical perspective. To deflect criticism of his apparent defiance of UNESCO's cultural boycott, and the absence of political content in the Graceland songs, Simon and his apologists have repeatedly insisted that: -Graceland has focused attention on South Africa, and South African music. -South African musicians have benefitted from the enterprise. Simon allegedly paid triple union wages to his backing musicians, and many of them, particularly Ladysmith Black Mambazo, have realised even greater subsequent profits from live and television performances, and from recordings released outside of South Africa. -the careers of the South African musicians involved with Graceland would have been endangered had the songs been political in nature. -the mixed-racial character of Graceland, as recorded and performed live on the Graceland tour, particularly in Zimbabwe, represents a highly visible public rebuttal to the South African government's racial policies. The reception of Graceland in South Africa itself is a first suggestion that the venture had nothing to do with the on-going struggle for liberation in that country. Simon's album quickly became one of the great commercial successes of the South African recording industry. Less than a year after its release, it had gone 'triple platinum' by selling 100,000 copies three times over. While there is no way to break down sales between black and white consumers, there are many clues. Graceland was priced substantially higher than LPs and cassettes by black musicians produced for black consumers, and was sold and prominently displayed in retail outlets catering to whites. Some idea of black reaction to the venture may be gained from the fact that several participating musicians were asked to apologise for their involvement before performing again for the black community. And the Graceland songs were given substantial air play on the 'white' services of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). The latter fact tells us something else: if the South African government had objected to Graceland, on any grounds, the Publications Board could have banned it - making it a crime to sell, own or play the record within the country - or SABC censorship committees could have ruled against air play. Neither happened. Nor has the international attention focused on Ladysmith Black Mambazo caused discomfort in Pretoria. Founded by Joseph Shabalala in the mid-1960s, the group first performed on the SABC's Radio Zulu, one of the Radio Bantu services established in 1960 to promote the neo-apartheid ideology of separate development, by stressing the tribal identity of each black ethnic group within the country as a

3 300 Middle Eight deterrent to black unity. Under contract to Gallo Ltd, the largest commercial record company in South Africa, the group had released dozens of singles and eighteen highly-successful LPs, with a total sale of more than four million record units, before Simon 'discovered' them in Muff Andersson wrote in 1980 that 'they own properties, and they all have cars'. Shabalala was 'very happy because he's rich; because he owns two houses, one with 16 rooms and the other with nine' (Andersson 1981, p. 126). When asked why the lyrics of their songs never touched on political issues, Shabalala explained that 'we keep the radio in mind when we compose. If something is contentious they [the SABC] don't play it, and then it wouldn't be known to the public anyway' (Andersson 1981, p. 87). And as Zulus they are identified with Gatsha Buthelezi's politically conservative Inkatha movement, which in recent years has clashed with other black South Africans, particularly those associated with the United Democratic Front or sympathetic to the African National Congress. Even young Zulu-speakers relate the music of Ladysmith Black Mambazo to 'the culture and politics of our parents', as one of them put it to me recently. In a recent interview Shabalala admitted that 'at home they're starting to scold us because we're away all of the time'. He also reported that 'the next album may have as many as five (songs in English)', and that 'some people are afraid we will lose our harmony if we sing in English' (Morse 1988). Both fears are well-grounded, if one considers the curiously similar history of an earlier black South African vocal group, the Manhattan Brothers. This vocal jive group was also 'discovered' by the SABC, in the late 1930s, and then produced a series of commercially successful 78 rpm discs for Gallo. Persuaded that they could become international stars, they defected while in London in 1961 as members of the cast of the musical play King Kong and performed for the next two decades in the UK and Western Europe, in a vocal jazz style that had progressively less and less to do with South African music. Voluntary exiles, they were not involved in the political and musical life of their own country; as a result, their music gradually lost all meaning for the new generation of black South Africans strongly politicised by the events at Sharpeville and Soweto, and drawn to mbaqanga and other new musical styles of the 1960s and 1970s. Today they are remembered only by a handful of elderly people. Thus: Ladysmith Black Mambazo had a long pre-graceland history, during which time they benefited handsomely from collaboration with the SABC and South Africa's internal domestic recording industry; they are aligned musically and politically with conservative black elements within South Africa; and they appear willing to remain abroad as long as it is financially advantageous. Simon's patronage has helped them accumulate even more wealth, but it is difficult to imagine that either the group or its music will have any positive impact on the black struggle for liberation. On another point, it is simply not true that racially mixed performances and audiences are prohibited in South Africa. As part of a carefully plotted strategy to soften the outside world's image of the country's racial politics by abandoning certain highly visible aspects of 'petty apartheid', the government has sanctioned racially mixed audiences at popular music events for over a decade, beginning with Doby Gray's tour in Multi-racial jazz, pop and rock groups have become common in the 1980s, performing first on college campuses and small clubs and then in larger and more visible venues. The Market Theatre in Johannesburg has offered

4 ":: I~g Ar Middle Eight 301 ~ WAIM...i Figure 1. Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Photograph by Frans Schellekens

5 302 Middle Eight theatrical and musical events by multi-racial casts for integrated audiences for more than a decade. By 1985 large outdoor pop/rock concerts featuring both black and white performers, with racially-mixed audiences, were becoming common in Johannesburg and elsewhere. Far from challenging the government's policies, Paul Simon's visit to South Africa in 1985 and the subsequent release of Graceland were widely covered in the pro-government press and praised as acts of 'constructive engagement' between a famous American pop star and the South African music industry. On a more abstract level, South African ethnomusicologist Andrew Tracey wrote recently that [Graceland contributes to] the perpetuation of popular stereotypes, e.g. that Africa provides the rhythm section, the body of the pop music world, while Europe provides the melody, the head. Another is that it is the Black man's job to help the White man do his thing. History repeats itself; musically and artistically nothing has changed. Is African music only good for backings, not frontings? (Tracey 1987) The commercial success of Graceland has spawned a number of clones, such as Harry Belafonte's Paradise in Gazankulu. In direct imitation of Simon, Belafonte sings over the backing of black South African pop stars: the Soul Brothers, Brenda Fassie, Theta, the Makgona Tshole Band, West Nkosi. Unlike Simon, Belafonte did not go to South Africa. His backing tracks were laid down in the Powerhouse Studios in Johannesburg, under the supervision of Hilton Rosenthal, Johnny Clegg's manager, then sent to New York for overdubbing and to Los Angeles for final mixing. Some of the songs, written by Jake Holmes, are obliquely critical of South Africa's racial policies; this has had no adverse effect on the careers and lives of the backing musicians, giving lie to Simon's claim that he avoided political texts to protect his black collaborators. Belafonte has a long history of appropriating musical styles from other cultures: 'his interpretations of Trinidadian calypso music between 1957 and 1959 won him his greatest success and marked the pinnacle of his career' (Radano 1986). Jamaica's Prime Minister, Edward Seaga, charged in 1983 that 'there's no question about it that a number of our folk songs have made a very few people very rich - one of them an internationally so-to-speak calypso singer'. Belafonte has described himself as 'a person of great social consciousness, a very political person, involved in the liberation movements of peoples all over the world'. In an interview with Dermot Hussey of Jamaican Television he denied having pirated songs copyrighted by Caribbean musicians, and insisted that he popularised the calypso music of the West Indies in order to show 'the people of the world... who we are, as a people' (Wallis and Malm 1984, pp ). It is far from clear that Belafonte's commercialisation of calypso has ever benefited Caribbean music, musicians or culture. It is clear, however, that Belafonte's last commercially successful LP, The Midnight Special, was produced as long ago as 1962, and he had not released an LP of any sort between 1970 and last year's Paradise in Gazankulu. Miriam Makeba's recent LP, Sangoma, contains a collection of 'the timeless melodies of my people... handed down [in my home, from which I have been exiled for almost thirty years now] from generation to generation like precious stones'. Through the magic of contemporary technology, Makeba is able to sing both the lead ('call') and backing ('response') parts of traditional African choral style, with vocal help from Brenda Fassie, Linda Tshabalala and Hugh Masekela, and some

6 Middle Eight 303 occasional backing percussion. The style resembles that of the syncretic 'freedom songs' heard at black funerals, protest gatherings and labour rallies throughout South Africa. Like Simon, Makeba has been praised for 'calling attention to South African music', and unlike Simon she has a long history of anti-apartheid activity, dating back to a dramatic appearance before the UN in Her recent autobiography (Makeba 1987) details the circumstances under which she left South Africa. Her singing in the musical King Kong in Johannesburg led to a cameo performance in the film Come Back, Africa, directed by Lionel Rogosin, who brought her to Europe for the Venice film festival of In London she met Harry Belafonte, who arranged for her to come to the United States, and she abandoned plans to return to South Africa, where she had no record of political activity, to pursue what she hoped would be a lucrative career. With the help of 'Big Brother' Belafonte ['his entire organization was mobilized to help me' (Makeba 1987, p. 83)], she appeared on the Steve Allen show, was featured at the Village Vanguard, toured college campuses with the Chad Mitchell Trio and Belafonte himself, and brought out her first LP for RCA, Miriam Makeba, backed by the Belafonte Folk Singers. The peak of her commercial success came in 1967, when her Pata Pata LP showed up on the Billboard charts for twenty-two weeks. Her repertory included both commercial arrangements of 'folk' tunes from different lands, including South Africa, and Broadway show tunes. It was not until her recent, post-graceland Sangoma that she drew on the style of traditional African music. The picture emerging from this ramble through one corner of pop music history: Graceland offshoots are being produced by musicians who enjoyed their greatest success during the 'Folk Music Revival' of the late 1950s and early 1960s, but whose careers have been in relative decline since. One further example is Joan Baez's version of Johnny Clegg's 'Asimbonanga' from her latest LP, Recently. Though she sings the piece in her usual tight-vibrato, semi-operatic, inflexible vocal style, the background vocals, arranged by Ciaphus Semenya, draw on the sound of traditional South African music - or, more accurately, this sound as recently popularised by Simon, Belafonte and others. To close the circle, it must be recalled that Paul Simon himself was a product of the tag end of American pop's constructive commercial engagement with 'folk' music in the 1950s and 1960s, and throughout his career he has been more than willing to draw on the melodies, sounds and rhythms of various ethnic musics - traditional Anglo-American, black gospel, Peruvian, reggae, Cajun - to revitalise his style and to give rhythmic punch to his music. And though he had continued to be much more commercially successful in the 1970s and 1980s than Belafonte, Makeba and Baez, sales of his pre-graceland albums had been in a relative slump. Situating the Graceland phenomenon as a late-blooming product of the 'Folk Revival' suggests new interpretations. Many 'folk' performers of the 1950s and 1960s were supporters of causes espoused by liberal humanists of the era: Civil Rights; voter registration for America's minorities; the feminist movement; opposition to the war in Viet Nam. They drew on 'folk' tunes from around the world, performing them in harmonic, rhythmic and instrumental arrangements consonant with the style of mainstream American pop. The beneficiaries were first of all the performers themselves, whose careers as entertainers were launched or enhanced, and the record industry, which saw soaring sales as the popularity of 'folk' music spread from college campuses and folk clubs to a larger audience. It could be argued that there was some social impact within the USA, for instance in popularising anti-war

7 304 Middle Eight sentiment. But it has never been argued, successfully, that the 'folk' movement benefited social causes (or musicians) within the various cultures from which tunes were borrowed. I suggest that Graceland and its offshoots continue this tradition. South African music is borrowed and brought in line with contemporary American and British pop styles, now through technological procedures - overdubbing and mixing. The success of Graceland may have focused attention on South Africa, and some performances have taken place in the context of anti-apartheid rallies. But the chief beneficiaries have been the record companies, and the performers - Simon, Belafonte, Makeba, Baez and others who have seen flagging careers boosted; and a handful of already-privileged black South African musicians. This is not to denigrate the anti-apartheid activity of Makeba, Baez and Belafonte outside of South Africa. But I suspect that once that country has freed itself from white minority rule, black people will remember which musicians played and sang for the direct benefit of the liberation movement, and which ones drew on South African music and the media attention focused on that country as a means to enhance their own careers as entertainers. References Andersson, Muff Music in the Mix: the Story of South African Popular Music (Johannesburg, Ravan Press) Makeba, Miriam, with James Hall Makeba: My Story (New York and Scarborough: New American Library) Morse, Steve 'The gates are opening for Ladysmith Black Mambazo', Boston Globe (16 November) Radano, Ronald 'Harry Belafonte', in The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, vol. 1 (London and New York: Macmillan), p. 181 Tracey, Andrew 'A word from the editor', African Music, VI (4), p. 3 Wallis, Roger and Krister Malm Big Sounds from Small Peoples: the Music Industry in Small Countries (New York: Pendragon Press) Discography Baez, Joan Recently, Gold Castle Records, Belafonte, Harry Paradise in Gazankulu, EMI-Manhattan Records, E Makeba, Miriam Miriam Makeba: Sangoma, Warner Bros, Simon, Paul Graceland, Warner Bros,