Ten years after playing a free concert in New York's Central Park with Art Garfunkel, Paul Simon returned, backed by the New York session musicians and the native musicians from South Africa and Brazil who had enlivened his solo work…
Commemorating the 25th anniversary of Graceland, Paul Simon's groundbreaking album that continues to influence and inspire generations. Following its Sundance Film Festival premiere in the US, the Joe Berlinger-directed documentary Under African Skies, chronicling the creation and lasting influence of Graceland, it has its UK premiere at Sundance London. The documentary garnered critical acclaim on the film festival circuit with screenings at SXSW 2012, where it received an Audience Award, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and the Sundance Film Festival. To help commemorate the anniversary and celebrate the indelible musical legacy of Graceland, this is a special Graceland 25th Anniversary Collector's Edition Box Set with two CDs and two DVDs including the re-mastered original album, audio narrative The Story of 'Graceland as told by Paul Simon, Under African Skies, documentary film with extended interviews, the original 1987 African Concert from Zimbabwe, three original music videos and the iconic Saturday Night Live performance of "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes"; replicas of an original Graceland poster, handwritten lyrics pad; deluxe 80-page book featuring new and archival photos and interviews with Paul Simon.
If any musical justification were needed for the breakup of Simon & Garfunkel, it could be found on this striking collection, Paul Simon's post-split debut. From the opening cut, "Mother and Child Reunion" (a Top Ten hit), Simon, who had snuck several subtle musical explorations into the generally conservative S&G sound, broke free, heralding the rise of reggae with an exuberant track recorded in Jamaica for a song about death…
The international release The Paul Simon Anthology was a two-CD abridged version of the three-CD box set Paul Simon 1964-1993. For this version, the first two discs of the box set were condensed into a single CD, while the third disc, left untouched, was now the second disc. This accentuated one of the weaknesses of the box set, weighting the selections even more heavily toward Simon's later work. Here, his recordings originally released between 1965 and 1983 (including six Simon and Garfunkel tracks) made up the first disc, and the second disc covered only the period 1986-1993, and really 1986-90, since the only recordings released after 1990 were "Thelma," an outtake from the 1990 album The Rhythm of the Saints and three performances from the 1991 live album Paul Simon's Concert in the Park. While the abridgment seemed to have been made with an eye on the British charts, for the most part eliminating only songs that had not been hits in the U.K. (the exceptions being "America" and "Take Me to the Mardi Gras"), the album still didn't function as a full-fledged greatest hits album, lacking such British chart singles as "Homeward Bound" and "I Am a Rock" (neither of which were on Paul Simon 1964-1993, either).
'The Concert in Hyde Park' chronicles the legendary artist's historic concert at the 2012 Hard Rock Calling Festival in London with an epic career-spanning set including Simon s most enduring hits ("Kodachrome," "Graceland," "Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard," "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover"), fan favorites, and two Simon & Garfunkel classics. The concert features a reunion with the original Graceland musicians on the Grammy-winning album's 25th anniversary, including Hugh Masekela and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, as well as a surprise appearance from reggae legend Jimmy Cliff, performing his original songs "The Harder They Come" and "Many Rivers to Cross", and a duet with Cliff and Simon on "Vietnam" and "Mother and Child Reunion."
Retaining the buoyant musical feel of Paul Simon, but employing a more produced sound, There Goes Rhymin' Simon found Paul Simon writing and performing with assurance and venturing into soulful and R&B-oriented music. Simon returned to the kind of vocal pyrotechnics heard on the Simon & Garfunkel records by using gospel singers…
One thing Simon & Garfunkel never did much of was tour, so a Paul Simon solo tour, following two commercially successful solo albums, was one more way for Simon to distance himself from the duo and, simultaneously, by performing songs like "The Boxer" and "Homeward Bound," to reclaim his songwriting catalog…