Next year is the 25th anniversary of Paul Simon's iconic 1986 album Graceland, the Afrobeat-inspired record that is widely recognized as one of the legendary songwriter's most career-defining works. Now Simon is planning on celebrating the milestone with a tour, box set and documentary.
He told Billboard that the tour will reunite him with the musicians who helped to make Graceland possible, including the South African vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. There's no word as to whether Los Lobos will appear; they had a public dispute with Simon about not receiving a writing credit for "All Around the World or the Myth of Fingerprints."
The tour will coincide with a Graceland box set from Sony/Legacy, which will most likely come out in May. It will include a documentary filmed by Joe Berlinger, who directed the Metallica flick Some Kind of Monster. His footage centres on Simon's trip to South Africa earlier this year to perform with Ladysmith Black Mambazo and trumpeter Hugh Masekela.
The concert doc may also be submitted to film festivals. Simon said, "The documentary took me back to the artistic aspects and the political aspects of making Graceland and the controversy that surrounded it and how it was resolved, plus what remains of it and what we learn from it."
This retrospective box set will follow Simon's career-spanning compilation Songwriter, due out on October 25 through Sony/Legacy.
He told Billboard that the tour will reunite him with the musicians who helped to make Graceland possible, including the South African vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. There's no word as to whether Los Lobos will appear; they had a public dispute with Simon about not receiving a writing credit for "All Around the World or the Myth of Fingerprints."
The tour will coincide with a Graceland box set from Sony/Legacy, which will most likely come out in May. It will include a documentary filmed by Joe Berlinger, who directed the Metallica flick Some Kind of Monster. His footage centres on Simon's trip to South Africa earlier this year to perform with Ladysmith Black Mambazo and trumpeter Hugh Masekela.
The concert doc may also be submitted to film festivals. Simon said, "The documentary took me back to the artistic aspects and the political aspects of making Graceland and the controversy that surrounded it and how it was resolved, plus what remains of it and what we learn from it."
This retrospective box set will follow Simon's career-spanning compilation Songwriter, due out on October 25 through Sony/Legacy.
