I know this will split opinion.
My eleventh birthday was a transitional time for my relationship with music as I was just waking up to the wonderful sounds some people could make. After I'd opened all my presents in the morning and returned from school that afternoon, my parent's perpetually-mashed friend Dodgy Trev came round and handed me a small gift. Under the wrapping were two copied cassette tapes, marked with his cursive scrawl 'Five Star' and 'Paul Simon'.
I remember being quite enamoured with Five Star, but it was Paul Simon's Graceland album which really caught my attention and held it hostage. I'd enjoyed the video for 'Call Me Al' and the song got stuck in my head, but the album brought so many other pleasures to my ears. From a loose affiliation of millionaires and billionaires and baby, who am I to blow against the wind? I've seen them all and man, they're all the same, moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake, she makes the sign of the teaspoon he makes the sign of the wave - I wanted to be the poor boy who changed clothes and put on aftershave to impress the rich girl with diamonds on the soles of her shoes.
Everything about the album captivated me, from the drums, percussion and guitars to the beautifully harmonic African singing, the quirky poetic lyrics and the images Paul Simon painted in my mind through his descriptions. I knew then and still know now every lyric, guitar note, drum beat and harmony on the album. It brings me pleasure to this day and I listen to it a few times a year, each time gaining that nostalgia which was created back in 1986.
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 8:59, 18 replies)

I have a confession.
I bought Graceland, against my better judgement knowing Simon had bum-raped the indigenous musicians, and took it took Greece on holiday. Played it in the taverna where I stayed. The owner's sons - who ran the bar - loved it, so I left it. They rang me at home two months later saying it was worn out, and could I send another cassette. Which I did as it was very hard and very expensive to get any new(ish) releases there. They had copied of course for friends and as spares, but those sounded crap.
So probably thousands of tourists had had to put up with unrelenting Graceland all that summer. On the other hand, an improvement on Zorba the Greek - and it was a mainly kraut holiday area anyway.
( Larry Vest One day at a time, sweet Jesus, FFS., Fri 29 Jan 2010, 9:41, closed)

Go on.

( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 9:43, closed)

Oops - sorry Noel.
I was busy editing the rest of my reply.
( Larry Vest One day at a time, sweet Jesus, FFS., Fri 29 Jan 2010, 9:50, closed)

Ha no bother.

( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 9:53, closed)

I fucking love that album
only deviants like Monty aren't fans
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 10:15, closed)

I was expecting a barrage of face-punches
but I expect the old cunt's busy again today.
Edit: please don't ban me!
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 10:17, closed)

he must be
he hasn't been soiling these shores with his evil funk this morning.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 10:23, closed)

funnily enough
Monty LOVES The Deviants. A far better act.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 1 Feb 2010, 16:26, closed)

I remember cassette tapes

(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 10:30, closed)

My daughter's never seen a vinyl LP.

( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 11:11, closed)

I've still got all my old vinyl and cassettes even though I've nothing to play them on.
Can't bear to get rid.
( girlinthehole, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 11:16, closed)

They'll be worth literally pence in twenty years time.

( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 11:53, closed)

Seconded!
Tis indeed a thing of beauty.

and my travelling companions are ghosts and empty sockets...I'm looking at ghosts and empties...
( Albert Marshmallow is a completely irredeemable cunt, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 16:30, closed)

Gracelands
Was the number 1 album the day my beautiful daughter was born. It sits in my record collection, awaiting a frame, a present for her 24th birthday.
You? You can call her brother Al. (Cos that's his name)

Excellent choice, have a click!
( The Lone Groover has mal des nuts., Fri 29 Jan 2010, 22:18, closed)

Noel, Noel Noel...
It's a massive heap of shit.

What's telling is that your excellent tastes at that time also extended to Five Star. A similarly excellent act.

'Gracelands' is the kind of bollocks trendy teachers liked - the kind of embarrassing cod world music that spastics in wholemeal jumpers listen to on the way to the fucking WOMAD Festival. People who have kids with stupid names, people who have convinced themselves stuff made with brown flour doesn't taste like a cross between lead and mud.

Those lyrics you have quoted above are fucking terrible too. 'Moonlight sleeping on a midnight lake'? Dismal teenage poetry. Gibberish. Not exactly 'Pretty Vacant' is it?

The patronising appropriation of 'African rhythms' is both offensive (the artists involved were, to quote one fellow above, 'bumraped') and just awfully shit. Embarrassing and insipid middle-class twaddle.

I for one am ashamed of you.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 1 Feb 2010, 16:25, closed)

I feel so much better now.
Thanks for not disappointing me :)
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Mon 1 Feb 2010, 20:48, closed)

No problem my dear fellow.
I'm starting to think that I actually am a meme.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Feb 2010, 13:14, closed)

Man, your face is on the Popular page over there
so yes, yes I think you are. Can I hire you to facially impact anyone who calls it 'Gracelands' without irony?
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 2 Feb 2010, 13:32, closed)