Monday, February 6, 2012

Under African Skies

In this short song-- two verses, one chorus-- Simon pays tribute to two remarkable singers.

The first is the man who started, and still leads, the South African chorus Ladysmith Black Mambazo. His name is Joseph Shabalala (accent on the first "la"). The verse, however, reveals precious little. We learn only that he is "black" and "African," and we might infer from the mention of the "moon" and "stars" that he liked to take walks at night.

The second verse seems to refer to Linda Ronstadt (with whom Simon duets on this number), a powerful singer with an enormous range, both vocally and genre-wise. As the song correctly reports, Ronstadt is from "Tucson, Arizona."

"Mission music" would be hymns emanating from the "missions," Catholic missionary churches (including The Alamo, in Texas) that dot the Southwest, which often had bells (the "ringing" in the song). What relationship a young Ronstadt had with such music I cannot find. Perhaps it was sung to her by her parents or grandparents, perhaps she joined a choir, perhaps he simply heard it as she passed by the church doors. In any event, the song suggests it was an influence on her music.

The word "harmony" seems to refer simply to "music." While Ronstadt has had several successful duets, notably with Aaron Neville of The Neville Brothers, the large majority of her work is as a solo vocalist. She was also in a trio called simply Trio, with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris (they recorded two albums, which I recommend).

Lastly, the idea that Ronstadt would ask no more of God than a beautiful voice and the ability to use it-- "Take this child, Lord... give her the wings to fly through harmony/ And she won’t bother you no more"-- is again a matter of speculation. I cannot speak to her religion, intensity of religious practice, or feelings on religious matters whatsoever, although that information may be available elsewhere. The lyrics suggest, however, that Ronstadt's relationship with religion can at least be described as aloof.

Why is it necessary to discuss where, and from what background, a musician comes? The answer is offered in the chorus: "This is the story of how we begin to remember... These are the roots of rhythm."

The story of the singer, in other words, is the story of the songs. In order to learn about the music he had loved his whole life, Simon had to trace the lineage of the sounds back to their root sources... which was the point of the Graceland project altogether.

Simon found, on his journey, Joseph, a man whose lifetime in Africa, and African music, was a treasure-trove for Simon. He also discovered, or perhaps realized, that he had had fellow travelers on this road.

Ronstadt, his contemporary, was one. After a life of singing pop, rock, country, and jazz-- and two years after recording this song with Simon-- she recorded an album whose Spanish title means "Songs from My Father," who was (among other things) of Mexican descent. But she had already explored the rich variety of American song, as Simon had, in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s.

What else do the stories convey? "This is the powerful pulsing of love in the vein." The basic rhythms of all music are traceable to the human heartbeat. But blood is only in the vein because love put it there, and the loves and heartbeats-- the people, soul and body-- who came before... and their stories.

When does one become very aware of one's heartbeat? Upon awakening from a nightmare: "After the dream of falling and calling your name out."

And, in this moment of despair, of fright, what does one's heartbeat do? Calms one down. It reassures the dreamer that he is still alive and safe. Similarly, music can have that reassuring effect on the throes of living itself.

The stories and the heartbeats form and inform the music. These things are ever new, but ever the same. There is both freedom and solidity in that.

"These are the stories of how we begin to remember"-- the stories of the musicians are the stories of the music, and the stories and songs both recall the past. "This is the powerful pulsing of love"-- these rhythms come from those heartbeats.

"These," then, "are the roots of rhythm," Simon concludes, "and the roots of rhythm remain." They were there, waiting for Simon to discover them, decades and oceans away from where he was born.

How wonderful to know that they will always be there, whenever we need to look for them.

NOTE:
Simon performed this song as part of his Graceland concert in Africa. Ronstadt did not join him on stage for this number; instead, Miriam Makeba did. She is known as "Mama Africa" on her home continent, but has an international hit called "Pata Pata" in 1967. She lived in exile for decades due to her opposition to South African apartheid. In her honor, Simon wrote new lyrics to the song for her to sing that were about her life instead of Ronstadt's.

(added in 2023) Simon sometimes... recycles song titles from others, as he did with "Darling Lorraine." Here, the title "Under African Skies" is the English translation of a French song, "Sous de Ciel Africaine." That song dates to 1935... and is also a duet!
No, the French did not engage in "cultural appropriation" of Black culture-- the song was sung by a Black woman, the famous early 20th Century entertainer Josephine Baker. The other "voice" in the duet is an ensemble with a sad story (also captured documentary, movie, and stage form) called The Comedian Harmonists.
Briefly: they were a sextet rising in fame with their close harmonies; the comedic aspect came from their satires on the sappy "Moone-June" songs of the day. They were forcibly disbanded by the Nazis as half of the six were Jews. 
That an African-American woman could sing with six white Germans (including three Jews) in French-- and have a hit!-- shows just how integrated all communities have been, and could be, through music. If Simon knew of the song and its story, it seems very fitting that he'd reuse the title for his own male-female, Jewish-Christian duet about Africa.
Oh... the song itself? It celebrates how life is freer in the "bright, blue, happy" Africa than in a gray city like Paris. The French lyrics and English translations are online, as is the song.
I just happened upon this song on a Comedian Harmonists album, this month!
 
IMPACT:
2012 marks the 25th anniversary of the Graceland release. It is being marked by the release of a documentary of the making of the album. The film's title comes from the title of this song: Paul Simon: Under African Skies. There is another documentary about the album, part of the "Classic Albums" series of videos.

Next song: "Homeless"

27 comments:

  1. Great info! Thanks for sharing! Do you know by chance (or know where/how I could find out) what Miriam Makebais singing in her version of Under African Skies? As in the African lyrics? Cheers! :)

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  2. There is a performance DVD of the Graceland concert held in Africa, with the complete Simon/Makeba duet. I bought mine in a bookstore (You see, children, once there were stores that sold books! And books were...) but I am certain it is on Amazon. She sings the verse Simon wrote for her, for the event, but it is in English.
    I don't know of a solo version by Makeba in Swahili, Housa or even Afrikaans, but if I were to look, I would do the same as you-- a routine search on Google and YouTube. You might also find a store specializing in African imports and gifts.

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  3. The Miriam Makeeba version is on You Tube. Also the "Yellow Moon Shown In His Eyes" may be reference due to the yellowing of eyes for many Africans from having had malaria.

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  4. Janet-- Thanks for an alternate source for the Makeba performance. However. I am not sure about the malaria idea-- it says the Moon was yellow, not his eyes... and to my knowledge Shabalala, whose eyes these are, has not had malaria (although I suppose it is possible. The disease is survivable with correct treatment.).

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  5. Hi there. The second verse is indeed about Linda Ronstadt. One of Linda's cousins told me that when Paul Simon sings the song with another vocalist in concert, he writes a verse about that woman. As you say, the song = the musicians. Well thought-out article :)

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    1. I have been trying to decipher the name of the town that Miriam and Paul sing in place of Tucson, Arizona. Does anyone know?

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    2. To those unfamiliar-- the question is about the Graceland concert that took place in 1987 in Zimbabwe, Africa. Simon dueted on this song with African singer Miriam Makeba (so highly regarded there she is called Mama Africa), and changed the Ronstadt-based lyrics to reflect Makeba's life instead.
      She sounds like she is singing "The Township of Mufula." I could not find any township of that name in South Africa; Google autocorrects it to "Mflueni" but that is the township of Capetown... not Johannesburg, which is where Makeba was from. There is another township called Matsulu.
      So, what is Johannesburg's township? Prospect. Nothing like "Mufula." But... how do you say "Prospect" in Makeba's own language? One of her parents spoke Xhosa, and "prospect" in that language is "matarajio." Her other parent was from Swaziland, whose language is Swati, but I can't find the word for "prospect" in that language. That's as far as I can get.

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    3. I suppose you could watch the clip with the subtitles on? Maybe that could clear things up.

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    4. Matarajio is kiswahili boss

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    5. Anon-- Thanks for the correction! I looked up the word "matajio" again and found it translated to "expectation," which is a synonym for "prospect." However, you correctly say that the word is not a Xhosa one as my response had it, but a word in Kiswahil, usually rendered in the US as "Swahili."
      Again, thanks for keeping the blog (and me) accurate... and for calling me "Boss!" Most people here don't call each other that when telling them they were mistaken...

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  6. Janean-- Thanks so much for confirming my theory! (and for the compliment)

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  7. According to:
    http://www.paul-simon.info/index.php

    This is what Linda Ronstadt said: "When Paul Simon asked me for something from my childhood that visually symbolized the part of the country I grew up in, without even thinking I immediately said the San Xavier [del Bac] Mission, so he put it in a song ["Under African Skies"] that I sang with him as a duet on his Graceland album." "Tucson also has the most beautiful light in the world. Even at night it's amazing. There are two places on the planet that have the lowest amount of ambient light at night where the sky is very, very dark and the stars are plainly visible - a place in Africa and Tucson. "

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  8. Anon-- Thanks for the information. Also, I am familiar with the Dark Skies Project, which is an effort to lower ambient lights in cities to both save energy and reveal the stars once more to urban inhabitants.

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  9. Thank you for explaining a lot of things I had always wondered about!

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  10. *+*, if I may use your nickname, thanks right back. Glad to help.

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  11. I had always thought it referred to Joseph, earthly father of Christ

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    1. MilkLrz-- I'm sorry, but I'm afraid the information in the song means that your interpretation cannot be the case. The Joseph you mean lived in the Holy Land, solidly north of the Equator.
      This Joseph, we are told, lived "the length of his days," or his whole life, in "the Southern Hemisphere."

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  12. Thank you for letting me learn!
    Confirms what I thought (after about 10000 times of listening to this song) about the second verse...
    But I always envisioned the first verse to be about a "Father to us all", as our ancestors are from Africa and so I thought Paul was mentioning this.

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  13. Oliver-- Thank you for the lovely compliment. Believe me, I have learned a lot myself from writing about these songs.
    One of the nice things about Biblical names is that they can draw parallels between those who have them now and those who had them first.

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  14. Just a small thing from an old woman:
    I remember loving Miriam Makeba's song "Pata Pata when I was in high school. It was a hit in 1967, not the 1970's.

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  15. Unknown-- Not a small thing! I'll correct it at once.
    And I just talked to my 97-year-old grandmother. The only small thing about her is her height. Everything else is larger than life.

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  16. Hi all, A group of Irish musicians have got together to sing and record Paul Simon songs - and have a bit of fun. When I started "Another Paul" was gracious enough to say he didn't mind if I posted links to these under the appropriate songs. I like to think it's going to go on for a while so I will continue to do it as I post.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWQvqMMmObw&lc=UgzIwi5AyBDDfD7Pvy94AaABAg&feature=em-comments

    Elder Roche and Kayla Flynn sing Under African Skies

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    1. jbdhohnston-- Sorry I am so late in replying! I somehow just saw this post now. Thanks for continuing to share this effort. The best way to keep songs alive is to sing them!

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  17. Miriam Makeba sung about Mufulo township in Soweto where she grew up.

    The Afrikan part she sings is in IsiXhosa - Yaqala njalo lendaba which means this is how it all begun.

    Thandiswa Mazwai "King Tha" sang about her grandmothers blessing in her village of Nqwarha

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  18. Bandile-- Thank you so much for these intricate and personal details! They make the experience of the song much, much richer. I deeply appreciate your sharing them. Every time I think I know these songs, I see there is more to know, and I love learning it. What a gift.

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  19. This song has four parts. The first part provides an introduction to Joseph Shabalala, an African musician who, in the 1960s, formed Ladysmith Black Mambazo, a South African male choral group which appears on the Graceland album in "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" for example.

    The second part concerns Paul Simon's interest in combining sounds of African music with sounds of Western music. The early 1980s was a period of transition for Paul both personally and professionally. In the 2012 Graceland documentary, Paul talks about his listening to African music during that time and wishing to collaborate with African musicians. So, he had his record company "call out" to certain African musicians to make arrangements for his visit to South Africa.

    In the third part, we are introduced to Linda Ronstadt - an offspring of African-rooted rhythm - located half a world away in Tucson Arizona. Linda recalls the sound of mission bells from her early years and her asking the Lord for an ability to make music and, more specifically, to harmonize with other singers. In the 2019 documentary "Linda Ronstadt - The Sound of My Voice" Linda describes an existential need to make music, stating that she "could not not record" certain songs. Thus, there is a "powerful pulsing of love [of music] in her vein." The promise to not "bother" the Lord "no more" in exchange for her "wings to fly through harmony" is not a disaffirmance of faith, it is an affirmance of her need to sing.

    In the fourth part, Paul Simon provides an example of a combination of an African sound with a Western sound. "Ba oom-ba oom-ba oom-ba" represents a traditional African rhythm, a current (i.e., remaining) African sound, and the voice of Joseph Shabalala. "Ooooohhhh ooooohhhhh" represents an example of a sound of Western music as well as the voice of Linda Ronstadt.

    What a gift it is to have Linda's own voice on this recording. A video of Linda and Paul performing this song on Saturday Night Live is currently available via Streamable.com.

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  20. Robert-- Thank you. Although... did you read what I wrote? It seems you felt the need to summarize and repeat a lot of it, for some reason.

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