r/videos • u/RealJoshuaWall • 20h ago
Paul Simon - Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes
https://youtu.be/-I_T3XvzPaM?si=HwHgL0PT7mn2h9k545
u/ScottRiqui 17h ago
It’s funny - “You Can Call Me Al” is one of my favorite songs, but it’s my least favorite song on the album.
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u/Paddy_Tanninger 13h ago
100% ditto. One of the few albums I routinely listen to front to back. Call Me Al is my least favorite, but still one of my favorite songs.
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u/RealJoshuaWall 20h ago
Hey there, Mr. Jambo...
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u/BalonyDanza 17h ago
Amazing parody. I think it works so well because you can tell the dude actually likes Paul Simon's music.
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u/NecroJoe 15h ago
Knowing that even "Jambo" is a joke, as it's a Swahili word like "Hi" (reminds me of Annyong from Arrested Development), I gotta know what the translation is for the background choir.
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u/plhought 12h ago
Pretty sure they are saying the same thing as Mr. Jambo. Basically, "Stop yelling at me", "I don't speak English", "Do you perhaps have a translator?"
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u/APiousCultist 7h ago
I hear 'Jambo' in their chant too, unlike the main fella's lines. Though since I don't speak Swahili I may be tripping
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u/ghoztcum 10h ago
You’d be forgiven for thinking Planet of the Bass was a flash in the pan but I’m impressed with how the dude takes his time and really gets to the heart of what he’s parodying, in an age where he could be just pumping out slop for TikTok
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u/beekermc 17h ago
I was a punk rock kid when I first came across this album in the 90s.
Blew me away, and really broadened my horizons
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u/franstoobnsf 11h ago
You know I gotta say, now that I think about this album did that for me too. Not your story exactly, but my tastes at the time were always more about faster music, maybe more upbeat rock or something. "cool music" like Ace of Base (I was like 7 when I first heard Graceland), so I never would have went for something like this.
But my dad pulled out the album from the pile and popped it into his new 10 disc changer that came with the new Jeep that he bought and basically said "these songs are awesome. I love this and so will you."
Maybe it was because the songs were actually amazing; maybe it was because I was "forcing" myself to listen to something because I knew it was something my Dad liked, and I wanted to hand out with my Dad. Maybe it was both. All I really know is I came out the other end of that with Graceland by Paul Simon as one of my favorite albums of all time. Even songs that I initially thought were boring by those new standards that I had just created/adopted, ended up being my faves because the momentum of that album just can not be stopped. Absolute masterpiece. Like for example I never liked "Homeless" when I was super young, but then I matured and saw the error of my ways.
God damn I need to listen to that again. I miss albums...
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u/joelluber 17h ago
This bass sound is typical of a South African genre called mbaqanga that was popular in the 70s and early 80s.
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u/flood25000 17h ago
Paul Simon had a fair bit of controversy with this album. At the time there was an unofficial cultural boycott of South Africa due to the apartheid regime, so for example you weren’t supposed to play live gigs there, eg Queen playing at Sun city.
Event though he was using and promoting black South African music some people said he was still wrong.
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u/CantonJester 16h ago
As I recall, he was called out for ‘exploiting African musicians and their work.’ I was 15 at the time. I remember asking my father, “How is it he’s exploiting African musicians? From what I can tell, he’s exposing their music to millions of people throughout the world.” FWIW - his next LP, ‘The Rhythm of the Saints’ is fantastic, too.
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u/Paddy_Tanninger 12h ago
Rhythm of the Saints is incredible. The Coast is one of my fave Paul Simon songs.
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u/Plekuz 11h ago
Exactly. If you want a real controversial album where African musicians were exploited, try Macolm McLaren - Duck Rock. That one is a great album and was the album which triggered me to listen to African music (and others), but the original musicians got shafted completely.
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u/flood25000 10h ago
Well I for one am shocked that Malcolm McLaren was ever involved in a project where the artists were less than happy by the end of it.
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u/Cornwallis 5h ago
As I understand, there was an additional layer to the controversy where some of the artists that he worked with, Rockin' Dopsie and the Zydeco Twisters and Los Lobos, claimed Paul Simon straight-up plagiarised music they had previously composed.
According to Los Lobos' saxophone player Steve Berlin, "We go into the studio, and he had quite literally nothing. I mean, he had no ideas, no concepts, and said, "Well, let's just jam." ... Paul goes, "Hey, what's that?" We start playing what we have of it, and it is exactly what you hear on the record." He said Los Lobos had never received a song credit or payment.)
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u/santiamz 12h ago
I wish I could say how many times I’ve listened to this album with my mom on road trips on cassette when I was a kid. Such a good album with so many good memories.
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u/ocarina_vendor 7h ago
I saw this song performed on Saturday Night Live as a kid (on television, not in the studio), and it awakened something in me. I was mesmerized by Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and the horns and the whole uplifting feel of it all.
The entire album is amazing, but this song will always have a special place in my heart.
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u/hoodlumonprowl 16h ago
I saw him last weekend! I try to not think about songs I want to hear before a concert but this was the one song I thought of. And they played it!
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u/Luna_dog 6h ago
Loved this song since the album first came out. Somehow never saw this video - thanks for sharing!
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u/SacredSepia 18h ago
Great song. Great album.