MUSIC: Three Tune Tuesday 108 - 3 Songs by Paul Simon (Solo / Graceland)! - (3 Cover Performances!)

Hello everybody on HIVE, and especially the Music Community. My name is Jasper and I'm writing (and singing) to you from Cape Town in South Africa!

This is my 43rd week (In a row!) contributing to "Three Tune Tuesday", an initiative started by @ablaze. It is week 108 overall!

In all of my TTT entries I like to play the songs on guitar as well as share the original videos... and I have a newish pattern for "Three Tune Tuesday" where I pick three songs by one of my favourite artists, that has inspired me - as I also write original songs.

This week I would like to pick Paul Simon as a solo artist (I have already done some Simon & Garfunkel as a duo, and will probably want to do more of their wonderful collection at some point!)

But years later, in the late 1980s, Paul Simon came to South Africa to record an album with South African musicians, most notably a wonderful choir called Ladysmith Black Mambazo. He received some criticism for this - it was towards the end of Apartheid, where the Government at the time was only voted for by the white population, and enforced racial segregation to the distinct disadvantage of the majority of other racial groups that live here in South Africa. Because of this, the international community was imposing sanctions on South Africa, and international music artists generally accepted that they were not supposed to come to SOuth Africa to perform or record.

In the long run, I think Paul Simon did more good than bad. The album "Graceland" is often considered to be the best ever made. It probably did a lot to turn people's attention to South Africa and make more people aware of the Apartheid system, which thankfully ended only a few years later. It certainly helped the world learn about some distinctive musical styles from South Africa, and did a lot to make Ladysmith Black Mambazo world famous, as they continue to do their parts of the album in live concert to this day...

Without further ado, I start out by attempting to cover the song "Graceland". Here is the original version:

For the next song, I wish I could add some brass that makes it so distinctive! I'm talking about the classic "Call Me Al". The music video is pretty funny and features Chevy Chase having more fun than Paul Simon himself, so check it out here:

Finally, let me tackle one of the songs that Ladysmith Black Mambazo featured on. Unfortunately I cannot turn myself into a full choir, so please watch the video, which also gives a feeling for the magic creative process that went into making the song 'Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes":

So that's week 108 done and dusted! I hope you enjoyed the songs from the Paul Simon "Graceland" album! Which song was your favourite? Did I miss an important one to you?

And so, which artist will I do three covers of next week, for TTT number 109? I hope you tune in to find out and thank you so much for clicking/watching/reading this time!!