Ashley Kahn’s new book delves into the Days of Miracle and Wonder around Paul Simon’s Graceland
Just in time for the 40th anniversary of Paul Simon’s legendary Graceland album, writer Ashley Kahn’s new book Days of Miracle and Wonder: Paul Simon and the Trials and Triumphs of Graceland is out now from Atria Books. Writer Kahn has an interesting perspective on the seminal record, thanks to being both a member of the Graceland/Paul Simon tour production team and, later, tour manager for Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
However, it’s not just an insider’s view that Kahn brings to Days of Miracle and Wonder. Not only does the author trace the project from Simon’s discovery of a bootleg cassette entitled Gum Boots No. 2: Accordion Jive Hits, a collection of “township jive” music from South Africa to its eventual status in the pop canon, but along the way also delves into the development of digital recording technology and the political state of South Africa.
For all the detail and deep-dive information on offer in Days of Miracle and Wonder, Kahn manages to craft an impeccably readable book that will appeal even to the most casual fan. Whether you have definite opinions regarding Simon’s musical career or refer to “You Can Call Me Al” as “that one with the Chevy Chase video,” it’s a superb read.
We spoke with writer Ashley Kahn via Zoom about Days of Miracle and Wonder ahead of its release.
The Pitch: How long did this book take? I feel like there’s a massive amount of both research and first-person interviews you’ve done for this.
Ashley Kahn: You want the philosophical answer or do you want the real answer?
I’ll take both, honestly.
Philosophically, I’ve been working on writing about music and on finding a way to balance the various perspectives on discussing it throughout my career. I think this book benefits from challenging myself with the previous books on jazz writing, with writing the autobiography of Carlos Santana with him, the George Harrison book–but in reality it was about 14 months, just a little over a year.
What was your starting point for writing this? I know you’ve worked with Ladysmith Black Mambazo and worked the Graceland tour, but what was the point you started your writing process?
For me, a great musical moment, a great musical recording that really endures, that transcends the time period in which it’s created–it’s the why of that. I’m gonna look at how the music was made, how the songs were crafted. I’m gonna look at the career path of Paul Simon–where he was at the time–but I’m also gonna back up and take the wide-angle shot of what was happening in the early to mid-’80s as far as how music was being disseminated.
The idea of radio formats of the mid-’60s, which had a huge impact on the Graceland story. There were no radio hits at the start with Graceland. Not like some of the other acts that were prevalent in the top 20 or in the top 10 or the top five of that period: Prince and Madonna and the coming of Bon Jovi, et cetera.
Graceland was its own thing that stood apart from the context of where pop music was–the sameness of corporate rock and the influence of MTV. The beginning of digital recording and the beginnings of digital formats for listening at home, as well as the coming of CDs.
I was frankly amazed at how much digital recording is a part of this story. This album could not have been made a year earlier because of the technology that made its creation possible. I appreciate the fact that you really go into that. It’s geeky and nerdy, but it’s very pertinent to the creation process.
I was a little worried, to be honest, Nick, about just how much I’d be able to geek out and not lose the page-turning quality of the book. But there’s an important element, as you’re saying, to the role of the coming of digital recording technology, and the idea that this was really a hybrid.
That at that time, the studios that were on the cutting edge of the whole digital revolution–Hit Factory, Power Station, Amigos out in LA–was trying, working with the recording technology that was attempting to get these two languages to talk together: analog tape as well as digital tape. Not digital files yet; that hadn’t happened.
The real hero to this whole aspect is definitely Roy Halee, who had been in the control room for so many important Simon and Garfunkel and then Paul Simon solo recording projects. The two of them together, Paul and Roy, are really the buddy team. If they make a movie about this, it’s gonna be a buddy movie, and it’s gonna be Paul and Roy launching themselves into this crazy new world. 
They wanted to preserve the warmth and the authenticity and the sonic detail that analog could offer, since we’re still in the age of high fidelity. Compression hasn’t taken over. We’re not looking at MP4 files yet, or MP3 files, I should say. We’re looking at trying to maintain as much fidelity as possible, but then taking advantage of the digital aspect in how it was edited, how it was layered together, and that’s really where Roy’s genius comes to the fore.
Who were you able to speak with for this book?
I spoke to more than 80 different musicians, music makers, music professionals, witnesses of that era, fellow journalists. My whole idea was really to kinda create a virtual roundtable and get as many perspectives and many voices and reveal a general truth, a common truth. Paul, I did not interview because I valued Paul’s real-time interviews more and what he had to say between ’84, ’85, and let’s say ’87, ’88. He did a mountain of interviews at that time.
Of course, the asterisk, if you will–the controversy that seems permanently attached to the making of Graceland and the suffering that he went through back then for being so risk-taking and entering into what many people saw as a misguided career move, heading down to apartheid South Africa to record with Black artists and the role of the cultural boycott at the time.
It’s emotionally laden to this day, and I found that Paul had talked himself out. Back in ’88, he had answered every question, every charge, every indictment, and to have to go down that hole again with him–I didn’t see that as being beneficial. I think that the variety of voices is what was important.
I do wish you had been able to speak with the Specials’ Jerry Dammers about his infamous quote regarding the album: “Who does he think he is? He’s helping maybe 30 people, and he’s damaging solidarity over sanctions.”
Yes, indeed. I did reach out, but Jerry is not an easy one to find these days.
What’s been interesting is this album has a very long tail. It’s constantly getting rediscovered, and this 40th anniversary is a very apt time to revisit it, of course. But it’s been parodied so often, with the likes of John Forster’s “Fusion” in the early ’90s and very recently, Kyle Gordon’s “Mr. Jambo.” They’re both hilarious because they’re so reverent.
And there are a couple of takeaways from that, Nick. One is the fact that it wouldn’t have gone viral; it wouldn’t have been funny to anyone unless they got the reference. The fact that the reference is still so fresh in our kind of shared consciousness that we understand what’s being skewered. And the other thing is it’s clear to me that Paul would’ve loved that, too, because his self-deprecating humor–that’s his favorite place to be when he’s being funny.
Putting on a turkey suit for the Thanksgiving SNL show in 1975. The “You Can Call Me Al” video with Chevy Chase. I talk about this in the book. To me, when I saw it, it was like, “Oh, short guy, tall guy.” That’s Simon and Garfunkel. “Tall guy takes away the lyrics that he wants to sing.” That’s Simon and Garfunkel.
He’s throwing his hands up and saying, “No matter what I do, I’m gonna be the songwriter that other people are doing my songs,” even though he’s on the track, but I think that, as much as Paul has done it himself, he would appreciate “Mr. Jambo.” 
As you’re also a teacher, did you get the youth’s perspective on this album while putting this book together?
Let’s put it this way: I have taught a class that was on Graceland and just Graceland, and one of the classes was talking about all the independent movements in different African countries and how South Africa responded right after World War II and into the ’50s by electing this single-party government that lasts and lasts for 40-odd years.
They put in place one of the most evil, pernicious systems of social control, based on race. known as apartheid. There was a whole class where I had to explain apartheid, and it was a wake-up call. This was about 10 years ago, and there are certain things, like even the full meaning of the word apartheid and what it meant historically, that need explanation. So yeah, the classroom experience absolutely fed into how I approached the book.
Ashley Kahn’s Days of Miracle and Wonder: Paul Simon and the Trials and Triumphs of Graceland is out now from Atria Books.
