Last Sunday, despite inclement weather and noise restrictions, which had people hushing others, Paul Simon performed to tens of thousands in London's Hyde Park, he and a big band playing songs from his massive-selling Graceland album of 1986.
The concert celebrated that album's sophisticated blend of lyricism and African sounds and was also perhaps a vindication for Simon, the message being that music triumphs over division. Twenty-five years ago Simon was being castigated by the likes of Billy Bragg, Jerry Dammers of the Specials (who had recorded Free Nelson Mandela two years earlier), Artists Against Apartheid and the African National Congress for breaking the United Nations-imposed cultural boycott on apartheid-era South Africa when he worked with African musicians in Johannesburg.
Looking back, Graceland came from a very different world. South Africa was an international pariah for its racial segregation and words like "bantustans", "passbook" and "embargo" - which have largely fallen from the language today - were widely discussed.
Simon had been given some South African "township jive" and in the sound he heard something vaguely similar to the rhythmic pulse of country music.
His career was in a low patch - decent sales of solo albums after splitting with Art Garfunkel, but a conspicuous failure with his Hearts and Bones album and film - and in this music he found fresh inspiration.
