The controversy came from Los Lobos session sax player Steve Berlin. Mr. Berlin alledged that Paul stole the song from jam sessions they shared in the past. However, Paul Simon gave the sax credits on Graceland to Alex Foster(alto) and Lenny Pickett(tenor). The bass duty credits went to Paul Simon( 6 string bass) and Bakithi Kumalo(bass guitar).
Here's a brief summary of the aftermath;
Controversy
The group Los Lobos appear on the last track, "All Around the World or The Myth of Fingerprints." According to Los Lobos's saxophone player Steve Berlin, Simon stole the song from Los Lobos, giving them no songwriting credit.
"It was not a pleasant deal for us. I mean he [Simon] quite literally — and in no way do I exaggerate when I say — he stole the songs from us... 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. So we're like, "Oh, ok. We'll share this song." ...A few months later, the record comes out and says "Words and Music by Paul Simon." We were like, "What the f*** is this?" We tried calling him, and we can't find him. Weeks go by and our managers can't find him. We finally track him down and ask him about our song, and he goes, "Sue me. See what happens."
Paul Simon answered: "I just said at this stage I don't care whether the album comes out without Los Lobos on it. I was getting really tired of it -I don't want to get into a public slanging match over this, but this thing keeps coming up. So we finished the recordings. And three months passed, and there was no mention of 'joint writing.' The album came out and we heard nothing. Then six months passed and Graceland had become a hit and the first thing I heard about the problem was when my manager got a lawyer's letter. I was shocked. They sent this thing to my manager, not me. If there was a problem they could have contacted me direct, they've got my home number, we talked a lot. If you ask me it was a lawyer's idea. You know, 'the records a hit, and there's $100,000 in it.' They had nine months from the recordings to talk to me about all this, but I heard nothing. And its still not sorted out because they still keep bringing it up - I heard they'd done this interview for you. I don't want to get into a public slanging match with them, because I really like their music."
Release and aftermath
Graceland was Paul Simon's highest charting album in the U.S. in many years, reaching #3 in the national Billboard charts, receiving a certification of 5xPlatinum by the RIAA and eventually selling over 14 million copies, making it the singer's most commercially successful album. Critics welcomed its eclectic mix of sounds and broad, quirky subject matter and it regularly shows up in critic polls and "recommended" lists. The album also helped to draw worldwide attention to the music of South Africa.
In the Graceland Classic Albums video, Simon states that he considers the title track the best song he has ever written. A popular music video starring Simon and Chevy Chase was made for the hit song "You Can Call Me Al". Simon toured the album extensively, featuring many of the artists from the album in addition to exiled South Africans Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba. Two concerts in Harare, Zimbabwe, were filmed in 1987 for release as "The African Concert". The audience was a multi-racial mix with many travelling from SouthAfrica."
edited to add- from Wikipedia 1-18-09 (5PM EST app.)
edited to subtract (f-word)- 1-18-09 (6 PM EST app.)
