What in the world is going on.....

Simon took a turn to Pablum Street when he went Afro-beat and won those undeserved Grammy's! Peter Gabriel did true African primal music with thought provoking lyrics on Security!  Awards?  Of course not...there for the accessible trendy hipster crowd...Simon blew his load early.

Graceland, even on chrome cassette (120 us), Dolby B in, that I found a mint-almost-unplayed copy of for $1 last week, sounds amazingly dynamic, warm, vocally musical, danceable & party-able. Good times.

And Dave: I agree that Peter early on included African forms in his music from the late 70’s through 80’s, albeit perhaps from a more progressive angle, but in so doing, he promoted awareness of rhythm and modern melodic content, influencing many musiciansingersongwriters, Paul included, to learn, share and collaborate.

Remember, there was Joni before Peter (Jungle Line), along with the Chambers Brothers (Time Has Come Today) and Grand Funk (Stop Looking Back). Others may identify additional examples.

Czarivey…read my previous post. First line. 

Less people would have been aware of African music without Simon's use of the African musicians like Ladysmith for clearly what were HIS songs, and remember that he also had the first U.S. commercial reggae hit with Mother and Child Reunion. He's also a great acoustic guitarist who learned a pile of stuff from the English masters like Bert Jansch in his early days. Graceland is considered by many musicians and others to be a masterpiece that's held up over time.

Graceland is definitely boring to me.
Recorded well tho.

Wolf- I tend to like your taste in guitarists, but the measure for me isn't even chops, it is the ability to convey something that is emotionally affecting- I'm not sure there is a metric for that and it may be personal taste. For example, I went to hear Terry Reid a few years ago, and he used a local band- the guitarist had great countrified electric guitar fills that weren't "rote" and he didn't overplay, but when he came in, he was really tasty. 
Leslie West never really had "chops" but I always loved his playing on Mountain's "Theme for an Imaginary Western"--not just his tone either.
Lindley- yeah, total genius. 
I've been listening to some Davey Graham, who was a pretty influential guy for that whole crop of UK folk/psych guitarists, including Jansch and Renbourn.