Paul Simon teamed up with some of the greats of soul and Dixieland jazz for this exuberant tribute to New Orleans, Take Me To The Mardi Gras.

At some point in mid-life I lost interest in Paul Simon, perhaps due to over-exposure in my youth, a knee-jerk aversion to what I perceived as musical colonialism with Graceland, or just the fact he didn’t fit in with my post-punk experience, when I became more interested in delving into roots music of the past – blues, country, soul, RnB, gospel and the like.

Which is ironic as Paul Simon does nothing if not delve into roots music for inspiration, as he shows on this Dixieland-drenched tribute to my favourite city in the USA, if not the whole world. And he does it with some of the greatest roots musicians on earth.

The musicians are the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section from Alabama: seasoned soul veterans Jimmy Johnson and Barry Beckett on guitar and keyboards, David Hood and Roger Hawkins on drums and bass.

They’re augmented by the exuberant swing of New Orleans natives the Onward Brass Band – faded far too soon just as they get going – and glorious guest vocals from the Rev Claude Jeter of gospel legends The Swan Silvertones (and, at this time I think, Dixie Hummingbirds), contributing the falsetto that Art Garfunkel would once have provided.

I now find that this song, which featured on the album There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, was in fact a B-side. Relesed only in the UK, it became a hit because the A-side, Kodachrome, was banned by the BBC – then the only radio station with the reach to influence the pop charts – under its arcane rules against advertising.

Those were the same rules that meant Blue Peter presenters had to stick things together with something called “sticky-back plastic” rather than what everyone actually called it, Sellotape. And no doubt they had to clean up the studio floor after that elephant shat on it with a “vacuum cleaner” while everyone else was busy Hoovering.