This, That, and the Other

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme, Jim Adams has asked us to focus on a song that reminds us of ourselves. Of course, Paul Simon’s “Still Crazy After All These Years” came to mind. Why? Because I’m not the kind of man who tends to socialize. I seem to lean on old familiar ways.

“Still Crazy After All These Years” was the third and final single from Paul Simon’s studio album of the same name. It was released on Columbia Records in 1975. The song briefly reached the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. It’s a quiet, reflective song dwelling on middle age, one that many baby boomers, including me, can relate to.

Simon said the he got the idea for the title one day when he was standing in the shower, thinking about his station in life. He was in his 30s, a father, divorced, and contemplating his next move.

The song begins with the singer singing that “I met my old lover on the street last night.” There’s been a lot of speculation about who the “old lover” was. Some thought it was either Simon’s ex-wife Peggy Harper, from whom he was recently divorced, his former girlfriend from the 1960s Kathy Chitty, or even Simon’s former musical partner Art Garfunkel. The lyrics acknowledge a nostalgia for the past, but also subtly suggest that once the sweet nostalgia is gone, it is replaced by loneliness and even bitterness.

Simon won the 1975 Grammy award for Best Pop Vocal Performance for this song, and the album won the Grammy for Album of the Year. At the ceremony, Paul Simon got up to make his acceptance speech and thanked Stevie Wonder, who’d won the previous two years, for not making an album that year. And the next year’s Album of the Year Grammy went to Wonder again.

Paul Simon hosted the second episode of Saturday Night Live on October 18, 1975 and opened the show by singing “Still Crazy” alone on stage. This was the song’s debut, as the album was released a week later. Simon returned to the show on November 20, 1976, the weekend before Thanksgiving. He once again opened with a performance of this song, this time in a turkey costume.

During this performance, he stops in mid song, and then is followed backstage griping to producer Lorne Michaels about making him wear the costume. In fact, it was Paul’s idea to do this, including the walk-off; he wanted to show he had a sense of humor and didn’t take himself as seriously as most people thought.

Here are the lyrics to “Still Crazy After All These Years.”

I met my old lover
On the street last night
She seemed so glad to see me
I just smiled
And we talked about some old times
And we drank ourselves some beers
Still crazy after all these years
Oh, still crazy after all these years

I'm not the kind of man
Who tends to socialize
I seem to lean on old familiar ways
And I ain't no fool for love songs
That whisper in my ears
Still crazy after all these years
Oh, still crazy after all these years

Four in the morning
Crapped out
Yawning
Longing my life away
I'll never worry
Why should I?
It's all gonna fade

Now I sit by my window
And I watch the cars
I fear I'll do some damage
One fine day
But I would not be convicted
By a jury of my peers
Oh, still Crazy
Still Crazy
Still Crazy after all these years