Still Crazy After All These Years (song)

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
"Still Crazy After All These Years"
File:Still Crazy After All These Years single cover.jpeg
Single by Paul Simon
from the album Still Crazy After All These Years
B-side "I Do It For Your Love" (US)
"Silent Eyes" (Europe)
Released March 26, 1976 (1976-03-26)
Format 7"
Genre
Length 3:24
Label Columbia
Writer(s) Paul Simon
Producer(s)
Paul Simon singles chronology
"50 Ways to Leave Your Lover"
(1975)		 "Still Crazy After All These Years"
(1976)		 "Slip Slidin' Away"
(1977)

"Still Crazy After All These Years" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. It was the third and final single from his fifth studio album of the same name (1975), released on Columbia Records. Though the song briefly reached the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S., it was a bigger hit on the magazine's Easy Listening chart, where it peaked at number four.[1]

Composition

"Still Crazy After All These Years" begins with the singer singing that "I met my old lover on the street last night."[2] The "old lover" has been variously interpreted to be 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, who appears on the song that follows 'Still Crazy After All These Years" on the album.[2][3] After sharing a beer, the singer and the old lover part ways again.[4] The singer notes that he is "not the kind of man who tends to socialize" but rather leans "on old familiar ways" and is "still crazy after all these years."[4] 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.[2]

The song features the Muscle Shoals rhythm section...Barry Beckett (fender rhodes),David Hood (bass) and Roger Hawkins,(drums).The saxophone,played by Michael Brecker, emphasizes the jazz character of the song.[2][5] Music theorist Peter Kaminsky analyzed how the key progression of the introduction to "Still Crazy After All These Years" anticipates the key progressions throughout the album.[5] The song has an AABA form, with the first, second and fourth verses sharing the same basic melody.[5] The first and second verses are primarily in the key of G major, although there are some unexpected harmonies that differ between the verses.[5] The key of the third verse, the B section, is never resolved.[5] G major returns in the final verse, but modulates to the slightly higher key of A major, which according to author James Bennighof gives "a faint sense of slightly demented triumph to the singer's declaration that he wouldn't be held responsible for his potential mayhem."[5][6] Music critic Walter Everett considers this modulation to reflect the singer's "unpredictable emotional and mental state."[6]

Reception

Rolling Stone critic Paul Nelson considered "Still Crazy After All These Years" to be the best song on the album.[7] He praises the "poignancy and openness" of the first verse and Brecker's passionate sax solo, and the fact that the song demonstrates "the fierceness of [Simon's] will."[7]

Simon has performed the song twice on the late-night comedy series Saturday Night Live. He first performed the song during the show's October 18, 1975 episode, during its first season, second season in a turkey costume shortly before Thanksgiving 1976, and again for the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special in 2015.

Charts

Chart (1976) Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[8] 10
Canada 100 (RPM)[9] 38
Canada MOR Playlist (RPM)[10] 2
US Easy Listening (Billboard)[11] 5
US Billboard Hot 100[12] 40
US Top 200 (Cash Box) 45

Notes

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ "Paul Simon – Chart history" Billboard Hot 100 for Paul Simon. Retrieved November 11, 2015.

Sources

  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Still_Crazy_After_All_These_Years_(song)&oldid=719840095"