“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”…
– words and music by Paul Simon
CALL IT serendipity or déjà vu, just this weekend while having our usual caffeine fix at Starbucks an old friend walked in.
And she asked, it’s been a long time, how have you been? And moi replied, “Still crazy after all these years.”
If there’s a certain song that sort of describes a situation in my life this probably is the one. In fact moi used the title as an answer when that old friend inquired how moi has been doing.
And here we go once more for the road…
“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.
From that free online encyclopedia a.k.a. the internet:
“Still Crazy After All These Years” begins with the singer singing that “I met my old lover on the street last night.” 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. After sharing a beer, the singer and the old lover part ways again. 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.” The lyrics acknowledge nostalgia for the past, but also subtly suggest that once the sweet nostalgia is gone, it is replaced by loneliness and even bitterness.
Moi can really relate to the first lines as decades ago sometime in the late 1980s while on an afternoon stroll in the old Makati Commercial Center moi did bump into a former girlfriend and just like in the song we had a few beers at nearby Shakey’s Greenbelt. Unlike the song we did not part ways but ended spending the night together in what was then the “Makati Townhouse Pension”.
Of course we did part ways after breakfast the morning after and that was the last moi saw of her.
Writer James Bennighof describes the song as “a faint sense of slightly demented triumph to the singer’s declaration that he wouldn’t be held responsible for his potential mayhem.”
Music critic Walter Everett considers the song’s modulation style as a reflection of the singer’s unpredictable emotional and mental state.
Rolling Stone critic Paul Nelson considered “Still Crazy After All These Years” to be the best song on the album. 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.
Paul Simon certainly didn’t invent the phrase still crazy after all these years, but he popularized it with this song. Permutations of the saying have always been floating around form centuries – still cool, still in love, etc. But just as he did with the bridge over and 50 ways to phrases, he turned it into a memorable song title.
“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.”
And here are the rest of the song’s lyrics for you to appreciate the emotions felt at that moment and they always managed to bring a certain sadness, perhaps a sense of longing.
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
Still crazy after all these years”
One of these days our paths will cross and if you ask how moi has been the reply would most probably be, “Still crazy after all these years.”/PN
