The 1975 song Paul Simon thought was far “darker than people think”
The surface can be deceptive in the world of music, particularly when it comes to a master craftsman like Paul Simon.
The diminutive New Yorker is a true artist, not content with simply writing pretty melodies with words that don’t strain to rhyme, like his hero Cole Porter, he’s a firm believer that there should be a marriage between the music and the meaning. Sometimes, this marriage can also be a thrilling deception, revealing postmodernist depth when you glance at the lyric sheet.
Yet, there was one song where he feared that sense of juxtaposition was missed by the masses, and he worried that he had written “the wrong lyric” as a result. While 1975’s classic ‘Still Crazy After All These Years’ might have been a gorgeous track that captured a scene of city lights and reconciliations, the lyric sheet is far darker upon further inspection.
“The song is a bit darker than people think,” he told Q. “Because the chorus and the phrase are so suggestive of a long time passing, it has a touch of the ‘Auld Lang Syne’ to it.” In reality, this is no ‘long time no see’ tale of reminiscence and reverie over a few casual beers. The melody might be luscious and candlelit, but the protagonist is bruised and battered.
He doesn’t “tend to socialise”, he sticks to his “old familiar ways”, and he sits in his darkened apartment watching “the cars” and fearing that he’ll “do some damage” one of these days. The double meaning of the title is, in fact, that the heartbroken man at the heart of the tryst is attempting to cling to his sanity. In truth, the scene is less candelit and more like the classic scene that unfurls in Fargo.
“I don’t think people pay attention to the lyrics of the song,” Simon contested. In part, that’s because of how beautiful it is and how quickly your mind is flooded with images from the truly evocative opening line: “I met my old lover on the street last night”. Not only is it a classic opening when it comes to storytelling, but it is also a masterstroke of psychological conditioning.
Interestingly, at the time, Simon’s own love life was fraught. His first marriage to Peggy Harper was on the brink of divorce. His collaboration with Art Garfunkel was also in ruin. Was he contemplating loneliness and a tragic descent?
While there’s certainly no suggestion that he was clinging to sanity, cosying up to this disposition gave him a starting point that ties into his philosophy on songwriting, which he described as thus: “It’s very helpful to start with something that’s true.”
Simon continued, “If you start with something that’s false, you’re always covering your tracks. Something simple and true, that has a lot of possibilities, is a nice way to begin.”
Perhaps that’s also why ‘Still Crazy After All These Years’ is so misunderstood: at the outset, the tale is so utterly relatable.
