Still Crazy After All These Years

Paul Simon

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: October 1975
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B000002LBY
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #39,711 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording
Paul Simon's third solo album unifies the varied threads running through its predecessors--confessional ballads, wily story songs, agnostic spirituals and snapshots of modern life, circa 1975, are extensions of the models on his self-titled debut and--There Goes Rhymin' Simon. Here, Simon and producer Phil Ramone establish a more cohesive, explicitly urban setting that burnishes the artist's acoustic folk accents to spotlight his sophistication as an inventive composer and, as always, deft wordsmith. Included is his last great collaboration with Art Garfunkel, the bittersweet "My Little Town," a pop gospel romp with Phoebe Snow on "Gone at Last," and the sly adulterer's solution of "Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover" (arguably the antithesis of Willie Dixon's classic "29 Ways"), along with the tender "I Do It for Your Love" and the woozy, dissolute "Have a Good Time." Best of all, of course, is the brilliant title song, shifting from anecdotal verse to soaring bridge and colored by keening strings and Phil Woods's knowing tenor-sax solo. Simon was crazy, like a fox. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We're not crazy, this is an essential album, October 29, 2000

By	Eric V. Moye (New York, by way of Dallas) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Brilliant work. One of Rhymin' Simon's best.

It surely rocks in a very religious sense, with his foray into Gospel with Phoebe Snow and the Jesse Dixon Singers in the collaboration on "Gone At Last". It is gentle, in the teasing collaboration with Art Garfunkel in "My Little Town" and reflective in the title cut. I recall going to a Simon concert right when this came out, and the rumor here was that Art was going to show up in Dallas that very night! Of course, the same rumor spread through Boston the night before, Chicago the night before that, and every other town on that tour.

It is well advised to call this an "essential". It is. Simon's vocals have never sounded better. His song writing is at its thought provoking best. In the CD jukebox for the desert island, this must make the playlist!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Perfect Paul Simon Album!, September 2, 2000

By	Barron Laycock "Labradorman" (Temple, New Hampshire United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

As with the album released before this, "Rhyming Simon", this album represented Paul Simon's realization of his full abilities hinted at in previous albums both with Simon and Garfunkel and then as a solo artist. This album provocatively showcases Simon's unique talents and creative interests with an eclectic, wide-ranging, and gorgeously produced solo effort. From the haunting rhythms and wry lyrics of "Still Crazy After All These Years" to the tender and sensitive emotions expressed so well in "My Little Town" sung with Art Garfunkel", we sense more than a little autobiographical influence in all the songs. Simon's lyrical genius is displayed in spades here, from "Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover" to "Have A Good Time " to the joyous "Gone At Last", sung with Phoebe Snow, and we can tell that this is an artist in full bloom and enjoying his singular ability to deliver a wide range of songs with a panorama of emotions and telling personal observations so artfully expressed that it is a wonder to listen to them. This is an album one must listen to appreciate, and the new directions Simon began with this album have now stretched out in a dozen or so albums and compilations. This is a terrific album for a man who had the courage and nerve to deliberately walk away from a phenomenally successful situation as half of Simon and Garfunkel to follow his own artistic heart. I highly recommend it. Enjoy!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 70s Classic Still Essential After All These Years, September 16, 2000

By	Anthony G Pizza "trivialtony" (FL) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In his book chronicling American life during the 1970s, David Frum charted the changing relationships between sexes, decay in city life, abandonment of religious and family traditions in search of self. He added that many luxuriated themselves in music from the decade's singer/songwriters, who emotionally summed the era's self-absorbtion.

Or, in Paul Simon's case, epitomised it. "Still Crazy..." is a snapshot of mid-70s, post-hippie urban life as vivid, detailed and episodic musically and lyrically as Simon & Garfunkel statements like "Bookends" were sweeping and anthemic. Such was the low-key prescence here that Simon, upon winning a 1976 Grammy award for his work, thanked recurrent winner Stevie Wonder for not releasing an LP that year.

For this project, Simon and producer Phil Ramone gathered the royalty of what, 15 years later, became "smooth jazz." Bob James arranged strings on several tracks. Percussionist Ralph McDonald and drummers Grady Tate and Steve Gadd (his drums kick-start "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover") turn in stellar work (McDonald later played on "Saturday Night Fever.") David Sanborn and Michael Brecker turn in fine sax solos. (Brecker, so say the liner notes, actually plays "Still Crazy" 's solo while Phil Woods contributed on the equally tasty "Have A Good Time.")

Atop this lush musical carpet, Simon laid restrained melodies and knotty vignettes on middle-aged urban life. "You're Kind" plays like a straight, dry love song until its punch line hits like a "Seinfeld" re-run. The black rainbow and deceased ballplayer in "My Little Town" and "Night Game," respectively, capture childhood's frozen, dashed dreams. But "Have A Good Time" and the title song convey a survivor mentality with sly wit missing from the Eagles' bombastic, similar-themed "Take It To The Limit."

This LP is credited with influencing New York-centric, lyrically world-weary work from Harry Chapin, Billy Joel, (who recruited McDonald and Ramone for the "Stranger" sessions) and even Woody Allen, whose "Annie Hall" featured Simon and played from a similar world-view. Joel would sell more LPs, Allen more show tickets than Simon, whose work before with Simon & Garfunkel and after with "Graceland" received more acclaim. But "Still Crazy After All These Years" remains essential to any 70s music collection and important to any study of that fascinating, transitional decade.