Still Crazy After All These Songs
Background: Despite the title of this blog, the inspiration for it came as I was listening to the song “Losing My Mind” by Maroon 5, and it got me thinking: What are some other songs that reference being crazy? Of course, between my songwriting and my love of puns, I’m all about phrasing things in different ways to still get at the same concept. So I present to you this blog (with a few omissions, accounted for in a separate playlist) all about people who have lost it in one way or another.
“Still Crazy After All These Years” by Paul Simon
Lyrically: My fellow board member, Joe Matthews and I were talking about Paul Simon at some point, and given the thematic nature of my blog, I don’t get around to fawning over his work nearly as often as I should (but check out my Famous First Drafts, Oxymorons, Outdated Visuals blogs for some of that fawning). “Still Crazy After All These Years” sees the narrator running into an old flame at a bar, and if this were a Minnesota Mike song, the narrator probably would have thrown a drink in this person’s face. But instead, it takes on the feel of Springsteen’s “Glory Days,” seeing the two reminisce about old times. Rather than pointing fingers, the implication is that they’ve both matured, at least enough to recognize their mistakes, and that they are, as the title says, “Still crazy after all these years.”
If I were to just look at this title, not knowing the song, I’d assume the tune was about two people who had been married forever, and this was their tagline after being together for so long. But putting it in this context, where two people who used to be together are now able to laugh about the past makes the song work even better. The most interesting part about it is the lack of detail in the song. It never actually says what they talked about, it’s just that they talked until 4 AM.
Melodically: The song is written in the key of G major, but contains multiple key changes and complex harmonies that I’m not super qualified to discuss here. Instead, you should check out this video that breaks the song down (embedded below in the blog and linked in the description of the vlog). Instrumentally, the song contains piano (a Fender Rhodes), woodwinds, strings, bass, drums, and tenor sax.
Structurally: The song uses a verse, verse, middle 8, verse structure (a jazz standard arrangement of AABA, with the B being the middle 8), with the tagline of “Still crazy after all these years” coming at the end of each verse. The lyrics and the structure play hand in hand in this song. As I mentioned in the lyrics section, there’s no actual mention of anything specific that they said or did while they were together. It’s almost like a scene in a movie where two people meet for dinner, they start talking, but some incidental music is playing in the background, so we can’t hear what they’re saying. And yet, the structure of the song paints such a vivid picture of these two, allowing us to think about what they might have said to each other, without it actually being said. The structure allows for our imaginations to get carried away, and even though the focus is on the time spent, we don’t come away feeling like we wasted 3:24 of our lives.
You can listen to “Still Crazy After All These Years”, which is embedded below.
2. “Losing My Mind” by Maroon 5
Lyrically: “Losing My Mind” sees the narrator trying to figure out how to live without his ex. In the first line, we can tell this person has absolutely no idea what to do, when he says, “It’s so hard to find you, I’m standing right behind you,” and adds to his adjustment problems, by adding, “The streets are much colder, must mean I’m getting older.” This tune is all about denial, even though he knows something is up. In the chorus, he says, “I parked my car outside your house, hope that someday you’ll come home, seems the woman that I love is someone that I hardly know.”
Another common theme throughout this song is the idea of freedom. Jason Isbell put out an album a handful of years ago called Something More Than Free, and there’s no title track, so my mind has been fascinated with this concept ever since. In the first verse of the Maroon 5 song, the narrator closes by saying, “Now I’ve got my freedom don’t I?” and at the end of the chorus, he says, “After all this time I’ve finally found a place to be alone – I’m terrified, I think that I may be losing my mind.”
There’s also a subtle nod to this theme in the opening line of the chorus: he contrasts the word “House” with the concept of “Home.” Now, this has become a complete cliche within songwriting, “Home is whenever I’m with you,” but even if this song had come out after that idea became cliche, there’s something so different about the way it’s phrased that just makes it stand out more. I will discuss some more lyrics in the structure section.
Melodically: The intro uses Dm7, B, Am, and Gm7. With the song written in Bb major, this is a iii, I, vi, vi pattern, and is followed by FM7, Am7/E, Am7, and Dm7, a V, vii, iii pattern. The verses use Dm7, Bb, Am7, and Gm7, a iii, I, vii, vi pattern, followed by FM7, Am, Am7, and Dm7, a V, vii, iii pattern. The chorus uses F, Bbm, C7, a V, i, II pattern, played 4 times, before ending on the F (the V). The bridge uses F, Dm, Am, and F, played twice, except the second time around, they throw in a Dm/C after the first Dm. This is a V, iii, vi, V pattern. The verses use an AABB rhyme scheme, meaning the end of one line rhymes with the end of the next line each time through.
That simplicity lends itself well to the plodding along of the narrator, but even with that, it could get monotonous for the listener. It still works because there’s no resolve within the verses. I mentioned how that happens lyrically, but the first part of the verses ends on the vi chord, and the second part ends on the subdominant iii chord – we want more, but the narrator says we’ll get nothing and like it (this also happens at the end of the bridge, which ends on the iii as well). The chorus ends the first half on the II chord (think of the feeling of uneasiness we have at the end of each section of “I Started a Joke,”) and then it ends on the V chord, which creates even more tension. The resolve of going back to the tonic doesn’t even happen until the third chord of the verse. The most prominent instrument in the song’s verses is piano, but the guitar comes in during the chorus. Drums can be heard throughout, as can bass.
Structure: In my first blog, I talked about Maroon 5’s “Until You’re Over Me,” which made me, in the spirit of this blog, go crazy, because the title of the song came in during the bridge, rather than the chorus, which I didn’t know you could do. This song’s structure also made me go wild. A verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus structure is nothing out of the ordinary, but what makes the bridge work exceptionally well is the fact that he holds onto the last note/word (“Go,” which is sung on the F) just long enough to make it sound different from the beginning of the chorus (“I”, sung on the F as well), but the fact that the bridge ends where the chorus begins, with the same chord, just makes the transition seamless. When I tell people I have no formal training in songwriting, I always tell them I’ve just studied songs over the years and analyzed what makes them work. That analysis started with the two songs I mentioned in this section. But this one is a song I was obsessed with for a good long while within my own writing.
You can see for yourself below!
3. “Psycho Killer” by Talking Heads
Lyrically: Talking Heads 77, the band’s debut, had the concept of encouraging people to take charge of their own life, and “Psycho Killer” is sung from the perspective of someone who is still in control of their inner thoughts, or at least wants to be. They’re “tense and nervous,” “can’t relax,” and “can’t face the facts,” and they’re unable to sleep because their “bed’s on fire.” They also realize that they can’t have a good conversation with anyone. It’s interesting, because the song is called “Psycho Killer,” but there’s nothing indicating that the person is actually a killer. It feels like that’s more of a metaphor for anxiety they’re feeling. Your first album’s job isn’t to be the best album you ever release, but to give the listeners a glimpse into what you and/or your band is capable of as artists. The appropriately manic-sounding delivery of “Psycho Killer” was a glimpse into David Byrne’s vocal delivery, which would be a staple of Talking Heads throughout their run. (This also includes some randomly thrown in French words, in addition to the normal stream of consciousness delivery we know him for).
Melodically: The song alternates between Am and G within the verses, a I, VII pattern, given that the song is written in A minor. The first chorus uses F, G, Am, F, G, and C, a VI, bVII, i, bVI, bVII, bIII pattern, and ends on the F and the G (the bVI and bVII chords). The last chorus uses Bm, G, A, and G (the ii, bVII, I, and bVII chords). The back and forth nature of the narrator’s thoughts within the song lends itself well to the transition from the bVII chord and back to the I chord, and the climb up from the bVI to the I, followed by the unexpected bVI, bVII, bIII progression (ending with uneasiness and having the second time around not end on the I), provides us with kind of an unexpected thing. Instrumentally, the song contains guitar, drums, keyboards, and bass guitar, with Tina Weymouth’s bass guitar standing out as we listen.
Structurally: The song uses a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, chorus format. In previous blogs, we have discussed the idea of putting so much detail in two verses that you don’t need a third. That’s not the case here, but it’s kind of an “I could go all day if you’d let me” scenario, where two verses paints us just enough of a picture to let us in on this person’s inner thoughts, without overwhelming us and turning us into this person – because he’s supposed to be an outsider who’s trying to run away from himself. Someone we can sympathize with, but not empathize with.
You can listen to “Psycho Killer” below.
4. “Mad Hatter” by Melanie Martinez
Lyrically: I tried my best with this blog to not repeat the word “Crazy” in any song after the first one, and instead fill it up with synonyms for the word. And while I normally reserve the last song in a blog to go in a different direction than the others, this tune actually summarizes everything we’ve chatted about. In “Mad Hatter”, the narrator talks about how her friends “Don’t walk, they run” and “Skinny dip in rabbit holes for fun.” She alludes to Alice in Wonderland, saying they “Get drunk with the blue caterpillar," and in the chorus, rattles off synonyms for being crazy: “I’m nuts! Baby I’m mad, craziest friend that you ever had. You think I’m a psycho, you think I’m gone. Tell the psychiatrist that something is wrong,” and ends by saying, “So what if I’m crazy? The best people are.” In the second verse, she alludes even more to Alice in Wonderland, in talking to her doctor, telling them they can be Alice and she’ll be the Mad Hatter. I initially had another song planned as my 4th one, but when that didn’t work out, I stumbled upon this one and smiled when I started reading the lyrics. It’s a delightful song you can immediately attach to, because let’s face it – we’re all a little crazy!
Melodically: The song is in Gm but can be played on guitar with the capo on the third fret. Relative to the capo, the intro uses Em, Am, C, and B. With the song written in Gm, this is a i, iv, VI, V pattern, which gets played twice. After that, this pattern gets repeated throughout the entire song, except an instrumental break, which uses Em and Bsus2. Instrumentally, the song contains synthesizers, drums, and piano. There’s also what sounds like a toy keyboard that gets played at the beginning and never gets returned to again, similar to the piano in “The Reason” by Hoobastank.
Structurally: The song uses a verse, pre-chorus, chorus, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, instrumental break, chorus format. I promise I didn’t do this on purpose, but a recurring theme in these songs we’re talking about seems to be a choice to not get too bogged down in details. “Losing My Mind” might be the only exception, but even then, there are just quick examples. The choice in this song to frontload the first verse with examples and then have the rest of the song be acceptance of herself (and the encouragement for anyone who might think she’s weird, medically or otherwise), to hop on the crazy train too, makes the song fun, rather than being anything else.
You can listen to “Mad Hatter” below.
Crazy:
