Sunday, April 08, 2007

Number 635 - Carly Simon


Number 635

Carly Simon

"You're So Vain"

(1972)
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................Genre: Singer/Songwriter...............
With this song there is so much myth about its origin that to this day we still don't know if its Warren Beatty or who? I can tell you however it was not me, but if it was, hey, i would tell you. All in all it was a big song of the time in '72 and it gave this certain girl... Carly Simon.... a break into the big world. It is a classic and it is still to this day, whether it be Mr Beatty or Mr B Pitt or even me Mr C Barred is still a wonderful song. So Miss Simon, was the song about Warren or Robert? I see, can nether confirm or deny huh?
Who's so vain? Not Carly!
Carly Simon's best album, No Secrets was also her commercial breakthrough, topping the charts and going gold, along with its leadoff single, "You're So Vain." That song set the album's saucy tone, with its air of sexually frank autobiography ("You had me several years ago/When I was still quite naïve") and its reflections on the jet-set lifestyle. But Simon's honesty meant that her lyrical knife was double-edged; now that she felt she had found true love ("The Right Thing to Do," another Top Ten hit, was her celebration of her relationship with James Taylor), she was as willing to acknowledge her own mistakes and regrets as she was to point fingers. But it wasn't only Simon's forthrightness that made the album work; it was also Richard Perry's simple, elegant pop/rock production, which gave Simon's music a buoyancy it previously lacked. And Perry paid particular attention to Simon's vocals in a way that made her more engaging (or at least less grating) to listen to. ~ [William Ruhlmann]

For James Taylor see #820
For Pretenders see #466

Did you know........
  • Warren Beatty elder sister of three years is the actress and writer Shirley MacLaine born Shirley MacLean Beaty?
  • Simon provided the voice of "Marie" in a 1995 episode of Frasier entitled "Roz in the Doghouse".
  • Preferrs to perform barefoot, saying she is more comfortable that way
  • In an effort to make Simon more comfortable while performing, an entire 1988 episode of Late Night With David Letterman was broadcast from a hotel room at the Milford Plaza in New York
  • During the 1990s the New York press reported on a supposed incident between Simon and the Pretenders' lead singer, Chrissie Hynde, at a Joni Mitchell concert at New York's Fez Club. The verbal confrontation between the two led to Simon's exit from the concert after a noisy Hynde insulted Simon. Some reports have Hynde grabbing Simon around the neck and punching her although a publicist for Hynde has said that Hynde was just hugging Simon
  • Did you fight with Chrissie Hynde?
    One of the downsides of the Internet is that misinformation stays up there forever. Whenever I do a search on "Carly Simon", I inevitably get a link to a story about you and Chrissie Hynde getting into a fight at a concert. So I'm wondering what really happened between you & Chrissie Hynde at the Fez several years ago when Joni Mitchell played there?
    Markly - Shoreline, Washington
    Well, Chrissie was a bit intoxicated and was yelling out during Joni's performance which needless to say, everybody wanted to hear. Chrissie was sitting right next to me and I asked her to be a little quieter. No one else would have dared say that to her, but me, stupid me, didn't know it was Chrissie.
    She started choking me in a loving way, saying: "you're great too Carly, get up there, you need to do this too". Very nice, the only problem being that it was right in the middle of Joni's song and people were looking at US. So I moved seats. That's all it was about. I must say that her choking me in 'fun intoxication' looked to a lot of the audience like a fight. It was not. I just couldn't believe that no one was interceding and saying anything to her. I love her music and respect her as an artist. It was just one of those things. Go figure

    Love Carly Simon     - 4/10/02”
What does Rolling Stone think about Carly Simon
Carly Simon's third album comes handsomely dressed by super-producer Richard Perry and boasts many illustrious helpers. In the degree of its intelligence and forthrightness it is the equal of its predecessors. Regardless of the quality of her songs—they range from fair to excellent—everything Carly does is likable for her radiant vocal personality. She has the whitest of white voices and uses it well, singing full throat with faultless enunciation. Her almost literal note-for-note phrasing of songs is uniquely ingenuous.

The obvious highlight of No Secrets is the hit single, "You're So Vain," an affectionately high-spirited putdown of a male chauvinist glamour boy: "Well I hear you went up to Saratoga and your horse naturally won/Then you flew your Learjet up to Nova Scotia/To see the total eclipse of the sun/You're where you should be all the time and when you're not/You're with some underworld spy or the wife of a close friend...." A medium-paced rocker with a good tune, it climaxes with a sardonic chorus, which has Mick Jagger singing unison backup: "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you." Though the idea of Carly and Mick singing together sounds incongruous, the combination turns out to be inspired alchemy, especially bracing if heard through headphones.

Just as direct and personal is Carly's childhood fantasy of her father, "Embrace Me, You Child": "At night in bed I heard God whisper lullabies/While Daddy next door whistled whiskey tunes/And sometimes when I wanted they would harmonize/There was nothing that those two couldn't do." Two songs with lyrics by Jacob Brackman—"The Carter Family" and "It Was So Easy"—also look back nostalgically toward youthful innocence. With the exception of "You're So Vain," Carly's lyrics are stronger than her tunes. But what finally makes No Secrets so refreshing is her singing, which conveys the finest spirit of patrician generosity. ~ [RS 125 - STEPHEN HOLDEN]

For Mick Jagger see #396, #689, #767

Need more information on the song "You're So Vain"? Here are some SongFacts for you to ponder over! Click here > Fact Stuff

Official Website for Carly Simon @ This addy & for other Information/Biography click this link > Here ~ crowbarred [because power is knowledge]

Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs ranked this song at Number (No way!) and the Album ranked at (We dont want to end up in one of her songs. Scandal)

This song has a Definitive 1000 rating of 71 out of 108


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posted by crowbarred at 9:41 pm

2 Comments:

Blogger Rod Warner said...

...just passing through... great idea! And a lot of hard work... I'll return again... good luck!

6:25 am  
Blogger crowbarred said...

Thank you very much!

8:49 pm  

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