― Masked Gazza, Thursday, 10 November 2005 21:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Friday, 11 November 2005 00:56 (eighteen years ago) link
Bahahahaha.
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 11 November 2005 02:19 (eighteen years ago) link
S: "That's The Way I Always Heard It Should Be" and the cover of Playing Possum. And of course "You're So Vain."
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 11 November 2005 02:23 (eighteen years ago) link
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 11 November 2005 02:24 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Friday, 11 November 2005 02:33 (eighteen years ago) link
That's one of the great unheralded rock album covers, I think. It's obviously trying to be "sexy" but so filled with accidental and contingent detail (cooing mouth, clenched fists, painfully self-conscious pose, worn boot, sliced head, revealed ass, visible edge of slightly curled backdrop) it's ultimately as cryptic as it is sexy.
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 11 November 2005 02:33 (eighteen years ago) link
― Mrs. Genius McGuruchakra (and her secret knowledge) (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 11 November 2005 02:40 (eighteen years ago) link
http://www.bluebeat.com/i/a/l/l5034.jpg
― Mrs. Genius McGuruchakra (and her secret knowledge) (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 11 November 2005 02:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 11 November 2005 03:17 (eighteen years ago) link
Well put. Always been intrigued by that cover...and not simply because of the sexiness.
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 11 November 2005 03:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― etc, Friday, 11 November 2005 04:15 (eighteen years ago) link
Yeah that's the one! That song's on that one isn't it?
― Bimble The Nimble, Jumped Over A Thimble! (Bimble...), Friday, 11 November 2005 04:18 (eighteen years ago) link
http://s63.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=03KN23ZWEJ1FR1BV3L7X614NTA
― Mon Star2 (hydraulis2), Sunday, 13 November 2005 10:58 (eighteen years ago) link
"Coming Around Again" was the theme to Heartburn -- Nora Ephron's movie based on her fictionalized book about her marriage to Carl Bernstein. Both are guilty pleasures.
Also, the lyrics of "Nobody Does It Better" were written by Carole Bayer Sager...
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Sunday, 13 November 2005 17:53 (eighteen years ago) link
― joseph (joseph), Sunday, 13 November 2005 19:31 (eighteen years ago) link
― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Sunday, 13 November 2005 23:31 (eighteen years ago) link
― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 14 November 2005 02:01 (eighteen years ago) link
― Banana Nutrament (ghostface), Monday, 14 November 2005 02:12 (eighteen years ago) link
Me need the 7 minute version of 'Why' bad. I only found out it was produced by Chic the other week.
― blueski, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:56 (sixteen years ago) link
and I only found out that she was the lead singer on "Kissing with Confidence" about ooh.....
― Mark G, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:59 (sixteen years ago) link
no REALLY? what did they do to her voice to make it sound like that? i thought that was just a story and not true!
i'm amazed the long version of WHY isn't on the SOUP FOR ONE soundtrack from whence it came. it'll be all over $0u!$££k mind.
― pisces, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 17:19 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh I love people who love Carly. Oh yes I do. I love you guys. Holy hell.
― Bimble, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 17:25 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm going to pull out that greatest hits now. But I do have Hotcakes on vinyl, VIRGIN VINYL I wrote about it here before.
― Bimble, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 17:26 (sixteen years ago) link
But the Anticipation album is to die for. Oh yeah it is.
― Bimble, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 17:27 (sixteen years ago) link
Bimble's on an alcoholic binge again.
Got to sober up if I could stop crying. If I could just stop crying. If I could only stop. I think I'm going to put on Rush soon.
― Bimble, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 17:31 (sixteen years ago) link
LEGEND IN YOUR OWN TIME
That song is the shit, man. That is absolutely the way to go.
― Bimble, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 17:37 (sixteen years ago) link
Carly man, oh god. What I wouldn't do for Carly.
― Bimble, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 17:38 (sixteen years ago) link
I don't have the need for the pain.
― Bimble, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 17:48 (sixteen years ago) link
I dig me some carly, but i don't she was/is as talented as Judee or Joni.
― QuantumNoise, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 20:39 (sixteen years ago) link
I like-not-love "Why" -- her voice sounds like an off-key synthesizer (no, not a good thing, kids).
"You Belong To Me," however, is genius.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 21:00 (sixteen years ago) link
The late-80s stuff, not so good.
Life is eternal and love is immortal, and death is only a horizon... And a horizon is nothing, save the limit of our sight.
― Eazy, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 21:06 (sixteen years ago) link
pretty much available on every Balearic comp...EVER!...love the slowed-down drum machine, never knew Nile Rodgers was involved..."la-dee-dah" vocals predate Crystal Waters by almost a decade...
"You're So Vain" still her pinnacle..."you walked into the party like you were walking onto a yacht", what an opening line...
― henry s, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 21:14 (sixteen years ago) link
I can send "Why" to whomever wants it.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 21:23 (sixteen years ago) link
why
does this post hurt so much?
tell me why
― henry s, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 21:24 (sixteen years ago) link
Jack Nitzsche's "Carly" in which the producer slavers over her and writes a song about the experience. "That's the Way I Always Heard It Should Be" sounded like the kind of suburban angst I always wanted enough money to enjoy. she is pregnant and m-tee cute on cover of No Secrets which has some good stuff on it.
― whisperineddhurt, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 22:35 (sixteen years ago) link
not No Secrets but Hotcakes--aka Pigs in a Blanket.
― whisperineddhurt, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 22:36 (sixteen years ago) link
sometimes i think my dad only bought carly records for the covers. i don't remember him playing them that much.
man, last summer jimmy webb was recording with carly on the island and i totally wanted to sneak into the studio and have him sign my copy of wichita lineman.
i see carly all the time here. and her little dog too. her son is dreamy. so is her daughter. dreamy family all around.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 22:46 (sixteen years ago) link
sally taylor will knit you a poncho, you know. if you ask her.
http://www.sallytaylor.com/photos/poncho5.jpg
http://www.sallytaylor.com/Poncho.shtml
― scott seward, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 22:52 (sixteen years ago) link
and I only found out that she was the lead singer on "Kissing with Confidence" about ooh.....-- Mark G, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:59 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link--------------------------------------------------------------------------------no REALLY? what did they do to her voice to make it sound like that? i thought that was just a story and not true!i'm amazed the long version of WHY isn't on the SOUP FOR ONE soundtrack from whence it came. it'll be all over $0u!$££k mind.-- pisces, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 17:19 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link
-- Mark G, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 16:59 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- pisces, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 17:19 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link
No, not the deep voice talky bit, the singing bit. Hear it again, and you will go "Oh, of course it's her! It sounds exactly like her!"
― Mark G, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 01:00 (sixteen years ago) link
during the evening in which I played Kay Huntington's LP (see thread on late-'60s female singers who haven't gotten hipster kisses) to friends who became very disturbed that I had the record, let alone giggled and laughed as I played it for them, I also played some Carly Simon. I find Carly Simon soothing yet sexual in any circumstance and told them so, but no, they wanted to hear Matmos or some singer like that, not Carly, and it hurt my feelings.
― whisperineddhurt, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 01:49 (sixteen years ago) link
I do love this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW0vzGNTir4 - the cafe scenes are priceless.
― Daniel Giraffe, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 08:46 (sixteen years ago) link
She ain't sexy in that video.
― QuantumNoise, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 13:11 (sixteen years ago) link
She popped up right at the end of some kids film, singing the title song whilst being in a field, sitting on a fence, etc.
Darned if I remember anything about the film tho.
― Mark G, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 13:30 (sixteen years ago) link
Coming Around Again is amazing.
Baby sneezes Mummy pleases Daddy breezes in So good on paper So romantic But so bewildering
I know nothing stays the same But if you're willing to play the game It's coming around again So don't mind if I fall apart There's more room in a broken heart
You pay the grocer Fix the toaster Kiss the host Good-bye Then you break a window Burn the Souffle Scream the lullaby
And I believe in love But what else can I do I'm so in love with you
I know nothing stays the same But if you're willing to play the game It's coming around again
― Grandpont Genie, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 13:53 (sixteen years ago) link
is that a real poncho, or is that a Sears poncho?
Insides recorded a wonderful song called "Carly Simon" for their Euphoria LP, but it doesn't seem to be about her...
― henry s, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 13:54 (sixteen years ago) link
In my mind, Carly Simon is inexocrably linked with Rosie Vela, as Coming Around Again debuted on the chart the same week as Vela's Magic Smile in early 1987.
― Grandpont Genie, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 13:58 (sixteen years ago) link
She really did have a great voice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqxN_7B4Gao
― _Rockist__Scientist_, Sunday, 20 April 2008 14:17 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-q1x55jbbc
It's really hard to listen to this stuff, but not because I don't like it.
― _Rockist__Scientist_, Sunday, 20 April 2008 14:21 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm surprised nobody mentioned this song on this thread already.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XInYifT-H_0&NR=1
― scott seward, Tuesday, 21 June 2011 12:51 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otdWeW-EO8s&feature=related
― scott seward, Tuesday, 21 June 2011 12:52 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsVAq9GlfO4&NR=1
― scott seward, Tuesday, 21 June 2011 12:53 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht2IY6bUwPA&feature=related
― scott seward, Tuesday, 21 June 2011 12:54 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XpuHRhF66A&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHx8Q2HNpKQ&NR=1
― scott seward, Tuesday, 21 June 2011 12:55 (twelve years ago) link
this is a good one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD5K5XqaJME&feature=related
― scott seward, Tuesday, 21 June 2011 13:06 (twelve years ago) link
Seven minute WHY 12" = Best song ever?
― piscesx, Thursday, January 1, 2009 8:55 PM (2 years ago)
― The Brainwasher, Wednesday, 22 June 2011 07:40 (twelve years ago) link
― The Brainwasher, Wednesday, June 22, 2011 7:40 AM (2 months ago)
― Tracy "Assless" Chapman (The Brainwasher), Sunday, 28 August 2011 22:53 (twelve years ago) link
I heard "You're So Vain" in K-Mart today and it reminded me of the fairly pointless critique the poet Jonathan Williams did of the lyrics (I think it was some sort of 70s "people tell me that pop lyrics are today's poetry, so I will now make a travesty of some pop lyrics"), and I have to admit I was amused at vaguely remembering something like: how many eyes does this person have?
But who wants to read Jonathan Williams's boring, often quasi-concretist poetry anyway? I'd much rather listen to at least a handful of Carly Simon songs.
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 13 April 2012 22:57 (twelve years ago) link
(Worthy of more acclaim as a publisher though.)
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 13 April 2012 22:58 (twelve years ago) link
Naturally the Carly Simon thread is hilarious and awesome.
― Cunga, Friday, 13 April 2012 23:47 (twelve years ago) link
Just hearing "why" for the first time via this Daft punk spotify playlist, really nice. Is this song about James Taylor?
― More Than a Century With the Polaris Emblem (calstars), Friday, 30 August 2013 20:12 (ten years ago) link
I got to work with her in my studio-rat days and she was a sweet lady. Didn't know until then she was of the Simon & Schuster (sp?) Simons.
― That elusive North American wood-ape (Capitaine Jay Vee), Saturday, 31 August 2013 12:32 (ten years ago) link
"Why" is nice but I don't think Simon's voice and Rodgers-Edwards were a snug fit.
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 31 August 2013 12:37 (ten years ago) link
Mick Jagger is great on 'You're So Vain'
― More Than a Century With the Polaris Emblem (calstars), Saturday, 31 August 2013 15:07 (ten years ago) link
Just breaking- second verse is about Warren Beatty.
― (Don't Go Blecch To) Reddville (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 22 November 2015 14:40 (eight years ago) link
Anti-climactic, but a good story nonetheless (that I plan to walk my class through sometime this week). "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you"--that's a tautology, right?
― clemenza, Tuesday, 24 November 2015 05:15 (eight years ago) link
Think so but perhaps there is a rhetorical term that more closely captures what is going on.
― (Don't Go Blecch To) Reddville (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 24 November 2015 05:18 (eight years ago) link
That's what I was thinking, that there might be some other name for that. It's not at all a paradox, but tautology doesn't quite seem right either.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 24 November 2015 05:25 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKaaF757mIw
― The Squirrel Who Punched His Dad In The Neck (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 24 November 2015 13:58 (eight years ago) link
i like her song with chic
― wizzz! (amateurist), Tuesday, 24 November 2015 15:50 (eight years ago) link
song is catchy, but this video (or more to the point, carly's moves within it) is embarrassing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW8UnXzP3ms
― wizzz! (amateurist), Tuesday, 24 November 2015 22:29 (eight years ago) link
also, she seems such an unlikely sex symbol to me, but that was the 1970s i guess (or in this case, the early 1980s)
― wizzz! (amateurist), Tuesday, 24 November 2015 22:30 (eight years ago) link
"You Belong to Me" and "Jesse" are better songs, but I'm resigned to muttering these opinions to my fellow supermarket shoppers as we hum along in the cereal aisle.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 25 November 2015 02:13 (eight years ago) link
How do we feel about when Carly tackles the standards?
I have a love/hate thing with her version of "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" (Cole Porter), which a certain NYC radio host uses as his sign-off song every week. On first listen it sounded awkward to me, both the singing and the cheesy production, but with constant repetition it's become somewhat endearing
― Josefa, Wednesday, 25 November 2015 06:20 (eight years ago) link
My favourite Carly Simon revelation is the one about her liking to be spanked before she goes onstage.
― schlep and back trio (anagram), Wednesday, 25 November 2015 07:10 (eight years ago) link
Wow, had never seen the video for Why before. I guess my main question with that is... why?!
― she used alt+3 like an ascii heart (NickB), Wednesday, 25 November 2015 07:39 (eight years ago) link
I don't think the question about rhetorical device in "Vain" should go unanswered, hivemind to thread plz
I don't think it's a tautology, that would be more like "You're so vain because you're so vain" or "according to this song you're vain ergo you're vain"
Phrased as a paradox would be more like "You're so vain you can't imagine this song is about you"
So I dunno, I guess "absurd" or "nonsensical" would be a better term, the key weird phrase is "you probably think this song is about you", where usually the "you probably think..." construction would point to something false, here, surprisingly, it points to a truth, implied by the initial "you" and following "don't you?", adding up to a nice caricature of a person so vain that he sees himself even in such a negative description
So anyway, I think it's a play on apostrophe as a figure of speech - the vanity of the addressed person gives it a nice absurd twist
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe_%28figure_of_speech%29
but sorry if these thoughts are jumbled
― niels, Wednesday, 25 November 2015 08:59 (eight years ago) link
Thanks for trying to think through that...If the target of the song is correct, he's a) perceptive, and b) either more or less or exactly as vain as she thinks--I think that could go either way. If he's wrong, if the song's not about him, he's a) not very perceptive because b) he's even vainer than she thinks.
It's such a great line--I think it almost confounds categories.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 25 November 2015 20:27 (eight years ago) link
When I played the song for my class today, with the lyrics and the backstory, they pretty quickly picked up on the fact that Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, and Taylor Swift write songs like this all the time. I told them that they all took their cue from Carly Simon, but I'm sure there are many precedents before that (Dylan wrote a bunch of who's-he-writing-about? songs in the mid-'60s). What makes "You're So Vain" so significant is that it hit #1 and turned into a national guessing game.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 25 November 2015 20:32 (eight years ago) link
the line seems like a 'catch-22' to me, although i know that's not a classical figure of speech. the person to whom the song is addressed is damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.
and yeah that video for 'why' is... alternately horrifying and charming.
― wizzz! (amateurist), Thursday, 26 November 2015 05:32 (eight years ago) link
I thought about this some more on the way home today--I feel like it's a very important issue in 2015--and came to a similar conclusion. It's a trap, where three out of the four possibilities reflect badly on the intended target.
1) You think it's about you and you're right.2) You think it's about you and you're wrong.3) You don't think it's about you and you're right.4) You don't think it's about you and you're wrong.
1 and 2 aren't good. Either way, you're definitely vain; the second possibility makes you really vain and also clueless. 4 means you're not vain but are clueless. Only 3 is a favorable outcome.
― clemenza, Thursday, 26 November 2015 07:25 (eight years ago) link
Actually, if you're the intended target, only 1 and 4 apply. Change that to three out of the four possibilities reflect badly on everyone who's ever heard the song. Most of us--me for sure--are safe with 3. For Warren Beatty and Mick Jagger and such, much trickier.
― clemenza, Thursday, 26 November 2015 07:28 (eight years ago) link
great stuff
you reckon there's more than one you in play? since it's the same word, I'd assume it refers to same subject throughout ("you walked..." "you're so vain" "don't you?") and the song can only be about you
leaving the question: who are you? two possible answers:
1) you're warren beatty or someone else intimately familiar with carly simon - this song may be about you, and you probably think it is
2) you don't know carly simon personally, so this song isn't specifically about you - but the meaning of the song might apply to you too; if you think it does, it does
― niels, Thursday, 26 November 2015 09:20 (eight years ago) link
I feel like it's a very important issue in 2015
carly simon and her publisher sure hope so!
― wizzz! (amateurist), Thursday, 26 November 2015 09:49 (eight years ago) link
I've always wondered if "You're So Vain" isn't about any man in particular—even if there are references to specific guys (i.e. Beatty)—but all men.
― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 02:04 (six years ago) link
Keeps you Running slays https://open.spotify.com/track/4kmIcVKU595QzqULEp1OzH?si=4UbyrPlaQ1yn_wt7pdv_lAI’m tapped in 1977 and I can’t get out
― calstars, Monday, 12 November 2018 04:13 (five years ago) link
it kinda does! is it a good album?
― niels, Monday, 12 November 2018 08:09 (five years ago) link
Personally I had diminishing returns from the rest of the album, ymmv
― calstars, Monday, 12 November 2018 13:10 (five years ago) link