I like every single Carly Simon song I've ever heard

My favourite Carly Simon revelation is the one about her liking to be spanked before she goes onstage.

Wow, had never seen the video for Why before. I guess my main question with that is... why?!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

I feel like it's a very important issue in 2015

carly simon and her publisher sure hope so!

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.

Keeps you Running slays
https://open.spotify.com/track/4kmIcVKU595QzqULEp1OzH?si=4UbyrPlaQ1yn_wt7pdv_lA
I’m tapped in 1977 and I can’t get out

it kinda does! is it a good album?

Personally I had diminishing returns from the rest of the album, ymmv