"You're So Vain" by Carly Simon (1972)

Dance song of the day - August 12, 2024

This week we’re focusing on the rise of women singer-songwriters in the late sixties and early seventies and profiling one of their big hits.

Normally I would include the phenomenal Carole King, but I’ve already devoted a Creator post to her, as well as included her hit “It’s Too Late” in my Tune Tag with Brad Kyle on Front Row & Backstage. So please read about Carole in those posts.

We might want to view the songs I’ve chosen this week as the female version of rock ’n’ roll blues or country you-done-me-wrong songs. ‘Chicks’ finally unleashed by the women’s movement, sounding off and grappling for control (or revenge), no longer the taken-for-granted victims. Delicious.

Today we’re covering a really fun and kickass song and the intrigue-filled story behind it. I think this story says a lot about what the entertainment (film and music) community was like at that time, judging by some autobiographies I’ve been reading, and also provides an interesting insight into how songs can be written.

I’m taking this story from the excellent book Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon — and the Journey of a Generation by Sheila Weller (2008).

Song of the day

Carly Simon hailed from a prominent family — her dad was co-founder of the publishing company Simon & Schuster — but this in no way exempted or protected her from the slings and arrows of life. She had both dyslexia and a severe stutter as a child, and in the absence of a treatment that worked, had turned to singing and songwriting as a way to have a voice and express herself.

Her looks, talent, and burgeoning success also failed to exempt her from being used by famous men. The title for the song “You’re So Vain” at the time she brought it to her producer, Richard Perry, had been “Ballad of a Vain Man,” an homage of sorts to a tune she loved by Bob Dylan called “Ballad of a Thin Man.”

The song captured her feelings about the string of men in the film and music industries with whom she’d been involved, and whose attentions she had experienced not as sexually liberated flings but as “‘wrenching emotional affairs’.” Particularly egregious was “‘this thing that [Jack] Nicholson and [Warren] Beatty had where they find a new girl and then they want to share her as a male bonding thing, that passed-on feeling” captured in one of the key lines of the song about the guy giving away what he loved, including her. Apparently this “clique of cocky, hip, filmmaking — and girl trading — bachelors who often ‘walked into’ Hollywood parties, together or separately, with yacht-boarding entitlement and aplomb” extended to directors and producers. Carly was hurt, offended, and ready to strike back.

The song developed over a year’s time as she captured ideas and song fragments in her journal. One of these happened on a flight when keyboardist Billy Mernit pointed out to her the shape of “clouds in my coffee.” The lines that would become the song’s title and chorus popped into her head when she was contemplating revenge (see the lyrics here), and she jotted them down without knowing whether or how she would use them. The key images and details in the song — the man checking himself out in the mirror, twirling his scarf, being fawned over by women who wanted to be his partner — struck her at a party in L.A. when a man walked in with an attitude that caused her to think “A-ha! Those lines are about him!” The rest of the song came quickly after that.

Although Richard Perry knew it was a hit the first time she played it for him, Carly believes that Mick Jagger played a big part in its success. Mick was reportedly besotted with Carly and came at her request to do uncredited vocals during recording of the album (No Secrets) in London. “‘I honestly credit Mick with making my entire career,’ Carly says, ‘because his voice was so important on “You’re So Vain” — the sound, the mystery of who the song was about: it had a lot to do with Mick.’”

Also notable is the opening lick by bassist Klaus Voormann that immediately grabs the listener’s attention — something that Richard Perry seized upon when he heard Klaus using it to warm up his fingers — as well as Jim Gordon’s perfect drumming.

Let’s listen to the song, and then we’ll finish with the mystery behind it.

So who was the song about? Warren Beatty publicly claimed that it was about him and even called Carly to thank her for immortalizing him in song. Carly has confirmed that the second verse is about him, but not the other verses. One of them is about a David, with speculation that it’s David Bowie or David Cassidy. In terms of the other verse…

Over 50 years later the mystery continues, and the song that went to the top of the charts in many countries and brought Carly multiple Grammy nominations continues to be popular. Methinks Carly got her revenge in spades with this evergreen song.

Song credits

Songwriter - Carly Simon

Producer - Richard Perry

Musicians:

• Carly Simon – lead vocals, acoustic piano, string arrangement

• Jimmy Ryan – guitars

• Klaus Voormann – bass

• Jim Gordon – drums

• Richard Perry – percussion

• Paul Buckmaster – orchestration

The Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger contributed uncredited backing vocals.