I’ve always heard it was Warren Beatty. James Taylor is a new one on me.
I have never understood the cryptic “clouds” reference, myself. Perhaps the lies and the insanity in the relationship left tne singer feeling so lonely and paranoid that she felt as if she were being poisoned. Who knows if we were even meant to understand it? It might be a reference to something that only Beatty would understand.
As a trivial aside, Mick Jagger sings back up with carly on the song, you can hear him clearly at the ending chorus just before fade… Maybe he thought the song was about him…
Yeah, I heard it was about Mick Jagger (and that was a long time ago that I heard that). The question is when did she write it and who had she just broken up with.
But come on, folks - the line is “I had a dream/There were clouds in my coffee”. Have you ever had a dream that made sense? She probably liked the way it sounded, or she actually had that dream while writing the song.
Actually, that could have been Mick Jagger also. Probably wore it with one of those Elvis-inspired, mirror-studded jump suits and heavy eyeliner. Mick always dressed like a fop on stage (and only slightly less restrained on other occasions).