I made the mistake of listening to an oldies station on my way home from work last night. Now, I’ve got Carley Simon’s You’re So Vain going through my head, over and over and over and over again. This happens a lot, so ordinarily it’s no big deal. But there is something about this song that really bugs me.
The chorus says “You’re so vain, you probably think this song is about you. Don’t ya?” and then she goes on to sing about how horrible this guys is! Everything in this song is about the vain guy, except that cyrptic part about her dreams being clouds in her coffee (What the Hell does that mean?).
Of course, the song is about him!!! He might be vain, but thinking that a song, that refers to him about a dozen times, is about him doesn’t make him vain. What other conclusion could he possibly have?
“Don’t ya? Don’t ya? Don’t ya?” How do you argue with a woman like that? She’s lucky James Taylor didn’t strangle her in her sleep.
This is worse than the time Gene Pitney’s “Town Without Pity” haunted me for an entire month!
(This is difinitely the most mundane and pointless post I’ve ever made.)
I don’t think that I can take it
Cuz it took so long to bake it
And I’ll never have that recipe again!!!
Oh nooo!!!
http://www.madpoet.com
“I never meant to hurt you,” you said,
And buried yourself in lies instead.
Next time I would rather be slain,
Than forced to bear your mercy again.
My sister told me once that she read somewhere (sounds like a UL, don’t it?) that Carley Simon originally wrote that song about her son, but the lyrics were completely different. Supposedly, the execs didn’t think the song would be a hit so a new batch of lyrics was whipped up. The “clouds in my coffee” line is supposed to be the only line to survive from the song’s original incarnation.
I always imagined she’d just dumped some cream in her coffee and was watching clouds of it swirl around in the cup as she stirred it.
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
Maybe it’s a personality type that only women have to put up with, but I always sympathized with Carly on this song. I’ve known a few of the “world revolves around me” types. I imagine that she dated one that thought every song she wrote was about him. :blech: Warren and Mick both fit this profile (don’t know about Wayne).
Most reviews of “You’re So Vain” that I’ve seen say its either about Mick Jagger or Warren Beatty.
A couple of years ago, Sheryl Crow had a big hit with “My Favorite Mistake”. According to her, this song was inspired by Carly Simon’s song. So when people would ask Sheryl Crow, “Who is ‘My Favorite Mistake’ about?”, she would always answer, “Either Mick Jagger or Warren Beatty”.
That song was released when I was a little kid. I remember liking it a lot (still do, in fact), but being confused as hell, and wondering why in the world she’d have clowns in her coffee.
MadPoet and smug: see the I Hate Coldfire thread. You two are next.
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Whitetho: That didn’t stop people from saying that Sheryl Crow’s song was really about Eric Clapton. Now, whether Eric Clapton was vain enough to think the song was about him, I don’t know.
I always heard Warren Beatty was the vain one for Carly Simon.
But getting back to the OP, I think the Bear has a point. You just know that when Warren Beatty hears this song he thinks “Boy that Mick Jagger must have been a lamer. Good thing Carly loved me.” And when Mick Jagger hears it he thinks “That’s right baby. Stick it to old Warren. I know you didn’t really love anybody but me.” They’re both so vain they probably think the song isn’t about them.