You're so Vain, I bet you think this song is about you--- IT IS!!!

What the heck is she talking about?? the song is about him!!! Is she just being metaphorical by saying he thinks the song is about him even without him knowing the lyrics? Or am i completely lost? (maybe it is about his vainess, but not him…)

It was I believe about her past tryst with Warren Beatty but I agree that it makes little sense.

Ah, sweet disillusionment.

Rumors have it that the singer of “Killing Me Softly” is not actually dying, Don McLean was actually sitting at home flogging his log the day Buddy Holly died, and the members of Kiss actually enjoy rock ‘n’ rolling only until about 2 a.m., partying every third day at most.

but… all this time I thought it was about meeeee!!!

Um… saying Don McLean has a log is a bit much. I was thinking more of a twig. Perhaps a small branch.

Very close.
Regards,
Art R. Ree

That’s just one of many famous songs whose lyrics don’t make much sense, if you give them any thought.

ANother favorite example of mine: Don Henley’s “The AGe of Innocence.” A genuine good song, except…

He sings “Just lay your head back on the ground, and let your hair fall all around me.”

Uh… can this chick’s hair defy gravity??? If she’s laying back on the ground, how is her hair supposed to fall around him? Does her hair fall UP?

Aw, c’mon.

He’s hearing the song sung but so are a bunch of other people, including, I would imagine, a decent collection of other guys that Carly Simon also once dated. But the specific guy (Warren Beatty) she’s singing about is so vain that she figures as soon as he hears her singing about a guy, he says “Ha, I bet she’s singing about me!” The other guys that it could have theoretically been about instead were probably less likely to assume that the song was about them, at least in Carly Simon’s estimation.

And so you point out that it was about him. Well duh. She can’t sing “I bet you think this song is about you, but it’s not” since that would be an unreconcilably paradoxical statement.

I suppose she could have sung “I bet someone else (e.g., Warren Beatty) thinks this song is about him, but it’s not, it’s about you” and then proceded to sing about someone she liked a lot better, but that would have been an entirely different song.

A couple of points…

“You’re so vain” is not about Warren Beatty but about Mick Jagger. Or a composite, as she explains here: http://www.carlysimon.com/vain/vain.htm

“Killing Me Softly” is about Don McLean. I don’t know if KneadToKnow is aware of that, but knowing that sure made me read the first two clauses of that sentence differently.

Umm, where on her site does she say it is about Mick Jagger? I can’t find that statement anywhere.

For years I wondered the same thing, but in the big picture could she really be singing about herself.

Not much sense there either, but think “I’m singing about my experience with you, and I just know you are so vain that you think this is all about you, it was always about you, but I’m important too”

Or something like that.

Yeah, I was going to bring up what kevja said, that the song could be about her life and her experiences…

Yeah, I’ve always heard that she’d never revealed it, that it was one of those great rock mysteries, etc. Also, why would she reveal the secret? It keeps people interested.

From JohnT’s link:

Pure Oxygen - 2000

PO: Warren Beatty or Mick Jagger?
Carly: Neither
PO: You’re kidding me?
Carly: I may be kidding you.
PO: You won’t tell?
Carly: No, I won’t tell…well, it’s certainly not, not about Warren.

So, it’s about Mick Jagger. But in the very next snip, she denies that:


Sunday Morning - 2001

Rita Braver: Everyone thinks You’re So Vain is about Mick Jagger.
Carly: Oh, they don’t really think that.
RB: Yes - they do.
Carly: Okay.
RB: Is it?
Carly: Oh, no, no, no.
RB: And then I read it might be about Warren Beatty?
Carly: Oh, you know, don’t listen to what other people tell you.
RB: Well, do you want to solve that mystery for me?
Carly: You know, I could never really solve it because if I did, then no one would have anything to talk to me about.

So, she’s coy about it.

Perhaps you oughtta read the whole page, Fingolfin?

Technically, you are right. But then, she never lets on who the song is about…

And to think I always thought she sung:

“You walked into a party like you were walking into a yard.” LOL! :wink:

Is it really that hard to figure out? You’re so vain you think this song is about you.

First of all, it’s a delicious paradox.

Second, the song IS about the vain person; he’s so vain he thinks the song is about him. That doesn’t mean the song isn’t about him.

Third, it’s a joke, son.

I always thought it was supposed to be ironic, and very cleverly so, too. As in, “You think the world revolves around you and that you’re all I can think about.” And the irony, of course, is that she wrote a whole song about him/her.

With that interpretation, it’s not so important who it’s really about; it could be about any self-important person.

Sigh

/Crash Davis/ I hate people who get the words wrong! /Crash Davis/

The song is called The End Of The Innocence. As for her hair falling all around him, the lyric actually makes more then perfect sense, you just must not be very romantic.

To continue the Don Henley hijack (and by the way, I just learned that Bruce Hornsby wrote, or at least co-wrote the thing, and plays piano on D.H.'s CD), imagine, if you will, yourself laying in the grass. Your love, with long flowing hair, lays down beside you, and her hair, blowing with the wind as she sinks to the ground, gently comes to rest around you both.

There. Done and done.