And now a thought from Jason...

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atreides

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Isn't the song actually about him though?

*In reference to the song You're So Vain by Carly Simon

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atreides said:
Isn't the song actually about him though?
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Yes, it is. So he is not really vain if he thinks the song is about him, he is realistic. She is bitter he left her, so she is devising ways to make him look bad. Classic covert aggression :cool2:
 
So, what did I miss? I thought the song was rather an interesting protrayal of psychopathic like behaviour (check out the last four lines). What makes it so interesting is that it could 'relate' to the behaviour of all the following:
'souled' (maybe of STS orientation, but who can tell), OP or psychopath.

Perhaps the song is really about an enigma? Is the woman singing the song respresentative of a person who has finally 'seen' and feels 'liberated' and actually quite amused as she sees the 'antics' of her ex-lover, or is it, as Irini suggested, classic covert aggression? I suppose that would depend, too, on the type of person singing it. As in what is she trying to 'say'? Personally, I think she has finally 'seen' something about this person which is childish, obsessively selfcentered and ultimately will be destructive. But, that's just me :)

Have a look at the lyrics, I find it an interesting song as it 'attacks' the 'ego' of steriotypical 'playboy' type in an era when maybe it wasn't 'fashionable' to do so. To my mind, this woman was used for sex by a much more sophisicated person and chose to mock her ex-boyfriend's behaviour - which she finally understood.

Maybe I'm completely mistaken here, because I must admit to be pretty much completely bamboozeled by a lot of atreides remarks, but then, you get that... so, too bad...

You walked into the party like you were walking onto a yacht
Your hat strategically dipped below one eye
Your scarf it was apricot
You had one eye on the mirror as you watched yourself gavotte
And all the girls dreamed that theyd be your partner
Theyd be your partner, and...

Youre so vain, you probably think this song is about you
Youre so vain, Ill bet you think this song is about you
Dont you? dont you?

You had me several years ago when I was still quite naive
Well you said that we made such a pretty pair
And that you would never leave
But you gave away the things you loved and one of them was me
I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee
Clouds in my coffee, and...

I had some dreams they were clouds in my coffee
Clouds in my coffee, and...
Well I hear you went up to saratoga and your horse naturally won
Then you flew your lear jet up to nova scotia
To see the total eclipse of the sun
Well youre where you should be all the time
And when youre not youre with
Some underworld spy or the wife of a close friend
Wife of a close friend, and...
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I think the catch is that whoever is vain will think it is about him...
 
Hmm, you have a point on that. And I think there is a clue in the song, the clouds in the coffee :) After all, coffee wakes you up etc. The only time you get clouds in your coffee is when you pour in milk, which has it's own kind of symbology.

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Strange, I having this very conversation the other day when this song was on the radio. The girl I was talking to was called Carly, but I didn't know until now the name of the singer.
 
For those who don't know this song, you can listen to the song with RealPlayer on Carly Simons website:

http://www.carlysimon.com/vain/vain.html

Edit: I just bought this song and others from Carly two months ago. Because of the internet I am able now to find music I always liked, but never knew who made the music.

For example, during my studies in the 80s I listened music in the radio and once they played a song that didn't go out of my mind. It was a monolog about a woman calling her husband or friend on Mars to tell him that she feels alone and how she misses him. She looses the connection to mars and tells then to the operator that she will try to call again NEXT YEAR.

So last year after some searching for "next year" I found out that the name of the band was "Rah Band" and the title "Clouds Across the Moon" and now I can even find a silly youtube video of this song :).
 
Wow, I didn't realize this was such a widespread discussion. :) Seems it's been going on since the 70s and Simon is keeping pretty mum on the subject.
 
atreides said:
Wow, I didn't realize this was such a widespread discussion. :) Seems it's been going on since the 70s and Simon is keeping pretty mum on the subject.
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Yeah, the buzz on it for a while in the seventies was that she was singing about Warren Beatty, who she had a brief fling with, but there have been other theories as well.

;)
 
Yeah, supposably it was mick jagger too.

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Several candidates, listed here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You're_So_Vain

I suppose you could always ask the person who wrote the song, rather than the one who perfomed it.
http://www.songwritersdirectory.com/artistpage.cfm?writerid=1667

Many times the people who perform the song didn't write them.
 
atreides said:
Yeah, supposably it was mick jagger too.

Brought to you by Carl's Jr.
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Mick Jagger sings backup, at least according to a CBC radio music program I listened to a few years ago. I was surprised. And the rumour going around back when the song first came out was that it was Cat Stevens who is the subject of the song. :cool2:
 
the buzz on it for a while in the seventies was that she was singing about Warren Beatty
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supposably it was mick jagger too.
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And the rumour going around back when the song first came out was that it was Cat Stevens
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There was yet another rumor that it was James Taylor. I read an article where she said the person has an 'e' and an 'a' in their name - or some thing like that. It was also suggested the song was a composite of a bunch of the men she's known - although perhaps meant for some more than others.
 
I'm going with what Laura wrote, if you think the song is about you then the lyrics were meant for you.
 
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