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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsThe really vain one in "You're So Vain..."
... is the narrator, who is so vain she thought the pigs she was singing about would think she was so special, they'd treat her differently from all the other girls.
I don't think that's exactly what Carly had in mind.
-- Mal
Paladin
(28,204 posts)malthaussen
(17,066 posts)The song is about three guys, at least. Basically, everybody in the circle she was running with at the time was like that.
Lie down with dogs, arise with fleas.
-- Mal
unblock
(51,974 posts)i suppose one could imagine she had known her love interest was a cad but thought he'd treat her differently. but if she ever thought that, calling herself naive makes it clear she no longer sees it that way. again, if she ever did in the first place.
the first and third verses are really just observations about someone else, not sure you can really pin any vanity on her there.
malthaussen
(17,066 posts)And naivete is not exactly the same as vanity. But then, "You had me several years ago when I was quite naive" is somewhat disingenuous, since it was not "several years" since the subjects of the song had her. Although some emotional occurrences can seem like years.
-- Mal
Cartoonist
(7,298 posts)While praising himself he said, "I'd better stop talking or Carly will write another one about me. "
peekaloo
(22,977 posts)Had a teenage crush on him in the '70's and bought a few of his albums.
So glad to see him still around via "The Cool Kids" although Leslie Jordan steals that show.
jodymarie aimee
(3,975 posts)it was Cat Stevens...
Power 2 the People
(2,437 posts)Yes,David Cassidy.
jodymarie aimee
(3,975 posts)Cassidy never...he was a young punk kid...do you know how old Joni is?
Power 2 the People
(2,437 posts)Crosby and Cassidy were both implicated. Cassidy was 22 at the time the song was written. Carly was 27.
In 2010, she teased us with yet another clue when she told Uncut magazine that she was planning to re-record Youre So Vain. She said that playing the new recording backwards would reveal the name. Theres a little whisper and its the answer to the puzzle, she said. One of her representatives confirmed that the whispered name was David.
A number of Davids were therefore considered: lenfant terrible David Crosby, teen idol David Cassidy, media mogul David Geffen, and gender-bending David Bowie, who she didnt even know back in 1971.
But the line "Well I hear you went to Saratoga and your horse, naturally, won" seems to point directly to Cassidy. He was a long time race horse owner who summered in Saratoga for the races.
[link:http://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/david-cassidy-passes-away/|]
jodymarie aimee
(3,975 posts)"I have confirmed that the second verse is Warren [Beatty]," Simon told People magazine. "Warren thinks the whole thing is about him!"
Simon, 70, released "You're So Vain" in 1972, around the time she married her now ex-husband James Taylor. The song's second verse contains the lyrics, "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."
The other lyrics in the song, she said, refer to two other men, though she doesn't plan to reveal their identities anytime soon.
"At least [not] until they know it's about them," she said.
"I never thought I would admit that it was more than one person!" she added. "Why do [people] want to know? ... It's so crazy!"
llmart
(15,502 posts)peekaloo
(22,977 posts)"Your Slow Vein" was about Richard Nixon
flibbitygiblets
(7,220 posts)Either say it was about several people or STFU and stop being coy.
malthaussen
(17,066 posts)I was never really interested in knowing who it was (or they were), but if it helps other people get through the night, well, s'okay.
What I really want to know is: Is Paul dead?
-- Mal