in the song your so vein who is carly simon talking about.?

Question

in the 70's pop song "YOUR SO VEIN " who is carly simon talking about?

Answer 1

In the song "You're So Vain" Carly Simon is allegedly talking about Warren Beatty. Mick Jagger sang back-up vocals.

Here some excerpts from Carly Simon's website that may not solve the mystery, although she does admit it's a LITTLE BIT about Warren Beatty.

The Washington Post - 1983
WP: Who was ‘You’re So Vain about? Mick Jagger?
Carly: No.
WP: Warren Beatty?
Carly: It certainly sounds like it was about Warren Beatty. He certainly thought it was about him - he called me and said thanks for the song….
WP: You had gone with him?
Carly: Hasn’t everybody?
WP: No.
Carly: That only means you haven’t met him, though at the time I met him he was still relatively undiscovered as a Don Juan. I felt I was one among thousands at that point – it hadn’t reached, you know, the populations of small countries….

FAME - 1989
For the record, Simon acknowledges the song is a little about Beatty; it's a composite of three men from her L.A. days. Warren, it seems, was not a particularly good boyfriend. "And I never took him seriously," she says. "He was great fun and very, very, bright. But noooo ... as a boyfriend.

A lot of women like somebody who's that smooth. In the beginning Warren was pretty good at pretending he was only smooth on the outside and a bowl of jelly on the inside. But he doesn't do that secondary act very well now." Carly Simon

VH1 - One to One - 1990
Carly Simon: "People have been questioning for a long time, who it's about - I mean, who I wrote the song about. It always strikes me as funny. That people would be THAT into what I was thinking about, that's the greatest ego trip anybody could have....that they would be THAT interested in what you were thinking about when you wrote a song. And for that very reason, of course, I can never give it away."

This Morning - 1995
Mark McEwen: How did you get Mick Jagger to sing on You're So Vain?
Carly: I guess it was kind of chance in a way. I was in London, it was 1972 and he happened to call at the studio while I was doing the background vocals with Harry Nilsson. Mick said "Hey, what cha doin'?" and I said "We're doing some backup vocals on a song of mine....why don't you come down and sing with us?"

So Mick and Harry and I stood around the mike singing you're so vain and Harry was such a gentleman - he knew the chemistry was between me and Mick; in terms of the singing, so he sort of bowed out saying "The two of you have a real blend - you should do it yourselves."

And that's how it happened.

MM: So, who is You're So Vain about?

Carly: I don't know.

MM: We've heard it was Warren Beatty. It was Mick Jagger. But you've never really said who it was.

Carly: Yeah.



Charlie Rose - May 2000
CR: Tell us about You're So Vain
Carly: Well, there was originally a song that had the melody of what is now You're So Vain, called Bless You Ben. It went "Bless you Ben, you came in, where nobody else left off.....There I was, by myself, hiding up in my loft"....

It never went anywhere, I could never fall in love with it. And then I was at a party and somebody walked in and my friend said to me "Doesn't he look like he's just walked on to a yacht?". So, I thought to myself - hmmm, let me write that in my notebook.

And then one day, when I was playing Bless You Ben on the piano, I substituted "You walked into the party, like you were walking onto a yacht" and the exchange was equal. And it felt natural and it felt good and then I could get into that man, I knew who I was talking about.
CR: Warren Beatty?
Carly: Well.....not at all.
CR: Not at all?
Carly: Well, maybe a little bit.
CR: Was it one man? Was it Warren or was it a composite for you?
Carly: Most songs are a composite....most songs are.
CR: Was this one?
Carly: I don't know.

The Lyrics
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 in the mirror as you watched yourself gavotte
And all the girls dreamed that they'd be your partner
They'd be your partner, and....

You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you
You're so vain, I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't 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....

You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you.....

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, you're where you should be all of the time
And when you're not you're with
Some underworld spy or the wife of a close friend
Wife of a close friend, and....

You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you.....

Answer 2

Carly Simon has never said who this is about. Some of the rumors are Warren Beatty, Kris Kristofferson,
Cat Stevens, and Mick Jagger, all of whom she had affairs with. She married James Taylor a month before this was released. She has said that it is definitely not about him.

Answer 3

she only told one person who it was and he has not said other than the person has the letter 'e' in his name

Carly's participation in this year's charity auction created an intense media buzz when she offered to reveal the identity of the person(s) she had in mind when she penned the song "You're So Vain" to the highest bidder, but only after they agreed to abide by a confidentiality agreement.

Shortly after this news was printed in People magazine, the Associated Press picked up the story and newspapers, television and radio shows around the world immediately followed.

The news scrollers on all the major cable networks began carrying Carly's name across the bottom of the television screen. MSNBC.com conducted a viewer's poll where Beatty's name earned 54% of the vote. Matt Lauer reviewed the list of usual suspects with Anthony DeCurtis (of Rolling Stone magazine) on The Today Show. Roger Friedman of Fox News went on record with his firm opinion that song was about Warren Beatty. The BBC's Up All Night radio show interviewed Carly fans live from the US to get their opinion on who the song was written about and why this mystery has such long lasting appeal.

On August 4th, the gavel cracked at $50,000 for Carly's "Dream Secret". The winner (Dick Ebersol - an NBC executive) and nine of his friends will join Carly at her home in a few weeks, at which time she will sing You're So Vain while her guests enjoy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and vodka on the rocks. At midnight, Mr. Ebersol alone will learn Carly's closely guarded secret.

"Carly told me that I could offer up to the entire world, a clue as to what she'll tell me when we have this night in about two weeks. And the clue is: the letter 'E' is in the person's name." Dick Ebersol on NBC's Today Show - Aug. 5th, 2003

Answer 4

I'm not sure Carly ever confirmed this, but at the time, the speculation was Warren Beatty. (You're So Vain)

Answer 5

Mick Jagger, but she said she'll never tell. A hair metal band Faster Pussycat covered the song also.

Answer 6

It's vain, not vein, and she's supposedly talking about James Taylor.

Answer 7

I always heard it was Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones

Answer 8

Warren Beatty or possibly Mick Jagger - and it's "You're So Vain".

Answer 9

Speculation has it that she was talking about Mick Jagger as she had recently ended a relationship with him.

Answer 10

James Taylor I think.