Talk:You're So Vain

message: Link in article is broken. https://www.billboard.com/charts/greatest-hot-100-singles shows it at #87, though it's not the 50th anniversary list. Maybe change the link to that instead and note as of [May 2020]? 38.125.21.249 (talk) 16:34, 6 May 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Billboard All Time Top 100 

message: in the phrase "who[/m] is it about?", who[/m] serves as the object of the preposition; therefore it should be whom.  why does someone keep changing this?
:::I agree with you although nobody would ever say that in normal speech, because they'd know that to answer "knock knock" with the question "Whom is it?" is so clearly wrong, which means that "Yes, I heard. And it is whom?" would be wrong because most people double the subject for "is"-verbs. BUT, this is a different situation. "Its about a mystery man." "So, who is the man? Who is it?" would be correct, whereas "She wrote a song." "About whom?" is correct. "It" (i.e. the song) is the subject of the sentence, so "who(m)" can't be.2600:1700:6759:B000:1C64:8308:33BC:E2D6 (talk) 09:21, 16 October 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: It's not irony. It's simply tautological paradox. "You probably think this song is about you" suggests that it isn't, or may not be, but it has to be. No, you aren't the only one. Everybody notices this. It's an extremely obvious gimmick and not particularly clever. The song itself is inviting us to guess its subject, and that's why we do. TheScotch (talk) 20:37, 12 July 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  who or whom? 

message: According to word of mouth, Carly Simon invites people to her place in Martha's Vinyard; then she tells a certain group of people who and what the song is about. Before hearing this information, you must sign documents stating you will keep your lips sealed, "or else". A certain person (name not stated), said one clue he could give was, "it is not one person, but a group of people. 
After hearing this my guess has been Republicans, which makes sense because the song was written in a democratic pause (Presidant Jimmy Carter)in the middle of a republican reign.
:The song was released in 1972 when Richard Nixon was in office.  Carter didn't become President until 1976.
The speculation stating the mystery man is Jagger, is completely absurd. He did the back up vocals for the song. Why would Carly Simon make a big deal about something everyone already new?—Preceding unsigned comment added by Iugetanurra (talk • contribs) 
Over the years she has given 3 letters as clues, letters to many of the speculated names. A friend who was a study in music and a very serious personclaimed it may also refer to GERORGE HARRISON of the beatles. Is there any connection known between the song writer and Harrison?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.27.75.112 (talk) 08:13, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  "hear-say" 

message: *Can anyone justify the inclusion of Carole King as one of the possible subjects of the song? I see no basis for speculating that the song is supposed to have a lesbian interpretation (or that either King or Simon are or were lesbians). By the way, the song was written and became a hit during the (Republican) Nixon administration, several years before Jimmy Carter became president. --Metropolitan90 01:49, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I have checked on the I.P. address 203.25.140.101. It belongs to a cable-company, one of thousands they own, and they move them around. But on the date the preceding comment was posted this IP address was assigned by that cable-company to their service-subscriber Daffy Duck, as he mounted an astute double-bluff to avoid identification by the song. Daffy was indeed born (or show me the birth-certificate that says otherwise, huh?) "Daffyelikovskivitchnyik R. Duck" (an obviously Muscovy Duck name) with Warner-Bros. shortening it to "Daffy". Before the trust-busting it was legal for movie-makers to own chains of theaters, and the alternative to shortening Mr. D.R. Duck's name was spending $500 million on a wider marquee for every Warner Bros. theater. "Daffy" is also clearly the "David" of the re-recorded versions. If you orate "Daffy" several times in succession it's the same sound as many "David"s orated in succession. If you don't believe me then try it the next time you're in a waiting-room, tightly packed into public transportation, or are queued up to get something.74.64.104.99 (talk) 05:59, 20 June 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: But how does that fit in with the line, "you're with some underworld spy or the wife of a close friend"? What close friends does Daffy have? Bugs Bunny? Maybe Porky Pig? Neither of them was married at the time the song was written. ;-)  --Metropolitan90 (talk) 05:28, 21 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Speculation 

message: um ... isn't it a copyright violation to include the lyrics? Salamurai 17:24, 22 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes it is. Removing now. -- Annie D 09:14, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lyrics 

message: Taylor doesn't have an E in it.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.69.3.99 (talk) 22:42, 31 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Illiteracy much? 

message: "Despite these guesses and many interviews asking who it was, to this day Carly Simon has never publicly acknowledged in full whom the song is about. She commented in an interview that it was about "many vain men I've known in my life". This may make the line "you're so vain, you probably think this song is about you" more logical than if it were about any specific man."
No it doesn't. --Quoth nevermore 15:14, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I have removed the sentence. Sibenordy 06:20, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Logical

message: This article says that Carole King recorded You're So Vain - I can find no evidence of her ever recording the song.  Can someone either verify or remove the reference?  Thanks!  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.132.146.171 (talk) 23:10, 1 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Carole King

message: There was a newspaper article during one of the eclipses about a rock-star eclipse party.
Mydogtrouble (talk) 21:04, 26 February 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I thought the same thing.   They should be removed.  --74.179.122.47 (talk) 14:31, 29 July 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  The eclipse 

message: I recently read that Simon finally revealed the subject of the song, and that it turned out to be David Geffen, the head of her record label at the time. True? 64.237.160.217 (talk) 03:01, 17 April 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Where did you read it? It would certainly be important to be included here if it were from a WP:Reliable source. Doc talk 05:43, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

text: In which case, it can't be used as a Wikipedia source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/08/wikipedia-bans-daily-mail-as-unreliable-source-for-website 2.31.164.110 (talk) 21:06, 5 May 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  David Geffen? 

message: I've tagged for cleanup the section "Subject of the song" (like there's anything else in this article that would likely need so much attention!). The prose seems good, the references are (mostly) solid, but there's no overall order, which is leading to frequent repetition and overlap. I briefly considered immediately doing a chronological order with an summarizing intro (even rewriting several separate-but-related statements in my head with combined references), but since I'm trying to unwind my 4-hours-and-counting wiki-walk, I'm going to leave it for other editors for now. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 10:42, 17 July 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: This is still needing done. The section is a convoluted and - seemingly - contradictory mess. 87.115.99.213 (talk) 13:51, 29 January 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Order needed in "Subject" section  

message: It features a guitar solo by whom? Is "X?" some artist? Jaruni (talk) 23:14, 6 November 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: I removed the entry, which was added a couple of days ago. According to my vinyl copy of Simon's No Secrets album, all guitar work on that particular song was done by Jimmy Ryan, who does not even have a page here. Doc talk 00:41, 7 November 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Guitar solo 

message: Is there a reason the Weller book (Girls Like Us) doesn't have its own article?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Robotwisdom (talk • contribs) 12:03, 23 November 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Weller book 

message: If it hasn't already been added, Simon in an on-the-record interview with People, promoting her memoir, confirmed, her word, that Beatty is the subject of one verse.
That said, this article's claim that "In a 1989 interview, Simon acknowledged that the song is a little bit about Warren Beatty, but said the subject of the song is a composite of three men from her days in Los Angeles" is completely unsupported by the fan site making this claim. The fan site says:
::For the record, Simon acknowledges the song is a little about Beatty; it's a composite of three men from her L.A. days.
::"I never took him seriously. He was great fun and very, very, bright. But noooo ... as a boyfriend. 
::"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, Fame Magazine 1989
Despite what the anonymous fan who wrote that "for the record" line claims, the quote that site itself gives does not support the claim. That false-citation passage cited to a fan site cannot stay. --Tenebrae (talk) 15:22, 18 November 2015 (UTC)
thread_title: Simon on the record re: Beatty, and a passage unsupported by citation

message: Is it worth adding to the references section, the story behind the phrase "clouds in my coffee"?
"It came from an airplane flight that I took with Billy Mernit, who was my friend and piano player at the time. As I got my coffee, there were clouds outside the window of the airplane and you could see the reflection in the cup of coffee. Billy said to me, 'Look at the clouds in your coffee'." Carly liked the phrase and used that reference to an "illusion" to describe her dreams of having a relationship with the subject of the song. https://web.archive.org/web/20121017081152/http://www.carlysimon.com/You're_So_Vain.html#.VkzPw7-kcVc
76.221.213.176 (talk) 19:29, 18 November 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: Done. --Tenebrae (talk) 20:30, 18 November 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Clouds in My Coffee 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: I did search the Talk-page and I can't find any discussion of the rumor that the subject of the song owned a race-horse that won at Saratoga. The race-horse was named "Naturally". Hence, "up to Saratoga, and your horse (Naturally) won". Someone who is familiar with such things can find the official logs for ownership of every horse that ran in the State of New York at some beginning-point before the 1970s, right? If this rumor is incorrect, it should be EASY to confirm that it's incorrect IF you have the know-how (which I obviously lack). If the rumor is correct, it pretty much settles the question because that's exactly how a song-writer would go about being cryptic.2600:1700:6759:B000:1C64:8308:33BC:E2D6 (talk) 09:21, 16 October 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Naturally, this topic is here 

message: I have placed failed verification and original research tags on the section referring to the total eclipse in Nova Scotia. The two sources referenced about the eclipse only show the path of the eclipse. Neither state that the 1972 eclipse is the one referenced in the song. The sentence that gives reasoning for why it was more likely the 1972 eclipse than the 1970 eclipse is unreferenced and rings of original research. This is also mentioned on the pages of the respective eclipses. TornadoLGS (talk) 02:28, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Failed verification/possible original research on which eclipse the song references. 

message: It seems to me that, inasmuch as Simon whispers the words rather than singing them, that it's just a phrase that Simon for whatever reason included on that particular take of the tune that ended up as "the keeper".  (I don't think it adds any context or really anything to the mysterious narrative Simon weaves through the verses--whether they're in reference to a single or a trio of real personages, or simply some fictive figure as so many have theorized--so my impression has always been that it was a one-off augmentation, a spur-of-the-moment added flourish to the take that ultimately made it onto the hit 45-rpm single.)
So:  anyone know if earlier or later--presumably the huge hit wasn't the ONLY take recorded during that session--versions ALSO included that breathily-spoken intro?  [signed] FLORIDA BRYAN 2600:1700:B9B0:4500:60AA:28CF:7DA5:F3D2 (talk) 02:04, 17 May 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is the preface whisper, "Son of a gun." in the lyrics proper?