You're so Vain by Carly Simon mystery man

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This is interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Beatty

...Under his original name of Henry W. Beaty, Warren Beatty enlisted in the California Air National Guard on February 11, 1960. On January 1, 1961, Beatty was discharged from the Air National Guard due to physical disability. He was simultaneously discharged from the United States Air Force Reserve (USAF), and served on inactive duty only...

The Air National Guard might explain the Lear Jet reference. There's this reference to Nova Scotia too.

...Beatty was born Henry Warren Beaty in Richmond, Virginia. His mother, Kathlyn Corinne (née MacLean), was a Nova Scotia-born teacher, and his father, Ira Owens Beatty, had a PhD in educational psychology, was a public school administrator, and dealt in real estate.[2] Beatty's grandparents were also educators. The family was Baptist.[3][4] In 1945, the family moved from Richmond to Arlington, Virginia. During the 1950s, the family resided in the Dominion Hills section of Arlington.[5] Beatty's elder sister is the actress/dancer/writer Shirley MacLaine....


So if it is about three people then Beatty seems to be a shoe in. JMO
 
Here's another interesting clue: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...-who-thought-Youre-So-Vain-was-about-him.html

... The recent disclosure leaves two candidates in the running. David Cassidy, who rose to fame with the TV show The Partridge Family, was 22 when the song was written, but had already launched a successful solo career. David Bowie, the British rock star, has also been discussed as a possibility.

Simon said in 2003 and 2004 that the subject had the letters A, E and R in his name, which leaves a question mark over both men. Bowie was born Duncan Robert Jones and Cassidy’s middle name is Bruce. ...

If you take Cassidy's real name, David Bruce Cassidy, then he fits the clues. Also David Bowie fits with his real name: David Robert Jones. It may be about three people, but she said "David" because two of the three are named David. :waitasec:

She has said that the song is a "little bit" about Warren Beatty. So maybe it's Warren and two of the three David's or possibly three Davids? :waitasec:
 
Boodles said:
When and where did she give that clue? Has she said when she will divulge the answer?

You mentioned her saying Jagger is ruled out, but it sounds exactly like him.

Did she ever have a fling with Bowie? He would fit the "pretty" and fashion parts.
Click to expand...

The post above has a link to the clue. I'm also 99.9% sure that she said it had a B in it as well in one interview.

So David Robert Jones (a.k.a. David Bowie), David Bruce Cassidy, Stuart David Cohen (a.k.a. David Blue) also fits.

Warren Beatty fits as well, but isn't named David. Simon has said it's a little bit about him. Since the clue on the album is "David" and she told Howard Stern it's about three people I'm inclined to believe it's about the three Davids. JMO
 
newone said:
young David Rockefeller loves sailing......born in 1941 ....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rockefeller,_Jr.
Click to expand...

Interesting guess, but I've never heard him being linked to the song.

At the height of his fame David Cassidy did a lot of flying from country to country. So maybe the Lear Jet line fits him. :thinking:

Cassidy and Beatty are huge egotists, or were at one time. So they'd fit the vain part. :thinking: I don't know enough about David Blue or David Bowie to pass judgment on them for being egotistical. Her laughing about Geffen and saying it's definitely not about him makes me rule him out. So now we're stuck with Beatty, Bowie, Blue and Cassidy. Beatty, she's said, has a little to do with it. So maybe he's a tiny fourth composite. :thinking: Meaning Bowie , Cassidy and Blue all as Davids. That would satisfy the clue David.
 
Keep 'em guessing Carly.

Whatever the background, the secrecy is a brilliant addition to a great song. She has talent & marketing smarts.

I thought she had stated it absolutely was not about Beatty, although he is known for placing a very high value on himself. And that other thing.
 
Do not know why but I always thought it was James Taylor

btw the Faster Pussycat version of this song really rocks!
 
The rumored answer I recall from back in the day was then (and now) Gov. Jerry Brown (Edmund Gerald Brown, Jr).
 
I just always assumed it was Mick Jagged since he sings the back ground vocals.
 
She was married to James Taylor at one time, but he doesn't fit the description in the song.
 
And exactly who among those men walks in a 'gavotte' style?
 
Donamena said:
And exactly who among those men walks in a 'gavotte' style?
Click to expand...

Well, this one could just be writing lyrics -- I don't find "watched yourself rock out" or "watched yourself Lindy" or "watched yourself Mambo" sounds right.

Maybe watched yourself cha - cha?

Does the use of gavotte imply approaching, then backing off? A man who approached, then dumped, women/others?
 
Hmm....I think it just rhymes with apricot. :p

Seriously, that's an interesting observation. Possible, imo.
 
Steely Dan said:
OK, who is this song about?

Here are clues she's given out. There is an A, E and R in the name. It's not mentioned in any articles on this song, but I'm 99.9% positive that I saw an interview with her where she said that there was a B in the name.


Carly Simon finally reveals the subject of You're So Vain... record producer David Geffen

By Lizzie Smith for MailOnline
Updated: 08:39 EST, 26 February 2010


For years there has been debate about which of Carly Simon's ex-boyfriends could have inspired the hit song You're So Vain.

But while former lovers Mick Jagger, Kris Kristofferson, Cat Stevens and Warren Beatty were left wondering whether 'this song is about you', they have been proved wrong.

For the Seventies singer has finally revealed the real inspiration behind her hit track wasn't a boyfriend at all - it was openly gay record producer David Geffen.

_____________________________________

However, in other articles I've read she laughs about it being about Geffen. The following excerpt is from Rolling Stone:

..."What a riot! Nothing to do with David Geffen! What a funny mistake! Someone got a clue mistaken for another mistake," Simon said in an e-mail to Showbiz 411. "How can this guessing game stop without a lie?" Simon adds that she never even knew Geffen in 1971 when the song was written, which if Simon has her timeline correct, means "You're So Vain" was penned prior to when Simon's label Elektra Records merged with Geffen's Asylum Records in 1972, the date Geffen assumed control of the combined companies....

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/n...target-is-david-geffen-20100301#ixzz3P89V0p5A

________________________________________

Geffen fails the A, E, R and B test as well. His full name is David Lawrence Geffen.

http://wxrt.cbslocal.com/2013/01/04/the-story-behind-carly-simons-youre-so-vain/

...In a re-recorded version of the song in 2010, Simon is said to have whispered the name of that person backwards and her publicist revealed that the whispered name was David. New speculation that the name referred to Simon’s former boss at Elektra Records, David Geffen, and that the song had been inspired by her jealousy of the attention Geffen had lavished on label-mate Joni Mitchell. However, at the time she wrote the song in 1971, she hadn’t even met Geffen yet....


So if we go by the name "David" that significantly narrows it down. It has to be a David with an A, E, R and B in the name. I'd heard a rumor years ago that it was about David Blue. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Blue_(musician)

This doesn't fit the A, E, R and B theory unless you take his real name, Stuart David Cohen, and mix it with David Blue then everything is satisfied. She whispers "David" as the clue on the re-recording. So David Blue seems to meet all the criteria.

The only problem I have with this is that I can't find anything linking David Blue and Carly together, other than them both being part of the Greenwich Village scene, and both contracted with Elektra Records at around the same time. They were very close in age and Blue crossed paths with many of Carly's contemporary artists. So there is a tenuous link. The song sounds like the person she's singing about had a significant relationship with her.

Here are the lyrics:

You walked into the party
Like you were walking on a yacht
Your hat strategically dipped below one eye
Your scarf, it was apricot
You had one eye on the mirror
And 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?

Oh, you had me several years ago
When I was still 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
You're so vain, you're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you?
Don't you?

Well I hear you went to Saratoga
And your horse, naturally, won
Then you flew your Learjet up to Nova Scotia
To see the total eclipse of the sun
Well, you're where you should be all 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
You're so vain, you're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you?
Don't you?

_____________________________

The one line I cant' seem to get past is: "You flew your Lear Jet to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun."

As far as I know David Blue or any other guys mentioned were pilots. She could mean "in your Lear Jet"

David Blue, as far as I know wasn't filthy rich.

What's your guess. Try and support it with facts that make you think who it is. :waitasec:
Click to expand...

Not Mick Jagger?

You have got to be "Geffen" me!

:gasp:
 
noZme said:
When she denied it was Warren Beatty, I thought the only other possibility would be that emu rancher up in Rochester.
Click to expand...

I thought that was a "given"...

ahem... I mean a "Geffen"...

:giggle:
 
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