Glen shows us again why he is an economist and not a poet in this post on “You’re So Vain,” inspired by Tyler’s exhumation of the perennial mystery. (This page is entertainingly un-useful for the “who is it about” question.)
On my intepretation, which is, of course, the natural and correct interpretation, “You’re so vain, you probably think this song is about you” is a self-indictment, expressing frustration and emotional paradox.
Carly, or whoever the implied narrator is, obviously can’t get the guy out of her dome. She wants to hate him because he was just as aware of his allure as she was, which was irresistable, which is why she fell for him and he “had her.” She was thrown when he dumped her. And she tries to console herself by pointing out how vain he is. But, it turns out, his vanity is really just a fair acknowledgement of his overwhelmingly attractive qualities, a form of confidence and self-possession that is itself attractive. And so pointing out his vanity is an implicit acknowledgement of everything she loved, and everything she grieves losing.
(By the way, people who go on and on about how great they are, like Quentin Tarantino and Phil Hellmuth, drive you crazy in a special way that only those who live up to their own ridiculous hype can.)
The fact that she’s still thinking and writing songs about him and how goddamn beautiful/perfect/irresistable/vain he was “several years” after he “had her” substantiates his vanity (like his Lear jet and his horse “naturally” winning at Saratoga), which is maddening, and throws her right back into the cycle of love/resentment. He is in fact the kind of person people write songs about and can’t forget. She wants to hate him for the fact that he knows it. But, no, that’s just why she loved him. He’s right. He’s unforgettably terrific. If she could just forget him, she wouldn’t be singing the song. But she can’t, and the reason she’s singing the song is precisely why fell so hard for him, and can’t possibly get over the fact that he “gave away the things [he] loved and one of them was me.”
Right?
I think our interpretations are compatible, as long as you don’t give Simon too much credit for self-awareness. She wrote a song that is paradoxical or damn close (my point), thereby revealing her inner turmoil as well as her erstwhile paramour’s charms (your point).
I don’t know.
I don’t think reminding him that he’s sometimes “with the wife of a close friend”, is a sign of unambiguous fondness for his traits. I agree that there’s conflict, but I don’t think the vanity is something she’s attracted to, either (perhaps the confidence, but not the vanity).
Now, with the distance of years, she can see the vanity and excessive concern for the admiration of others was a flaw, and she’s singing about realizing it. And she assumes that he’ll interpret this, wrongly, (as Will did) by assuming that she’s still hung-up on him and singing about his marvelousness rather than about what she now realizes are serious flaws.
Or, maybe it’s just a stupid song.
So maybe he’s real flaw is his faithlessness.
Having just seen the full lyrics (as opposed to the chorus, which has been stuck in my head for years) for the first time, another possibility occurs to me: the song actually isn’t about anyone in particular. In the verses (especially the first) she says “you” has many desirable qualities; in the refrain she accuses the listener of thinking he is the person with those qualities.
Thus, the “you” of the verses is different from the “you” of the refrain, and the accusation in the refrain is: “you’re so vain that you ascribe these qualities to yourself, and so you think I’m talking about you, based on nothing except the fact that I’m talking about someone desirable.”
Not airtight, but I thought I’d throw it out.
Will:
By my lights, your authorship of paragraphs #3 and #5 of this post constitute an act of auto-fellatio unparalleled in the history of the blogosphere.
c-cipher,
Oh come now, haven’t you read <insert post here> by Atrios?
Will,
Eons ago, when the song was brand-new and I read Rolling Stone, the gossip item said that “You’re So Vain” was Carly Simon’s rhetorical revenge on Warren Beatty. That still seems plausible to me. At least he looks to have the right personality for the role, whether he actually jetted to Nova Scotia or raced a horse at saratoga.
There are some folks out there (Camille Paglia comes to mind) who think that charisma is always fueled by narcissism. This is too grim and chthonian an outlook for my taste, but successful narcissists often are charismatic. Meanwhile, unsuccessful narcissists (those who haven’t been outstandingly successful at antyhing, or don’t have any widely valued talents, or are short on winning ways) often get classified as something besides narcissistic.
I do think, though, that realizing that someone whose allure you found irresistible is genuinely vain or narcissistic is going to reduce that allure. Maybe not all at once, but in due time.
After all, a narcissist thinks he or she is better than anyone else; has little to no empathy for others, or disregards the empathic signals that manage to get through; needs admiration from other people while despising those who supply it; and is prone to rage if the exaggerated self-evaluation ever gets challenged.
And how many people are going to find any of these qualities alluring?
Robert Campbell
I think our interpretations are compatible, as long as you don’t give Simon too much credit for self-awareness. She wrote a song that is paradoxical or damn close (my point), thereby revealing her inner turmoil as well as her erstwhile paramour’s charms (your point).
I don’t know.
I don’t think reminding him that he’s sometimes “with the wife of a close friend”, is a sign of unambiguous fondness for his traits. I agree that there’s conflict, but I don’t think the vanity is something she’s attracted to, either (perhaps the confidence, but not the vanity).
Now, with the distance of years, she can see the vanity and excessive concern for the admiration of others was a flaw, and she’s singing about realizing it. And she assumes that he’ll interpret this, wrongly, (as Will did) by assuming that she’s still hung-up on him and singing about his marvelousness rather than about what she now realizes are serious flaws.
Or, maybe it’s just a stupid song.
So maybe he’s real flaw is his faithlessness.
Having just seen the full lyrics (as opposed to the chorus, which has been stuck in my head for years) for the first time, another possibility occurs to me: the song actually isn’t about anyone in particular. In the verses (especially the first) she says “you” has many desirable qualities; in the refrain she accuses the listener of thinking he is the person with those qualities.
Thus, the “you” of the verses is different from the “you” of the refrain, and the accusation in the refrain is: “you’re so vain that you ascribe these qualities to yourself, and so you think I’m talking about you, based on nothing except the fact that I’m talking about someone desirable.”
Not airtight, but I thought I’d throw it out.
Will:
By my lights, your authorship of paragraphs #3 and #5 of this post constitute an act of auto-fellatio unparalleled in the history of the blogosphere.
c-cipher,
Oh come now, haven’t you read <insert post here> by Atrios?
Will,
Eons ago, when the song was brand-new and I read Rolling Stone, the gossip item said that “You’re So Vain” was Carly Simon’s rhetorical revenge on Warren Beatty. That still seems plausible to me. At least he looks to have the right personality for the role, whether he actually jetted to Nova Scotia or raced a horse at saratoga.
There are some folks out there (Camille Paglia comes to mind) who think that charisma is always fueled by narcissism. This is too grim and chthonian an outlook for my taste, but successful narcissists often are charismatic. Meanwhile, unsuccessful narcissists (those who haven’t been outstandingly successful at antyhing, or don’t have any widely valued talents, or are short on winning ways) often get classified as something besides narcissistic.
I do think, though, that realizing that someone whose allure you found irresistible is genuinely vain or narcissistic is going to reduce that allure. Maybe not all at once, but in due time.
After all, a narcissist thinks he or she is better than anyone else; has little to no empathy for others, or disregards the empathic signals that manage to get through; needs admiration from other people while despising those who supply it; and is prone to rage if the exaggerated self-evaluation ever gets challenged.
And how many people are going to find any of these qualities alluring?
Robert Campbell