ALBUMS: No Secrets (1972); Hotcakes (1974); The Best of Carly Simon (1975).
MVC Ratings: No Secrets: 4.5/$$$$; Hotcakes: 4.0/$$$; Best of: $4.0/$$$.
My exposure to Simon and other soft rock, sensitive singer-songwriters such as Carole King, the Carpenters, James Taylor and John Denver came from two places. 1) Radio.
These were the good old days before the Top 40 started weeding out the good stuff. And 2) My wife, Catherine; she turned up the volume on the radio when these songs came on and had no aversion to playing an album side over and over again. Looking at these artists anew, I was struck by the songwriting. Since this is about Simon, we’ll focus on her.
First off, ‘You’re So Vain is arguably the best put-down of a former lover you’ll ever hear. That’s a qualifier because H-A-T-R-E-D by Tonio K. is likely the best on the venom scale of measuring and, Tonio’s song hasn’t received playtime due to its profanities.)
‘You’re So Vain’ became a favorite guessing game centered on whom she was talking about. Warren Beatty? James Taylor, whom she was married for a few years? Mick Jagger? David Geffin?
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
In a game of cat-and-mouse, Simon has teased the world for years about whom it might be, although confirmed that one of the verses was about Beatty.
This was a worldwide No. 1 song and she was no one-hit wonder, putting out great hits like ‘Haven’t Got Time for the Pain,’ ‘Anticipation,’ ‘That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard it Should Be,’ and ‘No Secrets’ to name just a few.
As a songwriter, she may never approach her contemporary Carole King, one of the all-time best songwriters, but that’s she’s close enough to be used as a comparison puts her in an elite group.