“Well, you had me several years ago, when I was still quite naïve.” Those words, and the other lyrics in Carly Simon’s classic, You’re So Vain. have been the subject of so much speculation over the years. Now we know the identity of one of the mystery men with a bloated ego she skewers in her song.
Carly Simon is 70 and she has just released her autobiography, Boys in the Trees. From the sounds of it, she had boys in the trees, the car, her apartment, and just about every place she visited. She experienced sex in the 60s and 70s the way that many men did. You go, girl.
In addition to Warren Beatty, about whom she now admits she wrote the second verse of You’re so Vain, Simon knew Mick Jagger, Jack Nicholson, Michael Crichton, and others in a carnal way. She and Taylor treated their marriage vows like suggestions. There were drugs and groupies and pressure and children. Later, she had a relationship with Cat Stevens and wrote Anticipation when he was late for dinner.
Simon won’t reveal who “walked into the party, like you were walking onto a yacht” or who “flew your Learjet up to Nova Scotia, to see the total eclipse of the sun.” But at least she let us know whose hat was strategically dipped below one eye. In fact, she says Beatty thinks the entire song is about him, so he must be the subject of the chorus, too.