IS DAVID GEFFEN THE MYSTERY MAN IN CARLY SIMON’S “YOU’RE SO VAIN”?
February 27, 2010
After 40 years of speculation singer Carly Simon has revealed that the subject of her biggest song, “You’re So Vain” was neither Mick Jagger nor Warren Beatty, but music mogul David Geffen.
Although David admitted to being gay many years ago I always suspected him of being more “heterosexual” than anything. I was at Warner Brothers Music in the early ‘70s when David had his label with WEA and his publishing administered by us.
When WB VP. Mel Bly and I would go with David to a party or a concert, he was always in the company of a beautiful woman who seemed mesmerized by him. In the business world it seemed he was the equivalent of a Rock Star.
I remember one night at the Troubadour , I was sitting with Sonny and Cher, who were about to publicly announce their split. David walks into the room and suddenly his eyes met Chers. It was like the scene out of “West Side Story”, when Tony and Maria meet for the first time and the room around them disappears…leaving them standing in two spotlights!
I shook my head and thought my imagination was running away with me until I saw the tabloids soon after filled with stories of David and Cher’s romance.
Copyright 2010 by Artie Wayne https://artiewayne.wordpress.com/about-artie-wayne/
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February 27, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Simon is being typically coy about this. Since this story has broken she’s noted (a) Geffen is a character in other songs of hers, (b) she’s been linked to other guys named David, some of whom she’s written about, (c) the use of the name “David” in this recent re-recording is liable to be as much metiphorical as literal, (d) much of her anger with Geffen had little to do with a romance with him and everything to do with his takeover of Elektra Records when it merged with Asylum (a move that effectively edged out Jac Holtzman who signed her to the label), and (e) the subject(s?) of YSV can be found among the characters in other songs of hers if you’re paying attention and care to figure it all out.
In the end, I think the whole YSV mystery is the product of an artist (Simon) who, realizing that people are hot on the trail of a mystery, decides to liven up the proceedings a bit by tossing a few banana peels in the road and sitting back to watch the sleuths fall on their asses. TV producer Dick Ebersole knows the answer having bought it in a charity auction a few years back, but he’s not released to talk. Maybe in the future she’ll auction off the right to reveal the secret but leave it up to the winner to identify the one person who knows and make contact. In that case who knows where this will go? As George Harrison once sang, “the farther one travels, the less one knows.”
February 27, 2010 at 5:28 pm
I never imagined it was about Geffen. Allan Rinde maybe, but not Geffen!
February 28, 2010 at 3:26 am
Boy. After all these years. After all that buildup. David Geffen. Geez. David Geffen. Big deal. David Geffen. What a letdown… (continues muttering and shaking his head as he walks away.)
April 10, 2011 at 2:53 pm
Couldn’t have been David. She hadn’t met him at the time the song was written in 1971. I assisted in getting Mick and Carly hooked up, after a phone call from Arlyne Rothberg, Carly’s then-manager. I don’t believe Carly had even been to L.A. before that, at least not in a professional sense. It’s probably about Jac Holzman! LOL!
August 28, 2011 at 12:55 am
Funny, because that’s exactly how Cher always describes the first time she saw Sonny Bono walk into a room. Like the scene out of West Side Story, when Maria and Tony spot each other and everyone else goes starfilter. Hmmmm.
David Geffen…bleech. I always believed that Cher used him as a means of getting out of her business mess with Sonny. He was an excellent (is) businessman…but ladies man?? Ewww, NO!! Even Cher said after she split w/Geffen (she wasn’t with him long), that she swapped one ugly short man, for another ugly short man.
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