Saturday, January 21, 2006

Carly Simon

Somehow over Christmas I found myself listening to the BBC Radio 2 'Sold on Song' documentary on Carly Simon and was hooked. It was a wonderful extended interview crawling over her life and the origins of many of her songs. She was the archetypal early 1970s rock chick - much more so than Farrah Fawcett or Charlie's Angels, but she was both charmingly naive and a superb singer-songwriter.

Anyway, now her greatest hits tape is on constant play in my car. "I had dreams, they were clouds in my coffee, clouds in my coffee, and...."

Carly: It certainly sounds like it was about Warren Beatty. He certainly thought it was about him - he called me and said thanks for the song….
WP: You had gone with him?
Carly: Hasn’t everybody?
WP: No.
Carly: That only means you haven’t met him, though at the time I met him he was still relatively undiscovered as a Don Juan. I felt I was one among thousands at that point – it hadn’t reached, you know, the populations of small countries….
Everyone knows the brilliance that is 'You're so Vain' but there are so many other great songs: No Secrets, Anticipation, Haven't got time for the pain...

and this one: That's the way I've always heard it should be (1971)