Topics Language

Question I am an artist interested in ambiguity and irony. One day I had a brainwave: if I could just establish the answer to a seemingly simple question, then the way would be clear to develop a geometry of irony and several questions that really bug me would never need answering again. The question relates to Carly Simon's song 'You're So Vain' and, simply put is: How true is it that the song is about you? The implied statement in the chorus -"You probably think this song is about you"- is that 'You think this song is about you because you're vain, but in actual fact the song is not about you'. This is a strong reading of the implied statement and there is another, that 'You think this song is about you because you're vain, and you are right'. We should also consider whether or not it is consistent with the lyrics to state the the song is, indeed, about 'you'. This case would invalidate the statement "You're so vain" and leave "I bet you think this song is about you" hanging. The most interesting case for me is the one where the verses are not about 'you', but about the vanity attributed to 'you', which may be seen in the first sentence of the first verse: "You walked into the party like you were walking onto a yacht" where the second 'you' is not purely referential for the sake of the simile - so that we know it is not possible that 'you' were both walking into the party and walking onto a yacht, so that: 'You walked into the party and walked onto the yacht' is not a correct way to paraphrase. Instead, I would be inclined to paraphrase: 'The way you walked into the party was the same way someone would walk onto a yacht' which makes the subject 'the way you walked into the party', and which I believe agrees with Carly Simon's intentions. In this way, the rest of verse 1 that references 'you', is actually referencing 'the way you walked into the party'. If the verse is not about 'you', the chorus may or may not be about the vanity attributed to 'you'. So how true is it that the song is about you?

Accepted:
May 4, 2007

Comments

There is valuable but inconsistent empirical evidence here: http://www.carlysimon.com/vain/vain.html.

The evidence suggests that it is possible that the song is about one of Warren Beatty, James Taylor and Mick Jagger. If that is the case, then if you are that person, then it is 100% true that the song is about you. If you are not, then it is 100% false that the song is about you.The evidence also suggests, alternatively, that the song is about a ‘composite character’. I take that to be a fictional character, like Eleanor Rigby or the Urban Spaceman. Salient properties of this fictional character would have been based on those of real persons of Carly’s acquaintance, probably including Beatty, Taylor and Jagger, and possibly some others too. If that is the case, then, if you are an existing human being, the song isn’t strictly speaking, about you at all. But it may be that in the song, Carly is drawing attention to a certain type of individual. Then if you are an individual of that type, although the song isn’t about you as such, attention is being drawn to the type of person you are.

You say: The implied statement in the chorus "You probably think this song is about you" is that 'You think this song is about you because you're vain, but in actual fact the song is not about you'. If so, then Carly would be guilty of a pragmatic contradiction, since if the song is about anybody, then that individual is the referent of the ‘you’ in ‘the song is not about you’.

You write: The most interesting case for me is the one where the verses are not about 'you', but about the vanity attributed to 'you', which may be seen in the first sentence of the first verse: "You walked into the party like you were walking onto a yacht" where the second 'you' is not purely referential for the sake of the simile - so that we know it is not possible that 'you' were both walking into the party and walking onto a yacht, so that: 'You walked into the party and walked onto the yacht' is not a correct way to paraphrase. Instead, I would be inclined to paraphrase: 'The way you walked into the party was the same way someone would walk onto a yacht' which makes the subject 'the way you walked into the party', and which I believe agrees with Carly Simon's intentions. In this way, the rest of verse 1 that references 'you', is actually referencing 'the way you walked into the party'.

I think the rest of the verse is still about the referent of ‘you’, whoever or whatever that is. The verse is:

You walked into the party like you were walking onto a yacht
Your hat strategically dipped below one eye
Your scarf it was apricot
You had one eye in the mirror as you watched yourself gavotte
And all the girls dreamed that they'd be your partner
They'd be your partner, and ....

I don’t see that it makes much sense to think of the way he walked into the party as wearing a hat and scarf, having an eye on the mirror and so on. Only individuals wear hats and scarves and look at mirrors. Ways of walking into parties don’t.