What’s your favourite
music mystery?
Many of the best songs ever written beg questions that might never be answered. For example, what’s the one thing that Meat Loaf won’t do for love? (We know it’s not endorsing Mitt Romney, because he’s all over that junk.) Is the dude in Bruce Springsteen’s “The River” taking his young wife to the titular location to drown her? When the Spice Girls say they “really really really wanna zigazig ha”, do they mean enjoy the humorous comic strip wisdom of cartoonist Tom Wilson or do they mean s-e-x?
My personal favourite belongs to a song that inevitably stays in my head weeks after each time I listen to it, Carly Simon’s signature ode to male narcissism, “You’re So Vain”:
The general consensus is that the subject of the song is one of her famous lovers from the period, with the most likely subjects being Mick Jagger (who can be heard contributing background vocals on the song) and Warren Beatty (who always seemed to me like the dude most likely to be seen in an apricot-coloured scarf), but Simon has never publicly outed music’s most infamous navel-gazer and some have suggested the real answer is someone from her past who the general public has never heard of.
One person besides her who knows for sure is former NBC executive, SNL producer and Susan St James hubby, Dick Ebersol, who paid $50,000 at a charity auction for the privilege of having Simon tell him (under the condition he reveal his answer to no one else). Ebersol said he had been given permission to only supply a single clue as to what he had been told. The subject’s name included the letter “e”–an extremely broad category of people that included the already suggested WarrEn BEatty and Mick JaggEr. (According to wikipedia, Taylor Swift–who has publicly performed the song with Simon–claims she’s also been told, which doesn’t seem fair at all when you think about it.)
Since then Simon has had fun playing with people’s curiosity. In a rerecorded version of the song several names were whispered and played backwards as easter eggs. The first one people heard was “David” leaving many to conclude the song was about David Geffen, but Simon denied this by saying she didn’t even know the future-billionaire mogul when the song was original written. Other intrepid listeners also heard “Warren” in there as well.
In the end, the answer doesn’t matter of course. It’s always going to be a great song regardless of who the subject is, but in an age where it’s easy to know virtually anything we want about our pop culture, a little mystery here and there adds more than a little fun and intrigue into the mix.
My only comment is …. I have the original album as seen at the top of the page, in my hand as I write this. It was my wife’s before we got married. Still plays great!
I don’t have any musical mysteries of my own but I have a guess about Carly’s song here.
The subject’s name included the letter “e”….
Do you think that as a result of several relationships with several different men she was actually saying something about mEn in general and not just a single specific man?
More likely a joke. Right?!
Eh I don’t think it was a joke. I’m sure she had something, someone, or someones in mind when she did that song. One man, several men, all men, etc… I’m not sure but I’m sure there was a serious point to it.
I always thought Carly was referring to Paul Simon…
Also, the next time I hear someone comment on the inappropriateness of today’s clothing, I’m going to point out this album cover, complete with nips.
Didn’t notice until you mentioned it, of course. : – )
Tell the young people today that it was colder back in the braless ’70’s. Before global warming and everything.
Gravity is the cruel master that always wins in the end…..
Maybe that explains why it’s my favourite record cover of all time?
It also explains why Carly was so popular with all those famous dudes in the 70s.
Reminds me of one of Terri Hatcher’s lines on Seinfeld:
“They’re real, and they’re spec-tac-ular!”
Hardly a surprising choice, but: what is the ‘original theme’ of Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations?
Most of my musical mysteries involve me hearing the lyrics wrong. Starting with Journey’s “Oh Sherry” where I thought they were saying, “Cinnamon gum” instead of “Shoulda been gone” to Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” where I thought “the kid is not my son” was “the chair is not my son”. I was quite young, and I thought and thought and thought about how the chair could even possibly be considered Michael Jackson’s son, and it was a real mystery to me for a long time. Until I asked my older brother about it, and he goes, “it says ‘kid’, Dummy”… Read more »
Like, for the longest time I wondered who Jimmy Hendrix was kissing when he sang ” ‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy.”
Or why Elton John was “counting headlice on the highway.”
Not to be all pedantic and mansplainy, but “Oh Sherri” was actually a Steve Perry solo project single. 🙂
OH SORRY ALLAN
About the song “The River”: Every semester on their final examination, even my dimmer Journalism 101 students could see that it was NOT about a homicide and/or suicide plan. It was clear to them, and to me, that the river symbolized the carefree youthful lifestyle that is gone forever: “though I know the river is dry.”
Remind me not to take your class, Mazal. You sound like a really condescending teacher. 🙂