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You're So Vain, And With Good Reason

I must apologize to Carly Simon. I'm sure she has life experience that I don't have. I am positive that she is trying to make a point. But in this one instance, she is just plain wrong. The song is about him!

What song, you ask? You must be young. The song is called You're So Vain by the aforementioned Carly Simon. She sings about a guy that she would clearly rather forget. She was hurt. I feel for her, I do. But, like a teenage girl who pretends that she doesn't care what a stupid guy thinks, she tips her hand. Yes, my lady doth protest too much.

She tells us this guys is so vain that he probably thinks this song is about him. Well, what is he supposed to think? She describes him in pretty clear detail in 3 verses. Or are there multiple guys leaving her, travelling to Saratoga, then jetting off to Nova Scotia? Maybe I just don't live in the world where every other guy wears hats and apricot scarves. Maybe that's just me.

Or maybe the song is about him.

We don't do any favors to those who think too highly of themselves when we think too often about them. It just feeds to the ego that has already stayed too long at the Thanksgiving table.

What Carly should have done, if she really wanted to convince this guy, was to feign memory loss. Perhaps forget some of the tiny details and choose not to attend the same parties. It's just a thought. But perhaps people would believe that you're not all about them if you weren't singing songs about them, then telling them the songs aren't really about them.

It comes across like;
  • Kobe Bryant talking about that one really big, All-Star center he played with, but he's not talking about Shaq.
  • Colts fans talking about not really needing that one quarterback they have, but they're not talking about Peyton Manning.
  • People in general talking about that evil guy in a red suit that takes Jesus out of Chrismas, but we're not talking about Santa.
Of course we are. It's time we admit that some things, people included, get too much of our attention. Some times that person is us. Is this blog about you? You're so vain...
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