Carly Simon was en route to the UK when the British papers got all the signals wrong about her song “You’re So Vain.”
She emailed me last night: “What a riot! Nothing to do with David Geffen! What a funny mistake! Someone got a clue mistaken for another mistake!”
The British papers have gone crazy over a 38-year-old story. And they’ve got it all wrong, of course.
For years, Carly Simon has teased the public that “You’re So Vain,” her signature record, was about Warren Beatty. She always said the character– who flew his Lear Jet to Nova Scotia “to see a total eclipse of the sun” — was a combination of egotistic former dates.
Now, Simon has re-recorded “You’re So Vain” in an “unplugged” style for a new album called “Never Been Gone.” As a nod of the hat to the Beatles, Carly says the word “David” backwards as a red herring. She’s let it slip that it might be a clue about the song’s real-life inspiration.
I told you on August 14th that David Geffen would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
It was announced officially today.
Also: the Hollies, Genesis, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Jimmy Cliff and ABBA.
Because the prospect of this show on March 15th is so dreadful, and because the Hall of Fame has embarrassingly passed over the Brill Building era until now, the Foundation is also inducting a gang of songwriters the same night: the recently deceased Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry; Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil; Jesse Stone, Mort Shuman and Otis Blackwell.
Jann Wenner waited 25 years to induct these writers — all of whom are already in the much more respected Songwriters Hall of Fame. He can do it now because Phil Spector’s in jail for life and can’t complain that he actually wrote “You Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” He didn’t.
By putting in the writers, and Geffen, there’s at least the hope of a decent show at the Waldorf. Otherwise, the night would have consisted of “Waterloo,” “Follow You Follow Me,” “Bus Stop,” and “The Harder They Come.” Oh yes, the latter is reggae, but what the heck: the Hall of Fame has nothing to do with rock and roll.
Meantime, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum is shutting down its New York annex on January 6th after a year of operation. What happened? The Foundation has $14 million in the bank. They just threw an extravagant week of parties and concerts at Madison Square Garden, took in millions at the Garden boxoffice, got paid more by HBO, and laid out even more so that all the performers had their expenses paid at the posh London Hotel on West 54th St.
Yet, their one mission — to operate museums — can’t be fulfilled properly in New York.
Mamma mia!
The word from one of my favorite groups (I say this facetiously) the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: David Geffen is set to be inducted next spring.
That’s right. On the upside: Geffen started Asylum Records, brought us Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, the Eagles, stole Bob Dylan from Columbia Records to make “Planet Waves,” and, oddly, dated Cher. Later, his Geffen Records brought us Guns ‘N Roses. He also produced “Dreamgirls” on Broadway.
On the downside: the Rock Hall is considered lame for not inducting about three dozen rock acts that should have been there already, has a $14 million war chest and a chief executive who makes over $350,000. The whole thing is run by Rolling Stone’s Jann Wenner, who apparently was instrumental in selecting Geffen.
I’m also told that in 2011, the group will induct Universal Music Group’s Doug Morris, who once labored for Atlantic Records and Ahmet Ertegun.
As for Geffen, the naysayers nay that he sold his company for $600 million years ago and hasn’t been in the business for eons. When he was in the business, they say, he was very annoying.
Anyway, I’m more upset that so many people aren’t in the Hall already. Geffen before Quincy Jones? That’s just obscene. Even Geffen would agree.
