This week, Bethanne is spilling the tea and bringing us the warm and fuzzies as she tells the story of Carly Simon.
Show Notes and Images
Episode Transcription
This question is inspired by the mail that I got today, which is my target exclusive edition of Abba’s new album. Yes, so it’s a it’s a alternate cover art which has the avatars on it instead of, like the weird eclipse art, but is the main album art. And the vinyl is neon yellow, so it’s beautiful, which inspires the question of if you could design a variant of any album. What album would you choose and what would it the package look like? God damn it.
All right, I’m just going to go with the first sound that comes to my head, which is songs in the key of life, OK, because I’ve been listening to that quite a bit and you will find out next week, folks, as to why. But I mean, his hour is good. You know, it’s a very iconic album cover, and I do recognize
that it’s interesting.
But you know, for me, it’s not quite hitting my esthetic, and that’s fine. Everyone has to agree to my esthetic. But considering it’s songs in the key of life, I imagine a big world and in that world is just music notes. And then you would open the vinyl and it would be pressed music notes it cut into. So I imagine like a white disk. Mm hmm. With music notes pressed into it, it would be cool. It’d be really cool. That matched up with the lines. So it looks like those
notes probably take way more planning than possible. But it would be cool, but it would be cool. I mean, if they can do picture discs right, they could do that, right?
So that’s what I would say.
Mine it. Probably it will never happen because it requires the original version of Taylor’s album Speak Now. Mm hmm. Taylor Swift’s album Speak Now, but I’ve been listening to it today because I’m putting myself on a self embargo of not listening to read until Taylor’s version comes out on Friday. Yeah, but the original cover the there’s the the original cover with her purple dress. Then they made it a red dress for the Deluxe Edition, but for my version, it’ll be the original cover with the Purple Dress Double Edition still be the Deluxe Edition CD, but the original cover, but the vinyl it has to be, you pull it out and the base black vinyl is just a translucent purple. But then he wore a dark purple splatter in.
Yes. Yes, yes. And then there’s
like slight glitter in it. Yes. And I want that so bad and it’ll never happen. We’ll probably get a purple variant for it. The Taylor’s version release. But I want that cover to go with the purple. Yeah, that’s all I thought about all day as I listened to that album.
That’s a good idea. Yeah. So we’re going to start a business for designing vinyl. Yes, she will. Rock records, yes. And yeah, that’s what we’re
going to do. It sounds very expensive, but it’s all right.
You know, I’m about to sell my laptop to Apple for $330. So what else can I scrounge around?
That’s our that’s our capital. Start up right there.
I give you laptop. You give me $330 trade offer.
I saw a great trade off for me today. This has nothing to do with the show, but it said I receive a new, hyper new, obscure, hyper fixation. You receive a bunch of posts that don’t make any sense.
And I was like, It’s me. Oh, that’s hilarious.
It’s literally me on Twitter.
Anyway, from both accounts.
Yeah, fill the gap in both accounts. I’m Leah, I’m Bethann. And this is you. Iraq, you.
They get it at the recipient’s executive team. Don’t touch my thermostat windows, be like put the on how you let me turn down 30. One guest, Mrs Shearer, acted.
Hit us with the reveal,
we got a new ISH review, probably should you read it last time, but we had a lot of shit to cover last time we did. We’re a little bit more relaxed tonight. Yeah, this is from breakfast at Tiffany’s great username. Yes, this is a review. I don’t think we said that. And it says God must be on my side because I stumbled upon y’all and now actually binge listening. These girls know what they’re talking about and basically are a class teen fan girls and 80s rock and roll groupies I love.
OK. Oh, sorry, were you done?
There’s there’s more. Please go. Keep it up, guys. I’m so looking forward to what else you’ll be putting out.
That’s it. Awesome. So the fact that she started with God must be on my side. Ego just went she.
Well, yeah, she’s a fantastic show, but it was put into her life by divine intervention.
I mean, how does the ego not get inflated by that
sense every time we get a review? My ego gets a little bigger. So please keep leading us to review.
Yes, please continue to stroke. Are you guys? Thank you?
That’s it. We have no business to discuss other than. Stay tuned for a fun bonus episode next week. Something new that we are experimenting with if it goes well because we haven’t recorded it yet. We hope to bring it back. So yes, we do. There’s a little teaser for content to come.
And then in December, we mentioned this is one of our gems.
If you don’t listen to the interview episodes, we are pausing interviews in December just because the holidays
your girl needs a break.
I’m moving your general life chaos. We probably will do a bonus concert recap Yes, we are going to go see glimmers. We are
going to have to buy
my ticket. If I were to do that, I need to go see glimmers, which we interviewed Maggie last year.
It’s like our babies growing up. I want to fight China.
We’re going to we’re going to get to see for the first time other than the struts, because I had seen them before we interviewed them. But a band that we interviewed live, which is
very we aim
so excited. I might cry. So, yeah, but also in December, I am going to go see Mr. Waves, which I’m so excited for as well.
So and then I’m going to go see in this moment on the 17th. Yes, very, very excited for that show because I hear they put on like one hell of a show.
But we will have a bonus coming out very soon with a does rocks and in this moment.
Oh yeah, that’s right. Yeah, that’s going to be the number one. So, yeah, well, you’ll still get your normal episodes in December because we’re still going to do
those snow bonus.
Just know. Yeah, we need a little bit of a break while the holidays and moving. And yes, in general, I’ll probably be watching Netflix most likely. Great British Baking Show and reading a book we are, which I started half way when I went camping.
We’re making sure we install internet two days after we close in this house. So like we can still watch Netflix and shit, that’s priorities. It is priority.
You have to watch all the Christmas stuff.
Yes, I may not have a couch, but I’ll have a TV hooked up to this.
You got a dog, you got a large animal.
Just sit on Jarvis
arm, as he’s made for all he does is loaf around anyway. This is
true. Anyway, when we talk about today,
we as I pull up the laptop, so this artist has a little bit of something for everybody. Leo, what’s your password? Just go ahead and say it in the it’s Jarvis. Oh, please tell me that’s not the password.
Yeah, it’s the only the only only the password to my laptop because sometimes people at work have to log into it, and I didn’t want it to be the same period as everything else. That’s true, but it’s easy enough that people can spell it.
Yeah, well, I’m leaving it in there. So you know
it’s OK
now, you know, folks hot off the press
how to get into my laptop.
So this story has something for everyone. It has some great stories about overcoming some witty and funny stories and then some genuine, warm and fuzzy stories, which is very unusual. I was going to
say, is this like a happy episode?
I literally wrote this and I’m like, This should have been Leah, because she’s the one who pulls the warm, fuzzy stories.
Don’t worry, I have a wild fucking episode next.
So we flipped. We flipped this one, and it confused me. But to be fair, I was going to cover Doobie Brothers, and they’re probably not going to get covered unless I run out of stuff. And it’s really no fault of the band. It’s just very confusing to fall. It’s just a lot. And there’s like, it’s both confusing. There’s not a lot going on. So I personally don’t know of a good episode material, but then who knows, maybe they’ll
be in a bonus episode. It might be a
bonus episode I might be saving for, like a mini. So if we ever do it with like amuses style episode. But anyway, so I. Kind of shows, Carly Simon, because she was on the wiki page and I was like, Cool, let me click this, and then I was reading them like, that seems more interesting than when I’m when I originally was planning. But most importantly, we are here to cover Carly Simon because I want the deets for You’re so vain. Yeah, but before we get to that T, I am going to put this tiny little trigger warning because we talk a little bit about sexual abuse, but that’s really it, and it’s only one little section. But let’s go ahead and talk about her upbringing. So Carly Elizabeth Simon was born in the Bronx on June 25th, 1945. Her dad co-founded a publishing company called Simon and Schuster worth the book publishing company. Yes, a little a little business. And he also played some piano on the side. I OK. I get the impression from interviews. I’ve watched that, like her parents, were kind of like very strict on her and didn’t really celebrate her. Like, I would say, for a child, like, for example, according to a Guardian article, I was read about her memoir book and The Boys in the Trees. Carly was supposed to be a boy, so to speak, and be the successor to the Empire. But. And they were going to name her, Carl. And then they’re like, Oh, let’s just put a y on it. And like, I don’t like that.
I don’t like that.
I don’t like that. You did that.
It seems sexist.
It’s sexist. Like, choose a different name, you know? But maybe she loves her name. I don’t know. For me, though, I just don’t like that happens. Her mom was a civil rights activist and a singer. But like I said, her mom was a little bit harsh as well. And like Carly, knew her mom loved her, but she didn’t like, praise her daughter for her achievements. Like, she won this really big award later in her career and her mom was like, others deserved to win. But you want it? And it was like the blacks. Yeah, but anyway, that’s skipping away ahead. So there were some events in her childhood that brought her to seek refuge in music. At seven, she was sexually assaulted by a teenager who was a close family friend, and then at eight, she developed this severe stutter from I’m assuming the trauma of that event. And like a psychiatrist, tried to help her overcome it. And the only way that she was able to ever overcome her stuttering was through music and songwriting, because in her view, she could write the stammers in if she wanted to. It was her own music. So that was really a stepping stone for her to start overcoming it. In 1964, her first dabble into venturing into music full time was with her sister Lucy, and they were called the Simon sisters. They were mildly successful and had three albums Meet the Simon Sisters, Cuddle Bug and the Simon Sisters Sing The Lobster, Cuadrilla and other songs for children.
What what? What does the lobster quadruplets?
I don’t know. I probably, you know, I probably pronounce wrong. It was Q you a d r i l l e
goes Cuadrilla,
you know, maintain a little fragile quadrillion jelly. Yeah, just add a little Italian schmooze over it. But if you can tell by the titles, I am guessing that it’s basically like children type music, and she does a lot with like children entertainment later on her career. So that makes sense. That’s the foundation. And also, I mean, we are in the sixties, so it’s hard to say if it wasn’t for individuals under the influence of LSD. But who knows? Children, LSD, adults, you’d be the
same thing,
really. They are. You just call up your mom, mom. I saw this picture of a woman and Lucy and the sky was in diamonds. Shut up, you’re 38 years old. But anyway, so after their third album was released in 1969, I think they were going up to like four or five years from there. Her sister, Lucy would leave to go get married, and then she had like a little minor career when on Broadway, all that stuff. But when these albums were printed, they were printed in small inventories like 4000 total, and you find that was some of her stuff. Like, oddly these things, some of some of her albums from what I read, like, there’s one we’re going to talk, not talk too much about, but there’s one called the bedroom tapes and they only printed like a thousand of this, or like a lot of her stuff goes out of print, which I think is interesting but is interesting. And unfortunately, those masters from the same systems were lost in the 08 universal fire alarm fire, which we will talk about and probably mention as a cliff note for the duration of this.
One of the three things we’ve got to cover are they on the 500 greatest albums? Did they go platinum? Did they burn up in the fire? Absolutely.
It’s one of the three. So after her sister leaves, she goes does a stunt with a group called Elephant’s Memory. This band fascinates me. So they were based in Greenwich Village area of New York, and they just happened to form an alliance with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. And they like back to their projects. So I was reading the wiki page for it. So basically John Lennon and Yoko after the Beatles and all that stuff had a group called the Plastic Ono Band and featured artists such as Eric Clapton, Keith Moon, like they were just cycling through George Harrison and Ringo Starr, but not Paul. And I want to sip the tea on that and a future Beatles episode. But we must. We must wait
because Paul’s dead.
Well, I mean, has nothing to do with the fact that Yoko broke up the band. No, it’s because Paul’s dead, because Paul’s dead, by the way, while performing live with them, because then they like back them up for this one album they want under the name of Plastic Ono Elephant’s memory band. And then this album they released was called Sometime New York City. The album was credited as I don’t know why I find this funny. John and Yoko slash plastic on a band with elephant’s memory plus invisible strings.
That’s a mouthful.
It is. I’m surprised they got it out, considering my speech impediment sometimes. And also a very random fact that I just found mildly entertaining. John and Yoko would be Carly Simon’s neighbor later in life. It would be like the first people to give her newborn son a gift. Oh, so I think it was pretty cool. So anyway, she was only with Elephant’s memory, though for like six months, I think. And then she would work her way to becoming solo. So the story goes one day her friend and songwriting collaborator Jacob Brackman, he organized a dinner party and at that party was a manager named Gerry Brant. And shortly after meeting him, he takes her on as a client, introduces her to Jack Holzman from Electric Elektra Records, and she signs on with them in 1970. And at first, they Carly thought, I’m just going to be a stock lyricist. Like, that’s it for the record label. But and some of the people the record label were like, No, you just be the singer and we’ll find songs for you. But something happened where she decided to step out there and put out a self-titled album in 1971, and the biggest hit off that album was That’s the way I’ve heard it should be. And I reached number 10 on the Billboard 100. Pretty good for someone who thought they were just going to be a stock lyricist. Yeah. And so when the record company was ready to release the song, it’s the song follows the story of a woman who had a rough upbringing, a zealous boyfriend who wanted to get married but was controlling and the resistance of this woman. Yet the acceptance of her life of matrimony and the record label said, You think that’s a little heavy for a first single?
I think it’s fine. Yeah, exactly.
But that’s what I love about Carly’s songwriting like from the pieces I’ve heard. She is just one of the first like indie style songwriters. They’re explorers like hard truths with this almost shroud of mystery, like it’s very Dolly Parton esque telling a story yet pulling from your heart and telling the truth. Mm hmm. You know, and so in regards to the song, Carly said, When I first wrote it, I thought it was an unusual thing for people to break up, and now all my friends are divorced. I’m going to cut this out. But that’s why you, when you were telling me about kind of cracking up because I was like, there’s a quote for this.
All the friends are getting divorced. You can leave that in if you want me to leave it in what you said, what I said.
Oh, you said, Yeah, there you go. So the album did pretty well critically.
She was, I should probably clear I believe that, and it wasn’t like, I’m going to. I’m not going to worry. No, I just have friends that are getting divorced.
I’m going to take cross out their names. OK? I’ll probably I’ll do some, but I won’t throw them under the bus.
Don’t throw me under the bus, either. I’m not going divorce.
No, I will not do that. So she would go on to win Best New Artist 1970 two Grammys, as well as nominated for her song. That’s the way I’ve always heard it should be. So because this is the 70s? Of course, she came out with another album in the same year. This one’s called anticipation, and this one has a little bit more success. Mainly, her song Anticipation got airplay in a series of Hynes commercials. Which ketchup? Yeah, the ketchup. So here’s the commercials literally like there’s a series of them, and it’s just like, for example, one of them that comes to mind. This boyfriend comes to the house to pick up a girlfriend. And, you know, a little annoying brother is like, Oh, she’s getting ready, why don’t you come and have a hamburger? And literally, like, you take those jobs like, Yeah, oh, make sure you use Heinz and these are cool. And then they start like pouring the bottle. The it’s taking, yeah, the gospel and taking forever to come out. And that’s when the song comes on. Anticipation is about waiting for that drop of Hines, and I hated it.
I didn’t age
well, like like ketchup. Coming slowly out of a bottle is the worst thing that could happened to that.
I mean, we don’t pass that. We now have bottles that you store. So the cap is in the bottoms that you just have to go squish.
Yeah, we have evolved.
But also, who’s eating a burger before they go on a date where they’re most likely getting dinner like this is just a very not well thought out commercial.
No, exactly. And why is she taking so long that you could eat a hamburger? It takes me five minutes.
Yeah, like,
like, you know, it’s fine. It was the 70s. They were thinking the most cliche niche.
Pop pop fizz fizz.
Yeah, exactly. Anyway, so the song anticipation fun fact was written in 15 minutes as she waited to go on a date with Cat Stevens.
But not with hamburgers,
not with hamburger. You know, I wonder if they had a hamburger? Maybe wouldn’t that be something they were going? They were going to go eat at a diner and she gets a hamburger, he gets a pastrami, and then she’s pouring on the ketchup and then they go, catch a movie
like ketchup took forever to come
out. Gosh, when they make when they make the movie version of her life, I hope they put that in there. They can have it for free. They don’t even have to then have to give me royalties anyway. As far as for accolades for the album, it went gold and the song Anticipation was nominated for a Grammy in 1973. So how does she take this moderate success and become the queen of obscurity? Insert Dr. Frank-N-Furter. I could see you shiver with anticipation.
Patient, I was hoping you’d make that joke eventually.
I was really happy when they heard that the album was anticipation. You knew I had to be in there at some point. So first, let’s talk about the album. The song is featured on her third album is called No Secrets, and was released on November 16th, 1972. Hilarious. It’s called No Secrets when I just called her the Queen of obscurity. But anyway, moving on. Her first recording session, she tried to record with Paul Buckmaster, but Elektra wasn’t a fan of that up, so instead they had a record at Trident Studios, which is where Beatles recorded the white album. David Bowie recorded Space Odyssey and Alan John did his self-titled second album, which is probably a better deal anyway. Probably the album did OK. Critically, like some of the critics, they’ve always just kind of been like. Like, I just get the impression like critics don’t really understand her because of like, especially like her rhyming scape and her storytelling techniques, like most of her albums, are usually just mildly well-received. And I just don’t think they understand. But also critics don’t really matter. I’m just saying it’s just interesting that they never really she never passes threshold, even though we really know her. But anyway. But commercially, it did super well. I don’t have the initial release numbers because they’re not really there. But in by nineteen ninety seven, it was certified platinum, which I think speaks for the album’s longevity. Over the years, and then we get to the song You’re So Vain, which shot up to number one on the Billboard 100 and lasted for three weeks and was certified gold. Time to pour the teeth. So up to this point, Carly has been in a bit of a journey with the music industry, i.e. a shit ton of sexism. We’re talking about men expecting like sexual advances to further her career, and I love this quote from The Guardian, and I think it comes from her autobiography about an encounter she had with a producer from Colombia who was expecting those advances. And she said, quote, I assumed my most audacious look as if to say, if you’re the kind of person who takes in an ornate pleasure and insult, a woman will distance yourself asshole. I love her so much. But anyway, up to this point, she’s kind of seen it all. And she said, from if I remember, like, this song is just really about those experiences, just men in general. And but you know, when you write the lyric, you’re so vain, you probably think this song is about you. You know, something’s up. But I love it because you will see her flip the script on these type of men and how she almost like she plays a cat and mouse game throughout this whole thing. And I love it so much so how the song was written. Carly is at a party and a friend said, like a certain famous person walked in the room and you remember thinking, like, how been that person was? So that was the start of it. She wrote it. She recorded it. Mick Jagger did uncredited, backing vocals on the track. That’s cool, yeah. But for numerous of decades, Carly would not say who the song was about, like for over 40 years. And I imagine it bothered the hell out of some people. And that’s when people started getting into her personal life. And like, scouring each boyfriend is like, Is this the one like they’re looking for clues in the song overall doesn’t seem like Carly mines it, but I just want to know, like we see how this type of behavior as far as for like other artists like people getting in their business has caused like a lot of detriment to their wellbeing. So in case you needed a reminder, celebrities are allowed their privacy. They, especially female identifying individuals, don’t owe you any details about their private life, whether they put it in a song or not. So let’s just throw that disclaimer before we go. Yeah, continue. But but it got to the point where people were writing in their autobiographies. The speculation of who the song was about, and they said they knew so and so who knew Carly or something like that? And it just shows you like how wild people got about who this mystery person was. So. Like, there’s a whole like to kind of show you like the mystery of it, there’s even like on her wiki page for that song Celebrity, she is told in confidence off record. But that is the obsession that’s funny over finding out who this person is. They even did a fundraiser for charity, and someone paid $50000 to find out who the song that’s designation. Yeah, but he wasn’t allowed to mention it.
Oh, easy. He signed several NDA.
Yeah, sure. A ton. So over the years, she has left little clues here and there. At first, she drops the letters that it’s of an individual’s name or what we assume, and that’s a E and R. And I believe hearing that led to Warren Beatty giving her call later on and thanking her for writing a song about him. Which, you know, fits a description of a vain person. He was delighted. But here is where I love Carly because she flips the script on him. So yes, in 2015, she confirmed the song is about Warren Beatty. OK, but only part of it. It’s actually about two other men. It’s about three men in particular, and Warren Beatty is only about the second verse. OK, so this whole time you saw this whole song was about him. These men have thought the whole song is about him, but it’s about three. That’s hilarious. I love it because the universe flips the story, flips the script, flips it on the universe.
Now, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy because they all thought the song was about that is genius.
Like, she’s been playing a cat and mouse game this entire time. And the best long haul game I have personally seen. And she does this twice. She does it here. She does a one hour time, which we’ll talk about now. Have the other two been revealed? Now, do I care? No, I’m sure one day when we get up there to the great unknown in the sky, we can look at whoever the hell created us. And we start one eternal question Who are the other two men?
No, my question is, who killed JonBenet Ramsey? So continue.
Well, I’m telling you were Betty’s going to get up there? We’ve got to go. Who are the other two men? And you know, it’s a great way to waste your question. You’re one eternal question, and you’re one eternal Jeannie question to the the big thing in the sky anyway. Also worth noting as my last part about this song, because I think it’s worth mentioning the song actually has a lost verse that never made it into the original song.
There are a fourth man. It’s here.
That’s what I thought, too. But I mean, probably. Let’s read it real quick. A friend of yours revealed to me that you loved me all the time. You kept it from your wives. You believed it was no crime. So this only made the pen and paper stage. But she sung it like in a documentary in 2017 for like the first time.
Interesting. Yeah.
We’re going to say for men.
It’s for men,
it’s for men, it’s about and they are also vain.
They think it’s about the whole songs about them.
I love it.
So you guys know the drill. She has a lot of albums like 18 or 20. That is a lot. It’s a lot. We’re not going to cover a lot of them, partly because I’ll be honest, her career just kind of does a lot of dips and tours. And it’s just once you get to a certain point in some software and they’re just releasing the same thing. There’s not just much the cover at that point, but I’m going to give some highlights about the next albums of her 70s because the 70s are her time where she shines, and that is the main strip of her. Album career, I would say she has other career opportunities that start flourishing after this. Like a Lady Gaga situation. Lady Gaga is now killing it as an actor. Yes, kind of thing. So let me give you some highlights about these three albums the first ones called Hot Cakes. It was a hip’s and it was on the charts for eight months. It was recorded when she was pregnant with her first child with spouse and fellow musician James Taylor. We’re not going to talk a lot about their relationship, but I’ll give you some brief cliff notes. They were married for about 10 years, had two kids together before splitting up. A lot of their breakup had to do with drug addiction, mostly on James’s side, but she had some drug issues as well. Carly kind of describes it as like they were hard to blend like a ying and the yang like of just really hard for them to fully mesh together. But anyway, what I do like, though, is on hot cakes. They did a duet of the song Mockingbird, which was also their first single, and I think that’s really sweet. Q Yeah, when you’re getting ready to have your first child and the other hit was called haven’t got time for that pain. Playing possum had mixed reviews, but it did chart like on the top 10 pop charts for three weeks. Carole King and Ringo Starr also had their hand in some of the backing tracks, which is really cool. I know like Rolling Stone in 1991 had this in there, like top 500, I think, but it’s not there anymore. But then finally, there is her album Another Passenger, which contains the single. It keeps you running. Not a whole lot is all about this album. It did chart, but it didn’t reach the level of the past three albums. One thing we’re shouting out, though, is before we get to her next big album, which is called Boys in the Trees. She released a single called Nobody Does It Better, which was the theme song from the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. It’s a banger of a song. It’s been my head for like, about a week, and you’ve probably have heard it even if you haven’t thought you heard it. Like, it’s a very memorable tune once you hear it. It was a smash hit. It was like number two on the Billboard charts for three weeks. To this day, it is considered one of the best Bond songs. It came in at number three for Rolling Stone and number two for Billboard Billboard charts on there, like a top James Bond lists. Now I want to go back to her sister for a second, so remember when I told you that she left due to marriage? Yeah, probably true, but I think there’s another element to this story. This is just so fascinating. According to an article by The Guardian about her memoir, because, like I said, I decided to read her a week before I had to write this, so I didn’t have time to read the book. So you’re getting cliff notes, and I’m sorry, I’m not Leah. I cannot read a 400 page book in three days. Literally impossible for me. But anyway, the Guardian does a great job talking about it and talking in depth. So nineteen sixty five, so early on in their career. They meet Sean Connery and that’s Carly and Lucy on a ship and think lead to another. And Carly is slow dancing with Sean as they discuss whether Prince Philip is circumcised.
What a what a topic,
I guess, is what you talk about in the 60s. Then do they cover that in the crown? No, no. They skipped over that. Then Lucy somehow gets into Sean Connery’s cabin at the end of the night. So Carly’s pissed, understandably. And the next day she woke up and she said, One day I’m going to sing a James Bond song with that vengeance. It was truly out of revenge. Guess what? She pulled off the second best. That’s a morning haul game. She’s smart, man. She’s smart and she’s funny, and she knows what she’s doing. That’s amazing. But 12 years later, she put out a James Bond song Don’t piss your sister off. No, and I’m sure like her and her sister patched things over. You know these things happen. But, you know, because I kept saying it afterwards. So Carly didn’t like, write that song. It should be noted she just sung it, but I think that helps the success of her next album, Boys in the Trees. This album brought her back up after her career had. It’s a little bit after another passenger, this was released in April 1978. Also, her sounds changing a little bit and she’s infusing jazz and blues, and it’s a little bit more intimate. It’s pretty good. So like, for example, you really hear that in her the biggest hit off the album You Belong To Me, which reached number six on the pop billboard charts. It also was certified the album itself a certified platinum. And like I mentioned, it’s also the name of her memoir, which I think is really fitting, since that album also has a pretty intimate feel to it. So I’m pretty sure that’s why she chose that. Before we get to the rest of her career, I want to talk about some really fascinating and this is where the warm fuzzies come in. She had a really great and unique friendship with Jackie O. J. F K’s wife, First Lady. So how they met was she was at an event in JFK. Junior comes up to her. I don’t know how old he is. I’m going to assume he’s a teenager, maybe and asks, Would you like to meet my mom? And she said, Sure. And so she goes up to Jackie, and Jackie is an editor at this time because she went into publishing afterwards. And so they’re talking and she’s like, You know, Carly, you should write a memoir. And she agrees. And she writes, like, 80 pages. And then she’s like, Can I just write a children’s book instead? So she writes a children’s book, huge. And she, like writes actually a couple of children’s books throughout her career. But they just develop this friendship. And you know, all those about Carly. I think it’s just really sweet how she talked about her friend because she actually wrote a book in 2019 about her relationship with Jackie. And so she said Carly had permission around Jackie to be free. And like, she could smoke a joint in front of her and she, like, would not care. And like Jett, she thinks that Jackie loved her free spirit because they’re like, There’s a little bit of an age gap and then you’re like, 20 years apart. But loved her free spirit. And like she had, you know, a little bit of a naughty girl side to her and like Jackie, could never be that. Yeah, she married the Hannitys. Well, she married the Kennedy family at such a young age. And yeah, as a first lady that no freedom would be awarded to her in that role. So and then Carly saw her as a mother. She never had, and she never was judged by her. And when Carly, because she had a prescription pill addiction for a little bit when she went into rehab, she called Jackie every single day and said that Jackie loved her unconditionally and helped her through it. One really funny story it’s not my outlines, but also Jackie was also a prankster, which is really cool. You just don’t see the side of Jackie. You see Jackie O, the president’s wife, the president’s wife. But she was actually a prankster, so she recorded Carly recorded this song. I don’t know who the guy’s name is, but there’s really, I guess, famous singer. And then the next day she received, there was a box by her door and she opened it, and it was from the guy she recorded with. And oh, and Jackie was in the room when they were recording, and the guy was like, Carly, I’m in love with you. Will you please be my Valentine? And he, like, had a copy of his his tapes in there and it was signed and autographed. And she immediately called Jackie and she’s like, Oh my gosh, so-and-so wants me to be their Valentine. And then Jackie goes, You really think that person did that? Jackie did it and like, literally hid her handwriting.
That’s hilarious.
Yeah, she I mean, it was really cool. And then when Jackie passed away in 1994, like Carly was by her bedside, like they had a really sweet, caring relationship. And it was just it’s just really cool because you just don’t see that as much, you know, there’s really sweet friendships that I really got. So anyway, so for the 1980s and 1990s, her career takes an interesting turn, and this is where we kind of like where I was talking about, you know, she has these albums, yes, but she has other ventures that she’s involved in. So she’s still putting out music, children’s books and music scores, I’m assuming. But she starts getting more into film scoring and actually writing music for these movies. She did a little bit of it in the 60s, but she really makes a full shift to it, I would, I would say, a full shift to it in the 80s. She helped, like throughout her film score career. So this is like 80s, 90s and into the 2000s she would help compose like songs for and I chose these because I knew them. There’s a lot of random 80s ones. I have no clue what was called soup for one. Who the fuck knows when I heard of that? But these are the ones I kind of knew about the Piglet’s big movie. The Health Lump movie she’s done three or four. Winnie the. I love it. Karate Kid Part two. And then Working Girl, which won her an Oscar. And this made her also from working girl, made her the first person to win an Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy for the same song in the 2000 2010s. Like I said, she’s so like, really, she’s just putting out albums. She’s paying out children’s stuff. She’s putting out, um, film scores and things like that, contributing to film scores. We also see, like some collaborations with other artists, I would call them collaborations, and one of my favorites was she went on stage with Taylor Swift and song You’re So Vain. And I know Taylor cites her as one of her influences, but was Taylor too?
So that’s fun. Oh, really?
Yeah. Oh, she’s named after James Taylor? Oh, that’s true. That’s interesting. But I find it really cool considering that she after listening to Carly. My first thought was like, that very raw, intuitive way to story tell. I recognized and Taylor. Yeah, like, I made the connection. So it’s really cool. I love seeing connections come through. Yeah. In artists where you can see like it, you know, you can see that same spirit. That’s a thing. And like, it’s almost like a mantle being passed, if you yeah. She also has been sampled by a variety of artists, which I consider a high compliment. Yeah. To name a few. Janet Jackson, like Janet Jackson, pretty much took your surveys and made her own song out of it. Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson. And then there are some artists who covered her songs Normal ones first. Kelly Clarkson, Julie Andrews, Mandy Moore, and then some random ones. Adam Sandler, Foo Fighters.
So Adam Sandler is the weird link between mine and yours episodes this week.
No. 10 that we all. So it was the site. After all, they chose Carly Sandler, who knew the site would lead us to Adam Sandler. So anyway, Adam Sandler, Foo Fighters, Radiohead and Fred Astaire. Very random, but OK. Very random. Now, as far as for legacy, and this is a little bit of a shorter episode, but she had quite a successful career across many mediums. Her awards nominations really also reflected that success across mediums. Like I mentioned, she won two Grammys, received 14 nominations, won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and was nominated for two BAFTAs for original scores. And she also received recognition in the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Grammy Hall of Fame. And I would argue she’s one of the most like diverse repertoire of artists that we’ve covered so far. And that’s it. Carly Simon a little bit shorter than my other ones, but it happens. It, you know, is what it is. Still a good story. Thanks for listening.
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