Blog: Heartache with Hard Work

Jonathan Chait is weirdly puzzled over the lyrics to "You're So Vain" by Carly Simon (which is not about David Geffen , despite what you may have heard). Chait says: "[N]othing about the song makes any sense. She's giving an extremely detailed description of a former lover, but insisting that his being able to recognize the description is evidence of vanity." But that's why it's clever! The whole point of the song is that the person is vain, smug, self-satisfied, thinks the world revolves around himself...and is wholly justified in thinking so. [...]