An anti-Trump political ad that showed up in my wife’s FB feed yesterday uses Carly Simon’s most famous song to address America’s most notorious narcissist. I didn’t realize until I looked it up that the ad was released back in 2016, and obviously did not stop the election of Orangulus. The song, released in November 1972, is about men Simon had dated — a long list that does not include Trump — but he probably thinks the song is about him anyway. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart in January 1973.
Simon has kept herself in the public eye over the years by refusing to answer the question of who it’s actually about. She finally admitted that the second verse is about Warren Beatty — “he thinks the whole thing is about him,” she has said — but claims the other verses refer to two other men. One frequent wrong guess is Mick Jagger, who’s singing background on the track.
If you listen closely, at the very beginning Simon whispers, “Son of a gun!” in reference to the amazing sound Klaus Voorman is coaxing from his bass. The strings were orchestrated by Paul Buckmaster from Simon’s arrangement.
The version used in the ad is just the first verse, with one key change: It’s no longer his scarf that is apricot.
