Dick Ebersol: the man who paid Carly Simon $50,000 to find out who ‘You’re So Vain’ is about
Some of music’s greatest mysteries pertaining to lyrics will never be revealed, and that’s probably a good thing; otherwise, the mystique surrounding a song will forever be lost.
Sometimes, you might listen to a song and think to yourself, ‘What exactly is so funny about peace, love and understanding, and does Elvis Costello even know the answer to his question?’. Put it this way, how far would you go to find out the answer to such a question, and at the end of the day, is it actually important for us to know?
So, when it comes to Carly Simon’s 1972 hit ‘You’re So Vain’, many have spent years wondering who exactly Simon is singing about, and because she’s chosen to keep her cards close to her chest, there has been an awful lot of public speculation as to who it could be about. That’s not to mention that there are plenty of paranoid men out there who believe they could have been the recipient of such a scathing takedown and are panicking about the potential aftermath of the world finding out that it is indeed about them.
It would ruin the song if it became public knowledge, removing a mystery that has gone on for over 50 years by either confirming rumours to be true, or for it to be something of a disappointment, where it’s not actually about someone well known at all, and is instead about a poor sod who Simon deliberately chose not to name in order to protect him from being the face of public scorn for eternity. Simon has gone on record to say that a part of the track was inspired by Warren Beatty, but that doesn’t clear up who else was on her mind when she wrote the song.
It could easily have been about James Taylor, but at the same time, it could easily be about Mick Jagger, and for years, figures like this have been among the front-runners when it comes to trying to figure out the subject, despite Simon vehemently denying that they were the source. However, there is one man out there who can definitively rule himself out of the equation, and even though he wasn’t necessarily in the running in the first place, he went to great lengths to find out that it wasn’t him.
In 2003, Simon took part in a charity auction near Martha’s Vineyard, and one of the prizes that awaited the highest bidder was to finally learn the truth about who exactly ‘You’re So Vain’ is about. Then-NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol was willing to outbid several others for the privilege of finding out, and could have potentially held the power to break one of music’s longest-standing secrets by spilling the revelation to the broader world.
The exact amount that Ebersol coughed up to find out was $50,000, which is far from an insignificant amount to spend to find out a trivial piece of information that is, in fact, none of your concern. However, it’s still not known outside of this exclusive circle of two people whom the song is actually about, as not even those closest to Simon are rumoured to even know the truth about the song’s inspiration.
Ebersol has kept stumm about it since, and that’s probably for the best. Even if there are plenty of people clamouring to find out or cross themselves off the list of potential candidates in an attempt to clear their names, the song’s true meaning has always been a secret, and that’s how it ought to remain for the rest of history.
