It's dank and rainy here in NYC, and i've been in a deep '70s songwriter mood, so Carly Simon has been in heavy rotation on my turntable all the live-long gray and cloudy day.
Growing up in L.A.. my dad frequently tortured my pre-teen soul with embarrassment by blasting Carly from his convertible (mostly the Let the River Run cassette single, played over & over). At the time, I really hated Carly Simon . . . finding her songs to be disjointed, over-dramatic, and super-white (I was most-likely really into Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam at the time). So it's as much a surprise to me that now in my 30s (at about the same age my pop was when he was rockin' out to the Working Girl soundtrack, i've become a huge fan.
The apex of my Carly-love realization, was while on a gorgeous drive to Nantucket last year, while blasting Lindstrom's Late Night Tales compilation, and from the moment Carly's Why began, with its fabulous '80s bassy beat and the production mastery of Nile Rodgers (of Chic), I knew that the time had come for me to succumb to the Simon.
Row by row: Cover of her 1971 LP Anticipation, cover of No Secrets (1972), cover of Playing Possum (1975), Carly shot for Vogue in 1971 wearing a Narcissa dress (photographed by Jack Robinson), 2 more Vogue shots from 1971, cover of Come Upstairs (1980), with then-husband James Taylor at the Waldorf Astoria in 1973, backstage at Madison Square Garden in 1980 (photo: Lynn Goldsmith), with then-beau Cat Stevens in 1970 (during the recording of Anticipation, which was written by Carly as she waited for Stevens to arrive for their first date), Carly in 1973, gorgeous and preggers on the cover of her 1974 LP Hotcakes, disco Carly, sheet music for I Haven't Got Time for the Pain (1974), Carly today (from her blog), with J.T., cover of her 1971 debut LP (a favorite of mine), and on a Japanese single.
Here are links to Carly's personal blog, and her boutique, Midnight Farm, in Martha's Vineyard (I totally want to visit)! I'm off to to listen to more awesome C.S. LP's, while dreaming up designs for my upcoming line of '70s-art-teacher-inspired artisan jewelry.
Photos: Corbis, I am the Child of the Moon, Bob Gruen, style.com, carlysimontouchedbythesun blog
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