Julie Through The Glass

I am a 32 year old woman who has loved your music ever since my father introduced me to you at the age of 12. My question is: Who was Julie Through the Glass written for and is there a story behind that song? As a Julie, I have so enjoyed that song through the years and often wondered from what memory of yours it sprang. Julie Keller - Niskayuna, NY

Julie is my dear adorable beautiful smart niece. She is Lucy and David's daughter and she is a singer and a writer and remarkable in every way. She is the same girl who was then a few days old and behind the glass in a maternity ward in a NY hospital where they keep babies safe and warm. Carly Simon - 5/30/01

Collaborations

Regarding the songs you've written with Jacob Brackman: are the lyrics his and the music yours, or is it less black and white than that? How has your collaboration with him differed from those with, say, Mike Mainieri or Jimmy Webb? Erin Carter - New Haven, CT

Jake only writes lyrics - in our collaborations that is. He is a vastly talented writer and also a father of two bouncing baby boys. One of them is actually now three, but I like the term bouncing baby boys and so I said it twice. Perhaps I shall say it again later.

Mike Mainieri is a melodist and arranger and producer and so he and I worked together on tunes. Mike is also a vibes and keyboard player. He is brilliant and would welcome seeing him again. Jake I see all the time. Thank goodness.

Jimmy Webb and I collaborated on one song "New Haven" from the "Film Noir" album. It was a once in a lifetime experience for me. He is not readily available for collaborations and I consider myself a very lucky girl indeed. I wrote the lyric and he set it to music. And then he went and made my lyric better. Carly Simon - 5/23/01

Do The Walls Come Down

Hi Carly! You mentioned that it sometimes takes years to write songs. How long did it take you to write one of my all time favorites, "Do The Walls Come Down?"? It is an absolute work of art! La Vern Jones - Allen, TX

I wrote that to a track sent to me by Paul Samwell-Smtih. I was very happy with it. I didn't have any hassles whatever to sort out. I believe we were very much thinking along similar lines there. It's always more of back story that you think there's going to be. Carly Simon 5/20/01

I Live In The Woods

Can you tell us what led to your recording "I Live in the Woods" with Burt Bachrach and the Houston Symphony? Its such a gorgeous arrangement and I've often wondered if -- your love of the great standards aside, the experience of working with the symphony led to your recording of Torch. Phil - Las Vegas, NV

Burt Bachrach asked me to write the song with him. I knew him slightly and was overwhelmed by the suggestion. We got together at my apartment in NY with another friend and worked on the song for a few days. I can't quite remember the recording session and I now wished I had taken pictures of everything I have ever done (not realizing at the time that my memory would eventually require more than ginko tablets). I do know that I didn't record with the symphony live. I remember that Burt was there in the studio and that I did it to a track. Carly Simon 5/19/01

Favorite albums to record

Which of your albums (I guess I'm dating myself) actually discs did you most enjoy recording, and which is your current favorite to listen to? I say current because I know that I change favorites whenever my mood changes. Thanks for having something to fit all my many moods! Carol - Carolina, RI

There are two albums I enjoyed recording the MOST: "Anticipation" and "My Romance". The former because I was in London recording for the first time and I was tight with my band (Jimmy Ryan, Andy Newmark and Paul Glanz) who were living across the street from me in Regents Park. It's the only 'band' album I have ever made.

The latter because it took only twelve days from start of recording until the end of mixing. There was something so compact and wonderful about recording it all live with the orchestra. Carly Simon 5/18/01

Clouds In My Coffee

Can you tell me what the meaning of the phrase "clouds in my coffee" has in the context of your song "You're So Vain"? I can't quite pin down the metaphor. What are the "clouds" in your coffee? Samantha - Dearborn, MI

"Clouds in my coffee" are the confusing aspects of life and love. That which you can't see through, and yet seems alluring...until. Like a mirage that turns into a dry patch. Perhaps there is something in the bottom of the coffee cup that you could read if you could (like tea leaves or coffee grinds). Carly Simon 5/17/01

New York concept album

The Bedroom Tapes sure is a fantastic album - as far as I am concerned, one of your very best, if not the BEST. An outta music industry album : yes!

But Manhattan Was a Maiden, left along the road, also is a great song - as is that Manhattan concept you thought of was a great idea. Do you plan to go back to work on this concept, for an eventual New York concept album? Antoine - France

No. I sort of lost interest in it when I left NY. I was in a rental apartment I had lived in for twenty three years. The landlord all of a sudden raised the rent from 7 thousand a month to 25 thousand a month. I got the message. I moved.

I felt like so many others who are all of a sudden unable to come up with the rent. One day I found myself in the midst of a theme album about my beloved city and then the next day found myself evicted from the place I had called home for the birth and raising of Sally and Ben. Quite a rent raise! We'll see. Lots could happen . Maybe I'll go back as the assistant to the physicist's assistant. Stranger things have happened. Carly Simon 5/16/01

Proudest Moment

What is your proudest moment and largest accomplishment as a musician? Sue - Fairborn, OH

A boring answer, but I would have to say winning an academy award. Being up on stage at the Shrine Auditorium and seeing Mike Nichols in the audience and seeing him smile at me like the virtual cat that swallowed the canary. Carly Simon 5/13/01

Being A Good Mom

How did you get to be such a good mommy? Sally Taylor - Boulder, CO

By having the perfect children. Carly Simon 5/11/01 Happy Mother's Day to all......

Future Albums

Hi Carly! You once said that you had "37 albums left in you"...can we please still count on that? Keith Pells - Ft. Myers, FL

Thirty seven and more albums are lurking. If I could sing one a week, I would. If there was some producer willing to organize wonderful songs, tracks and I could just come in and sing the vocals...the way Sinatra did. He probably met with Nelson Riddle the day of the sessions and made a few tweaks then and there.

When you write the songs it's a different kettle entirely. That takes ME years. Now Sally (my daughter Sally that is) can do this very fast. I'm trying to learn from her. She is amazing (and has a new song about being or having an amazing life).

So, yes, when I find that producer who can do that for me, I"ll just sing every good song that's ever been written and then leisurely write my own songs and once a year put out simple versions of those. When I mean simple, I mean on my own equipment and my own voice and my own guitars and pianos in my own bedroom. The way the last album was....almost. Until it got in the hands of the "Complicators!!!" Carly Simon 5/9/01

Libby (Another Passenger)

First thanks for such a great website. The best of any artist that I follow. My lover and I listen to your albums around the house often, filling our home with fun. (Your songs bring real joy out in me!) One song that always pulls at his heartstrings is Libby. We have discussions as to what it is really about. Could you shed some light on it? With much admiration, Bob Mathews - Los Angeles, CA

The song Libby (a name I always liked) is about my relationship with a woman who used to be a very close friend. The hard times became funny in our mutual observation of them. We got each other laughing over the pain.

It was the details that particularly she made into short stories that one then could be the witness of. The reader of. The once removed listener. That made (makes) life easier. We were travelers together and I thought the journey would be made together for our life spans here on earth. Some of the people I have been most in love with are the ones that became too hot to handle. I'm sure you understand. Most people do, for better or for worse. Carly Simon 5/7/01

Our Affair

Like all of us who visit your web site, I love your music and in particular "The Bedroom Tapes". I thought from my first listen that "Our Affair" was a great single. My question is, were you involved in the re-mix with Richard Perry? What did you think of the new version? I know you were intimately involved with producing the CD and the remix is a totally different animal. Steve Chapman, Baltimore, Md.

On "Our Affair"...I was only in on the mix over the telephone. I thought there were some terrific touches: the new electric guitar played by Michael Lockwood and the modulation in the chorus. I missed the guitar solo though from the original or at least the chord changes on which it was based. Carly Simon 5/5/01

Heroes

Carly, who is your hero in life and how have they affected it? Mark Badum, Wolcott, NY

My hero? Tonight, it is Tolstoy, but not always. Always it is Christopher Reeve. Then there are all the poor slobs who struggled their way through depression and poverty and ill health to produce great works of art. Beethoven, Mozart, Gershwin.

Then there is my mother who only excepted good cheer from herself. She kept gaining on it. And there are so many others. But for tonight, it is still Tolstoy. Carly Simon 5/4/01

Kissing With Confidence

I'm sure your hardcore fans, myself among them, would love to know your thoughts on two tracks that were top 10 UK hits in '82/'83 but went relatively unnoticed here in the States. I'm speaking of course of the collaboration with Chic on "Why" and with Will Powers (a.k.a. Lynn Goldsmith) on "Kissing with Confidence". In my humble opinion, these songs are among some of your best work and I'd love to hear your comments. John Stanton, NY,NY

A The song: "Why" was a song written by Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards for a movie called: "Soup for one". It never made it into the movie, but was released as a single in the US and UK. It never made a noise in the USA but was a surprise hit in England. Nile produced it.

I did not know that "Kissing with confidence" was ever a hit anywhere. I never saw a penny from royalties. Never knew it was a hit. Lynn Goldsmith is a greatly talented photographer. She had this great idea to do an album based on a fictitious character, Will Powers. It was sort of like a Dale Carnegie-esque idea to raise the confidence of the listener by identifying with Will Powers. (It was a great deal of fun to work on it with her). My friend Jake Brackman wrote many of the words. Carly Simon 5/2/01

NOTE: Lynn Goldsmith has been kind enough to allow us to stream Kissing With Confidence for Carly's fans. If you'd like to hear the song, click on this link.

Simon Sisters on CD

Is there any chance that "The Simon Sisters Sing" will ever be released on CD? I grew up with the album and still think its the best children's record ever. Now that I'm having my own children, I would love to be able to share it with them. . Alice, Woodside, NY

The Simon Sisters Sing...was on Columbia. I don't think it would ever be re-released and I have little or no control of the issue. Unless I were to become a Columbia artist and still then, I don't know. Sorry. Carly Simon - 5/1/01