About forty years ago, Carly Simon fornicated with some famous dudes. The list allegedly includes James Taylor (her main squeeze), Warren Beatty, Mick Jagger, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, the 1968 Yugoslavian Alpine skiing team, Spiro Agnew, the 14th Dalai Lama, a young David Bowie, and an even younger Patti Smith, who Carly assumed was a famous dude.

Then, as you might have heard, she wrote a song about how one or more or these people were so vain they'd probably think the song was about them. And she hasn't stop teasing people with this bogus “mystery” of who the song is really about for forty fucking years, especially every single time she has a new album to promote.

Well, guess what? Carly has another album to promote (it's called–yup–Never Been Gone), and so she's asking her fans to create a fan-video for “You're So Vain” (a rerecording is featured on the album).

Says Carly's people:

Perhaps more than any other track in pop music, the song's central mystery captivated the public. Over the years, “You're So Vain” has been covered by scores of musical artists and the subject of the song has been played over and over again like a musical question, who is the song about? Ironically, even with all this speculation, the song has never had a music video to accompany it. To coincide with her critically-acclaimed latest release, NEVER BEEN GONE, fans and filmmakers are invited to submit a music video to accompany the newly recorded or the original version of “You're So Vain.” Carly will screen and judge all of the entries herself. The winning video will be featured on AOL Music's Spinner.com and screened at this years' Tribeca Film Festival in April, where the winner will also have the opportunity meet Carly.

More about Ol' Big Mouth and her contest, after the jump.

ps: We kid because we love, especially “Nobody Does It Better” (just ask Thom Yorke), “Let the River Run” (she won an Oscar for it!), and the “Coming Around Again” album, a glorious 80s masterpiece worthy of a Patrick Bateman tirade!

From the press release:

Thirty seven Decembers ago, pop songstress Carly Simon tore up the record charts with her single “You're So Vain.” The song captured the number-one slot on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Adult Contemporary charts, and to this day remains one of the most popular classic rock songs of all time.

[…]

To help fans and filmmakers out, Carly has created a template of optional tools which can be utilized in the creation of the video including recently shot green screen footage, stills, video blogs and more — all of which can be found and downloaded HERE. A complete list of entry requirements is also posted on the site with entries due no later than April 15th.

NEVER BEEN GONE, the new album from legendary singer-songwriter and cultural icon Carly Simon, was released October 27th via Iris Records/Red Distribution. NEVER BEEN GONE features 12 songs (including two previously unreleased tracks) and is accompanied by extensive liner notes (written by Carly) chronicling the story and history behind each song as well as creative interpretive explanations of the newly-recorded versions. Featuring new, largely acoustic arrangements, the album revisits tracks from throughout Carly's fascinating career all newly recorded and rearranged, with her band, her children – Ben & Sally Taylor -as well as John Forte, her godson. Included are “You're So Vain,” “Coming Around Again,” “Anticipation,” “Let The River Run,” “You Belong To Me,” “That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be,” “It Happens Every Day,” “Never Been Gone,” “Boys In The Trees” and “The Right Thing To Do,” along with new songs “No Freedom” and “Songbird.”The album has been released to widespread critical acclaim and Carly has made a number of promotional appearances in the United States. Carly will head to the UK IN March to support the European release of NEVER BEEN GONE.

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