Carly's Online Journal

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This Kind Of Love songs

When I write songs, I usually come up with the words first and then work out the
melody. The words are inspired by things that happen to me or conversations
that I overhear. Or I may be moved by something that I’ve seen in a film or read
in a book. The songs on this album are very personal. They’re
autobiographical.”— Carly Simon

1. This Kind of Love
This is a sexy song with a Brazilian samba feel. I originally wrote this with a
slightly different melody. It was a rock ‘n’ roll song, which is still in there but
now it’s done in a softer, gentler way. The song comes from something my
boyfriend said one day in the gaze of love: “You’re the fantasy that I will never
forget.” And I said, “That’s a song.” So I wrote the lyrics around what he said.
So the lines are, “You’re the fantasy that I forgot to forget/You’re the musician
who sings the sun down.” When I wrote it, I imagined being on the beach in
Rio, with “the motions giving moonlight meaning.” I love the bridge with all its
alliterations. The children’s choir at the end came in very late. They’re also on
“Hola Soleil,” and we decided to try the choir here and it worked. Plus, I left
the studio for a minute and [co-producer/arranger] Jimmy Webb sat down at
the piano and he and Peter Calo started singing a wordless vocal. I came
back in and said that we had to include that too.

2. Hold Out Your Heart
This is one of two songs about my kids. Ben called me one stormy winter day
and told me he was going to go surfing at Jones Beach while it was snowing
and there were high winds. I begged him not to go, but he went anyway. But
by the time he got there he was afraid to go in. The song is also about his
love life. I hold my heart out to my kids. The reserve is always open for them.
I’m like a bank if they need me. The song is also about Sally. There have
been some recent woes, but the same reserve for her exists. I’ll give her all
my heart. There’s finger snapping in there that Peter did. It came very
naturally. He wrote a lot of the music. He started out by playing four guitar
chords and asked me if I had anything to go with it. And I said, “Of course I
do,” and I ran and got my black book of lyrics.

3. People Say A Lot
This is such a personal song that’s also resonates on a larger scope. The
funky style is based on a Caetano Veloso song. I wrote it in 15 minutes. I was
very angry at the time. On one level it’s about people coming to me and
promising to give me a lot, but eventually take a lot instead. It’s like having an
assistant or personal secretary who promises a lot to get the job of assisting
you and then wants to become you. It’s what happens in Hollywood all the
time, and it’s also happened to me. The story of the song is based on Joseph
Mankiewicz’s 1950 film All About Eve, starring Bette Davis, Anne Baxter and
George Sanders, where the assistant connives to take on the identity of her
boss. There are even a few lines lifted from the film in the song. I always refer
to this song as “Eve-ington’s.” But on a whole other level, it’s like the
presidential candidates making promises and not keeping them. They say a
lot when they want the job. They’re out on the stump promising to reduce
taxes and end the war and bring the soldiers home, but then they get into
office and they don’t follow through.

4. Island
I love this song. This is a song Ben wrote about Sally after she broke up with
one of his friends. The friend was so despondent, but Sally shut off her
feelings quickly. Ben wrote about her ability to be an island—how she has the
arrow in her quiver to cut off feelings that she needs to when she needs to.
That trait is much more like her father than me. I wasn’t born with that DNA.
This song is islandy and watery and fits in with the feeling of water we wanted
to have on this album. Ben thought that I’d be able to sing it. At one point, I
almost dropped it from the album because I was trying to sing it religiously
like Ben. But when I got into the studio [co-producer/engineer] Frank Filipetti
told me to just sing it the way I normally sing and that worked.

5. How Could You Ever Forget
Oh, this is a wonderful song. It’s one of my favorites. David Saw wrote the
song “Quiet Evening” on my last album, Into White. It was the first song he
ever wrote. David was writing this song and he came up with the first verse.
He said while we were driving to the studio on Martha’s Vineyard, “Before we
get there, do you think you can work on this?” It was a seven-minute drive, so
I pushed myself and wrote the rest of the song in that time. I wrote the melody
to the bridge too. It was a true collaboration. David and I sing this together.
We sing the exact same part on the second verse and break into harmony on
the bridge. There’s a synth part I play that’s also a cop from a Veloso record,
and Peter plays a mandolin that took the place of a synth line I had.

6. Hola Soleil
Everybody in the band was sitting around in my kitchen one day, and one of
us said, “Let’s play a fast samba.” It was kicked off and everyone went for it.
We got by the mikes and each person contributed things. We just started
playing and I had no idea what we were going to use for lyrics. So I told David
and Ben to go off and come up with some. I called up my friend Jacob
Brackman to come over and write some lyrics too. It’s just a goofy, goodmood
song about the morning. It was so much fun. Everyone contributed
ideas about the music. My vocal mike was in the stairwell and I was just
singing wordless vocals. It’s the only song in my entire career that started like
that— completely spontaneous. There was a lot of laughter that day.

7. In My Dreams
What a beautiful melody this is. I had the lyrics for a long time—a year and a
half or two years. The lyric was much longer than what appears here. It’s a
song of dreams into death: “Sometime I’ll only dream and I’m not scared of
that/I move through farther galaxies, wear other hats.” There are some far-out
images like “Trip on a wink, an inkling of a shadow fill” that I don’t even know
what they mean. Those make for the best kind of lyrics when you dip into that
special salad of the unconscious where words and ideas go back and forth. I
gave these lyrics to Jimmy and Peter and asked them to write a beautiful
melody—and they did. I love the original piano part Jimmy played to make
sure the words fit, so we kept a ghost of that that you can hear if you listen
carefully.

8. When We’re Together
This is such a sunny song by Sally that she recorded on her first album,
Tomboy Bride. The song on her album was produced by Donald Fagen and
Walter Becker. I wonder how Sally knew how to write a bossa nova. She tells
me that she picked up a guitar and played some bass lines and then came up
with a melody. I’ve always loved this song which I feel is so mysteriously
sophisticated. I had a major meltdown in the studio just before I recorded it
and I left, walking the streets of New York, crying. I had heard some really
bad news. I went back to this place where we were staying in Greenwich
Village, and my boyfriend told me that everyone in the studio was freaked out
about me leaving. They were worried. So I went back to the studio and the
band got this song right away and I got it right away. The song is a natural.

9. So Many People to Love
I recorded this last year in Los Angeles. Carole Bayer Sager and I wrote a
bunch of songs together. We asked Wade Robson, who is a fantastic dancer
and singer, to help finish this song. Then we decided to produce it at his
house. Wade told me how to sing every single note. I wanted him to. Wade
was a student of Michael Jackson, so he taught me how to sing it in that
sultry, Michael Jackson vibe. We wanted the r&b; sound. I love this song and
the lines, “What’s an angel gonna do when she needs some lovin’ too/I’m just
askin.’” I had just seen Wim Wender’s film Wings of Desire, which is the
inspiration for this song. I was thinking about the angels and how they could
listen to all the whispering voices of sad people in the subways and the library
in Berlin and how they desired to help. So they touched the shoulders of
people and they felt something and their spirits were lifted.

10. They Just Want You to Be There
This is also about my kids and basically has the same message as “Hold Out
Your Heart”—“You know I know you know I know it’s clear/A thousand
percent for you I’m here.” I was thinking about when they were small and how
strong the attachment of a mother is to her children. It’s unconditional love.
This is one of the last songs I wrote for the album. I wrote the lyrics and
melody at the same time, which is unusual for me. I remember where I was—
sitting in the guesthouse while my kitchen was being renovated in the main
house. I started with a C# minor chord, to F# minor on my guitar—and I wrote
the words while I was singing it.

11. Last Samba
I was hoping Jimmy would write a song for the album, especially since he had
worked with [Brazilian songwriter] Antonio Carlos Jobim. I loved what Jimmy
came up with. It’s so beautiful. It was a tough choice of whether to end the
album with this. It could have been a perfect end, but, then again, the album
isn’t all sambas.

12. Sangre Dolce
This is actually a true story. I was in Central Park and I saw this woman with a
baby and I commented that it was so beautiful. The woman broke down in
tears and told me that it wasn’t her baby, that she was taking care of it for
someone who lived on the Upper East Side. This woman said that her own
baby was in Buenos Aires and that she was working in New York to make
enough money to send back to her family. That was the only way she could
take care of her own baby. So I wrote this song imagining her life. Because
it’s about Buenos Aires and not Rio, there’s a flavor of tango in the tune.

13. Too Soon to Say Goodbye
This is my tribute to my friend [humorist/columnist] Art Buchwald. His health
was poor and he asked me to write a song with this title, which is the same
title of his book that’s a collection of eulogies. I said I would, but I kept putting
it off. Finally, in the midst of being of being sick one day, I dragged myself out
of bed. I wrote it and recorded it in my house, so you can hear how hoarse my
voice is. Ben wants me to rerecord it in good voice, but I’m more interested in
having that feeling that was captured that day. I wrote it thinking of how
wonderful Art was—so entertaining, so cheerful. The only thing I added was
New Orleans-styled drum beats. Art only had a cassette recorder, so I made
him a cassette. He listened to the song every day and cried. I’m going to
dedicate this album to Art [who died in January 2007] and Jobim

April 29th, 2008

Robin Inspiration?

Dear Carly,

Recently I was reading a book entitled: The Book of Songs, translated from the Chinese by Arthur Waley. The songs range from 800 to 600 BC. The first stanza of a song entitled "Separation - Hopeless Passion" goes like this:
"SHU is away in the hunting fields,
THERE is no one living in our lane.
OF course there are people living in our lane;
BUT they are not like SHU,

So beautiful, so good. By chance were you inspired by this song when you wrote His Friends Are More than Fond of Robin?

Fay Bussell - Portland Maine

Dear Fay,

It is very possible that I was influenced by those words. It certainly does sound like "His friends are more than fond". It woudn't have been in that book, but I hold on to golden opportunities when they come my way and I might have heard it or seen it somewhere.

I don't remember that book specifically. Someone might have recited them to me and I might have said: "Oh good, that reminds me of Jake!

Good detective work!!!!
Love, Carly - 2/17/08

Dancing to Carly

Hi Carly,

I had read earlier on your website where you said you were working on a new project, and stated "You Will Be Dancing" .

Is that still true of your new CD?, I wanna dance with Carly!!!!


Danny - North Hollywood, CA

Dear Danny,

Yes, many of the songs on the album have a samba feel. I love to dance. I really love it.
This is a sultry kind of dance and not all the songs are prone to being able to dance to them.
But some, oh yes!!!!!!

Love, Carly - 2/5/08

Something Wonderful

Dear Carly,

Having recently bought a copy of Into White and loving every moment, my enthusiasm for your music has been truly re-kindled. Having "lost touch" since Hotcakes, I've had a most wonderful few weeks catching up with everything you have recorded since.

It is rare for me to write to anyone, but whilst listening to My Romance, I came across what must be the most beautiful recording ever made - you singing Something Wonderful.

My question is, how can you sing that song SO beautifully without crying? I would not consider myself an emotional man, but I've tried and I can't get beyond a couple of lines without blubbering!
Can't wait for more.

With great affection,
Richard Turner - Devon UK

How did you know? That is my all time crying song. It's the very emotion that has raised me so far up and then battled me and fought me to the depths.

It's nearly impossible to sing. Were she living, I would love to ask Gertrude Lawrence who sang it night after night on broadway.

Thank you. Love, Carly - 11/18/07

Reunions

Hi Carly,

Your song 'Reunions' reduces me to tears every single time I listen to it. Can you share with me your thoughts on what or how this song was written? It's just one on my very long list of favourites.(that and Never Been Gone..)

Thanks for all the music, you're a genius.

Vicki - Sassafras, Victoria AUSTRALIA

Vicki,

Reunions was written by myself and my friend Billy Merrit after a summer at summer camp at our first reunion. It was always my mother's favorite song of mine. Billy mernit was one of my favorite writers.

Love, Carly - 11/10/07

Grandmother's House

Hi Carly,

I want to thank you for the many years of beautiful music. I have really enjoyed your latest release, Into White and look forward to many more songs in the future.

Can you tell me what the inspiration was for "Grandmother's House". I just heard it on your My Space (http://www.myspace.com/carlysimon). As I understand it, it was recorded during the Bedroom Tape sessions and was available in a limited release of that album. I have never heard it until now and really enjoyed it, but the lyrics and theme is so different from many of your other songs. Can you shed any light on it?

Mark Ghio - Tucson AZ

Dear Mark,

Don't have time to write all it needs to explain it, but suffice to say it's about a woman with a cocaine addiction trying to rush through the rush hour traffic in New York to meet her dealer so she can make it through the holidays (or so she hopes).

Love to you, Carly - 11/1/07