Carly Simon – (no relation to Paul Simon) was a singer songwriter who came to prominence in the early Seventies, as so many great artists did.   I first got into her with the hit song…’You’re So Vain’ in 1972 which came from the No Secrets album, which I loved so much I immediately got her first two albums.  Her debut was the self-titled Carly Simon (1970).  Not such a great album really, a couple of good songs and only one really good one, the lead single ‘That’s The Way I Always Thought It Should Be’.  No indication of what a great songwriter and singer she would become.  And yet just a year later came, what may be, her best album of all – Anticipation (1971).  And I am still full of anticipation just to hear it again. She wrote the title song while waiting for a first date with Cat Stevens (see S) who she was opening for in a few US dates – and of course it is brilliant, and sets the tone for the whole album.  The songs seem to be fairly autobiographical and quite shameless in a good way, exploring and sharing her emotions; not the typical love songs but more introspective and sounding heartfelt and genuine.  Great tunes and oh, that voice that commands and whispers by turns.  This was the ‘coming of age’ album for Carly, the one that set her up in the stratosphere.  She was also incredibly beautiful and was dated by Mick Jagger, James Taylor and Warren Beatty among others.  But this album still remains my very favourite of hers.  Every song is perfect – no fillers at all.  Hard to pick a favourite, but I do love ‘Julie Through The Glass’, ‘The Girl you think You See’ and ‘Share the End’.  But the true Master-song on the album is the powerful closer ‘I’ve Got To Have You’ – rarely has absolute naked passion been expressed so brilliantly and the music follows her splendid voice uncompromisingly.  This is my favourite song of hers – and if she had never recorded anything else it would still be a monument to aspire to.    But still, real fame eluded her until the release of her biggest selling single from her follow-up album – No Secrets (1972); ;You’re So Vain’, the song itself was and continues to be extremely popular; the guessing game continues as to who exactly is so vain, but to me it doesn’t matter – it is a great song.  As are most of the other songs on the album.  Not quite so fabulous as Anticipation, but still a pretty good album.  Best songs are again hard to pinpoint, but I do like ‘We Have No Secrets’ and ‘The Carter Family’ and ‘It Was So Easy’.  The whole album is probably more melodic and gentler than before.   Hotcakes followed in 1974 and to my mind this was a slightly backward step, a more middle of the road sound, possibly compounded by her recent success, and the album looking for more single successes.  The album is autobiographical and reflects a more settled personal life, marriage and pregnancy; somehow, I prefer the angst and uncertainty of earlier albums. Still, not a bad album at all really; she duets with James Taylor on a couple of tracks, including the hit single ‘Mockingbird’ (an old classic rock and roll number).  So, not my favourite of hers but on re-listening (as so often happens) there are quite a few good songs here; the best of which are ‘My Older Sister’ and ‘Haven’t Got Time For The Pain’.  Her fifth album came out in 1975 – Playin Possum – was a bit more adventurous, and the cover was very sexy.  But somehow, I was beginning to feel that she was still drifting too close to the centre of the road for me; I have always preferred things a bit edgy really.  The single and relatively big hit was ‘Attitude Dancing’ – a pure piece of disco rubbish.  Oh well – only other decent song was ‘Slave’ and that wouldn’t have got a look in 2 years ago.  Oh well – I stopped buying her after this….and by all accounts though she has continued to record and release albums she is now firmly entrenched in MOR mawkishness.  I did buy Never Been Gone (2009)– a freebie album given away with Daily Mail, for 50p….it is a re-recording of some of her hits…pointless, as the  originals were so much better – there is no passion in her singing now, and the voice is pretty reedy too.   When an artist resorts to giving away music just to remind people they are still alive, and for a small payment usually it is a bad sign.  I also have her Greatest Hits (charity shop again).  This must have been a fairly early collection and is a pretty good resume of the best of her first five albums.  Also picked up for £1 was Greatest Hits Live \(1988).  It is better in that the singing is pretty good and it includes ‘Nobody Does it Better’ – her bond theme.  Not a bad listen really.  Such a pity that the early promise was ditched in the pursuit of hits and stardom.  Oh well.