I would argue that the title - and main thrust - of this song doesn’t make sense! The first verse paints a picture of a well dressed - flamboyant, even - man who is at a party and who is clearly very popular with the girls. Now, the only real clue to the man being vain, in any way, is the line “You had one eye on the mirror as you watched yourself gavotte [ dancing]”. Now, that’s a bit thin. How many people have checked themselves out in a mirror at a party, social event or whatever without being particularly “vain”. In subsequent verses we learn more about the man. He’s rich with a private jet, and had a racehorse that won at Saratoga...and he also went to Nova Scotia to watch a total eclipse of the sun. Now, that is quite a bit of information, and so I would argue that the man, in question, shouldn’t be accused of being vain for thinking that the song is about him because it is oh so obviously about him. With that in mind, a better title for the song would be “ You’d be stupid if you didn’t think this song was about you”. Indeed, the song can be easily viewed as the vindictive outburst of a rejected woman.
|