"...public could appreciate".

Carly, I suspect, is well on the way to becoming a trivia question-- (Who wrote and sang "You're So Vain?") -- for all the generations but ours--since it's fairly obvious which generation comprises the majority of Mudcat members.

I wouldn't go so far as to call Carly's work "vapid"--just as Salieri is not "vapid".   Both did write for the commercial market--and reaped the rewards during their lifetimes.



Joni, through her work, will live forever--I expect that lots of people in all generations who sing her songs will definitely want to know who wrote them, and give her credit. Also, unlike Mozart during his life, I bet she's already fairly comfortable--some of her music has also sold quite well.

She basically has it all as far as music and acclaim is concerned --if she doesn't smoke herself to death.   I think she still smokes.

Obviously it is still just speculation that "You're So Vain" was about David Geffen.   But if it was, the theory of resentment by Carly at attention given to Joni fits quite well. And as I said, the Salieri parallel also fits--up to a point, of course.

As everybody knows by now, Salieri did not in fact try to poison Mozart.   Why should he? After all, during his lifetime he was much more of a "commercial hit" than Mozart--he (Salieri) appealed to the right people. Mozart did not always try to do so--his time in Salzburg, for instance, appears to have been somewhat rocky. He and the Archbishop did not always see eye to eye--to say the least.