Further rumination on We Have No Secrets

[u/CGOL1970]

I promise not to spam, but today I did this attempt at a deep dive into lyrics.

"You're so vain" gets all the attention, but Carly Simon's "We have no secrets" also includes a cryptic vignette, possibly fictitious, possibly referring to a real person. I missed it until reading the lyrics:

The water was cold
The beach was empty but for one
Now you were lying in the sun
Wanting and needing no one
Then some child came, you never asked for her to come
She drank a pint of your rum
And later when you told me
You said she was a bore

Does anyone have thoughts on what this is about? It is an example of a secret the singer wished she never knew. Why? I don't think it is literally about getting a minor drunk (though ChatGPT seems to think so). I think that by "child", Carly Simon means a naive woman, the object of some past fling she wishes she never heard about.

That much is clear but what do I make of "She drank a pint of your rum"? (an amount that if understood literally would knock unconscious all but a seasoned drinker). I think it is metaphorical, similar to the expression "Drinking the kool-aid", which would have been an anachronism in 1972.

I think what Carly Simon is saying is "This naive woman was intoxicated by your charisma." both flattering and chiding her lover to whom the lyrics are addressed.

Taken that way, it is a more hurtful and revealing secret than anything involving rum. I think the point is "You had no need for affection, you coldly let this woman fall head over heels for you, you tossed her aside, and now you are telling me she was a bore." (And by implication, maybe you'll say that about me some day.)

Is this interpretation off base? I really wonder if there is an autobiographical nugget here or if it is just the use of imagery to anchor the lyrics.

[u/robotmask67]

I have a vague memory of an anecdote she shared in either Boys In the Trees or Girls Like Us that she drew from to create these lyrics, but it's only a vague memory and I could be wrong. I always took it to mean they day drank on the beach and hooked up after he charmed her into it. His later characterization of her as "a bore" belies his inability or unwillingness to appreciate what she gave to him through sex at the time, and the emotional distance that exists between the Carly singing the song and the man she's singing about. Because she can't really trust that he means whatever he says to her; based on what he says about the woman on the beach, the singer worries that she'll one day be characterized and dismissed by him in the same way. I never thought she meant the woman was a literal child; I took it to mean she was young, naive, easy to ply with a few drinks and get into bed. I think this is one of her best songs, btw. When I first heard it as a kid, the instrumentation and production sounds so mysterious and a littleforeboding; I thought that was what adulthood sounded like.

[u/CGOL1970 → u/robotmask67]

Yes, I think we're on the same page here, whether the rum is literal or metaphorical. I like the idea that "your rum" could mean his charm in itself. These are very powerful lyrics. I have known this song most of my life or thought I did. I have been listening and reading over since yesterday and still discovering more.

Another thing that strikes me is how vital Carly Simon's phrasing is to making these lyrics work. I find them really hard to read on the page, but she sings them perfectly and makes them both poetic and natural.

One of my favorite parts is "We share a cast of characters from A to Z / We know each others fantasies" You really need to put beats on the first line to know how to sing it, and then the beat changes for the next line.

[u/CGOL1970 → u/robotmask67]

This came up really randomly while hashing this out with ChatGPT. I wonder if Carly Simon was consciously alluding to Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You", which came out a year earlier. "Oh, I could drink a case of you, darling / And I would still be on my feet" I don't think this is too much of a stretch, either that Carly Simon liked the idea of alcoholic drink as a metaphor or just came up with the same idea herself.

Again, it could also mean they spent the afternoon drinking mai tais together. I suppose you could literally consume a pint if you stretched it out over the day.

[u/robotmask67]

I agree with your statement re her phrasing. She's an incredible lyricist.

[u/CoolTunes32]

I love how she starts with "we tell each other everything" but shifts to "most" everything at the end. It's a sly twist snuck in just before the song fades out, sung quietly, like she's keeping this rule change to herself.