Latest news with #CarlySimon
Miami Herald
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Miami's Olympia theater holds lifetime of memories for this reporter. And probably you
Imagine being a fan who helped lure a superstar singer to perform her first and only major concert in your own hometown. That fan was me, in my role as pop music critic at the Miami Herald. That star was Carly Simon. And a big part of the draw was the allure of Miami's elegant Gusman Center, also known as the Olympia theater. Simon, now 82, is a music legend who wrote and recorded one of pop culture's most famous songs — so enduring that Taylor Swift cited the 1972 hit, 'You're So Vain,' as 'the best song that has ever been written.' That's coming from Swift, who built a legion of fans on chronicling breakups. The Oscar- and Grammy-winning composer became a star attraction in the 1970s but stage fright largely kept her off the road for most of her career. It was May 2007 when I made my call. A key to my pitch was that Florida International University's theater department was staging her family opera, 'Romulus Hunt.' The event was conceived by then FIU head theater director Phillip Church to support a not-for-profit that helped children in foster care. Getting Simon to put on a show the night before her opera would be a huge boost for the benefit. I can still remember part of my conversation with Simon 18 years ago touting the Olympia. '...Oh, and the venue is beautiful. It's historic. You'll like it and it's not too big and overwhelming like an arena.' The following year, the theater added Simon's rare live concert to its long list of memorable moments. Olympia's fate? Now Miami's talking about giving away the Gusman? The clouds in my coffee are forming twisters. Do our memories go along with that deal? Mine are priceless. Bet yours are, too. As the Herald has reported, Miami officials are considering turning over control of the historic Olympia Theater on Flagler Street in downtown Miami to a Little Havana charter school. MORE: In murky deal, Miami may give storied 1926 Olympia theater to Pitbull's charter school The Olympia is also known as the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts from the mid-1970s to 2014, in honor of philanthropist Maurice Gusman who donated the property to the city in 1975. Whatever its name, the theater has such a storied history. Olympia's history The Olympia opened on Flagler Street as a silent movie palace in 1926 as one of the original Publix Theatre movie palaces. Yep, Publix before the Publix you go to for Pub Subs and BOGOs. Publix founder George Jenkins liked the sound of the name 'Publix' so he took it when the Florida-based movie chain folded at the time of the Great Depression. Jenkins needed a name for his first store in Winter Haven, Florida, in 1930, and 'Publix' sounded right, according to his 1979 memoir. MORE: How did Publix supermarket get its name? It's a Florida story made for the movies From Elvis to Buffett The Olympia/Gusman hosted the Miami Film Festival in the 1990s and 2000s as its premier venue. Elvis Presley performed in concert there in 1956. So did B.B. King, Etta James, The Marx Brothers and Gypsy Rose Lee. Italian operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti and Canadian rocker Bryan Adams played the venue too. Jimmy Buffett played a three-night gig at the Maurice Gusman Cultural Center on Aug. 14-16, 1978. These shows were taped and formed much of the material featured on his 1978 two-disc live album, 'You Had to Be There.' The rest of the set's live material was recorded days earlier from Atlanta's Fabulous Fox concert venue. Gosh, I wish I had been there at his Gusman concerts when I was 15. On the Gusman stage, Buffett 'Floridized his songs and commentary, with references to stolen sunglasses from Eckerd's, beer at Captain Dick's in the Grove. Pelican Pete's in Key Largo, Stuckey's with its pecan rolls and 'free alligators for the kids,'' future Herald theater critic Christine Dolen wrote in her review of opening night. Buffett premiered new material from the Gusman, too. One of those songs, 'Morris' Nightmare,' made it onto 'You Had to Be There.' It was a song about a cruise-ship couple, alias 'condo commandos and snowbirds,' Buffett quipped at the Gusman. Can you imagine that track originating anywhere else but Miami? That live album was a perennial on boomboxes at swim meets with my fellow Hurricanes teammates, I told Buffett in December 2021. We were chatting on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the launch of his career from Key West. One of many conversations. I miss Jimmy. He was his endearing stage persona Miami fans who were there at the Gusman saw so many years ago. MORE: 'The longevity of mischief.' Jimmy Buffett looks at 50 years after his first Key West gig The Police and Cash Around that time in 1978, The Police were a fledgling late-'70s New Wave rock act led by Sting when they graced the Gusman. I hadn't started going to rock concerts just yet. But I got to walk around the backstage catacombs at the Gusman with Police drummer Stewart Copeland about 16 or so years later in 1994 when he was checking out the venue at a soundcheck. He performed with a group of African percussionists on its stage to promote his post-Police project, The Rhythmatist. 'I've been always interested in music from around the world,' Copeland told the Herald at the time. Johnny Cash played the Gusman in 1995 when he was enjoying a musical and commercial renaissance that sustained him for the rest of his life. 'This hasn't been my best night, but I loved being with you,' Cash apologized to his audience toward the show's end. Puzzled, I shook his hand backstage moments after and continued a chat we'd had in an interview pre-show. The Man in Black was a perfectionist. He was all smiles afterward. So much for the brooding reputation. The man's charisma wattage was tuned so high in person the City of Miami probably saved a few bucks on its electric bill for running the theater's stage lights that night. Carly Simon's Miami debut Carly Simon, however, is my most cherished Gusman memory. A career highlight. FIU's Church wanted to stage Simon's 'Romulus Hunt' after seeing a production in North Carolina. Simon's family opera tells the story of a 12-year-old New York boy who is shuttled between divorced parents who plots to bring his incompatible parents back together. Simon wrote the parents as 'exaggerated' versions of herself and ex-husband, musician James Taylor, she said. The former couple share two children. 'I've seen a lot of divorces, unfortunately, and so many kids are left confused [or] in a state of denial,' Simon said. 'The fights can be worse. The children can feel grabbed at and totally in the middle.' Church knew I'd had connections to Simon. I'd written about her often for the Herald. Flew out to see her in rare one-off concerts in Columbus, Ohio, and New York's famous Apollo for a Christmas show. He wondered if I'd reach out and gauge Simon's interest in taking part in some way with his production. I'd admired Church's work at FIU when I was a grad student just before joining the Herald in 1991. A concert and opera, both to benefit CHARLEE, the not-for-profit that supported foster children in Miami, was what Church had in mind. Simon's participation would sell that concept and fill the Gusman. 'I seem to find less and less pleasure in doing theater for theater's sake. These days, I feel I have to be compelled by a social need,' Church told me then. He's retired from FIU but still staging stories for his local community theater group What if Works. He was a fan of Simon. So was the late Marilyn March, who died in 2020 from pancreatic cancer. She was development director for CHARLEE, the foster care organization that stood to benefit from Simon's 'Romulus Hunt' and her concert the night before. 'Many of our children are the product of broken homes, and the divorce rate today is staggering,' March told me. 'We all grew up with Carly Simon's music and we knew how much of her personal life's journey is reflected in her lyrics.' Could I possibly convince the stage-shy Simon to say yes by simply vouching for these people? Simon sang an array of her hits from the Gusman stage. 'You're So Vain,' of course. 'Let the River Run' and 'Anticipation.' She sang a song about her and Taylor's daughter Sally from her then new album. Their son Ben Taylor played guitar and sang harmonies with his famous mom at the Gusman. Simon sang her son's song, 'Island.' 'If I can recommend a life experience, have Carly Simon play one of your songs on stage,' Taylor told the Miami audience. 'These songs have different meanings because we're old now,'' Simon, then 64, teased as she introduced her familial 'Coming Around Again.' I'm so vain. I apparently convinced Carly. A memory as precious as the Olympia.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Carly Simon Defends Sabrina Carpenter Against ‘Flak' for Divisive ‘Man's Best Friend' Album Cover: ‘It Seems Tame'
As Sabrina Carpenter continues to field criticism for her suggestive Man's Best Friend cover, singer-songwriter Carly Simon is 'Coming Around Again' to help her fellow performer out. In an interview with Rolling Stone on Wednesday (June 18), Simon commented on the ongoing backlash Carpenter has received since unveiling the new artwork for her forthcoming album. 'She's not doing anything outrageous,' she says. 'It seems tame. There have been far flashier covers than hers. One of the most startling covers I've ever seen was [The Rolling Stones'] Sticky Fingers. That was out there in terms of sexual attitude. So I don't know why she's getting such flak.' More from Billboard How Big a Deal for Sabrina Carpenter Is 'Manchild' Debuting at No. 1? Rachel Zegler Serenades Crowd Outside Theater for Free in a New London Production of 'Evita' Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis to Receive Vanguard Award at The Guitar Center Music Foundation Gala & Benefit Concert The artwork for Man's Best Friend shows Carpenter on her knees with her hand on a suit-wearing man's thigh, as that same figure grabs a fistful of her blonde hair. Critics have claimed that the cover artwork is over-sexualized and anti-feminist, while fans of Carpenter have called such critiques misogynistic, saying the tongue-in-cheek cover is part of Carpenter's established sex-positive brand. While Simon joked that 'touching the man's knee' was 'going over the line a little bit,' she said the 'Espresso' singer shouldn't worry too much about negative reactions to her work. 'Any press is good press, so I wouldn't worry about the press. And as far as her being salacious, I certainly don't think it's that,' Simon said. 'I mean, look at all of the people who dress much more scantily. She's so beautiful, and she should be proud of herself and the way she looks. I don't see anything wrong with that.' Carpenter herself has responded to a few fans making similar claims about her image. When a fan claimed that her 2024 W magazine photo shoot was inspired by the 1997 film adaptation of Lolita, the singer quickly denied it, saying that she'd 'never seen this movie' and that 'it's never been on my mood board and never would be.' But the pop singer still has plenty to celebrate this week. 'Manchild,' the first single from her upcoming new album, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, earning Carpenter her first debut at the chart's summit and the second chart-topper of her career (following 'Please Please Please' in 2024). 'I can't tell you how much this means to me!!!!' she wrote in an Instagram Stories post on Monday (June 16). 'This song makes me so happy.' Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Carly Simon Defends Sabrina Carpenter Against Album Cover Backlash: 'She's Not Doing Anything Outrageous'
Carly Simon is defending Sabrina Carpenter amid the backlash against her album artwork for Man's Best Friend In an interview with Rolling Stone, the "You're So Vain" hitmaker said the LP cover seemed "tame" Man's Best Friend is due Aug. 29Carly Simon is standing by Sabrina Carpenter. In an interview with Rolling Stone published on Wednesday, June 18, the "You're So Vain" hitmaker came to the pop star's defense amid the backlash surrounding the cover for her forthcoming album Man's Best Friend. The album artwork features a photo of Carpenter, 26, on her hands and knees as someone who appears to be a man grabs her by the hair. In the image, she's donning a short, black dress and black heels. Simon herself released a similarly controversial cover with her 1975 album Playing Possum, which featured the "You Belong to Me" artist on her knees wearing black lingerie and black leather boots. "Everybody looked at it, and people definitely had a reaction to it,' Simon, 81, told the publication of the controversial album cover. 'But they wouldn't have told me what they really thought.' When the album was shipped to stores, she was met with bolder reactions. 'Suddenly, I'm getting calls from Time and Newsweek, saying, 'This is one of the sexiest covers that has ever known,'' Norman Seeff, the photographer who shot the cover for Playing Possum, told Rolling Stone. He continued: 'There's this whole controversy around what did it represent? It felt very much like that energy in a woman, but I just thought of it as a beautiful shot. None of that stuff they were talking about was the intention." Simon also addressed the criticism Carpenter has faced for her Man's Best Friend album artwork, which she didn't understand. "She's not doing anything outrageous,' she told the outlet. 'It seems tame." Added Simon: "There have been far flashier covers than hers. One of the most startling covers I've ever seen was [The Rolling Stones'] Sticky Fingers. That was out there in terms of sexual attitude. So I don't know why she's getting such flak." Carpenter announced the release of her seventh studio album and its cover art on Wednesday, June 11. The news came after she shared the album's lead single "Manchild" earlier this month. In the days after she shared the album cover, Carpenter responded to an X user who reshared the singer's Man's Best Friend album cover, saying, 'Does she have a personality outside of sex?' The 'Espresso" hitmaker then reshared the post and said: 'girl yes and it is goooooood.' Man's Best Friend follows Carpenter's chart-topping LP Short n' Sweet, which was released last August. Read the original article on People
Fox News
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Carly Simon defends Sabrina Carpenter's controversial album cover, says it's not 'outrageous'
Carly Simon is coming to Sabrina Carpenter's defense. During a recent interview, Simon reacted to Carpenter's album cover that caused quite a stir. Carpenter's album artwork for "Man's Best Friend" showed a photo of the singer on her hands and knees, as a man appeared to be grabbing her by the hair. The "Busy Woman" singer wore a black mini dress and matching heels in the photo. Simon argued the current outrage surrounding Carpenter's album is relatively mild, compared to past examples of bold artistic expression in the music industry. "She's not doing anything outrageous," the "You're So Vain" singer said in an interview with Rolling Stone. "It seems tame." "There have been far flashier covers than hers," Simon said. "One of the most startling covers I've ever seen was [The Rolling Stones'] "Sticky Fingers." That was out there in terms of sexual attitude. So I don't know why she's getting such flak." Once Carpenter shared her latest album cover of "Man's Best Friend," fans were quick to comment. "This cover makes me uncomfortable…" one person wrote. Another comment read, "That's disgusting!!" Other fans enjoyed Carpenter's album and wrote, "Sue her she wants to be iconic." While Simon is no stranger to pushing the envelope herself, the singer reacted to the similar criticism she received for her famous 1975 "Playing Possum" album. "Everybody looked at it, and people definitely had a reaction to it," Simon told Rolling Stone of her own cover at the time. "But they wouldn't have told me what they really thought." The "You Belong To Me" singer famously posed in a lacy black dress with matching leather boots. Simon's face wasn't shown, but she was photographed on her knees for the album cover. That photo was shot by Norman Seeff, who still remembers the stir it caused. "Suddenly, I'm getting calls from 'Time' and 'Newsweek,' saying, 'This is one of the sexiest covers that has ever [been] known,'" Seeff recalled. "There's this whole controversy around what did it represent? It felt very much like that energy in a woman, but I just thought of it as a beautiful shot." Meanwhile, the former Disney star has been known for her racy performances and turning heads. In March, Carpenter shocked fans with her explicit dance moves at her concert in Paris. During every show on her "Short n' Sweet" world tour, the singer simulates a different sexual position while performing her hit "Juno." Carpenter shows off each move when she sings the lyrics, "Wanna try out some freaky positions? / Have you ever tried this one?" At her Paris performance, Carpenter paid tribute to the City of Lights when she and two male backup dancers simulated a three-way sex act, known as the Eiffel Tower. In a photo from the performance that the account Buzzing Pop posted on X, Carpenter, who donned a sparkly green and silver halter top with a matching miniskirt, was seen bending over between the two dancers who leaned into her and held hands above her. The position is meant to emulate the structure of Paris' famed historical landmark. The post divided fans when it went viral on social media, with some fans slamming Carpenter's performance as too inappropriate for the younger members of her fan base, while others contended that she had the right to evolve as an artist after transitioning to adulthood.
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sabrina Carpenter Is Under Fire for a Spicy Album Cover. Tell It to Carly Simon
Almost 25 years before Sabrina Carpenter was born, Carly Simon was in a department store in New York and feeling pretty good. She'd just released her fifth album, Playing Possum, and the frisky single 'Attitude Dancing' was looking to follow her hits 'You're So Vain,' 'Haven't Got Time for the Pain,' and 'Anticipation' onto the radio. Then, a woman who was apparently familiar with the cover of Playing Possum approached her. 'She'd either seen a picture of it, or she knew someone who had the album,' Simon recalls. 'And she said, 'What were you thinking?' Voices were raised.' More from Rolling Stone Sabrina Carpenter Cold-Plunges Before Every Show and 16 Other Things That Didn't Make Our Cover Story Sabrina Carpenter's 'Manchild' Debuts at Number One on Hot 100 Sabrina Carpenter Laughs Off Critics of Her Sexy Shows: 'You're Obsessed With It' Last week, Carpenter unveiled the now-notorious cover for her upcoming album Man's Best Friend, in which she's depicted kneeling on the ground, one hand extended toward a figure in a suit who's grabbing her hair. Debates, some pretty intense, ensued about whether the photo signified savvy, knowing female empowerment or simply empowered the male gaze. But as Simon well knows, the sight of a female pop star in a similar pose and pushing plenty of the same buttons didn't start with Man's Best Friend. Released in 1975, Playing Possum sported a couple of suggestive song titles, like 'Are You Ticklish' and 'Love Out in the Street,' but its most provocative aspect was its black-and-white cover photo: Simon, on her knees, looking fierce and mysterious in a black negligee and black boots, fists clenched, face partly hidden, mouth sightly open. Photographer Norman Seeff's shot was the polar opposite of the cover of her previous album, 1974's Hotcakes, which featured a smiling and visibly pregnant Simon. Of Playing Possum, Simon says, 'I remember thinking, if this works, it'll also let people see that I've gotten my body back.' But in a scenario that may be familiar to the Carpenter camp, fans and feminists alike didn't know what to make of it and began arguing over its message. As Rolling Stone reported at the time, the Sears department-store chain, which sold a good deal of LPs, considered not carrying Simon's album at all. Crawdaddy, a competing counterculture magazine, published a review that was entirely devoted to analyzing the cover instead of the music. The image became so indelible that the negligee Simon wore was included in her exhibit at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame when she was inducted in 2022. Given how much Playing Possum's cover contrasted with Hotcakes, its back story is ironic: It actually began with Simon's daughter Sally, who, only a few months old, was in a baby carrier on her mother's back as Simon shopped in Bloomingdale's. 'I was looking through the racks of undergarments, and she bent over with me as I bent over to look at something,' Simon says, recalling how her daughter grabbed at the black lingerie and pulled it into the carrier with her. 'It wasn't noticed at checkout.' (These were the days before security tags were affixed to clothing.) When Simon arrived at Seeff's L.A. studio for the photo shoot, she was wearing the purloined piece of clothing underneath a skirt and blouse. As Simon remembers, she was in a dressing room putting her street clothes back on after the session when she heard Isaac Hayes' 'Theme from Shaft' playing in the studio. 'I loved that song, so I ran out and started dancing to it,' she says. As Seeff clicked away, Simon, in the black lingerie, sang along with Hayes, ultimately lying down on the floor on her back before pulling herself up. 'And that's when Norman took that picture, after I landed in that pose,' she says. 'It wasn't done on purpose. It wasn't a setup.' When the photos were developed, Seeff zeroed in on one in particular. 'I'm looking at these shots, and I go, 'Well, here's a shot that's got some kind of energy to it,'' he says. 'The head's cut off. She was in movement from being on the floor to standing up, and she's got this clenched fist. No one thought about what it might convey. It was a fascinating, unique image and it left a lot to the imagination.' Simon herself wasn't sure at first but came around to the same thinking. 'There was something about black and white photographs, where you suddenly see it as an art picture,' she says. 'The whole thing looked artistic, even though it wasn't artistic on purpose.' In Simon's memory, the initial feedback she received — from then husband James Taylor and her producer, the late Richard Perry — was positive, and she proudly showed it to Joni Mitchell and Graham Nash at a birthday party Simon threw for Taylor in L.A. just before the album was released. 'Everybody looked at it, and people definitely had a reaction to it,' she says, 'but they wouldn't have told me what they really thought.' The more visceral responses arrived when Playing Possum was shipped to stores. 'How's that for crashing the image of the sweet mother-to-be beaming on the cover of her last album?' wrote one critic. Another wondered if she should be carrying a whip to match the outfit. Simon even recalls her mother, Civil Rights activist Andrea Louise Heinemann, saying, 'Carly, darling! What are you doing?' 'Suddenly, I'm getting calls from Time and Newsweek, saying, 'This is one of the sexiest covers that has ever known,'' Seeff says. 'There's this whole controversy around what did it represent? It felt very much like that energy in a woman, but I just thought of it as a beautiful shot. None of that stuff they were talking about was the intention.' The conversation didn't hurt sales: Playing Possum became Simon's third straight Top 10 album. The cover of Carpenter's Man's Best Friend isn't an overt homage to Playing Possum, but Simon has been recognized by modern pop stars. Both Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo have covered 'You're So Vain' onstage, and Addison Rae shouted out Simon's later Boys in the Trees album in a recent interview. 'I love it that the younger girls are discovering me, and that I've had attention from them,' Simon says. Of Carpenter's controversial artwork, Simon doesn't quite see the fuss. 'She's not doing anything outrageous,' she says. 'It seems tame. There have been far flashier covers than hers. One of the most startling covers I've ever seen was [The Rolling Stones'] Sticky Fingers. That was out there in terms of sexual attitude. So I don't know why she's getting such flak.' Simon herself hasn't released a new album since 2009, but she's been working on new music on and off for a decade. The songs, many produced by her son Ben, include 'Howl,' featuring Nile Rodgers on guitar and a guest vocal from Chris Stills, son of Stephen. 'It's kind of a vengeance song about getting back at someone, or, in this case, a whole lot of people,' she says. 'Is it tender? No, it's not. It's very gutsy. It's got a lot of power.' She's also written a song about her daughter Sally, 'Mother of Pearl,' and another, 'Do It Anyway,' that she calls 'kind of a coach song — 'if you think you can't do it, do it anyway.'' 'Pity the Poor Man' was co-written with Natasha Bedingfield, and Simon has also set a W.H. Auden poem to music. What form the songs will take remains to be seen, Simon says. 'I didn't record it as an album,' she says. 'I just did it as a song here and a song there. We have 10 songs, an album's worth, but you don't really release albums now, so we're just going to release one by one.' Since it may not be an actual old-fangled album, Simon isn't even thinking about cover art. But as far as advice to Carpenter on how to deal with her situation, Simon says, 'Well, any press is good press, so I wouldn't worry about the press. And as far as her being salacious, I certainly don't think it's that. I mean, look at all of the people who dress much more scantily. She's so beautiful, and she should be proud of herself and the way she looks. I don't see anything wrong with that.' Taking another look at Man's Best Friend, Simon has one last thought. 'I thought it was going over the line a little bit, touching the man's knee,' she says, with a chuckle. 'I thought she didn't have to do that.' Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked
