Suing Her Label, Not Retiring: Carly Simon Won’t Go Gently - NY Times
 

I think this was an interesting glimpse into the business side of music. I personally thought her last album was among her finest... but I didn't know it was supposed to be her last! To be honest, I have a hard time believing that she is now just going through the motions to pay the bills- I have always thought she was one of the most interesting, prolific, adventurous artists who constantly strove to innovate and experiment. Definitely one of the most underrated singer/songwriters ever. This is just... sad. :distress:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...s/Simon500.jpg

October 12, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/ar...c/12simon.html

Suing Her Label, Not Retiring: Carly Simon Won’t Go Gently

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

Broken trust, men misbehaving, women trying to recover — these sound like themes pulled from a Carly Simon song. Maybe from all of Carly Simon’s songs.

But this time Ms. Simon was telling a story about her most recent record, a 2008 Brazilian-tinged album called “This Kind of Love.” She had signed with Hear Music, the Starbucks label that had made a hit of Paul McCartney’s “Memory Almost Full.” But five days before her album’s release, Starbucks scaled back its involvement in the music business and, Ms. Simon said in a lawsuit she filed on Friday, that her terrible sales were a result of Starbucks’s mismanagement.

A Starbucks spokeswoman, Sanja Gould, said the company had not seen Ms. Simon’s lawsuit. “We are disappointed to hear that she may be taking this action,” Ms. Gould said. “Starbucks has great respect for Ms. Simon and is hopeful that this matter can be resolved in an amicable manner.”

“This Kind of Love” was supposed to be Ms. Simon’s final album — “my last chance at bat,” she said — but she is in financial straits from other business problems and must keep working. And she is having trouble finding and paying producers. “All of a sudden you’re the ugliest girl at the prom, and you’re not picked,” Ms. Simon, 64, said in a recent interview at her West Village apartment.

Decades ago Ms. Simon wrote and recorded songs about the nervous fears of young women, about marriage and family life and the way women always heard things should be. Now her life seems to reflect a new anxiety of her generation: she can’t retire.

Her money issues make the Starbucks lawsuit partly about business. But Ms. Simon has always been driven by her life’s narrative. “Anticipation” is about her first date with Cat Stevens; “Hello Big Man” about how her parents met; “You’re So Vain” about — well, she still won’t say. And there is also a strong element of the personal in her entanglement with Starbucks and its chief executive, Howard Schultz. This time, rather than singing about a man who misleads her, she is suing him.

“Starbucks was so attractive to me because of what it offered, and Howard Schultz seemed to be such an attractive person,” she said.

The phone rang during the interview — the ringtone was the Rolling Stones’ “Angie” — and Ms. Simon loped upstairs singing “There ain’t a woman that comes close to you” in her trademark husky voice. When she returned, she paged through pictures on her laptop, pointing out ones of her daughter naked and pregnant, and others of her Martha’s Vineyard garden. The only time she seemed embarrassed was when the phone rang again — her boyfriend, a Massachusetts surgeon, was calling — and his ringtone was “Sexual Healing.”

Despite that openness, she seemed high-strung, and warned about her stutter. “What my son, Ben, says about me is that I wear my nervous system in a plume on the outside of my body,” she said.

That nervous system has been on display for decades. Ms. Simon grew up in New York, where her father was a founder of the publishing house Simon & Schuster.

“People think I’m an heiress,” she said, pointing out that she had inherited just $60,000 of the million dollars her father received for his stake in the company. “I was a working girl, and my parents did not give me a big allowance.”

Her first hit, “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be,” came out in 1971. Her marriage to James Taylor in 1972 (they later divorced) inspired “You Belong to Me”; by the 1980s her songs were more pop-driven, like “Coming Around Again” and “Let the River Run.” Albums of standards, which sold well, were mixed in.

She said she loved her 2000 album, “The Bedroom Tapes,” but an executive shakeup at Arista Records made her decide to buy it back after a few months. In 2005 she made an album of covers, “Moonlight Serenade,” which sold decently. But Ms. Simon said she wanted her final album to be one that she had written.

In spring 2007 Starbucks approached her about releasing an album on the Hear Music label. Ms. Simon said that the company discussed an advance of $750,000 to $1 million and wooed her with a marketing plan, promising to stack her album by the cash register and play it frequently. By the time her lawyer received the final contract that October, the advance had dropped to $575,000, and she had already spent about $100,000 of it on recording sessions in Martha’s Vineyard.

On April 24, 2008, Starbucks pulled back from the music business, handing day-to-day management of Ms. Simon’s album to a partner, Concord Music Group. Without Starbucks’s backing, Ms. Simon could not get the promotion and distribution she was promised, she said; the album was not stocked in some stores she visited, for instance.

Alan Mintz, who used to oversee artists and repertory for Hear Music, attended Ms. Simon’s release party on April 29. Along with some other executives, he was fired by Starbucks soon after.

“There was always a challenge at Starbucks in terms of getting the stores to focus on our entertainment ventures,” said Mr. Mintz, who is now Ms. Simon’s manager. “Once the word got out that we were shutting down the label, I think it put a message out to the field that this didn’t matter anymore.”

“This Kind of Love” had decent sales — 23,000 copies its first week — according to Nielsen SoundScan. After that, sales dropped. To date it has sold 124,000 copies, about a third of the sales for “Moonlight Serenade” and even less than those for “Bedroom Tapes.”

Reviews of the new album were mixed but, Ms. Simon said, “I always get mixed reviews.” The issue, she said, was “you can’t sell a product that’s not in stores.” (The album was not sold exclusively at Starbucks.) Starbucks did not address specification allegations in its statement.

Throughout the summer of 2008 Ms. Simon became more frustrated and more personal. Although she had never met Mr. Schultz, she began sending him handwritten messages, of which she kept copies. “Do you suppose I would have gone ahead with heavy and visible exposure if I had known I might be so dropped in the cracks?” she wrote.

Ms. Simon said she did not receive a response from Mr. Schultz, but kept drafting notes. By Oct. 14, her mood had shifted from the logical to the lyrical: “Howard, Fraud is the creation of Faith/ And then the betrayal. Carly.”

And her financial situation had worsened: she owed money on her Martha’s Vineyard house, had put her Village apartment on the market without success, and had lost money in the stock market. She did not receive the whole $575,000 advance, she said, and the usual lift in back-catalog sales that comes with a release did not happen, nor did increased royalties from radio play.

In January Ms. Simon contacted the lawyer David Boies, chairman at Boies, Schiller & Flexner, who has represented the Justice Department against Microsoft, and, with Theodore B. Olson, is challenging the same-sex marriage ban in California. “Instead of advising her as soon as they could that this was a problem, they kept it secret, and they tried to deceive her even after they made the so-called public announcement,” Mr. Boies said of Starbucks.

On Friday Mr. Boies filed a lawsuit in California seeking $5 million to $10 million from Starbucks, alleging “concealment of material facts,” “tortious interference” with Ms. Simon’s contract, and “unlawful, unfair and fraudulent business practices.”

Ms. Simon’s complaints seem more about feelings than tortious interference. She sounds like a woman who has been hurt and is taking that hurt as personally as she always has. “I refuse to go gently,” she said.

She is working on another album, scheduled for release this month, on her son’s label, Iris Records. It is a record of her hits, reworked. She may be older, but her tunes have not changed.

“I want to be somebody who faces things and who doesn’t get stepped on,” she said, “because I’ve been stepped on too much in my life and I don’t want my self-esteem to suffer. I feel that I’ve just about had enough.”

by the way... is it just me... or does Carly appear to have that sinister "spawn of satan" expression typical of Botox users :shrug:?

I just saw her this weekend in Martha's Vineyard in her store. She looked great, but I absolutely thought she'd had some help there.

Yeah she has it. Her eyes don't smile with the rest of her face.

She should ask JT to do something with her. :D

From what I can recall, Carly wasn't even allowed inside of JT's house at their daughter's wedding! :eek: I just don't see a duet anytime soon... :distress:

Le sigh...

Get out! Was she just making an appearance or was she working the cash register?

This exact situation was predicted when Starbucks launched Hear Music. They had one success with Paul McCartney and got carried away. A very similar tghing has happened to Joni Mitchell with Shine. I was disappointed to see so many large artists flocking to the label anyway...

She was sort of hanging out, not really doing much. Looked like someone was showing her a new candle or soap line or something like that when I first walked in. A little later she was sitting down in a chair with a dog on her lap, which i assume was her dog, and was talking with some women who really didn't seem to be in there shopping. So I'm not sure how involved she is with the day to day operations. Her store is just like Anthropologie, for those of you who are familiar with that store. They had all sorts of clothes, linens, furniture, books, candles, jewelry, body care stuff and other things along those lines.

People weren't going up to her or anything, actually everyone in the store seemed extremely respectful of the fact that she was there trying to just be "normal" and people tried to mull around the store without gawking. My aunt must have walked past her about 10 different times and finally they made eye contact and she said hello.

They were such a gorgeous couple.

This is a pretty sad situation. I didn't realise her last album was supposed to be her final one. It's a shame really she has such stage fright because a Carly tour would bring in big bucks for her I think.

Indeed! I just think it's a shame that she didn't do more touring back when she had the voice for it. However, she did exactly one concert to support This Kind of Love- at the Borgata in Atlantic City, which I attended last year. It was kind of sad actually. Her voice is, well... not quite as supple as it used to be. But the worst part was that her son Ben and his friend David Saw carried half of the show with their own songs- it was almost as if she was unable to do a full two-hour show by herself. In hindsight, it makes sense why she did this- for the money. The property taxes must have been due. Since she is not making money from CD sales or radio airplay, this is pretty much her only way to make money. So she either needs to confront her fear of performing or her fear of foreclosure!

I did read online last week a rumor that a European tour of small venues is tentatively planned for early next year. I don't believe it... but there must be a grain of truth in it somewhere...

Well, Joni is like her own worst enemy, so I'm not surprised that her comeback album did not exactly fly off the shelves. Plus... it wasn't very good IMHO :sorry:. James Taylor also got sucked onto that label too... and I think his last couple of albums were pretty much ignored. For a while there I was thinking that HearMusic would be the savior of music... where all of the musical greats would finally have a place to call home and produce the albums that they want to produce. Alas... it was just too good to be true...

I would be absolutely thrilled if that actually happened, I would love to see her live. You're very lucky to have seen her. It doesn't surprise me that she relied heavily on her son to do the show though given all the stories I've heard about her and performing. At this point though, as with most acts her age, touring is where the big money lies, I'm sure the Mac can testify to that.
I wonder where all her money went, she must have made a lot during the 70s and even her 80s comeback right? It can't all be down to bad investments.

I honestly think it's ridiculous for them to be saying that Carly Simon is "in financial straits." Her father was Simon as in Simon & Schuster, she once owned Greyhound Bus Lines (as an inheritance from him). She's literally a billionaire or at least damn close to it.
I don't think she has the capability to lose that much money! :p Her husband is also a well-off banker. I could picture her feeling she needs or wants to make more money but i.m.o. the Times is wwaaaaaaaay off the mark by saying she's "in financial straits."

Anyone remember this 80's "gem"? Tired of Being Blonde

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x59jxJhPagk

For me personally, this is like asking "Does anybody remember the time Stevie read "The History of Concrete and Watching Bricks Dry."

In other words, Of COURSE! . . . . :p

The article addresses that, did you read it? Here's the quote about it:


Also Carly divorced her last husband a few years ago.

Indeed, it seems that she didn't inherit all that much money from her father, but the jury is out on how much her mother was worth when she died in the early 1990's. But then again, there are at least four Simon children that I am aware of, plus an unknown number of grandchildren, so she may have ended up with a sliver of a sliver of her mother's estate.

Although Carly has been extremely prolific in her career, she has had surprisingly few hit albums, i.e., gold/platinum certifications. I can only think of 7 of her albums that were legitimately "hits:" Anticipation, No Secrets, Hotcakes, Greatest Hits, Boys in the Trees, Coming Around Again and Greatest Hits Live-almost all exclusively before the CD era. Still, you would think that would be enough money... but her last hit single and album came out in 1987-1988- over twenty years ago! And she has been divorced from the "real breadwinner" in the family, James, since the early 1980's. Since Carly doesn't really tour and has largely disappeared from the airwaves, her only real source of income is her CD catalog, which is not exactly selling like, um, hotcakes these days. I suppose she could have been okay financially all these years if she lived frugally... but having a duplex in the West Village of New York City and a 30-acre spread on Martha's Vineyard are not exactly what I would consider "living lean and mean." Let's face it- bitch has some serious overhead! And considering her privileged upbringing and her superstar lifestyle, Carly probably doesn't have the foggiest idea what it would be like to actually "economize." Her reality, and her definition of "financial hardship" are probably much different than the rest of us mere mortals.

:lol: It looks like it was fun to do the video though with all the wigs and makeup/wardrobe changes. There's a special place in my heart for this song.

She loves posting vlogs on YouTube, and by the looks of it has very little plastic surgery. :shrug:

Did not know either of those things!

i.m.o. this is another similarity between Stevie and Carly S. (There's several, when you think about it.) Both singers' parents wanted their daughters to "make it on their own." It's a little surprising to me though. Not quite sure what's implied, either - Is the idea that he gave it all to charity? Or that he had actually lost a great deal of money and didn't have that much to leave her?

Anyway I hope things work out for her; I've always felt she's a really awesome person and a great singer/songwriter.

Well Carly's father, Richard L. Simon, died in 1960 and he retired due to illness a couple of years before that. It sounds to me like he sold his share in the company (apparently for $1 million) when he retired. Carly probably got her inheritance when he died, so she's had almost 50 years to spend it. And like HejiraNYC says, I can't imagine she's a woman used to living modestly.

I know I'm going to get virtually slapped for this... but I'd never even heard of Carly Simon before thi sthread. :distress: I feel left out.

Aren't you 15? If that's the case you aren't expected to know who Carly Simon is. :laugh:
Still I bet you've heard You're So Vain, even if you didn't know who it was by. It's a song that is still played all the time today, in films and on the radio.

Ok good, I'm legal lol! And that's often the case with older(ish) songs. I've heard them so many times... but I don't know their name or the aritist. I've definitely heard Close Your Eyes though. My mom's a Linda Ronstadt freak! :]

I just looked up the song. It's my parents' iTunes library. Seriously? I think I may need that virtual slap! Anyone care to give it to me? :p

Damn right!

http://titebeat.com/images/slap.gif

A dream begun in wine?

i.m.o. she's VERY much worth checking out!

A good sampling to search for on Youtube would be "Anticipation," "You're So Vain," "Letters Never Sent,"
"Mockingbird," "Touched by the Sun" and "Born to Break My Heart."

"You're So Vain" has a lot of fun speculation attached to it -
some of the lyrics are, "You're so vain: I bet you think this song
is about you." The two "front-runners" for who it's about are
Mick Jagger and Warren Beatty. (Most fans think it's Beatty.)
There was once a contest where she whispered who it was
really about in the winner's ear. Naturally that person had
to sign his/her life away before hearing it! ;)

Anyway she's a "must not miss" i.m.o. There's a whole treasure trove of wonderful music from Carly Simon!

If I remember correctly the winner paid $50k to charity to learn who the song was about.

The more I think about this the more I think boo ****ing hoo. Get some ribbons and some bows and get back out on the road! She could get a therapist to help her with her stage fright.

I have Carly's greatest hits and I love it. Her music is featured in Little Black Book and I like how they used it. Brittany Murphy also did a decent job singing her stuff a-capella.

i cant find a vid of brittany singing "nobody does it better" to save my life...jeez. i love "you belong to me" tho and i seriously hate the jennifer lopez version of it :distress:

Okay, so while going through boxes of stuff to sell at my grandparents' house, I came accross a Carly Simon tape and snagged it. It's greatest hits live or something. I have to travel down to the basement to listen to it. Because the only tape player we have is in my future car. :D

*Edit* Ooops, the only OTHER tape player we have is in my future car. Don't worry you guys, the car's not in the basement! ;)

I like Carly's music too. I have a 2 cd GH of her's....I should find some of the older ones....I didn't even know she'd put out a live GH.....gotta check that out.....I hope she makes it too.....:shrug:

I wish Carly the best with this whole situation. Her new album came out this week.. I really like it! Here she is on TODAY this morning with John Forte! This is pretty awesome.

I've been getting into her lately. No Secrets is really good. The lyrics are simple but meaningful. I think I will check out others that were produced by Richard Perry because I prefer it to Boys in the Trees which was produced by Arif Mardin.

Any update on the lawsuit or other financial info?

She's great.Love her songs.Also like JT.To bad she's going through these problems.Again here's another older artist that got swept under the rug.
I'm glad Carly likes computers.not like somebody we know.Hehehehe.