Listening to an interview with drummer Andy Newmark, talking about the recording session fifty years ago, on You’re So Vain by Carly Simon. Richard Perry, the producer, replaced him with Jim Gordon, he didn’t like Newmark’s drumming. I never really got into You’re So Vain, as far as songs go. The lyric accuses someone of being a narcissist but it also seems the singer is wounded from the break up. One might conclude ad hominem bashing is the weapon of choice among injured egos. I think Mick Jagger is the background vocalist which was another interesting layer to the song’s history. In the interview, Newmark, like a pro, asks Jim Gordon if he could stay and watch and Gordon agrees. He elaborates on Gordon’s process, the smart or beautiful sculpting and shaping. Yesterday, I had to play it back ten times and I never noticed the peculiar bass pattern off the top. I agreed with Andy Newmark, the cool factor substantially raised by Jim Gordon. Laying out in the first section, playing cross stick then timpanistic floor toms. Did I just invent the word timpanistic?

There are many reasons someone should make a biopic about Jim Gordon who died in jail last three months ago. So many amazing recordings feature magic care of him. Steely Dan’s Pretzel Logic, Yoko Ono’s Fly, Beach Boy’s Pet Sounds, Judee Sill’s Heart Food, John Lennon’s Power To The People, Frank Zappa’s Apostrophe, Gordon Lightfoot’s Sundown, Crosby, Stills and Nash. He became delusional, insane and violent. Stopped eating, stopped drumming, heard voices. Beat people up, committed murder. He was diagnosed a schizophrenic and needed a mental hospital but they had just changed the rules around pleading insanity. Jail for the rest of his life, more than forty years until the end last March 2023. I wrote Andy Newmark after hearing the interview and asked if I could interview him about improvisation for an upcoming issue of the Academic Journal at my school. He agreed and suggested Dr. Wiseman an adequate name for someone getting a PhD. I spent part of today dreaming up what to ask. He said when he watched Jim Gordon come up with parts on You’re So Vain, it was like learning more in that hour than he had previously in twenty years. Considering Andy Newmark has also worked with a who’s who, I am hoping more similar stories of musical wonder result from gabbing with him next week.