If I could...

[lovecraft68]

The lyrics and tone of this one has stuck with me since I first heard it in my early teens.

Been a lot of covers, but this one really delivers. Mick sings consistently throughout the song, but Gorges malice grows as the song progresses.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I always heard it was Warren Beatty.

She's never said, probably to not give him the satisfaction of knowing that the song really was about him. It must be torture for a guy like that to think one of the most famous songs in pop music history might not be, and she twisted that knife in the chorus.

She publicly stated in 2015 that Beatty was one of three men the song was about.

One of my faves, that song. Best version, IMHO:

I wish I could do anything that well.

 

[Euphony]

She publicly stated in 2015 that Beatty was one of three men the song was about.

One of my faves, that song. Best version, IMHO:

I wish I could do anything that well.

IIRC that was her HBO special (I was very young and it was a Mom thing.)

Pretty awesome performance, even in retrospect.

 

[lovecraft68]

 

[gunhilltrain]

I'm still impressed with what Emily Dickinson did with eight lines:

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us -- don't tell!
They'd advertise -- you know!

How dreary to be somebody!
How public like a frog
To tell one's name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

Notable that only one authenticated photograph of her exists.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I think I've heard that one too. Maybe she didn't mean any specific person, maybe it's a "collage" of different guys. (There is a better term, but my memory keeps failing me.)
...

P.S. A "composite character," that is the term I was looking for.

If it wasn't a composite, one would think "flew your Lear jet up to Nova Scotia to see a total eclipse of the sun" ought to narrow it down considerably.

 

[MrPixel]

Well, I woke up Sunday morning
With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad
So I had one more for dessert

Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes
And found my cleanest dirty shirt
And I washed my face and combed my hair
And stumbled down the stairs to meet the day...

Kristofferson painted vivid pictures with great economy of words.