Carly Simon Defends Sabrina Carpenter Against Album Cover Backlash: 'She's Not Doing Anything Outrageous'
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.
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