Kim Carnes – Bette Davis Eyes

General CommentThe song is a description of a young femme fatale, plain and simple. She's an enticing, promiscuous woman who makes prospective partners work for it, but has all the charms it takes to make them put that effort in. Still she moves on once she's made her conquest. It would be over-stating it to call her "evil" though. All the song says she does to the men she entices is make them sad she doesn't stay.

It might be significant that Harlow gold sounds almost like "hollow gold". Maybe not though. Harlow played a lot of femme's fatale. I don't think the song is about Marilyn Monroe rather than an imaginary woman. Monroe's on-screen presence wasn't mysterious and film noiresque and the woman in this song has nothing of the woman-child about her.

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  @Letmein
  +3

  It's less than that. It's more specific. It's about the embrace of both the femme fatale you elude to as well as the specific figure, in the tint of kim carnes, specifically. your generalization is not wrong per se, but way off.
  This is about an artists' embrace and expression of an iconic figure. It's well done by human standards.

  Flag raffi10000on September 09, 2014  

Song MeaningThis is also one of my favorites. To keep it short, it was written in dedication to Bette Davis and the latter stated she was truly flattered by the song and was grateful to Carnes for the tribute (or so I've read).

It captures the essence of an angel-faced temptress who appears "pure as NY snow" and lures men in with her wit and charm, but as they are drinking into her passion, she is studying them closely and exposing their weaknesses...Eventually, just when they are transfixed into her seductive games, she uses these weaknesses against them, "rolls them like dice", and when she gets what she wants from them...leaves them hoping they are pleased with the crumbs of her affection; a take-no-prisoner seductress.

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  @elusive12

General CommentWhile many people want to see a hidden drug meaning in the song, it's not there and a far stretch. It is about a calculating woman who uses sex as a weapon. And the song was not written by two men as a couple commenters said, it was written in 1974 by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon, both females, and originally recorded as a light jazz song by DeShannon on her 1975 album.

It is an homage to the femme fatale.

"She's precocious": As in outrageously brash and often used to describe a female sexually back in the day. Sexually precocious meant experienced and promiscuous.

"Tease you, unease, all the better just to please you.": To get want she wants.

"Make a pro blush": In the 70s and 80s calling a woman a Pro implied she was a sexual pro, meaning professional, as in the wold's oldest profession. Carnes is basically saying "She could make a hooker blush." Interesting fact, DeShannon's original lyric was "make a crow blush" which was a dated backwoods expression. It basically meant the same thing but without the sexual connotation. Carnes changed it in her recording.

"Pure as New York snow" has nothing to do with cocaine or meth. It is irony. New York snow, unlike in the country, is trampled on until it becomes sludge. Meaning, she is not pure at all.

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  @Endymion2013
  0

  @Endymion2013
  
  I was going to add a comment about the 'New York Snow' line but you nailed it.
  
  Definitely a reference to NY the city. The snow is grimy, grey and dirty and the line is pure sarcasm.

  Flag jgm4661on June 07, 2015  

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  @Endymion2013
  The correct line is "Make a Crow blush"...a common southern saying but it was misinterpreted for kim's cover of the song

  Flag barbarasz6on June 10, 2018  

General Commentthis is one of my favorite songs. I get a bitter sweet feeling everytime I listen to it. I think it's about a person that always plays tricks on the other one. Like some kind of game. Maybe it's a woman singing about the woman that plays tricks on him all the time and she's saying that "you'll never get anything from her so why don't you take me instead?" Or what do you think?

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  @cammen

General Commentthis song is amazing, definately one of my favorites

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  @Richie45069

Song MeaningA perfect example of the type of woman this song is about is Mata Hari. Look her up. From Wikipedia: The idea of an exotic dancer working as a lethal double agent using her powers of seduction to extract military secrets from her many lovers made Mata Hari an enduring archetype of the femme fatale.

She'll expose you [your secrets and weaknesses],

when she snows you [snow doesn't mean cocaine here. In modern slang it means when she plays you, fools you with her charm]

Off your feet [NOT Hope you're pleased (that lyric above is wrong), because she doesn't care; she'll play you and charm you off your feet and into bed where you and your secrets are vulnerable]

with the crumbs she throws you [with the little attention she pays you]

She's ferocious and she knows just
What it takes to make a pro blush [she could make a hooker blush and can get what she wants]

All the boys think she's a spy [just like WWI spy Mata Hari who Greta Garbo coincidentally played in the 1931 movie Mata Hari]

she's got Bette Davis eyes [the kind that can charm you with the bat of the lashes or stare through like ice]

Also, "Greta Garbo stand-off sighs" is a reference to Garbo's most famous movie line from Grand Hotel where she breathily says, "I want to be alone" and the fact Garbo was completely stand-offish with the public and press in her real life.

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  @Endymion2013

General Comment" Her hair is brown and stiff,
Her lips chapped bloody red.
Her hands are acy cold!
She toots that New York Snow.
It gave her Marty Feldman eyes!

She'll turn the misic real loud,
Then throw you on your ass.
She'll steal your New York Snow
She's got Marty Feldman eyes!

She'll squeeze you, when she see's you.
It'll unhinge you!
She's ferocious, and she knows just how to make you throw up!
She's got those Marty Feldman eyes!

She'll invade your home,
to feed her appetite.
Leave you tied to the throne!
Thinkin bout her Marty Feldman eyes?
She'll throw a rumble on you,
throw you on your ass.
You'll come up black and blue.
She's got those Marty Feldman eyes!

She'll expose you,
then she'll blow you.
Right in front of your friends!
She can lift a bathtub and throw it!
She's ferocious, and she knows just what makes you throw up.
All your friends will think she's a GUY!
She's got those Marty Feldman eyes.

But she'll tease you, bout how she knows you.
She's got those Marty Feldman eyes!"

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  @scottyboyd

General CommentI used to think this was sung by Rod Stewart. Actually, the All Music Guide describes Ms. Carnes' voice as being like Mr. Stewarts. So I guess I can't be blamed.

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  @grouping

General CommentWOW... I guess i should get busy submiting the *REAL* Kim Carnes stuff...

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  @astropix

General Commentthis song is about a tease, duh

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  @gisela
  0

  Thhhhhhhhhank you! Finally someone's caught on..

  Flag mysticlipstickon August 07, 2009