Sheila Weller New York Times b e s t s e l l i n g a u t h o r
GIRLS CAROLE KING, JONI MITCHELL, CARLY SIMON— and the
JOURNEY GENERATION
$27.95 U.S.
$32.00 Can.
A groundbreaking and irresistible biography of three of America's most important musical artists—Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon—charts their lives as women at a magical moment in time.
CAROLE KING, JONI MITCHELL, and CARLY SIMON remain among the most enduring and important women in popular music. Each woman is distinct Carole King is the product of outer-borough, middle-class New York City; Joni Mitchell is a granddaughter of Canadian farmers; and Carly Simon is a child of the Manhattan intellectual upper crust. They collectively represent, in their lives and their songs, a great swath of American girls who came of age in the late 1960s. "Their stories trace the arc of the now mythic sixties generation—female version^but in a bracingly specific and deeply recalled way, far from cliché. The history of the women of that generation has never been written—until now, through their resonant lives and emblematic songs. Filled with the voices of many dozens of these women's intimates, who are speaking in these pages for the first time, this alternating biography reads like a novel—except its all true, and the heroines are famous and beloved. Sheila Weller captures the character of each woman and gives a balanced portrayal enriched by a wealth of new information. Girls Like Us is an epic treatment of midcentury women who dared to break tradition and become what none had been before them—confessors in song, rock superstars, and adventurers of heart and soul.
SHEILA WELLER is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning magazine journalist. S h e is the author of five previous books, most recently her 2 0 0 3 family memoir, Dancing
at Ciro's,
which The Washington
Post
called
"a substantial contribution to American social history." S h e is the senior contributing editor at Glamour, a contributor to Vanity Fair and a former contributing editor of New York. To learn more, visit www.girlslikeusthebook.com.
Register online at www.simonsays.com for more information on this and other great books. Visit BookClubReader.com, your source for reading group guides and other book club materials.
Jacket design by Janet PenPhotos of Carly Simon and Carole King by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Photo of Joni Mitchell by Hulton Archive/Getty Images Author photograph by Gasper Tringle Copyright © 2008 Atria Books Printed in the U.S.A.
G I R L S /Qgf
Advance praise for
"Girls Like Us is about three women whose courageous, defiant talent defined a generation. Whether you read it to rediscover that wonderfully stormy time—the '60s and early feminist movement—or to discover it for the first time, take it to heart. Sacrifice, hard work, and daring to dream is still the tale of girls like us." — C A R O L E R A D Z I W I L L , author of the What Remains:
A Memoir
New York Times
of Fate, Friendship,
and
bestseller
Love
"More than the story of three pop stars, Girls Like Us chronicles a generation of young women who had a moving determination to recast their lives and loves as high adventure. Weller beautifully captures the mammoth enterprise of making a new womanhood." — C H R I S T I N E S T A N S E L L , author of and the Creation
American
of a New
Moderns:
Bohemian
New York
Century
"Juicy and politically astute, this book is a page-turner, and it fills a gaping hole in the history of the counterculture." — P E T E R B l S K I N D , bestselling author of Sex-Drugs-and-Rock
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the
'n' Roll Generation
Changed
Hollywood
"Reading Girls Like Us is like sneaking into a reunion of the hippest class from the '60s . . . where all the secrets come spilling out after the third glass of wine." —SUZANNE
FINSTAD,
bestselling author of
Natasha:
A Biography
of Natalie
Wood
"A wild ride through an important part of rock history that too often has been overlooked. This book will stay on my shelf next to albums like Blue and Tapestry, places I turn to to capture a more innocent and romantic era in music and in my life." — C H A R L E S R . C R O S S , bestselling author of of Mirrors:
A Biography
ofJimi
Room
Full
Hendrix
"There were five books by my bedside when Girls Like Us arrived, but this was the book I had to keep reading. It's filled with nuggets I hadn't known about, and this generation of women is my subject! If you love the singers and the songs, you'll tear through Girls Like Us" — S A R A D A V I D S O N , bestselling author of and Leap!:
Loose Change:
Three Women of the
What Will We Do with the Rest of Our
Sixties
Lives?
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY ISBN-13: 978-0-7434-9147-1 ISBN-10: 0-7434-9147-5
MM
9 I78O743I49147J
$27.95 U.S. $32.00 Can.
NIMIlilI
L I K E US
Dancing at Ciro's: A Family's Love, Loss, and Scandal on the Sunset Strip Saint of Circumstance: The Alex Kelly Rape Case: Growing Up Rich and Out of Control Marrying the Hangman: A True Story of Privilege, Marriage, and Murder Raging Heart: The Intimate Story of the Tragic Marriage of 0. J. and Nicole Simpson Hansel & Gretel in Beverly Hills
* LIKE US CAROLE KING, JONI MITCHELL, CARLY SIMON— the Journey of a Generation
SHEILA
ATRIA
WELLER
BOOKS
New York London Toronto
Sydney
To the women of the 1960s generation (Were we not the best?)
ATRIA B O O K S
A Division of Simon 8c Schuster, Inc. 1230 Avenue of the Americas N e w York, N Y 10020 Copyright © 2008 by Kellwell Inc. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, N e w York, N Y 10020 First Atria Books hardcover edition April 2008 A T R I A B O O K S and colophon are trademarks of Simon 8c Schuster, Inc. 'Tapestry cover used with permission and courtesy of O d e Sounds and Visuals. Playing Jbssum cover used with permission of Rhino Records. For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon &. Schuster Special Sales at 1-800-456-6798 or
[email protected]. Designed by Jaime Putorti Manufactured in the United States of America 10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Weller, Sheila. Girls like us : Carole King, J o n i Mitchell, and Carly Simon-and the j o u r n e y of a generation / Sheila Weller. p. cm. 1. King, Carole, 1 9 4 2 - 2. Mitchell, Joni. 3. Simon, Carly. 4. Singers-Biography. 5. Rock musicians-Biography. 6. W o m e n rock musicians-Biography. I. Tide. M L 4 0 0 . W 3 5 2008 782.42164092'2-dc22 2007043445 [B] ISBN-13: 978-0-7434-9147-1 ISBN-10 : 0-7434-9147-5
C O N T E N T S
PART O N F "WE C A N ONLY L O O K
BEHIND
FROM W H E R E WE CAME"
o-viL'itw^
Three Women, Three Moments, One Journey
3
PART T W O "I'M H O M E A G A I N , I N M Y O L D N A R R O W B E D "
T\ c^a_"j»L
