Read Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon — and the Journey of a Generation Online
Authors: Sheila Weller
OTHER:
Copy of Rick Evers's prison record e-mailed by Idaho Department of Corrections. Liner notes written by Carole King for
Welcome Home
album.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
AUTHOR INTERVIEWS
with Larry Klein, Salli Sachse, Danny Kortchmar, Roy Blumenfeld, Russ Kunkel, Billy James, various friends of Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne, the late John Guerin, the late Don Alias, Wayne Perkins, and Ronee Blakley.
ARTICLES AND TRANSCRIPTS:
Crowe, “A Child's Gardenâ¦,”
RS,
1994. Ruhlman, “From Blueâ¦,”
Goldmine,
1995. “Jackson Browne,”
Detroit News
, 1972. Davis, “Joni Mitchell's âFor the Roses'”
RS,
1973. “Biography,” Joni Mitchell.com. Robert Christgau, on Internet. Hoskyns, “Joni Mitchell,”
Blender,
2003. Van Matre, “A âSpark'â¦,”
CT,
1974. Landau, “A Delicate Balance,”
RS,
1974. Echols, “Thirty Yearsâ¦,”
Los Angeles Weekly,
1994. Kot, “Joni's Jazzed,”
CT,
1998. Strickland, “Joni Dancesâ¦,”
Calgary Herald,
2007. Hansen, “Music Icon Joniâ¦,” NPR, 1995. Maslin, “Joni Mitchell's Reckless and Shapelessâ¦,”
RS,
1978. Swartley, “The Babe in Bopperlandâ¦,”
RS,
1979. Holden, “A Summer Gardenâ¦,”
RS,
1976; “High Spiritsâ¦,”
NYT,
1982; and “Joni Mitchell Finds Peaceâ¦,”
NYT
, 1991.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
AUTHOR INTERVIEWS
with Carly Simon, Jake Brackman, Ellen Questel, Arlyne Rothberg, Peter Asher, Betsy Asher, Mia Farrow, Jessica Hoffmann Davis, Tamara Weiss, the late Danny Armstrong, Russ Kunkel, Leah Kunkel, Marc Cohn, Don Was, Joe Armstrong, Jim Hart, and Dr. Terry Horton, medical director of Phoenix House.
BOOKS:
Andersen,
Sweet Caroline.
White,
Long Ago and Far Away.
Hart,
Milding.
ARTICLES:
Alterman, “Carly's Happyâ¦,”
NYT,
1974. Cohen, “âSpy,'”
RS,
1979. Considine, “âSpoiled Girl,'”
RS,
1985. Hoerburger, “âComing Around Again,'”
RS,
1987. Hilburn, “Carly Simon Willâ¦,”
LAT,
1980. Holden, “The Pop Life: A Spicyâ¦,”
NYT,
1985, and “Carly Simon's Emotion-Ladenâ¦,”
NYT,
1987. Hunt, “What's a Wifeâ¦,”
LAT,
1977. Landau, “âHotcakes,'”
RS,
1974. Christgau, “Carly Simon Is Notâ¦,”
VV,
1976. Mark, “Carly Simon,”
VV,
1977. Rockwell, “Carly Simon: The Fansâ¦,”
NYT,
1977; “Pop Comeback,” 1977; and “Carly Simon at the Bottom Line,”
NYT,
1978. Shapiro, “I Bet You Thinkâ¦,”
VV,
1977. Shewey, “âHello Big Man,'”
RS,
1983. Van Matre, “Carly's Still Anticipating,”
CT,
1972; “A âSpark'â¦,”
CT,
1974; “Bold Plans forâ¦,”
CT,
1980; and “Carly Simon Carryingâ¦,”
CT,
1982. Wadler, “Carly Simon: Anxietyâ¦,”
WP,
1983. Werbin, “James Taylorâ¦,”
RS,
1973. White, “Carly,”
RS,
1981, and “James Taylor,”
RS,
1981. Young, “Carly Simon's Landâ¦,”
RS,
1978. Simon, “How Lyrics Work,” DoubleTake, 2006.
OTHER:
Web site of the Graymoor Friars.
CODA: THREE WOMEN, THREE ENDINGS, ONE JOURNEY
reuniting
AUTHOR INTERVIEWS
with Larry Klein, Duke Redbird, Annie Mandlsohn, Tim Campbell, Dave Naylor, friend of Gibb family, the late John Guerin, the late Don Alias.
ARTICLES:
Bannister and Lai, “Songbird Joni Searchesâ¦,”
Globe,
1994. “Heartsick Joni Mitchell⦔ and Gould, “Joni Mitchell's Life and Deathâ¦,”
Globe,
1996. White, “Joni Mitchell's Many Shadesâ¦,”
Billboard,
1995. Fulton, “Alberta Nativeâ¦,”
Calgary Sun,
1996. Arnold, “The Reunionâ¦,”
National Post,
2001. Holden, “Joni Mitchell Finds Peaceâ¦,”
NYT,
1991, and “Too feminineâ¦?”
NYT,
1996.
coming home
AUTHOR INTERVIEWS
with anonymous party in King/SorensenâCuster County locked-gate dispute, Roy Reynolds, Rocky Barker, Joy James, Mike Stoller, Michael Garrity (executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies), Cynthia Weil.
ARTICLES:
Abe, “Carole King to Star⦔ and “Carole King's Attorneyâ¦,”
IS,
1985. Barker, “Singer Uses Fameâ¦,”
Post Register,
1990, and “Carole King Lobbiesâ¦,”
Times-News,
1991. Bradley, “Carole King Emergesâ¦,” Gannett News Service, 1994. “Carole King Winsâ¦,”
IS,
1986. Champlin, “Singer Carole King Optsâ¦,”
LAT,
1984. Ellsworth, “Carole King Blazesâ¦,”
IS,
1989. Hernandez, “Road on King's Landâ¦,”
IS,
1985. “Career and Causesâ¦,”
Idaho Press-Tribune,
1984. Peterson, “Ruling Put Offâ¦,”
IS,
1986. Pratter, “Carole King,”
Times-News,
1988. Singular, “Trouble in Paradise,”
Denver Post Empire Magazine,
1984. Strauss, “Carole King,”
IS,
1984. “The Singer andâ¦,”
Wall Street Journal,
1984. “Trial Date Resetâ¦,”
IS,
1986. Stuebner, “Jones Calls Roadâ¦,”
IS,
1988, and “Singer Carole King Winsâ¦,”
High Country News,
1988. Hoerburger, “âCity Streets,'”
RS,
1989. Manning, “âColour of Your Dreams,'”
RS
, 1993.
surviving
AUTHOR INTERVIEWS
with Carly Simon, Jim Hart, Jeanie Seligmann, Jake Brackman, Marc Cohen, Don Was, Ellen Questel, Jessica Hoffmann Davis, Joe Armstrong, Trish Kubal.
BOOKS:
Hart,
Milding
. Davidson,
Leap!
ARTICLES AND POSTINGS:
Brenner, “I Never Sangâ¦,”
Vanity Fair,
1995. “Timeline,” CarlySimon.com. Howe, “Working Girlâ¦,”
WP,
1988. Holden, “The Pop Life: Carly Simon, Again,”
NYT,
1989; “Pop Music's Romanceâ¦,” “Carly Simon: Have Youâ¦,” “The Pop Life: A New Albumâ¦,” and “The Pop Life: Carly Simon Looksâ¦,”
NYT,
1990. Carly Simon interview with Paula Zahn, CNN.
I felt my own longing mirrored by the Shirelles singing “Will You Love Me Tomorrow.” I moved from California to New York for life because of “Up on the Roof.” I became a young woman in that cityâliving just like Joni in “Chelsea Morning”; feeling just like Joni in “Both Sides, Now”âas Aretha belted “Natural Woman.” In 1969 my sister, Lizâin her long hair, long skirt, shawl, and guitar, bound for a cottage in Laurel Canyonâtold me about someone who expressed life for her. “And she calls him Willy,” she said, of Joni and Graham. In early 1973, I sat in my still-tie-dyed-curtained walk-up and devoured every word of the
Rolling Stone
interview of Carly Simon-Taylor, and I knew that this peer, who I might have bumped into at Bendel's or Zum Zum or the
Ms.
party, was the first feminist rock star and that we were taking the ride together.
When I conceived this book, in 2003, I went to the representatives of Carole, Joni, and Carly, and asked not to interview them, but to be able to talk to their closest friends. I set my limits first of all out of realism and also because I didn't want my shaky author's objectivity (I was
starting out
admiring) to be undermined by access to my subjects. Besides, I had written a number of books in the chorus-of-voices style, where friends tell the story of a person and a world, and that form had worked well. One day, Carly Simon appeared on my voice mail and, later, in my e-mail in-box, and over the many months of this project, I took judicious use of her generous candor, which was always offered without strings. “I'm not expecting deference. I'm expecting to have my feelings hurt,” she wrote me, early onâone of the many reasons to like her. Joni sent word that she did not want to be grouped in a book with two others, but my access to her friends proved undiminished. Carole, through her representatives, had been the first to approve this project, but later told people not to speak to me. By then, people
wanted
to speakâit was their journey, too. Last summer I made a concerted effort to interview Joni but was turned down (she was busy recording
Shine,
among other things). I didn't try with Carole because I knew she was trying to write her own autobiography and was unhappily aware of this book. I sincerely hope that all three women will feel, despite whatever misgivings, that I have captured them and honored the significance of their body of work. At the risk of sounding gratuitous, I thank them from the bottom of my heart for their unsurpassable music, and for the soundtrack it provided for my youth.
Special thanks to Tisha Fein, childhood friend and peerless Grammy producer, for her initial guidance in the world of the music business; to Bobbi Andelson, for that outstanding, heartful researchâsix fat scrapbooks of clips; to Laurie Sarney and Jennifer Jue-Steuck for similar research brilliance. My agent, Ellen Levine, never stopped believing in this project; my publisher, Judith Curr, waited for it through several missed deadlines; and my editor, Malaika Adero, not just graciously but enthusiastically accepted a manuscript that was over
double
the contracted length. Elisa Petrini was a valuable sounding board; Sybil Pincus, an expert shepherd of the manuscript. Patricia Romanowski, Robert Legault, Tina Peckham, and Annette Corkey went above and beyond the call of duty in beating into submission all those errors that originally pocked this manuscript, despite what I thought was my own rigorous fact checking. Thank you to indexer Nancy Wolff. The musically way-cool Ben Umanov created the discography.
My husband, John Kelly, while immersed in detailing the agonies of the Black Death and the Irish famine for his own publisher, lived with me during all my verbosely expressed worries and obsessions, and he said the magic words: “You're writing social history.” Ever-so-talented rising young writer and editor (and accidental überâ“in” restaurant booker extraordinaire) Jonathan Kelly made me proudly known as “Jon's mom” by his family at
Vanity Fair. Glamour
editor in chief Cindi Leive gave me six months off to break the back of this book; it was working with Cindi, and the other terrific women at
Glamour,
that sharpened my desire to tell the story of this
other
generation. My sister, Liz Weller, my friends Eileen Stukane and Carol Ardmanâand
you,
Mrs. Katz. We all lived these yearsâoh (Mrs. Katzâ¦), did we ever.
Thank you to the people who patiently spoke to me:
Lou Adler, the late Don Alias, Eric Andersen, the late Danny Armstrong, Joe Armstrong, the late Al Aronowitz, Brooks Arthur, Marilyn Arthur, Betsy Asher, Peter Asher, Sandra Stewart Backus, Russell Banks, Rocky Barker, Joel Bernstein, Estrella Berosini Cory Bishop (formerly Elyse Weinberg), Ronee Blakley, Roy Blumenfeld (special thanks), Henry Bonli, Jane Bonli Boone, Doug Bovee, Joe Boyd, Jake Brackman (special thanks), Susan Braudy, Kerri Brusca, Joe Butler, Leslie Butler.
Tim Campbell, Nancy Carlin, D'Arcy Case, Joan Smith Chapman, Marc Cohn, Richard Corey, Jessica Hoffman Davis, Beverly DeJong, Nick Delbanco, Rick DePofi, Henry Diltz, Walt Drohan, Cliff Fagin, Mia Farrow, Joy Schreiber Fibben, John Fischbach, Stephanie Magrino Fischbach (great thanks, and affection), Richard Flohill, Mel Futorian, Barbara Behling Goffin, Gerry Goffin, Jesse Goffin, Debbie Green, the late John Guerin.
Steve Harris, Lanny Harrison, Jim Hart, Mac Holbert, Colin Holliday-Scott, Jeanine Hollingshead, Jac Holzman, Billy James, Joy James, Michael Jared, Sandra Jarvies, Nicholas Jennings, Marie Brewster Jensen, Leilani Jones (special thanks), Barbara Grossman Karyo, Al Kasha, Steve Katz, the late Jack Keller, Donny Kirshner, the late Estelle Klein, Larry Klein, Kris Kristofferson, Al Kooper, Danny Kortchmar, Trish Kubal, Leah Kunkel, Russ Kunkel, Armand Kunz, Charlie Larkey, Beverly Lee, Ed Lee, Mike Mainieri, Anne Mandlsohn, Barry Mann, Abigail Haness Marshall, Jim McCrary, Roger McGuinn, John McHugh, Frank McKitrick, George Mihalcheon, Chuck Mitchell, Patti Mitsui, Jenny Muldaur, Graham Nash, Dave Naylor.
Martin Ornot, Miranda Parry, Alan Pepper, Wayne Perkins, Jim Perrone, Richard Perry, Michelle Phillips, Shawn Phillips, Ellen Questel, Cary Raditz, Jeanie McCrea Reavis, Duke Redbird, Roy Reynolds, Trina Robbins, Leslie Korn Rogowsky, Chick Roberts, Mort Rosengarten, Arlyne Rothberg, Tom Rush, Salli Sachse, Camille Cacciatore Savitz (great appreciation), Ralph Schuckett, Michael Schwartz, John Sebastian, Jeanie Seligmann, Gene Shay, Betsy Siggins, Lucy Simon, Peter Simon, Dawn Reavis Smith, Connie O'Brien Sopic, Bruce Stanger, Mike Stanger, Bruce Sterling, Toni Stern, Mike Stoller, Randy Stone, Bob Sugarman, Deborah Symonds.
Russ Titelman, Ezra Titus, Matt Umanov, Don Was, Cynthia Weil, Tamara Weiss, Jerry Wexler, Helen Whitney, Eric Whittred, Madeleine Wild, Ben Yarmolinsky, Myron Yules, Larry Yurman, Elsa Bonli Ziegler, Joel Zwick. And a few who wish to remain anonymous.
We wove the tapestry together; this song
is
about you; and if you want me, I'll be in the bar.
âNew York City, January 2008