Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon - And the Journey of a Generation - Hardcover

Weller, Sheila

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0091899249 ISBN 13: 9780091899240

Publisher: Ebury Press, 2008

Synopsis

Carly Simon, Carole King and Joni Mitchell remain among the most enduring and important women in popular music. Together they changed a decade and altered the lives of a generation.

Carole King is the product of New York City's lower-middle-class; Joni Mitchell is a grand-daughter of farmers; and Carly Simon is a child of the Manhattan intellectual upper-crust. They collectively represent, in their lives and their songs, every girl who came of age in the late 1960s, when - to paraphrase one of their songs - the earth moved. Their stories trace the arc of the now-mythic era known a 'the Sixties'.

Girls Like Us is an epic treatment of these three exceptional women who dared to break tradition and become what few had been before them - confessors in song, rock superstars, adventurers of heart and soul. Yet it is also an evocative and utterly engrossing portrait of this explosive period; a time of ferment and discord, of upheaval and radically changing values.

Award-winning journalist and bestselling author Sheila Weller presents a full and balanced portrayal of each woman, enriched by vivid anecdotes told by dozens of their intimates, many speaking for the first time. Meticulously researched and superbly written, Girls Like Us is as much a portrait of a political and social scene as it is a compelling biography of three much-loved musicians.

About this title

Review:

"Weller has picked her three subjects because of their different demographic appeal, the better to tell her social history ... Weller puts it all in great context ... Weller has done them - and girls like us - proud" (Critic’s Choice by Ray Connolly Daily Mail)

"Eminently readable ... a racy read that may tell you more than you need to know about the boyfriends, break-ups and breakdowns of its subjects" (Sean O'Hagan Observer)

"How Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Bill Clinton's favourite Carly Simon embodied a generation's dreams; perfect bedtime reading for baby-boomers" (Observer Music Monthly)

"charts this trio's rocky marriages, their struggles with success and , perhaps most poignantly, their fading with age" (Sheryl Garratt Mail on Sunday)

"A page turner ... fills a gaping hole in the history of the counterculture of the '60s by providing a juicy and politically astute chronicle of the careers of three women who turned pop music upside down" (Peter Biskind, author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls)

Book Description:

The lives, loves, songs and times of Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon - and how they mirrored and fuelled the journey of a generation of women

About this edition

• Publisher: Ebury Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0091899249
• ISBN 13: 9780091899240
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 592