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

by Sheila Weller

book data

484 ratings, 3.57 average rating, 222 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		15%
4		40%
3		30%
2		10%
1		2%

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published

April 8th 2008 (first published 2006) by Atria

binding

Hardcover, 584 pages

characters

plus those whose lives intertwined with theirs (James Taylor, David Crosby, Odetta, Graham Nash, ...more

isbn

0743491475 (isbn13: 9780743491471)

description

A groundbreaking and irresistible biography of three of America's most important musical artists -- Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon -- cha
...more

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06/02/08

Robert rated it:

recommended to Robert by: New York Times. Boy were they wrong..

This book is so painful to read that I can't stand it. But I can never give up on a book after I have read more than 50 pages. The writing is dreadful. The '70s feminism is so tiresome. I bought it because I am interested in the music business of the '60s and 70s, but boy does this stink. Even if you are interested in Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and Carole King, the bad writing will drive you to your knees. And the book is huge, 592 pages. Stay away from this book. Save your money.

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4 comments

05/20/08

Sheila rated it:

Read in June, 2008

recommends it for: you

Try humming a Beatles song. Now try humming a Joni Mitchell song. With perhaps the exception of "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Both Sides Now," it's pretty hard, isn't it?

Having complex arrangments and open tunings doesn't make Joni Mitchell "better" than other musicians, but I think the fact that her songs are hard to hum is a strong testament to her mind-boggling talent with words and arrangements.

This book is centered around three women who came ...more

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

3 comments

04/20/08

Deborah rated it:

Read in June, 2008

This was a very good biography, well-researched and well written, and a "three-fer" to boot. But I think I may have to stop reading biographies, or at least bios of contemporary artists whose art I admire. I like Carole King's work, not so much a fan of Carly, but she did do some good pop songs; but I really like Mitchell's music. And while I still admire her as an artist, as a person, I kind of just want to smack her. Or tell her to just get over herself! All three women seem to ...more

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2 comments

04/19/08

Betsy rated it:

(review of isbn 1400106494)

Read in June, 2008

recommends it for: one and all

Joni got her start in Detroit - and dated James Taylor before he married Carly? Who knew? Carole King had her first child at 17? Mick Jagger sang back up on "You're so vain" (but the song is probably about Warren Beatty, who, by the by, begged a very pregnant Carole King to have sex with him...because he wanted to have a sex with a very pregnant woman. ick.) This three-for-the-price-of-one (unless you get it free at the library like I did) biography (tri-ography?) is full of "who ...more

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06/18/08

Linda rated it:

Read in June, 2008

recommends it for: folkies, fans of the 60's & 70's music

Girls Like Us parallels the lives and careers of three iconic women composer/performers: Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon, while documenting the history of an era and a generation. The common threads among the three (James Taylor pops up in all three stories) were what I found most fascinating. The book is long and the writing is poor, with long, run-on sentences, including one that goes on for half a page. The author never mastered the use of footnotes, preferring to sprinkle the ...more

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04/05/09

Jim Marshall rated it:

Read in April, 2009

Album covers featuring their young, pretty faces were stacked next to every stereo in every funky apartment that we inhabited from ’67 to ’75 or so. Along with the Mateus-wine candelabra, the day-glow Jimi Hendrix poster, and the not-so-discreetly-hidden roaches in ashtrays on low-rise tables, the music made by these young women—Carole King was 19 when she wrote her first big hit, Joni Mitchell 21—were part of what we carried when we moved. We scattered those album covers in plain...more
Album covers featuring their young, pretty faces were stacked next to every stereo in every funky apartment that we inhabited from ’67 to ’75 or so. Along with the Mateus-wine candelabra, the day-glow Jimi Hendrix poster, and the not-so-discreetly-hidden roaches in ashtrays on low-rise tables, the music made by these young women—Carole King was 19 when she wrote her first big hit, Joni Mitchell 21—were part of what we carried when we moved. We scattered those album covers in plain sight and played their music almost endlessly as a way of saying who we were: young, of course, but also independent—sexually if not always financially—and decidedly not ready to enter into the world of conventional responsibility occupied by our parents. A lot of it was image and wonderfully naïve self-delusion (“attitude dancing” Carly Simon would call it in a later song), but it seemed right enough for its time.

What we learn in this smart if sometimes breathlessly written book is that the music might not have happened at all. Pregnant and married at 19, Carole King was turning out hits like “Up on the Roof,” “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” and “The Locomotion” in the now famous Brill Building in New York—a fairly grim sweatshop for song writing talent--baby on knee. Joni Mitchell, on the other hand, was pregnant at 21 when she was still making the rounds in the Village and in clubs around Canada. She gave the baby up for adoption, which left any number of scars, not all of them soothed when she was reunited with her daughter some 30 years later. Carly Simon, already rich pretty much beyond measure and from a family with a complicated sexual history, was a little late getting started on her own career, but she managed to have fun with just about every male star of the time that you might like to name—from Cat Stevens to Warren Beatty to James Taylor (whom she married, although not until after he had also navigated significant affairs with Carole King and Joni Mitchell while managing a fairly serious heroin addiction.) It’s gets complicated and you kind of need a scorecard.

Which is part of the problem with this guilty pleasure of a book. It’s like Simon’s “No Secrets” with footnotes. We meet just about everyone these women sleep with, then the women the men slept with before, then a fade-out explained usually by a simple, “but things didn’t work out finally.” Too much information, or rather, too much information coming at you in a rush, with little time or attention paid to what is important, to what we really need to know.

But if you were in your 20’s when these women were at their best—or even if you weren’t—you might want to take a look. If nothing else, the book took me back to the music, and now our iPod has a long playlist called “The Girls” which is rich with the music these three amazing artists gave us.

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08/27/08

Ginacjones rated it:

(review of isbn 1400136490)

Read in August, 2008

This was one of the most interesting biographies I have read about anyone in the entertainment field. First, I am a big admirer of their music - my late teens and college years were filled with Carly, Carole & Joni music. I don't know what the author had to do to get the cooperation that she got for this book, but she definitely got the inside look at these 3 women. I'd be interested in hearing what C, C & J think of the book. It really put their lives out front and in center - the good, the...more

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07/23/08

Lori rated it:

bookshelves: music

Read in August, 2008

recommends it for: Music fans; groovy people; women's history readers

I should begin this review by confessing some shocking ignorance. I am not in the right age group to be the prime demographic for this book. I was a young woman in the Big 80s and those times were vastly different from the heyday of Carole, Joni and Carly's music. The earth mothers had donned power suits and the free love had given way to a darker and more paranoid era sexually. The First Wave had already happened and women my age were told we could "have it all". Although we firm...more I should begin this review by confessing some shocking ignorance. I am not in the right age group to be the prime demographic for this book. I was a young woman in the Big 80s and those times were vastly different from the heyday of Carole, Joni and Carly's music. The earth mothers had donned power suits and the free love had given way to a darker and more paranoid era sexually. The First Wave had already happened and women my age were told we could "have it all". Although we firmly believed this, not a few of us were daunted and even conflicted by the high expectations that we would "bring home the bacon and fry it up in the pan." This was the era of Superwoman.

My musical memories of Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell and Carol King mainly take place in the car where their songs were featured in heavy FM rotation during my childhood. As the scalding pleather of the bench seat in the big floating mid 70s car scalded my terry cloth or polyester shorted bottom, I might hear Anticipation, Up on the Roof or You've Got a Friend...Frankly, it sounded like music for grownups who liked to talk about relationships a lot and I was not ready for that yet.

And, by the time I was ready, I tended to gravitate toward male singers (preferably depressive and gay) when I wanted to wallow in relationship drama (It was the eighties, remember?) The consciousness raising righteous mamas of my early childhood would have probably shuddered to see me take refuge in Sinatra (the 80s were a big era for the Rat Pack retro that these women fought against so tenaciously) and gin when some guy kicked me to the curb rather than a sister who could relate to my pain.

So how does an ignoramus who mainly remembers Carly for the song in the ketchup commercial and who, for years, confused Carole King with Carole Kane (Andy Kaufmann's ditzy wife Simka in Taxi) get to this book?

It may be because my daughter has recently discovered Carly from her soundtrack work in some Winnie the Pooh movies. My preschooler really likes her songs! Or it might be my general interest in music history. It may be the pull of distant childhood memories as my own daughter is now the age I was in 1969/70. Or, it may be that these 3 women seem so cool...so real...and so interesting to me now that I am middle aged. This triumverate of female singers present a genuine face. It was still about the music and their very personal relationship to crafting songs. Compare this to someone like Madonna who must reinvent herself constantly on the external side.

I have learned a gold-mine of information about the era and the impact Carole, Joni and Carly had. This is a highly detailed book and you practically need to take notes to keep all the inter-relationships between the cast of rock luminaries featured within. Between them, these three women knew everyone who was anyone in the music scene as it was exploding in the 1960s and 1970s. If your interest extends to a desire to "know all" you will not be disappointed.

I won't suddenly relegate all my Morrissey and Bauhaus CDs to the scrap heap...I am what I am and the soundtrack to my life is on a different trajectory than someone who was 20 the year I was born. But, this book has prompted me to take a new listen to some vaguely remembered songs and, perhaps, appreciate them more this time around.

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05/29/08

Tressa rated it:

bookshelves: biography

Read in April, 2008

Even though I’ve been listening to Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon for decades, I had no idea I would enjoy Girls Like Us so much. Sheila Weller is a pop trivia queen and had to have spent hours hunched over microfilm machines, researching the minutiae of these ladies’ lives.

The interviewees go all the way back to neighborhood playmates and school chums, and the book is filled with information about the music scene starting in the early sixties, when Carole King start...more

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05/12/08

Michele rated it:

Read in June, 2008

Stayed In Bed All Morning . . .
. . . just to finish reading this book. It's a long one, especially when you devour each little word contained in the many footnotes, but worth every hour spent. Reading this thorough, well-researched, and respectful biography of three notorious singer-songwriters, Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon, from their days as young, aspiring artists to current days as grandmothers, was like listening to their music for the first time again. I couldn't help b...more Stayed In Bed All Morning . . .
. . . just to finish reading this book. It's a long one, especially when you devour each little word contained in the many footnotes, but worth every hour spent. Reading this thorough, well-researched, and respectful biography of three notorious singer-songwriters, Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon, from their days as young, aspiring artists to current days as grandmothers, was like listening to their music for the first time again. I couldn't help but break out my vinyl, stored in a moving box in the attic.

Sheila Weller clearly spent years gathering facts, information and quotes from those closest to these icons, (and in some cases from the women themselves), and braids the three stories together to paint a historical account of modern folk/rock/pop music. She doesn't merely regurgitate already published material from music reviews and Rolling Stone articles, but instead offers similarities and differences that made this reader appreciate the subjects as individuals as well as their contributions and reflections on the women's movement in general.

A surprising ribbon running through this braid is James Taylor, who had profound yet differing relationships with all three. What also ultimately struck me about the book was how deeply interested I was at the beginning and how it merely passed the time toward the end. I think it's a direct reflection on the careers of these women: exciting, fresh, ultra-talented in the beginning. . .but in the end, it becomes a biography of ordinary--albeit ambitious--women who've led extraordinary lives while looking for love and fulfillment, and endured tremendous public scrutiny. One thing the critics in our society can't take from them is their recorded music--their true biographies--and I, for one, will listen to them sing for the rest of my life.

Very well written, very well done and I certainly recommend this book to fans of these musicians (as well as James Taylor, and others like Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young), and to those interested in the music scene as it developed and evolved through the 1960s-1980s. (less)

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07/28/08

Katherine rated it:

Read in July, 2008

Great material, problematic execution. Weller is an incredibly undisciplined writer, at least in this book. There's excess detail that seems to serve no purpose beyond showing off--endless anecdotes about minor, or even unrelated people, as if to show how hard the author worked and how much she found out, whether or not it actually informed her story.

And her sentence structure! Good lord, woman--INSERT A PERIOD EVERY NOW AND THEN. Because I was interested in the subject matter, I pu...more

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06/04/08

Katie rated it:

Read in June, 2008

The biggest problem I had with this book was with the way Weller organized the book. Instead of giving us the entire Joni story or the entire Carly story, she gave us what Carly, Joni and Carole were each doing during a span of years. I understand why she did this; as readers, we were supposed to see the parallels between these women. But instead of seeing the parallels, I was just confused and annoyed. It was nearly impossible to keep track of who all these people were and what significance...more

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05/13/08

Marcia rated it:

(review of isbn 1400106494)

A fun read for the last 250 pages or so, unfortunately, this book is over 500 pages. My advice, skip the first 200 pages or so. The pop psychology of their childhoods is less interesting to me than what is behind their music, the connections between the three of them, and, without a doubt, the gossip of who slept with whom and who the songs are REALLY about. The author is not a great writer, but the book is thoroughly researched and documented. I’ve never seen so many footnotes in a m...more

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02/05/09

Bookmarks Magazine added it

How critics received Girls Like Us depended, in part, on how much they embraced or related to the 1960s; the dedication��"To the women of the 1960s generation. (Were we not the best?)"��tells all. Still, reviewers agreed that Girls Like Us has general appeal, much having to do with the juicy details and human interest stories Weller carves around these artists' relationships, heartbreaks, challenges, and inspirations. Weller, who interviewed only Simon of the three (and relies on int

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01/02/09

Mary Jo rated it:

Read in December, 2008

A compelling portrait of three leading female artists of the Baby Boom generation. I was a fan of all three, but I discovered much I didn't know about each of them in Weller's widely researched and deeply detailed book. In telling the story of the lives of King, Mitchell and Simon, Weller also gives readers insight into the history and culture of the music industry of the 1950s-80s. All of it is fascinating, including her tangents about the supporting players in the lives of the three women. Whi...more

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12/01/08

Kerfe rated it:

Read in November, 2008

Sometimes I think that artists--both musical and visual--should just keep their private lives private and let the work speak for itself. If the art is wonderful, the actual person creating it--all too human--can be kind of a let-down.

No one in the incestuous musical world of Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, and as a unifying factor, James Taylor, comes off particularly well in this book. Though I think the author means to give you a sense of how hard it was for these pionee...more

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04/04/09

Megan rated it:

This was an insightful look at how music affected 60s & 70s feminism and vice versa. The book tended to focus a lot on the sexual aspects of the feminist movement. I find that while that can be an important aspect of a woman's life, it isn't the most interesting part of the movement. I mean, monkeys have sex. Alpacas have sex. Little bitty insects do it, too. It's a fun thing, but it isn't what makes women special at the deepest level. I guess that because men already want to have sex wit...more

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04/10/09

Caitlin rated it:

Read in April, 2009

I really wanted this to be better than it was. I love all 3 singers & Joni Mitchell, in particular, has been an off and on soundtrack in my life, but this book just didn't live up to its potential.

Weller can't seem to decide whether she's writing a social history of these women & their times or a gossipy tell-all potboiler. The book careens between these two choices & does neither well.

There's interesting material buried in here & in all 3 life stories. In particular the ...more

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04/11/09

Beniciajo rated it:

I just finished Sheila Weller's book on Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and Carole King. It was an amazing glimpse into the lives of these three talented women and the times they inhabited. I wasn't that familiar with their life stories and only kind of familiar with their music (I love girl group music and had no idea that Carol King was the melody writer for some of my favorite songs!), but I truly enjoyed learning more. The book uses mostly interviews to piece together the stories of these wome...more

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06/28/09

Ppifer rated it:

Read in December, 2008

Weller takes the reader into the deepest facets of the lives of three remarkable women--each groundbreaking musicians in their own rights. The combination of their incredible talents, heartbreaking vulnerability, spunk and the time in which they came of age produced some of the most compelling music I've experienced. I found myself going back to read the song lyrics while I read the life events that inspired them,not wanting to miss any nuances. Each of their life-stories is unique. The power of...more

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