Girls Like Us
by Sheila Weller

Three-in-one biography of pioneering women musos

At first glance there may not seem to be too many parallels between Brooklyn plain Jane Carole King, Canadian wilderness farm girl Joni Mitchell and well-to- do Manhattanite Carly Simon, but all three were at the forefront of a new wave of female voices in popular music.

Weller weaves their stories together, from troubled childhoods to professional triumphs and personal setbacks, in a rich account that says as much about the music industry as it does women’s place in society during the second half of the last century. All three shared testing times in their late teens and early 20s, be it King’s writing partner husband Gerry Goffin fathering a child with a close family friend, Mitchell’s own (at the time) taboo unwed motherhood, or Simon’s crippling neuroses and parents’ brazen bed-hopping.

The author argues that these trials couldn’t help but inform the music each crafted: King espousing the moon-June-spoon rhyming of fledgling pop for more reality-based subject matter, Mitchell mixing poetry and jazz into traditional folk music, and Simon questioning the arrogance and supposed superiority of men in romantic relationships. It’s an ambitious exercise pulled off with verve, revealing more about each member of the triumvirate than most single biographies could ever hope for.

ISBN 13579108642

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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