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Marie Angell, July 20, 2008

Carole King. Joni Mitchell. Carly Simon. Three of the highest profile women in the music industry.

How did that happen?

Sheila Weller is happy to tell you, and tell you, and tell you, but, you're likely happy to sit there and listen, especially if you lived through the 60s and 70s, .

Ms. Weller does a pretty good job of putting these women in historical context, which gives the reader a chance to be in context as well. She also does a pretty fair portrait of these women and the individual journeys that brought them to the pinnacle of music industry success.

These kinds of books are not easy to write, I'll grant Ms. Weller that, and she bit off a big chunk. At times I felt the approach was a bit too precocious and artsy and would have just preferred that she get on with it instead of meandering around.

Then I felt she gave short shrift to the women's current lives. She tries, I suppose, but realizes that most people are more interested in how they got to the top, not what happens now that they're back among mere mortals like ourselves, especially if it's not full of drama.

While this book will undoubtedly appeal to Baby Boomers, it is a decent read for subsequent generations, who have enjoyed taking the roads paved by these women (and others, such as hey, how about more on Laura Nyro, whom Ms. Weller mentions several times) and probably don't know what the world of music was like for women. Or the world in general, for that matter. (It wasn't so long ago that unmarried pregnant women were treated very shabbily.)

Quite an enjoyable book, packed with a lot of perspective. I thoroughly enjoyed comparing notes with Carole, Carly and Joni.

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