More Room in a Broken Heart: The True Adventures of Carly Simon

by Stephen Davis

Overview

A love song to an American icon: the first full-length biography of Carly Simon, from an acclaimed music journalist who has known her for decades

Carly Simon has won two Grammys and an Academy Award, and her albums have sold more than forty million copies. She has touched countless lives and is considered an icon in 1970s music, yet her own life story has remained a mystery. Tapping private archives, family interviews, and a forty-year friendship with the legend herself, Stephen Davis at last captures Carly Simon’s extraordinary journey from shy teenager to superstar, covering everything her fans want to know, including:

• The real story behind “You’re So Vain”
• Romances with Mick Jagger, Warren Beatty, and Cat Stevens
• Surviving breast cancer
• Her recent financial and spiritual crises

Along the way, Davis vividly takes readers back to some of the most powerful eras in American music history and delivers a tribute worthy of the artist. The updated paperback edition includes two brand-new photos, as well as a note to the reader and selected sources.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781592407439
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/31/2012
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Rock journalist Stephen Davis is the author of five other music books, including the New York Times bestseller Walk This Way (coauthored with Aerosmith). He lives in Boston.

Table of Contents

Introduction 11

Part I

Lady of Spain 25

The Pianist 30

Mrs. Simon and Schuster 36

Summertime 40

Behind Closed Doors 46

The Artful Dodger 52

Idylls of Stamford 57

The Ronnie Material 65

All Shook Up 72

High School Musical 79

A Death in the Family 87

Carly Cares 94

Ambition and the Dylan Energy 100

The Simon Sisters 105

Winkin', Blinkin' and Nod 114

Hootenanny Saturday Night 121

Carly and the Vandellas 128

Swinging London 135

The Female Bob Dylan 142

Indian Hill 151

Play with Me 156

Fear of Flying 164

Part II

A Girl Called Elektra 175

Electric Lady 179

That's the Way I Always Heard It Should Be 188

Setting Yourself on Fire 196

The Troubadour 204

Silver-tongued Devil 214

Sticky Fingers 221

How About Tonight? 229

Poor Moose 238

Apple Corps 246

Rain and Fire 253

"Love from Carly" 263

Best New Artist 269

On Beaver Pond 277

Son of a Gun 283

Don't Let Me Be Lonely 317

A Piece of Ass A State of Grace 322

Hotcakes 328

Mockingbird 336

Slave 341

Where's Carly? 351

Another Passenger 357

The Spy Who Loved Me 365

Things We Said Today 375

Why'd You Tell Me This? 382

The Gorilla in the Room 388

We're So Close 398

Hot Tin Roof 406

Stardust 416

Blood Everywhere 425

Forever Locked Inside 434

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“[A] revealing page-turner of a biography.” —More.com

“Stephen Davis reveals the fault lines in the life of an artist who, despite her popular success, has never received the critical respect accorded other singer-songwriters of her generation.” – Washington Post

“Rendered out of love and respect for Simon and her legacy…Shines” – Boston Globe

 “A sympathetic and breezy account of Carly Simon's life and (many) loves.” – Star Tribune

“A revealing look at the singer's hit songs, famous friends (Mick Jagger, Warren Beatty), rocky marriage to James Taylor, and struggle to hold on to stardom in late middle age.” – O Magazine

“Revelatory” – PW

Editorial Reviews

[A] revealing page-turner of a biography.” —More.com

“Stephen Davis reveals the fault lines in the life of an artist who, despite her popular success, has never received the critical respect accorded other singer-songwriters of her generation.” – Washington Post

“Rendered out of love and respect for Simon and her legacy…Shines” – Boston Globe

 “A sympathetic and breezy account of Carly Simon's life and (many) loves.” – Star Tribune

“A revealing look at the singer's hit songs, famous friends (Mick Jagger, Warren Beatty), rocky marriage to James Taylor, and struggle to hold on to stardom in late middle age.” – O Magazine

“Revelatory” – PW

From the Publisher

Rock and roll biographer Davis was granted Simon’s full participation and approval for this involved, revelatory but restrained and courteous look back at her full, rich life as a singer and folk-rock icon—and as a result the work often sounds gooey and promotional. Davis knowledgeably fleshes out the early folk scene, when the Simon Sisters, Lucy and Carly—daughters of the co-founder of Simon & Schuster, Dick Simon, and private school–educated young ladies in matching dresses from Riverdale, N.Y.—won their big breakthrough in 1964 playing “Winkin’, Blinkin’, and Nod” on the national TV show Hootenanny. When Lucy got married, Carly Simon took off on her own, and despite crippling stage fright, fear of flying, and a residual stutter, managed to secure a record deal with Jac Holzman at Electra, in 1970. In a burst of creative collaboration with lyricist Jake Brackman, she proved from the get-go that she was a talented songwriter, marketed in the 1970s as a kind of feminist troubadour, with hit after hit, attracting famous boyfriends like James Taylor, soon to be her husband, and winning a Grammy in 1972 for Best New Artist. Later her music would be dubbed “shrink couch rock,” but her achievements over the decades are remarkable, plentiful, and well earned. Chronicler Davis has an inconsistent habit of starting chapters in the present tense, but he possesses a fluid, natural style, and there are promised photographs (not seen) by Carly’s brother, Peter Simon. Agent: David Vigliano. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

The story of singer-songwriter Carly Simon's rise to stardom. Journalist and self-described fan Davis (LZ-'75: The Lost Chronicles of Led Zeppelin's 1975 American Tour, 2010, etc.) provides an unauthorized but intimate glimpse into the life of a musical icon. The daughter of publishing mogul Richard L. Simon (co-founder of Simon & Schuster), Carly grew up in a household filled with American royalty, including composer George Gershwin and baseball icon Jackie Robinson. The guests were representative of Carly and her father's two shared interests, music and baseball, the former of which encouraged at least two Simon sisters to enter the music business. Yet beneath the family's star-studded exterior remained many deeply rooted problems, including the Simon parents' infidelities, creating what Carly later described as an "atmosphere of erotica." While music remains the focus of Davis' book, the author pays equal attention to the tabloid-like details of the Simon family's home life, as well as some of Carly's better-known love affairs, including her 9-year marriage to fellow musician James Taylor. Simon's tumultuous marriage to the drug-addicted Taylor--which produced two children but ended in divorce--provides the fodder for much of the latter half of the book. Told in strict chronological fashion, Davis' straightforward reporting accurately recounts Simon's surface story but will leave some readers questioning just what complexities might linger beneath the surface. A competent retelling of one woman's successful--though personally troubled--emergence into the 1970s music scene.

Kirkus Reviews