Preview copy of More Room In A Broken Heart

Since our article on the questionable book More Room in a Broken Heart: The True Adventures of Carly Simon by Stephen Davis, there have been some more developments, including some exclusive information.

Yesterday Davis spoke with Pat Healy of the New York edition of Free Daily News’ Metro. In the article, Davis admits to breaking a promise with Simon and jokingly agrees with the claims of plagiarism made against the book.

I’m being accused of possible plagiarism, and I thought about it and it’s like, ‘No, it’s probable plagiarism.’ In a 400-page book, that’s probably about 1,600 paragraphs, I’d probably have a heart attack if one of them wasn’t copied.

He also confirms the absence of some standard elements of a non-fiction book.

There’s no bibliography, there’s no index, and I’m paying the price for that in a way, but I guess in the paperback edition we’ll do some more extensive acknowledgments.

Davis mostly blames the publisher for rushing the book to print for all of this.

The article also claims that Carly Simon has been making her displeasure with the book known through “various press outlets”, as though she’s orchestrated some kind of media campaign. But so far it’s only been Roger Friedman of Showbiz411 speaking out about his own work being lifted by Davis and other independent outlets. The only direct action taken by Simon was her brief statement through her mailing list and web-site. The majority of protest taken against the book has come from a grassroots movement of Carly Simon fans that have risen up over disappointment from the book. Otherwise most book reviews seem completely ignorant of the controversy surrounding the book.

The pink elephant in the room that the article completely side-steps is the issue of the book’s numerous errors. Davis said he sent a galley copy of the book to Simon, and apparently she’s not the only person that received a copy. The Troubadour Tribune was contacted by another recipient who wishes to remain anonymous. As you can see from the picture above, they made some notes in their copy. This person’s corrections reveal extensive knowledge of Carly Simon’s known history, readily available from previous interviews and publications if one were to dig just a bit deeper. Also included are the startlingly insipid song interpretations apparently made in the book. These notes are presented below with only minor changes for formatting and clarity. (Galley copies are, by nature, an uncorrected version of the book for proofreading/copy editing purposes, but are often distributed for promotion and reviews. Some of these errors may be corrected in the published version. One would hope. For comparison, Google Books has a very extensive preview of the book, nearly all of it.)

UPDATE: The book has since come out and a reader has verified that all of the below errors are in the published book.

Excerpts from book – Here’s the TRUTH

Her output – 30 albums as of this writing, not to mention the Oscar winning film Scores, an opera and five books.

TRUTH: Carly won an Oscar for ONE SONG, not a film score or scores (plural)

 [Carly Simon's mother Andrea Simon] had an usual style, pairing her mother’s elegant velvet dresses with saddle shoes and no makeup.

TRUTH: Her mother never dressed that way.  Davis took this description of Andrea from Carly’s lyrics to the song “Hello Big Man,” which was fiction that Carly created.

 Late 1969.  There was a much-anticipated total eclipse of the sun in the Northeast.  In was considered a special cosmic event.  [...]  Some of Jake’s friends were talking about chartering a plane to fly to Nova Scotia, where the observer would achieve total totality.

TRUTH: Jake Brackman denies this, PLUS consider this:  Two solar eclipses were visible from Nova Scotia on 3-7-70 and 7-1-72, but not in 1969.

Late June 1971.  Carly wanted Mick Jagger as well. [...]  If only she could somehow entice him to her recording sessions in London, she felt she could get him to sing on her record, something that Jagger had never done outside his own band.  Getting Mick to sing would be an incredible coup, and Carly imagined pulling it off.

TRUTH:   Mick called her in the studio in London and she invited him down to listen to her record and he ended up joining in.  There was never any “plot” or “plan” to get Jagger on her record.

In 1937, Gershwin died of a heart attack in Hollywood, not even forty years old.

TRUTH: He died on July 11, 1937 at the age of 38 at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital following surgery for a brain tumor.

Dick bought an entire apartment building, at 130 West Eleventh St.

TRUTH: The address is 133 West Eleventh St.

When Carly musically annotated the song, she titled it “You’re So Lame” on the score.

TRUTH:  It was titled Ballad Of A Vain Man before becoming You’re So Vain

The wedding guest list [for the marriage of James Taylor and Carly Simon] was small: Andrea Simon and Carly’s sisters,  James’ mother and siblings, Jake Brackman (semi-catatonic, unable to speak for reasons unknown), and the judge.  Peter Simon documented the wedding with his camera.

TRUTH: The only guests were Andrea Simon, Trudy Taylor, Jake Brackman and the judge.

Carly was in Hawaii then, on her honeymoon.

TRUTH:  Carly and James did not honeymoon in Hawaii.  They went there before they were married.  Photos taken were then used on the cover of Rolling Stone.

It was generally agreed that Mick Jagger – with his participation on “You’re so Vain” and “Night Owl” – had bestowed the Rolling Stones’ sacred imprimatur on Carly Simon.

TRUTH:  Mick Jagger did NOT sing on Night Owl.  It was Paul McCartney.

Carly made Richard Perry beg for the job of producing Hotcakes.  She thought he’d been too rough with her in London, had bullied her, and she let him know she was shopping around.  Perry took her to lunch at the Tavern on the Green, in early June.  She let him plead awhile, and said she would think about it.

TRUTH:  Carly and Richard Perry had already started making songs for Hotcakes at the end of the No Secrets sessions.  She never made him beg and she wasn’t unhappy with him as producer.

Fall 1974.  James was no father figure. [...]  As he often told his audiences – he wasn’t crazy about children.

TRUTH:  James Taylor had a one year old daughter (Sally) that he was madly in love with.   Davis is taking something out of context and using it to imply that James didn’t like his own child.  (See pg. 190-191) During concerts for Mud Slide Slim in 1971, “he usually introduced Sweet Baby James by insinuating that he didn’t really like children, which made the audience laugh.”

[Playing Possum album cover] The sexy picture of Carly on her knees wasn’t her first choice.  “I like a more ordinary, mundane shot of my teeth.”

TRUTH: Both Carly and her manager Arlyne zeroed in on that shot from the contact sheet.  “We both knew it was a great picture, and we were prepared to fight for it, Arlyne says.  They didn’t have to, the record company never intervened.

[Boys In The Trees album cover] A nipple reportedly had to be airbrushed into detumescense before Elektra would print the album jacket.

TRUTH:  The photo featured on the front cover of this album was expertly airbrushed to paint a Dankskin top ON what was a topless photo of Carly originally.   It won a Grammy for Best Album Design.

Spring 1979.  John Travolta knocked at the door of Apartment 6s one evening.  He was staying in the building and wanted to meet James, who wasn’t home.  Carly entertained Travolta instead, and the two became good friends.  When his longtime girlfriend, Diana Hyland, died a few weeks later, Travolta practically moved in with Carly and the children.

TRUTH:  Diana Hyland died on 3/27/77 – two full years before spring of 1979.

[Carly's Pittsburgh concert collapse] She suddenly began to menstruate prematurely, a condition related to stress.  “I couldn’t get the words out,” she recalled.  “I seemed to go to pieces in front of the audience.  There was blood everywhere.” [...] She told the audience that she might feel better if people came onstage, rubbing her back, legs and shoulders.

TRUTH: She didn’t begin to bleed until the people were already onstage comforting her.  As soon as she realized she was bleeding, she left the stage.

The video for “You Know What To Do” [...] did not make it onto MTV.

TRUTH:  The “You Know What To Do” music video had tons of airplay on MTV.  Carly was even invited to the 1983 MTV Music Awards and was interviewed by Nina Blackwood backstage. 

Sep. 83 – Carly appeared on David Letterman’s late night TV show, but it didn’t help sell her record.

TRUTH:  The first time Carly appeared on Letterman’s show was in 1987 to promote the Coming Around Again album.  She never appeared on any late night shows in 1983.

[Live From Martha's Vineyard concert] The first night, the wind blew in hard from Vineyard Sound and the entire taped footage was unusable.

TRUTH:  The first night IS the footage used by HBO – not the second night.  Carly explains this on the DVD and this Youtube video.

[Working Girl movie plot] The script was a Cinderella tale of a Staten Island secretary, working on Wall Street, who attracts the company’s boss.

TRUTH: Melanie Griffith’s character is employed by Sigourney Weaver.  The person she “attracts” works for another firm and is not her boss.

Let The River Run – used by the government to calm the nation after 9/11/01

TRUTH: USPS used it (which is NOT a government agency) in a commercial, which ran after the anthrax mailing scare

Late in 1992 [...] Carly asked her husband to leave because he was using cocaine and she didn’t want him around the children.  He moved into the apartment he had kept in New York until Sally and Ben returned to their schools early in the new year.

TRUTH:  Carly’s husband Jim was clean and sober in 1992, as he was well into the 2000′s.  This is complete FICTION.

Carly took Sally and Ben for a winter vacation on Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands. (Jim Hart’s support of Carly had reportedly been less than heroic during the cancer ordeal, and the couple never really lived together after that.)

TRUTH:  Jim has always been extremely supportive of Carly and her cancer ordeal.  This is complete FICTION.

In 2006, Carly Simon divorced her second husband, with whom she remained on friendly terms.

TRUTH: It was 2007.

On the appointed day for the revelation, Ebersol arrived at Carly’s house with six friends.  Carly thought this rude, but told them some version of the secret.  If it got out, she said, she would simply deny it.  Later she told an interviewer that Dick Ebersol was a jerk.

TRUTH:  Carly was joking with a reporter in the UK when she said this, Davis left out that part.  She also said about Davis’ best buddy (Carly’s brother Peter Simon) “Oh, there are more than that. [Carly's son] Ben knows. And [Carly's daughter] Sally. My brother knows and, little shit that he is, he went into a computer store and was trying to make a deal to get his computer fixed fast in return for saying who “You’re So Vain” is about.”

Asked by several British interviewers who “You’re So Vain” was about, she replied, tongue in cheek, that the song was about David Geffen.

TRUTH:  Untrue.  Carly never joked that it was about Geffen – she flatly denied it.  

From the Daily Mail: “What a riot! Nothing to do with David Geffen.”  And the only person Simon has ever told about the identity of her lover in the tune also backed her up.   Read more at the link.

Excerpts from book – Say What?

This book can be quite confusing to read.  See if these make sense to you:

The summer months were usually spent by Carly on the island with their children, while James went out on the road. (Next paragraph) =  In 1973, the couple moved to a house…..where Carly became pregnant in March.  

Hmmm.  So, she stays at home with her children (plural) before she is even pregnant with her first child.  Ok.  Whatever.

Carly enjoyed pregnancy…..You’re so Vain had been the number one song is America for three weeks, but Carly now was semi-retired. (Next page)  In the summer of 1973… Carly was working on songs for her next record, scheduled to begin production in September.

Carly was hardly semi-retired in early 1973 – with a # 1 hit song on the radio and she was working on songs for Hotcakes, which she was about to record in a few months!

From day one, they got word that David Geffen was complaining that Carly’s album Hotcakes was too expensive.

Really?  On the first day of recording they’d already gone over budget????  Sure.  Sure Mr. Davis, that sounds logical.

p 161 – 1971 [while recording Anticipation]  Now Carly heard that Mick Jagger was in London, and she told her people that she needed to meet him.  She received an invitation to the Rolling Stones Records press party. [...]  Introduced briefly to Mick, she importuned him about singing on her record, but he explained that he was preoccupied with making the new Stones album, then was swept away.p 199 – May 1972 “It was very strange, that first meeting, because I expected to look so much like him.  People were always commenting on the resemblance.  I expected to walk into a mirror.”

WOW.  Wish I could meet Mick Jagger for the first time, TWICE!!

Spring 1979.  John Travolta knocked at the door of Apartment 6s one evening.  He was staying in the building and wanted to meet James, who wasn’t home.  Carly entertained Travolta instead, and the two became good friends.  When his longtime girlfriend, Diana Hyland, died a few weeks later, Travolta practically moved in with Carly and the children.  

Diana Hyland died on 3/27/77 – two full years before spring on 1979.

Excerpts from book – Really Bad Writing

These are just a few examples of how this author writes (my 5 year old really like them!) [Emphasis added in bold.]

Somehow Carly got through eight concerts in late October before arriving in Pittsburgh, where – like Three Mile Island – her cooling systems failed and she suffered a partial core meltdown.

Carly was also blamed for a sleazy magazine profile of her that appeared in Vanity Fair that summer.  “I Never Sang for my Mother” was written by an ex-wife of Jonathan Schwartz, so the Simon family secrets tumbled out of the glossy monthly like spoiled fruit.

And that her oncologist had recommended peas as a healthy midnight snack, so she could sometimes be found, late at night, staring at the microwave oven, watching little green cups going around and around.

Mick Jagger was now with Jerry Hall because she always gave him a blowjob before letting him out of the house.

Excepts from book – Ridiculous Song Descriptions

Author Stephen Davis doesn’t think much of Carly Simon’s music as evidenced by these ridiculous and myopic song descriptions.

“The Carter Family”: a little waltz with verses about missing old friends and lovers, and especially Grandma, whose criticisms were usually wise.

“His Friends Are More Than Fond of Robin”: a romantic ballad

“Waited So Long”: a country rocker that Linda Ronstadt could have sung, if she’d wanted to tell her daddy that she was no longer a virgin anymore.

“Slave“: an anthemic, embarassing de-affirmation of everything the women’s movement of the seventies stood for.  The lyrics were banal and cring-worthy.

“Waterfall“: about the female orgasm

“Attitude Dancing“: with Jake Brackman’s proto-New age lyrics.

“When You Close Your Eyes“: a lullaby for insomniacs

“Look Me In The Eyes“: Another cry, from deep in the singer’s heart, for more intimacy, more passion, more love.

“Slave“: It only made it onto Playing Possum because Carly had a fit and threatened to walk out if it was left off. [Completely UNTRUE.]

“More and More“: Carly sings the lyrics very soul-style, perhaps in tribute to her longtime idol Martha Reeves. [Carly never idolized Martha Reeve's.  Perhaps the author is thinking of Odetta and got yet another thing wrong!]

“Are You Ticklish“: is old-fashioned and corny.

“Riverboat Gambler“: is a piano ballad that pleads for access to a tight-hearted lover, someone like Carly’s remote and preoccupied husband.

“Darkness Til Dawn“: Listeners experience more marital discord here, more quarrelling all night, more of Carly thinking (hard) about a love from another era (often Dan Armstrong).  [Lyrics by Jake Brackman - NOT Carly Simon.]

“Dishonest Modesty“: The song has critical lyrics about a selfish friend with authenticity issues.

“One Love Stand“: a generica L.A. shuffle that makes Carly sound like Bonnie Raitt.

“Fairweather Father“: a pretty samba about a husband who doesn’t do diapers.  The wife is desperate.  Her husband is a prick who ignores her and her child.  Carly always said that James was not the fair-weather father of the song, but of course no one believed her.

“Cow Town“: The song could have been a broadway showstopper, with its lusty chorus and with Little Feat providing the drive.

“He Likes To Roll“: with lyrics about a woman chasing a man she already owns.

“In Times When My Head“: a confidential message to the listener about a marriage with infidelity on both sides.  There’s another man in the lyric, the “boy in the backwoods.” [What was this?]

“Stardust“: a blatantly explicit homage to Mick Jagger, with whom her husband still suspected her of carrying on a long-term affair.

“Them“: a song about aliens

“Jesse“: a song about a woman’s ambivalent feelings for an incontinent lover who wets the bed and needs fresh sheets [...] By the end of the lyrics, she decides to put fresh sheets on the bed.

“The Wives Are In Connecticut“: a topical narrative of bourgeois adultery.  The husband is having an affair at the office downtown, but the suburban wife is fucking the entire state of Connecticut behind his back.

“Spoiled Girl“: a song about a woman who has too much, and thinks only of herself.

“Interview“: in which Carly turns the table and seduces her interviewer, even seemingly offering an invitation to outright oral sex.

“We Just Got Here“: a sweet lullaby about returning home to an island in hurricane season. [it's about LEAVING the Island]

“Holding Me Tonight“: a Sting-like adultery-contemporary pop song

“It’s Not Like Him“: a New Age soap opera

The Bedroom Tapes compact disc was released in early May 2000.  The new music spoke to the trauma of postcancer therapy and the (for Carly) joyous release of retail therapy, or shopping.

The lead track, “Our Affair,” is an old-fashioned, seductive Carly Simon song that could have been on No Secrets or Hotcakes.  “So Many Stars” is about yearning for love in Manhattan.  “Big Dumb Guy” is a loosey-goosey rap, partly on life in front of a computer screen, partly on God knows what.  “Scar” is like a mastectomy two-step, with a wonderful chorus about the old wise woman who could have been her mother, Mrs. Onassis, or Carly herself.

The album continues with “Cross The River,” a surreal narative of a boat ride on the Hudson River.  “I Forget” is a torch song of illness, anguish, and recovery.  “Actress” is pointed and uncomplimentary.  The confessional “I’m Really The Kind” has imitations of seriously low self-esteem.  The faux-paranoid rock song, “We Your Dearest Friends,” is about the hordes of freeloading guests who descended on Hidden Star Hill every summer: clogging the guest rooms, lounging by the pool, fueled by pills and powders, bugging the staff, charging unauthorized restaurant meals to Carly’s account, and then talking behind her back about how horrible she was.  “In Honor of You George,” the song that begins in self-pity and ends in a surge of hope amid the swooning orchestration.

We have been receiving a lot of questions regarding an Unauthorized biography of Carly Simon, that is coming out this month: More Room In A Broken Heart, The True Adventures of Carly Simon by Stephen Davis.

Carly wants to be sure that her fans know that, regardless of what the publisher of the book is advertising, she had nothing to do with the creation of this book and she does not support it in any way.  She was not interviewed for this book.  There are numerous factual errors, fictional stories, made-up quotes, and “clipped” stories from other books and magazines.

Questions about the integrity and accuracy of the book were initially raised December 11, when author Sheila Weller (Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon – And the Journey of a Generation, which was made with Carly’s cooperation and promoted on her website when it was originally released in 2008) posted on her Facebook page a link to a story previewing content from More Room in a Broken Heart that directly used an exclusive story in her own best-selling and critically acclaimed book. Regarding Davis’ book, she wrote:

What do we do with these unabashed clip-jobbers? Just roll our eyes and shake our heads, I guess. This anecdote was lifted whole (quote, verbatim) from exclusive (though, dare I say, far more nuanced) material in my book. Davis has no source notes, no bibliography, not one single author/journo acknowledgement in his whole book. Disdainful bemusement for a Sunday morning…

She later added that she reached out to the publisher Penguin/Gotham suggesting they add some kind of bibliography but simply got back a “snippy reply,” at which point she let the matter drop.

Jim Morrison’s widow Patricia Kennealy-Morrison experienced similar problems with Davis when he published Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend in 2004. In a response to Weller’s post, Kennealy-Morrison wrote:

Davis is a hack of the worst sort. Did a clip-job bio of my husband some years ago and never bothered to talk to ANY primary sources, not just me.

Several days later, entertainment journalist Roger Friedman posted an article on Showbiz411 that went into greater detail about the problems with the book. He writes, in part:

Davis makes some serious mistakes and I’d say possibly commits plagiarism. Some mistakes I’ve checked with Simon and her staff. Others I have first hand knowledge of. Davis, for example, liberally quotes from lots of interviews Simon has given over the years without ever giving proper credit or citation. Penguin Books should be ashamed of itself for not asking Davis for research attribution.

[...]

I found at least three instances of my work from pieces I’ve written about Simon in Davis’s book, without credit or attribution.  I can tell you that anecdotes [...] were lifted directly from an article I wrote in 1989 for Fame magazine. Davis has simply taken the quotes either verbatim or interpolated them. There are no citations.

In addition to the ethical and potentially legal implications, the book is said to contain glaring errors and false assertions about Carly’s personal life and embarrassing problems with spelling and grammar.

Whether the author or publisher will reconsider releasing the book remains to be seen but from initial response, it appears doubtful. The Boston Globe followed up with Stephen Davis on these issues, and his response failed to address concerns over his integrity as a journalist and author:

I haven’t read [Friedman’s] insipid twaddle and don’t intend to. Any accusations of inaccuracy are agenda-driven rubbish and must elicit no further comment. Carly’s father, the founder of Simon & Schuster, understood that in publishing there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Just spell the name right.

Additionally, posts made by some Carly Simon fans to the More Room in a Broken Heart Facebook page with concerns about the book were quickly deleted and the users removed. Similar emails to Gotham Books have gone unanswered.

A preview of the book can be read at Google Books, where it currently has an average of 1 star from reviewers.

For those that don’t know, J.D. Souther (sometimes credited as John David Souther) is primarily known as a songwriter. He co-wrote a number of huge Eagles hits (“The Best of My Love,” “The Sad Café,” “New Kid in Town,” among others), and wrote a number of other songs, most notably for Linda Ronstadt (“Faithless Love”). He also had a brief but notable solo career. In 1979, his nod to Roy Orbison, “You’re Only Lonely,” was a Top 10 hit, and in 1981 he collaborated with James Taylor for the hit single “Her Town Too”. He also recorded several duets with Linda Ronstadt (including “Hasten Down the Wind” and “Prisoner in Disguise”). His solo recordings have also resulted in successful covers, such as the Dixie Chicks‘ version of Souther’s “I’ll Take Care of You”. In 2008, JD Souther made an unexpected return with If the World Was You, a surprising recording that saw the artist most known for country-rock ably tackling more jazz oriented songs of his own writing. And this year he released Natural History, where he recorded versions of a lot of the songs mentioned above in loose and stripped down arrangements.

I’ve looked around McCabe’s at their guitars and done plenty of drooling but I’d never seen a show there before. It’s a great venue, intimate with a rustic feel thanks to the wood beams and aged building. The walls are all adorned with amazing guitars. The only downside is one of column nearly in the middle of the room that won’t be transparent no matter how much you wish it. And NOTE TO PERFORMERS: The room is deep. Your speaking voice, even when miked, does not make it to the back of the room. I was sitting by the aisle across from the main entrance to the room, the one further from the stage, and had trouble making out what was being said if someone moved away from the mike while speaking or if their voice dropped. That aside, great venue with a great vibe and a lot of history.

Jill Andrews was the opening act. She was accompanied by Josh Oliver on piano, electric guitar and backing vocals. The two used to be in the alt-country band The Everybodyfields. Jill’s lovely voice eased us into the night. The word “lovely” can sound kind of quaint, but I mean that in the most beautiful way possible. Opening acts are always a bit of a gamble, but she was fantastic. Great songwriting and great performance. The importance of a strong opening hook gets overlooked. Jill Andrews seems to realize this in her song “The Mirror,” which opens with “You broke a mirror, but I will get the bad luck”. Her arrangements were also refreshing, with lots of color that took advantage of Josh Oliver’s accompanist skills and her own precise guitar pick-and-strumming technique. The trick was that she didn’t overload or overwhelm the songs with these colors or levels. She intuitively served the songs. She also charmed the audience both in song and with her conversing with the audience between numbers, a seriously undervalued skill for musical performers. Anyway, to the say the least, we were impressed and left with a copy of her new CD The Mirror. Seeing her brought the thought that all acts like JD Souther, people who have a legacy and a following like he and those of his generation, should always have an opening act of an up-and-coming singer/songwriter that they believe in. JD Souther had Jill Andrews come out for an encore and it was clear that he was proud to have her on the tour. What a great way to pass the torch and introduce audiences to new music.

On to the main show. After a slightly long intermission, JD Souther and his two bandmates, pianist Chris Walters and an upright bassist whose name I never caught due to it getting drowned out in applause, provided a very jazz-tinged set reminiscent of the meditative Natural History and a smattering of the more vivacious If the World Was You. As a result, almost all of the songs Souther is known for get their moment and it becomes startlingly obvious that he has created some fantastic songs, and his performance of them brings out their strengths more than any Eagle ever did.

Unfortunately the set started off a bit tentative. Souther had apparently lost his wallet at a restaurant before the show and a frenzied search either cut into sound check or otherwise rattled the top of the show. Understandable for anyone whose been in a similar situation, but the first several songs were affected. Then “New Kid in Town” clicked things into place. Suddenly, performer and music connected, and the two connected to the audience. JD Souther became a funny storyteller between songs instead of a silent brooder, and the show really came to life. Souther’s voice has always been unique but age has sprinkled it with silver dust that adds such great character to his songs with occasional shades of Art Garfunkel and David Lasley at times. Sometimes fingers weren’t quite holding a string down but considering the crazy jazz chords he often uses, when it worked the pay-off was fantastic.

“The Sad Café” was completely reborn for me. He performed it with a restrained longing that gave it new depth. I never really heard the lyrics “We thought we could change this world / With words like ‘love’ and ‘freedom’” until this show. He also did a fantastic cover of Fats Waller’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’” (the only cover of his show) that I really wish was included on one of his albums. His lesser-known “Little Victories” was also a stand-out.

JD Souther has been reborn as an intriguing artist, a singer/songwriter worth tracking down. I think he’s going to be heading back out on the road in the Fall. Check out his website for tour dates. I feel lucky to have caught him.

The site offers a deal on one specific release each day for that day only up to 70% off and free shipping. I am told that on Wednesday, January 26 only, Carly Simon’s box set Carly Simon: Clouds In My Coffee 1965-1995 will be available at an “incredible low price plus free shipping”.

Unfortunately you have to sign up with the site to see the price but it’s a free account.

Clouds In My Coffee is a great 3-disc anthology presenting 58 songs from Carly Simon’s career. Disc 1 has the big hits like “You’re So Vain,” “Anticipation,” “Coming Around Again,” “Nobody Does It Better,” “Let the River Run,” and more. Disc 2 is titled Miscellaneous & Unreleased, and is made up of rare non-album tracks, alternate takes or mixes, and previously unheard songs, including “The Night Before Christmas”. The final disc is called Cry Yourself To Sleep, and is made up of non-hit ballads and deeper cuts such as “Devoted to You” with James Taylor and “Davy” with Andreas Vollenweider. The box set was originally released at the end of 1995 by Arista Records, which became part of Sony Music over the last decade.

(I will not make any commission off of this (if only!) but I’m happy to help fellow Carly Simon fans out who don’t have this. I actually don’t have this (although I borrowed it from a friend and really enjoyed it), so I might buy it myself!)

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Songs of the Spectrum is available as an MP3 download ($14.95) and audio CD ($19.95) at SingSOS.org. Both versions include electronic files of selected autism resources including book excerpts. Proceeds benefit a host of autism charities: Autism Speaks, Connecticut Center for Child Development, Alpine Learning Center, Learning Spring School, McCarton Foundation, The New York Conservatory for the Arts, and more.  The album also includes songs performed by Dar Williams and Jonatha Brooke.

The album consists of original songs written by John O’Neil, a New York Times editor whose 2004 essay about his autistic son was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and Jon Fried and Deena Shoshkes, a husband/wife team that performs as the Cucumbers.

Click through for the full press release.

NEW ALBUM OF ORIGINAL SONGS ABOUT AUTISM FEATURES JACKSON BROWNE, DAR WILLIAMS & OTHERS COMBINED WITH ‘E-BUNDLE’ OF AUTISM RESOURCES AND BOOK EXCERPTS

Unique Holiday Gift of Uplifting Music Lets Families Share Hope;
Serves as Fundraising Tool for Autism Organizations Large & Small

Nov. 19, 2009 — SingSOS! announces the release today of an album of original songs about autism. SingSOS!/Songs of the Spectrum is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that enlists the power of music to spread the word about autism spectrum disorders and the importance of early detection and intensive intervention.

The music is available in digital download and CD form at singsos.org. On the album and at the site, there is also a hand-selected set of high-quality information for parents and educators about autism in free downloadable form, including excerpts from books by leading experts.

This album is unique and timely because:

• Autism is of greater concern than ever, with recent studies putting prevalence at 1 in 100.
• It features an appealing mix of established artists – along with Browne and Williams, there are performers like Marshall Crenshaw and Jonatha Brooke and emerging names, including Christina Courtin, Richard Julian and Ari Hest.
• In a field flooded with misinformation, the album offers a hand-picked selection of brochures, articles and book chapters, along with links to videos and interactive tools – a one-stop shopping resource for those with a need to know more.
• It offers both a message of hope and an unflinching look at the realities faced by the families of people on the autism spectrum.
• Unlike most charity CDs, this features a unified set of songs with a single point of view.
• An innovative distribution plan engages the autism community to spread the word.

Beginning Nov. 19^th, the album can be downloaded at www.singsos.org for a $15 donation or ordered as a CD for $20.  It will also be available via through major online outlets including iTunes and Amazon. All proceeds go to a nonprofit group chosen by the donor.

Featured beneficiaries include three national organizations — Autism Speaks, the Autism Society and Easter Seals — and six programs in the New York area: the Alpine Learning Group, the Connecticut Center for Child Development, the Learningspring School, the McCarton School, the New York Center for Autism and Spectra Academy.

Other nonprofit groups providing services to the autism community will also be able to use the album as a fundraising tool by registering on the site. SingSOS wants to help the groups doing the grassroots work and encourage them to further spread the word about the importance of early detection and intervention.

Starting Nov. 30th, experts from the featured schools will discuss the issues raised by the songs and answer reader questions on a blog at singsos.org.

The original cover image is by Jonathan Lerman, the winner of a recent SingSOS contest for artists on the spectrum.  Several other autistic artists contributed art to the CD packaging and our  website, where all contest entries can be seen.

The songs on the album are a collaboration between John O’Neil, a New York Times editor whose 2004 essay for the paper about his autistic son James was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and Jon Fried and Deena Shoshkes, a husband/wife team that performs as the Cucumbers. Fried and Shoshkes are close friends of the O’Neil family, and have witnessed first hand James’s struggle and progress. One song was co-written by O’Neil’s oldest son, Chris, about the issues siblings face, and James contributed the final track, a poem about the different point of view of someone on the spectrum.

“Early intervention and dedicated, relentless treatment can have a genuinely transforming effect,’’ said O’Neil. “We want to bring listeners inside an experience that is so hard to see and so hard to understand. Autism has understandably been called an ‘invisible epidemic.’ We hope to make it tangible.”

“This is different from other charity albums, which are usually compilations of unrelated songs. It takes a unified set of songs by writers steeped in the experience, and puts them in the hands of some of the best vocalists and song interpreters of their generation,” said Jon Fried.  “The songs tell a cohesive story that affected families and others with an interest in or connection to autism can follow.  We’ve had listeners tell us ‘You are singing my life’ and ‘Now I feel less alone.’ ”

A performance of the SingSOS songs was the concluding event of the United Nation’s activities marking World Autism Awareness Day in April 2009.

The complete list of SingSOS! vocal artists is: Jackson Browne and Valerie Carter (duet), Dar Williams, Marshall Crenshaw, Teddy Geiger, Jonatha Brooke, Richard Julian, Dan Bern and Mike Viola (duet), Don Dixon and Marti Jones (duet), Ollabelle, Christina Courtin, Ari Hest, Kelly Flint and The Cucumbers.

For more information, visit www.singsos.org

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[M]any of the train songs we’ve showcased this week rely on the insistent rhythm of the rails… but this one has an undertone of monotony and introspection and resignation, as the train chugs across the Canadian prairie

“I’m a lyrical choreographer,” he says. “African dance is not something that white people like me can do. It’s not in our blood.”

“We didn’t want to pretend to be African dancers,” he says. “We wouldn’t be able to rise to that occasion. So we took some of the basic African steps and transformed them, using some of our own vocabulary. We met half way—white man meets black man.

“It was interesting to see how the inspiration from African dance influenced my choreography to go in a direction I’ve never taken in my life,” he continues. “It was a big challenge, but everybody’s telling us now through the Prairie tour that it’s their favourite song in the whole ballet!”

The article also talks with Grand-Maitre about the other two additions to the show, “Woodstock” and “Shine”. Of the latter, he calls it a lullabye and says:

“But it’s a lullaby no child should hear. It’s about children in countries where bombs are falling,” says Grand-Maître. “But Joni also sings about the beauty of the world. It’s a very poetic and beautiful ballad.”

More at the link.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

It ends ‘to be continued’ and a 4th part hasn’t appeared yet. Hopefully soon.