
Carly Simon's intimate memoir unveils her journey from stuttering child to iconic musician, revealing encounters with Mick Jagger, Hendrix, and Einstein. "Impressionistic and boy-crazy" (Publishers Weekly), it exposes the real stories behind her legendary songs. What secrets inspired "You're So Vain"?
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What happens when a shy girl discovers she can become someone else entirely-just by performing? Picture young Carly Simon at three years old, watching a prospective nurse interview for her baby brother. Suddenly, she springs onto the coffee table, drops to one knee like a vaudeville star, and belts out a brassy "HI!" That single moment contained everything about her future: the hunger to be seen wrestling with crippling insecurity, the transformation that happens when performance becomes survival. Growing up in a six-story Greenwich Village townhouse felt like living inside a music box. Her father Richard-co-founder of Simon & Schuster-played Liszt and Brahms with raw emotion each night, technique be damned. The extended family practically embodied the music industry: Uncle George founded Downbeat magazine, Uncle Alfie directed music for WQXR. Yet beneath this creative abundance lurked something darker. Richard struggled to show affection to his youngest daughter. "Darling, remember to kiss Carly, too," her mother would remind him at bedtime-a small sentence that echoed through decades. Then came Ronny, a nineteen-year-old hired as her brother's companion who became her forty-two-year-old mother's lover. When he was drafted and stationed in Germany, her mother made a suspicious European trip. Her father suffered a heart attack shortly after. The family's unspoken rule became clear: insist nothing's wrong when everything is. This early education in beautiful lies and hidden truths would become the bedrock of her songwriting-the ability to see what people desperately try to hide, especially from themselves.