"Raditz's book is not just an intimate and surprising portrait of Joni Mitchell at the very point she became famous - it is a front-line account of a time, place and attitude that have passed into legend. This is the story of a man who found himself trapped in a song, and the extraordinary events that led up to it. Packed with food, wine, smells and laughter, Genesis is a sensuous wonder in which Raditz's enthusiasm for life vibrates off the page."
- Kate Mossman, Arts Editor, The New Statesman magazine
"Cary Raditz's 1960s - full of glamour, mischief, outlaws, and every variety of hipster under the sun - lived out from Carolina to Crete to Quebec to Kabul - is so rapturously redolent of that era, that reading his page turner of a memoir transported me right back to that wild and magical time. And his love affair with Joni Mitchell - which affected her so much she wrote two songs ('Carey,' of course and 'California') about him - is irresistible. Bathe in the glorious yesterday of uber-top rock stars and funky Mediterranean caves with this glorious book."
- Sheila Weller, author of Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon - and the Journey of a Generation
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teebird on :
I was impressed with this critical review Gerry Quinn left on Amazon
"Three Years of Living Capriciously"
Gerald Quinn
Carey: Genesis of the Song is an account of a young man's 3 years of living capriciously. It takes place between 1969 and 1971 after Mr. Raditz graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and, acting on the first of many whims, hopped a cheap flight to Europe and set off vagabonding. Alcohol, speed, cocaine, opium, marijuana and LSD figure prominently throughout the hero's journey, and sexual liaisons a plenty, some romantic, others not. The odyssey closes with Mr. Raditz sitting in a Los Angeles recording studio with James Taylor, listening to the finished tape of "Carey," the song Joni Mitchell had written for him during their time together in Crete and released on her album, "Blue".
Mr. Raditz has managed to organize his story in a clearly told, detailed and coherent sequence. The unifying element that emerges is the author's brashness coupled with a generous spirit and a gift for friendship that seem to have made him almost immune to consequences. Except when he isn't. But through it all he approaches experience as philosophy tested in practice. He yields to the whims of Chance and Opportunity wherever they find him until, as with many a wandering hero, a radiant woman intervenes - in this case, a woman [Joni] with a focused commitment to her own vision and no interest in limiting herself to time's arbitrary offerings.
"Mr. Raditz's instinct for people, places and timing have led him on a journey readers will enjoy sharing. I suspect that Carey is just one of many stories he has to tell.
mark.mckendrick on :
"Raditz's book is not just an intimate and surprising portrait of Joni Mitchell at the very point she became famous..."
'The point she became famous'?
Famous to whom? Journalists?
For some, all it took was the recording of her songs (by other artists) before she'd even signed a recording deal.
Her creative output didn't start a 'Blue', you know.
It suddenly seems so trendy to quote (that album), but there are many cerebral moments, much soul-baring and joys a-plenty on each of her previous three LPs.
Try 'em.