Review: The Girl in the Song: The True Stories Behind 50 Rock Classics
Michael Heatley’s compendium of heart-breakers, career-makers, and dignity-takers answers the question: Who is the girl in the song?
By Catherine McCarthy
Published: October 5th, 2010 | 2:35pm
If you've ever wondered just who your favorite lovelorn songwriters were singing about, this book is for you. The women who inspired the songs profiled in The Girl in the Song: The True Stories Behind 50 Rock Classics
Heatley covers the chronological spectrum of songs from Paul Anka to the Beatles to the Rolling Stones to more contemporary artists like Oasis and Coldplay. They also range from the sweetly innocent (Paul Anka’s “Diana”) to the sexually-charged and controversial (Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg’s “Je t’aime..moi non plus” (Light in the Attic). The most interesting stories arise from the charting of sordid love triangles: one songwriter and two muses, enmeshed. The book is broken up into 50 short, easy-to-devour snippets in no discernable order, so the stories are sometimes contained within the tale of one song or spread out across the pages, with recurring real-life figures popping up at a later juncture in a musician’s life.
Bob Dylan’s 1963 hit “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” was penned for on again, off again girlfriend Suze Rotolo (featured on the iconic cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan LP) while that same year he would perform on the National Mall to the crowd of a quarter-million gathered to see Martin Luther King, Jr. deliver his “I Have A Dream” speech, alongside Joan Baez who sang "We Shall Overcome," as Heatley describes in his segment on the evolution of “It Ain’t Me Babe.” Though their affair was born of political angst, Dylan could not bear the mantle of responsibility Baez had taken up as the voice of dissent for her generation.
Few of the tales within The Girl in the Song end well. Many end like Dylan’s affairs: a lover develops a wandering eye, or falls short of expectations in the onset (or loss) of burgeoning fame. While some of the stories Heatley tells are juicy revelations, most are more mundane than sensational. The only thing extraordinary is the bevy of celebrity names attached. But his keen journalistic eye lends a human interest quality to these stories that makes them relatable to the average rock music fan, and the result is both pleasurable and comforting.
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ABOUT THE BOOK
The Girl in the Song: The True Stories Behind 50 Rock Classics
by Michael Heatley
Chicago Review Press, October 2010
144 pages
Issue #44
Comments
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Eric Havaby (about 1 year)
Dylan did NOT perform 'We Shall Overcome' "on the National Mall ... In fact, I don't think he has ever performed it. His contribution to the March on Washington is well documented (see YouTube). He sang his own "When The Ship Comes In" with Joan Baez, and a solo version of "Only A Pawn In Their Game"
jillrusselladmin (about 1 year)
Thanks, Eric! You're right—it was Baez who sang "We Shall Overcome," which we corrected above. Appreciate the input!