Carey: Genesis of the Song

by Cary Wingfield Raditz

Cary Raditz’s book Genesis of the Song, 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

301 pages, Paperback

Published October 24, 2023

Reviews

[Wendy Schweikert · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love Joni Mitchell and the folk/rock music of the 1960's-70's, you'll be fascinated by this behind-the-scenes story of songs written for her album 'Blue'. Cary Raditz is the real life "mean old daddy" who went down to the Mermaid Cafe with Joni in the song 'Carey' and made love beneath the Matala moon. His tell-all bio details a few years of his post-college Hippie days freewheeling through California, North Carolina, New York, Germany, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and England. There are plenty of sex and drugs along the way. The story gets really spicy after Cary and Joni first meet on a beach in Crete, as their passionate affair bounces from his seaside cave to her Laurel Canyon home. It's a wild ride of road trips, rock festivals, famous musicians, ex-lovers and new temptations. I loved this book for the memories it evoked from those halcyon days, like my own young adulthood, when we did some risky things but lived to tell the tale.

[Frederick Rockett · Rating 4 out of 5]

For serious fans of Joni Mitchell, this memoir is definitely worth reading. It's also a well-written portrayal of the late 60's free-love, do lots of drugs, travel around and not conform to society's expectations lifestyle. His experience of it was overwhelmingly positive, and it made me nostalgic for a time before AIDS, before all the wars in Afghanistan, the Islamic take over of Iran, when folks could easily travel all over for real cheap and enjoy life's simple pleasures.
I have to say that I found some parts of the story about Joni a little sparse and some of the dialogue wooden. I suspect he was wary of saying anything negative about her. But I loved learning that she drove around in a blue Mercedes convertible, not at all what I had pictured. I figured a VW bug would be more her style. Apparently she had quite the high-life there in LA.

[Les Irvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a life...!