When Joni Mitchell lived in a cave, Mick got lonely and R.E.M. recorded ‘Religion': 45 tales of jukebox genius
By Geoff Edgers October 26

Ever wonder what the real “Carey” thought when Joni Mitchell called him a “mean old Daddy” in the song written during their short, but strange relationship? (Rebounding from Graham Nash, Mitchell, in 1970, traveled to Greece and hooked up with the redheaded stranger and briefly lived in his cave.) Marc Myers can tell you, having tracked down Cary Raditz decades after the song’s release on Mitchell’s “Blue.” Myers also visited Mitchell herself, in late 2014, to detail exactly what led her to haul her dulcimer around Crete.

Faithful readers of Myers’s “Anatomy of a Song” column in the Wall Street Journal will recognize at least part of the Mitchell account. But the Raditz interview is fresh and what distinguishes Myers’s new book, “Anatomy of a Song: The Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits That Changed Rock, R&B and Pop,” from his column. These beefed-up entries — call them the director’s cut — cover 45 records over 39 years, from Lloyd Price’s 1952 hit “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” to R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion.”

You can read “Anatomy” in order as a kind of music history or press shuffle and dig into Myers’s jukebox at any point. Myers talked with us over the phone recently. The interview has been edited for clarity and space.

Q: What’s an example of material you didn’t include in your original piece or added through more reporting later?

A: For “Light My Fire,” I did track down [Doors drummer] John Densmore and we talked more about the drum beat. It was such a huge hit when I was a kid. The beat always struck me as enormously seductive and I could never figure out why as a kid, but I realize now there was a Latin feel on that. I literally took him through the entire beat. And it turned out he was a huge fan of Stan Getz and Antonio Carlos Jobim on “The Girl From Ipanema.” The reason that song is so infectious in many ways is because of that light Latin beat going on you don’t realize is being played.

Q: You’ve got Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Wonder in here. But who was the biggest get in your mind?

A: I think Joni Mitchell was a pretty big get. She doesn’t do many of these kinds of things. This was before her illness in the fall of 2014. The song I chose, “Carey,” was particularly close to her heart. She felt she had never talked to anybody about that song. It was a song that was deeply, deeply meaningful. … And when I got back I thought, I’ve got to track down Cary. [Mitchell added an “e” to his name on the song.] If I didn’t, somebody else would.

Q: Were there people who were tough to deal with?

A: No. But some of them, I only had 20 minutes with. Others I only budgeted 30 minutes, but they would get so caught up in what they were talking about I’d end up on the phone for over an hour.

Q: Like?

A: Roger Waters. He’s not an easy interview from what I understand. He doesn’t suffer nonsense and he’s very blunt and flinty. He can rip the plug out of the wall to the point the wire comes first. There’s always the risk on these things where the subject runs out of gas. Roger gave me more than an hour, perhaps because he had nothing else to do that evening.

Q: And what do you think you learned about “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2?”

A: For me, learning about his childhood, about his distaste for oppression. His distaste for kids being terrorized by teachers or abused in institutional situations. It was sort of interesting to know it had nothing to do with anti-education. Other songs … “Moonlight Mile,” with Mick Jagger, was staggering for me. One never thinks of Mick Jagger as a lonely person. There was enormous loneliness from Mick as you hear about this song.

Q: Any near misses or folks who are no longer here you tried?

A: You’re choking me up here. I was scheduled to do Lou Reed. I had heard that he liked the column. He doesn’t do these things unless he cares about the person. This guy from what I hear, reads everything. We were going to do it. We were going to do it Sunday and we moved it to a Wednesday and then he died on Sunday.

Q: What was the song?

A: We were going to talk about that. Lou wanted to talk about the songs he’s interested in. I’m not so much obsessed about one particular song. The song is important in that it needs to be well known. But beyond that I’m looking for the art of it. It could have been anything he wanted to talk about as long as people knew it enough.

Q: That’s a big loss. I can think of 10 songs I’d want to talk to him about.

A: It was something, to me. It wasn’t “Oh, I missed Lou Reed and he would have been great as a get.” I missed an opportunity to talk about art with Lou Reed.