The story of rock and roll has been a male-dominated tale for much of the music’s history. Elvis. The Beatles. The Rolling Stones. Finally the folk-pop lady rockers of the late 1960s and early 1970s get their due in award-winning journalist and author Sheila Weller’s just-released book Girls like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon –– and the Journey of a Generation ($19 at Amazon). Like many of the women who came of age in that tumultuous time in American history, they traversed new territory in an era of the Pill, feminism, civil rights and free love. But King, Mitchell and Simon, lived it and wrote and sang about it – and two of three women were James Taylor’s lovers. Weller describes the work as a “triple biography” in this story behind the story video clip. The book is a juicy and prodigious read. As persnickety Kirkus Reviews says, it’s “essential for understanding how three female superstars survived male chauvinism, romantic disaster and late-career neglect by the music industry to become icons” and “Definitely a guilty pleasure, but still a solid contribution to the story of 20th-century popular music.” Weller based the book on hundreds of interviews, including dozens of the women’s intimates who had never spoken before – including Mitchell’s “Carey” from the song of the same name on the Blue album. One of the most delicious revelations is whom Simon’s hit “You’re So Vain” was about. No, it wasn’t Mick Jagger, but he did sing backup vocals on the song. Was it James Taylor, whom she had just married, or Cat Stevens or Warren Beatty? Okay, well, Simon says, maybe Warren Beatty is part of a composite. Simon’s been keeping people guessing for so many years there’s a whole web site devoted to discovering whom “Vain” was about. Weller –– a contributing editor at Glamour who also writes on social history for Vanity Fair and blogs on politics and culture for The Huffington Post –– is a master of popular narrative nonfiction and the author of six books.