Clive comes out in book

THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, CONTINUED: Rolling Stone contributor David Browne gives an online preview of Clive Davis' new memoir, The Soundtrack of My Life, co-written by esteemed rockcrit Anthony DeCurtis, which comes out today. Along with publicly acknowledging his “bisexual life” for the first time, the 80-year-old music man lays out the inside story of his interactions with a wide range of artists over nearly five decades. He recounts his early years at Columbia, some of which had been detailed in the previous book, the now out of print 1975 memoir Clive: Inside the Record Business, including anecdotes about Dylan and Springsteen. Davis also goes into detail about the founding and running of Arista and J Records, devoting an entire chapter to his work with Whitney Houston, and giving his side of his clash with Kelly Clarkson and her management prior to the release of 2007's My December. In one amusing passage, Davis says he was surprised to discover that Rob and Fab didn't actually sing on the Milli Vanilli album. "People thought I was in on this elaborate scheme," he writes. Clive also offers his own account of the 1999 meeting in which the Big Mean Germans bounced him from his job at Arista, which ultimately led to the launch of J, and his discovery of the label’s biggest star, Alicia Keys. (2/19a)