What memories the very name Dory Previn brings back - those early '70s albums and songs like "Mythical Kings and Iguanas", "The Lady with the Braid", and the song about Mary C Brown the girl who jumped off the Hollywood sign, and Janis Joplin buying a headstone for Bessie Smith - but forgetting to pay for her own! In the era of Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, Carole King, James Taylor, Paul Simon et al Dory established herself as the singer/songwriter of gloom and depression, an acquired taste certainly but very effective. My late friend Stan liked her so much.
The breakup of that marriage with Andre Previn and the song about Mia Farrow were also fascinating ..... RIP indeed Dory, 86 is a very good age. Don't expect any Whitney-type coverage though.
She had met Previn on the set of the trashy MGM film THE SUBTERRANEANS (Trash label) in 1960, as he was one of the jazzmen included in the film, for which she had writte the theme lyric. ("Andre Previn and the Previnettes" as Morcambe & Wise once memorably introduced him in one of their tv sketches...)
Movie-wise her lyrics include Natalie Wood singing "Youre Gonna Hear From Me" in INSIDE DAISY CLOVER and Dionne Warwick's theme song and Susan Hayward/Helen Lawson's "I'll Plant My Own Tree" in VALLEY OF THE DOLLS !
No comments:
Post a Comment