Dory Previn, anyone know her music?

[Mieke]

I was just wondering if anyone here has ever heard the music of Dory Previn?
I first heard an LP of her in the 70s and was in love with her music right away.
After that I've collected all her music, but so far I've never met anyone that has even heard of her, let alone likes her music too.
Shes an old lady now, age 81, and she has never made much albums, but the albums she made are extremely beautiful in my opinion.
Shes had a very f*&^'ed up childhood and has been hospitalized for mental illness, and a lot of her emotional problems are reflected in her songs, but she also sings about feminism and about femininity/masculinity etc.
Her best album (IMO) is Mythical Kings and Iguanas from 1971.

If you go here:
http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/songs/0,,481179,00.html
You can listen to short clips of a lot of her songs, to get an impression.

[aabram]

Yes I've heard of her, especially "Mythical Kings and Iguanas" but I don't have any of her CDs. Cheers, Annabel :)

[Judy]

Gee, that takes me back - yep, I saw her in a couple of clubs in Chicago...guess it would have been in the early 70's. She was quietly funny but deeply troubled, I recall. The original "yada yada" queen, so who couldn't love her for that alone.
Judy

[MARILYN/GEMINI]

I have an old LP..... white cover....got it around 1974-1977 ? upon someone's recommendation..........

[Chet]

Isn't she the one who lost her husband to Mia Farrow?

[ponytail]

I saw her in the early seventies at a coffeehouse called The Main Point in Bryn Mawr, PA. She blew me away. I have her albums on vinyl but have never gotten around to replacing them on CD.

Before she reincarnated herself as a singer-songwriter she wrote a number of songs with her then-husband, Andre, that were in movies. At least one of them, the theme from "Valley Of The Dolls," was a huge hit. She wrote the songs for one of my favorite movies, "Inside Daisy Clover," which starred Natalie Wood and Ruth Gordon.

There's a more recent album of hers you can download for free:

http://www.mabot.com/music/dory-previn/planetblue.html

And yup, Chet, she is the one. She has a song about that experience with Mia (I think it's called "Beware Of Young Girls") that includes the line, "She admired my unmade bed." Which is why I think the whole thing with Mia and Woody was at least partly karma!

[Cardiffgal]

"My daddy says I'm not his child ain't that somethin' wild"

love Dory Previn - saw her at the Great American Music Hall in SF many many years ago. She is great and her music much more ironic in person - just like Leonard Cohen and just like Janis Ian. In person their music goes from sad to funny in an ironic kind of way.

Yes, Chet she lost her husband to Mia Farrow and wrote a song about it also lost her mind somewhat over this event.

"she was my, my friend, she was invite to my house . . . " have all my old albums now in CD format.

Plus I never see the Hollywood sign without thinking of a Dory Previn song - "she jumped off the letter H, cause she could not become a star, she looked a bit like Hedy Lamar" (out of context)

[Michael from Chicago]

Marilyn, if the DP white LP cover you have is a single LP, it's Reflections in
a Mud Puddle. The green and white double LP, Live at Carnegie Hall, is my
favorite Dory Previn recording.

[Mieke]

Wow it's good to see she's apparently not as unknown as i thought.;)

Judy, Cardiffgal : what a great thing you were able to see her performing.

Yes she's very troubled on a lot of her albums but in a way she sings about things I think a lot of people experience, just not as deeply maybe.
And shes made some love songs which are incredibly beautiful I think (my favorite song of hers is "lady with the braid"), which i find it easier to relate to then all the "love is beautiful, uncomplicated blah blah".;)
She also sings a lot about negative emotions like jealousy and rage and f*&^'ed up parents, without becoming too bitter or completely insane.