
Dory Previn: On My Way to Where
3/19/2026 | 1h 19m 29sVideo has Closed Captions
The story of Dory Previn, an influential MGM lyricist and 1970s cult singer-songwriter.
A documentary about Dory Previn, an influential Hollywood lyricist and 1970s cult singer-songwriter who wrote brilliant, disturbing, and darkly funny songs in the 1970s. After a tabloid scandal and public breakdown, Previn famously went public about her schizophrenia diagnosis, ultimately accepting her voices and anticipating a modern-day neurodiversity movement.
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Dory Previn: On My Way to Where is a local public television program presented by PBS SoCal

Dory Previn: On My Way to Where
3/19/2026 | 1h 19m 29sVideo has Closed Captions
A documentary about Dory Previn, an influential Hollywood lyricist and 1970s cult singer-songwriter who wrote brilliant, disturbing, and darkly funny songs in the 1970s. After a tabloid scandal and public breakdown, Previn famously went public about her schizophrenia diagnosis, ultimately accepting her voices and anticipating a modern-day neurodiversity movement.
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How to Watch Dory Previn: On My Way to Where
Dory Previn: On My Way to Where is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipfemale announcer: This program is made possible in part by: Barbara and Eric Dobkin; Dominique Bravo; the Better Angels Society and its members, Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine, through the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film; Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg, 1992 Charitable Trust; Levin-Goffe Family Foundation; Eden Shapiro; Cedric Winslow; New York State Council on the Arts; Delaware Valley Arts Alliance.
A complete funder list is available at doryprevindoc.com.
male: This is "The Pierre Berton Show."
Our guest is Dory Previn.
We are recording on the 27th of June '72 in Hollywood.
Pierre Berton: It's been said that writing is therapy for everyone, but I don't suppose this has ever been more true than in the case of Dory Previn.
The songs that Dory Previn is writing and singing now are quite different from the kind that she wrote when she was writing title songs for motion pictures.
Did you have any idea these albums would be as successful as they have been?
Dory Previn: I didn't know.
I was just writing how I felt and what I thought, and I didn't realize there would be that kind--the kind of reaction.
♪ You know the Hollywood sign ♪ That stands in the Hollywood Hills ♪ ♪ I don't think the Christ of the Andes ♪ ♪ Ever blessed so many hills ♪ The Hollywood sign seems to smile ♪ ♪ Like it's constantly saying "cheese" ♪ ♪ I doubt if the Statue of Liberty ♪ ♪ Ever welcomed more refugees ♪ Pierre: Dory Previn once told an interviewer, she said, "I died in this album and came back to life," and this all came about as a result, I understand, Dory, of a doctor handing you a typewriter and saying, "Write."
Dory: When I was in a hospital, I didn't want to make baskets and belts, yet you have to do therapy.
He suggested that I write about what I was thinking and feeling.
♪ Give me your junkies Dory: I thought I would write it in the only craft I know, which is the lyric form.
♪ The symbol of dreams turns out to be ♪ ♪ A sign of disillusion ♪ Dory: Maybe I am bizarre to some people, but I'm not all that bizarre.
Dory: I was on my way.
Why have they locked me in?
female: Who is my next of kin?
Dory: I was on my way to...where?
♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ I was dancing in a nightclub ♪ ♪ In the summer of '45 ♪ Dreaming of being a movie star ♪ ♪ Trying to stay alive ♪ I was hoofing in the chorus ♪ Paying the usual dues ♪ And what do you know ♪ For the second show ♪ In came Howard Hughes ♪ Dory: I worked as an actress.
I did summer stock.
I modeled.
I worked as a--as a dancer in choruses.
Joby Baker: When she went to New York, she wanted to be an actress, but she was writing lyrics all the time.
Dory: Arthur Freed read some of my lyrics.
A friend of mine sent a portfolio of my lyrics to him, and this was four months after I'd begun writing.
Michael Feinstein: Arthur Freed is considered to be the greatest producer of MGM musicals, actually of Hollywood musicals.
♪ I'm happy again ♪ Michael: He somehow became aware of Dory, who was living at the Warwick Hotel in 1954 in New York.
So there she was chosen by Arthur Freed and brought into the Freed unit to work at MGM.
André Previn: I had not met her at the time, and I went to Arthur Freed because he knew everybody.
And I said, "Arthur, there is a very nice and very pretty girl who keeps leaping out of corners to say hello to me, and I have no idea who that is."
And he said, "Oh God, I forgot to tell you, it's your songwriting partner."
Michael: André Previn was a musical genius of the 20th and 21st century on the level of Leonard Bernstein, a musical chameleon and a very sophisticated, smart composer.
Dory as a lyricist wrote the way she lived, with true depth in everything that was part of what she touched, and sometimes Dory's lyrics compensated for the more complex nature of André's music.
♪ Love, the leaves are falling ♪ ♪ Barren is the bough ♪ So each descends ♪ As autumn ends ♪ Not forever, just for now ♪ André: I met her professionally, and I think we worked together for about a full year before I ever asked her out to dinner.
♪♪♪ (as Dory) female narrator: I had the strangest dream with André.
I longed for him.
André, on three, androgynous.
He's the name personification of my soul.
Michael: "Yes" was the first song that was written by André and Dory, and it was the beginning of their collaboration in many ways.
♪ If he asks me ♪ Will I stay?
♪ And never go away ♪ I'll tell him yes ♪ I'll tell him yes ♪ Dory: We became collaborators, and we worked together, and then we went together and we lived together, and then we married together.
(as Dory) narrator: "What does the G stand for?"
I asked André, when he signed our marriage license.
"Nothing," he said.
"I wasn't given a middle name, so I picked G for George."
As for me, I wish to God I hadn't been given a middle name, Veronica, Nica, Nic.
When I was little, a kid told me Old Nick was the true name of the devil, and that scared the bejesus out of me, especially since my three initials, D, V, L, were closely related to the word devil.
And was it any wonder he dogged me ever since?
♪♪♪ ♪ Control yourself ♪ Contain yourself ♪ Restrict yourself ♪ Restrain yourself ♪ And always let tranquility be your goal ♪ ♪ It's got to be your goal Dory: In the '60s, the early '60s, Vernon Duke said to André, "I heard you got married."
And he said, "Yes, I married a lyricist."
And he said, "A lady lyricist?"
And André said, "Yes, and she's very good."
♪ You've got to be-- Dory: Vernon Duke said, "Dear boy, there's no such thing as a good lady lyricist."
In the beginning, when I was writing film songs with André, the word was, well, you know, if you hire him, you have to hire his wife to write the lyric.
♪ When things get rough Dory: Being excluded as a woman, as a wife, we try harder, right, when we're in that secondary position.
And then, of course, I was so good, you know, that they finally had to stop saying that.
♪ You must contain yourself ♪ Restrain yourself ♪ And train yourself ♪ To gain yourself control ♪ Frank Sinatra: The nominees are André Previn and Dory Langdon for a song from "Two for the Seesaw," "Second Chance."
♪ Can't I have a second chance?
♪♪ Candice Bergen: You've already heard the five songs nominated for the Oscar.
"Come Saturday Morning" with music by Fred Karlin and lyrics by Dory Previn.
♪ Come Saturday morning ♪ Michael: Dory worked with the best.
So it's not surprising that Dory wanted to write with Harold Arlen, because he was, to many people, as significant as George Gershwin.
♪ Beyond the rainbow ♪ Why oh why can't I?
♪ Michael: Harold Arlen experienced a lot of heartache and heartbreak in his personal life, so he was writing in a period with Dory where he was able to express musically, to let out all of the pain that he was experiencing.
And she knew how to write pain.
She knew it.
Dory: Now, you see, when I got it, it had no words.
It was just-- male: The words for "So Long Big Time" were written by Dory Langdon-Previn, wife of the well-known Hollywood composer-conductor André Previn.
Dory: It's a very sad, reflective kind of song, and all I could think of for it was "so long big time."
And then I began to think, well, Harold's songs aren't the ordinary run-of-the-mill melodies.
Why not play against it instead of writing just a very, very downbeat, reflective idea to it?
Why not play against it with a guy who was saying, "Well, you know, I've had it all, but it was great, and so what, and I'll never sing a loser's song.
So long, big time."
♪ Oooh ♪ So long, so long big time ♪ Big door ♪ Bright lights ♪ Big time ♪ Harold Arlen: Those little phrases are what make--not just those little phrases, but those are the memorable things that stand out and cling to a song and make it a happy wedding.
♪ And I'll never sing a loser's song ♪ ♪ So long, big time ♪ I've gotta run, so long!
♪ Dory: I appeared to be a good woman, a good lyricist, the well-adjusted wife of a good man.
But there was another breakdown.
All the self-confrontation had come to no avail.
♪ It's the safest way, I promise you ♪ ♪ It's the only way to fly ♪ My daddy said, as he pointed up ♪ ♪ At the great gray thing in the sky ♪ ♪ The great gray thing in the sky ♪ ♪ Ladies and gentlemen, here she comes ♪ ♪ The announcer gaily exclaims ♪ ♪ She's gliding in like a great gray bird ♪ ♪ Oh god, it's burst into flames ♪ ♪ My god, it's burst into flames ♪ ♪ I can hear the screaming, screaming ♪♪ Dory: That's why I don't fly, to this day.
I won't fly.
If he was not a dangerous father and not a father who locked us in and did things like that, I wouldn't have had that reaction.
♪♪♪ male: Ladies and gentlemen, the Oscar nominees for the Best Song of 1965.
♪♪♪ male: You wrote a song for a picture called "Daisy Clover," "Inside Daisy Clover," "You're Going to Hear From Me."
Dory: Yes.
Daisy Clover: Wish me luck!
I'm gonna make a noise in the world!
Dory: I was very angry at that time and disturbed and felt that I had--that I was better than the recognition that I had received.
And I--when I wrote that, there was a great deal of myself in that song, yeah.
♪♪♪ ♪ Move over stars ♪ And give me some sky ♪ I've got me some wings ♪ I'm eager to try ♪ I may be unknown ♪ But wait till I've flown ♪ You're gonna hear from me ♪ Make me some room ♪ You people up there ♪ On top of the world ♪ I'll meet you, I swear ♪ I'm staking my claim ♪ Remember my name ♪ You're gonna hear from me ♪ Move over stars ♪ Give me some sky ♪ Make me some room ♪ Bobbie Wygant: We're seated here on Stage 15 at 20th Century Fox with André Previn, and you don't normally see me so gussied up at the midday hour.
André: That's nice.
Bobbie: Thank you, thank you.
But since it is nighttime and it is a party, we're dressed a little more formally.
André: Good.
Bobbie: André has composed the music for "Valley of the Dolls."
At this point, how many songs are there, André?
André: At this point there are six songs, which I wrote and to which my wife, Dory, wrote the lyrics.
♪♪♪ ♪ Gotta get off ♪ Gonna get ♪ Have to get ♪ Off from this ride ♪ Gotta get home ♪ Gonna get ♪ Need to get hold of my pride ♪♪ male: Now, the motion picture that shows what America's all-time number one bestseller first put into words.
Dory: The lyric to the theme of "Valley of the Dolls" was the first time I made professional use of my own experience with drugs.
The story about women on pills was ripe for it.
I knew what pills did to the speech pattern, the way one repeats phrases and never gets out the entire sentence.
I was fearful someone would catch what I'd done in the lyric, and the crazy sister would be given away.
male: The book deals with pills to some extent.
Have you found that prevalence around show-business people?
Judy Garland: Well, I find it prevalent around newspaper people too.
Dory: Part of my wanting to go to Hollywood was when I heard Judy Garland singing, "Dear Mr.
Gable."
♪ Dear Mr.
Gable ♪ I am writing this to you ♪ And I hope that you will read it so you'll know ♪♪ Dory: For a time, in fact, she even saw the same psychiatrist that I did, and he felt that he could help her, and the heads of the studio said, "No, just give her pills and keep her going," you know?
But when I wrote the song for "Valley of the Dolls," she was supposed to be the original older woman in "Valley of the Dolls," and I wrote that original song for her.
She recorded it, and then she wouldn't come out of the dressing room on the first day to perform, and I had just come out of a mental hospital myself at the time.
And though it was well-known with her, I couldn't say anything about it, you know?
It was secret with me.
[Judy giggling] Judy: You'll pardon me, but I do get the giggles.
(as Dory) narrator: A few years ago on a TV interview in London, John Lennon was asked if he had any favorite movie theme songs.
He mentioned one of ours, the theme from "Goodbye Charlie."
He told a story about the Beatles singing it in India on the banks of the Ganges.
The incongruity of that picture tickles me.
The glorious spiritual rhythms of that timeless river accompanying a modern jazz waltz with a slangy, irreverent lyric.
♪ Goodbye Charlie ♪ (as Dory) narrator: There was another on that trip, a young girl named Mia Farrow.
But I wasn't to meet her till later.
Karma has an elfin sense of humor.
André: Starting in October, I'm the new conductor of the Houston Symphony.
I took over from Sir John Barbirolli.
Bobbie: Will you be commuting from Hollywood, or how will you do that?
André: Well, no, I'll be there for about three months, and then I'll go away and do my European concerts, and then I'll come back and take the orchestra on tour.
So I'll be in Texas about four months out of the year for the next few years.
André: So I had to give up a few things, and I gave up scoring films.
And I have to be honest and tell you that that, I found the most expendable.
(as Dory) narrator: Stevie Wonder was trying to reconcile us, though I loved A clearly more than he cared for me.
I tried.
I hoped he'd stay, but no.
I asked Stevie Wonder if I might give him a lyric to set.
He smiled rather indulgently, then agreed, I guess because my music collaborator was leaving me.
I felt such sadness at the loss.
♪ I wouldn't ask forever ♪ To love me ♪ Not forever ♪ Just for now ♪ [applause] André: I would prefer being in London much more than I am.
The incessant hotels and packing, that part of it is very difficult and quite lonely.
(as Dory) narrator: The skin was translucent, as though she were still wrapped in the gauze of her placenta.
The newly famed waif wanted to be our friend.
When she was married to Frank Sinatra, she invited me to her home.
I was immersed in anxieties.
André was again away, conducting the Houston Symphony.
"Why aren't you with him?"
she wondered.
"There is this terror of flying," I confessed, "of crashing.
I used to try and keep up with him by train, then trains began to appear as monstrous to me as jets.
My nightmare," I told her, "was that one day somebody would hold out a hand to him, and out of loneliness, he would accept."
female: For ten years, she was Mrs.
André Previn, and then along came a girl named Mia Farrow and took André away from her.
♪ Gotta get off, gonna get ♪ Out of this merry go round ♪ Gotta get on, gonna get ♪ Need to get on where I'm bound ♪ ♪ When did I get?
♪ Where did I?
♪ Why am I lost as a lamb?
♪ When will I know?
♪ Where will I?
♪ How will I learn who I am?
♪ Is this a dream?
♪ Am I here?
♪ Where are you?
♪ Tell me when will I know?
♪ How will I know?
♪ When will I know why?
♪ ♪♪♪ (as Dory) narrator: I made a final attempt to reach André.
Flying had been out of the question for me, but I tried to take a plane to London.
Screaming, as somebody was screaming on the plane.
I felt bad for whoever it was, but I felt good for myself.
I was free of panic.
It was over for me at last.
I was sure I had finally beaten it.
This time I'd get to London.
This plane was indestructible.
The door closed.
The plane shook.
I shook too.
It taxied to the runway.
It was taking off without Sidney Poitier, but they had promised me.
They had lied.
He didn't show up.
If my voices had lied about Sidney Poitier, then they could have lied about the plane's credentials.
"It's all right folks, she's only sick."
Who is she talking about?
Someone must have diphtheria, not me.
She was smiling at me, a very nice stewardess.
I smiled back and I let her put my Protestant fur coat over my shoulders.
She put it on backwards to cover the bare breasts, pink, underdone, PanAm, initials.
Oh God, I'm seeing them again.
I can't--H-E-L-P, it's P-A-N, Papa, André, Nic.
He took a deep breath to blow away the initials.
The plane blew up.
♪♪♪ Peter Medak: Going to London and the jumbo jet is on the runway, and she freaks out and starts to take off all her clothes, you know, until they stopped the plane and they got her off.
Dory: The thought he'll leave just bitterly burns.
And my despondence grows.
I lost my blue buttons.
He sent me blue buttons on my birthday.
But my blue buttons came loose.
Loose, loose, Lucy Brown, Lucy in the sky.
Luce, lucent, lucid, lucidity, Lucifer, lightning.
Lucifer, light, hang loose, stay loose.
I--how did I get this way?
I was.
female: I was on-- Dory: What was I going to say?
female: --here.
Dory: I was on-- female: I was on my-- Dory: How did I get in here?
female: Last year.
Dory: I was on my-- Wasn't I here last year?
I was on my way.
Why have they locked me in?
female: Who is my next of kin?
Dory: I was on my way to-- female: I paid my airplane fare.
Who is my next of kin?
Dory: Christ, won't I ever win.
female: --on my way.
Dory: I paid my airplane fare.
I was on my way to...where?
[whooshing echo] [whooshing echo] ♪ When I am going 'round the bend ♪ ♪ I got a wild imaginary friend ♪♪ Dory: When my marriage broke up, I really had a terrible--it's so corny to say identity crisis, but I just simply didn't know who I was.
male: He must have had--you must have had a wonderful love.
I mean, you know, if you love deeply and heavily, then if it leaves, you're gonna feel it.
♪ Mister Whisper's here again ♪ He's back in his apartment ♪ In my head ♪ Mister Whi-- ♪ Dory: The weird and strange thing was that at my moments of most--when I was most un-lucid, or whatever the word for that would be--unclear, there was always like another eye, another part of me that had absolute clarity and was observing it and was writing it down as it was happening to me.
I was hearing voices, I was seeing things, I was acting so-called not normally, and yet a very normal craftsman of myself was also writing down about it concurrently.
♪♪♪ ♪ Beware of young girls who come to the door ♪ ♪ Wistful and pale of twenty and four ♪ ♪ Delivering daisies with delicate hands ♪♪ Dory: I wrote them as light verse originally, just to get it out, to get it down on paper.
I was in a hospital and I wanted to express myself.
I was bursting with this, and it was a cataclysmic thing.
I had to get it out.
♪ She was my friend, my friend ♪ ♪ My friend, she was invited to my house ♪ ♪ Oh yes, she was ♪ Dory: It's a more positive way of exorcising those ghosts, of facing those demons instead of killing them.
♪ She admired my wedding ring ♪ She was my friend, my friend ♪ ♪ My friend, she sent us little silver gifts ♪ ♪ Oh yes, she did ♪ Oh, what a rare and happy pair, she inevitably said ♪ ♪ As she glanced at my unmade bed ♪ ♪ She admired my unmade bed, my bed ♪♪ Dory: And I got to the point where I said, "Okay, demons, it's you and me.
Come out and show yourself, and let's face each other.
And let's look at each other and see what we look like."
And I turned around, and it was a gigantic, half-black, half-white spider.
Huge.
And I tell you, spiders are my most--my biggest terror.
And I just stood and I thought, "Okay, I'm not gonna run from you.
I'm terrified.
You might kill me.
But if I keep running, you'll keep running after me.
If I face you, at least I've got you at bay.
And we're just facing each other.
And at least I can hold you there, and you'll hold me, but at least we've come to terms."
And not long after, that spider turned into something very beautiful.
(as Dory) narrator: Mama made her head pointed and stood on it.
I flashed on an hourglass.
Was she an hourglass?
I saw us in this pattern, me, Mama, Max.
Then I thought, Mama's head now has a point.
Her head has a point.
Dory: I thought they were too personal ever to be set to music.
I would just put them away.
♪ Mine was a Wednesday death ♪ One afternoon, at approximately 3:15 ♪ Dory: I began to realize that I wanted to make all the songs I wrote public.
♪ I gave up and died, and nobody cried ♪♪ Dory: I gave them to several composers in California, and they all stepped back, you know, with their eyes popping at those lyrics, because they'd never seen anything like that.
And they said, "Oh no, no, I can't write music to those songs.
I mean, you've lost your mind.
What do you think you're doing?
You can't say things like that in pop songs."
♪ Mine was a bloodless death ♪ Not grim, not gory ♪ More like Ali MacGraw's new enzyme detergent demise ♪ ♪ In "Love Story" ♪ Dory: I was determined and I was kind of desperate, so I thought I would--kind of like with complete freedom of ignorance, you know, I thought, "Well, I'll write my own music."
Dory: "Blue Malibu Moon."
♪ Blue Malibu moon ♪ I want to croon with you Dory: When I was a kid, I had taken two years of guitar lessons.
I was not a very good guitar player, and I'm still not a very good guitar player.
I bought a guitar for $60 and I sat down.
I realized that the style came from the words, that I began to write melodies like a scorer would score a film.
♪ Sing a tune with you ♪ Blue Malibu moon, spoon ♪ Back in June Dory: When I did the demonstration of the first album, I did them with the idea that perhaps they would be demonstration records for other singers to sing.
male: Really?
Dory: Yeah, and I didn't think that I would sing them or be asked to sing them.
And then the president of Media Arts, Alan Livingstone, was opening a company and he said, "Well, I would like you to sing them."
And I was amazed and scared and thrilled.
♪ Hey, Malibu moon ♪ Peter Jameson: I was signed to Media Arts Records, Spencer and I. It was a new company run by Alan Livingstone and founded with Alan and Nick Venet.
Nick Venet, in my mind, was a legend, absolute legend.
Just an incredible producer, and helped the early Beach Boys, Linda Ronstadt, and of course, Dory.
Dory: In the script?
Nick Venet: Well, it'll come out time-wise because as I've read them, I've timed them, a second version for your album, so we have rhythm pattern change-- Dory: So that you know where the character changes.
Okay, now that's ten, right?
Nick: It's ten.
Dory: We have so many of these.
"Left-handed children play with themselves and drive themselves insane."
♪ Isn't that insane?
♪ Nick: Left-handed people for the next ten years will be self-conscious.
Dory: No, listen, at last someone's taken--I was born left-handed and broken of it.
That's why I'm so--I get so angry.
I feel like I was cheated out of something that was my natural birth.
I just-- Dory: When I record and I'm in the booth, I rely very heavily on the opinion and the judgment of Nick Venet, who is my producer, because I think that he's like a director, in that sense.
And the director will select and say to you, "No."
Then we'll fight, and then I'll say, "Well, no, I don't want that," and then we'll effect some kind of compromise with it.
But I am so emotionally involved in those things when I do that, that I'm not objective at that point.
Maybe later I will be, when I listen to it, but not at that moment.
Dory: And I will not buy a Sony color TV, because I remember Pearl Harbor!
And then I'll say, ♪ God, bless America ♪ Nick: Get a few flags in the studio, give us the feeling.
♪ Let's stop talking, talking, talking ♪ ♪ Every lame excuse ♪ Justifying, alibi-ing, listen, what's the use?
♪♪ Dory: I hope that those people who felt about me in a kind of martyred sense will accept the fact that I have decided to continue living.
To make love, to be disappointed, to be foolish and stupid and brave.
♪ Talk to me, please, in bed ♪ Where it matters ♪ Yadda yadda, yadda yadda yadda yadda ♪ ♪ Yadda yadda, yadda yadda yadda yadda ♪♪ male: You survived.
Well, happy, alive, here.
Glad to be here.
Dory: I feel like it's my birthday.
female: I know!
I kept thinking you were gonna walk in and we were all gonna go "Surprise!"
female: And Dory can all of a sudden look up, you know, like Shirley Temple in a rainstorm.
♪♪♪ ♪ Coldwater, coldwater canyon ♪ He said he wanted to know her ♪ ♪ He had this place in the canyon ♪ ♪ He said he wanted to show her ♪ ♪ Coldwater, coldwater canyon ♪ He said in a dulcet tone ♪ Let's go to my place in the canyon ♪ ♪ Where we can be alone Ann Powers: We often think of 1971 as a year when the great trio of women singer-songwriter records came out, right?
Joni Mitchell "Blue," Carole King "Tapestry," Carly Simon's self-titled debut.
But for me, I have to add "Mythical Kings and Iguanas" in there, because they're all so connected thematically, and in many ways, Dory was the most daring of all of them.
♪ Up up and away Ann: People were very interested in women's consciousness at that time, and these albums gave us a soundtrack to this incredible moment in women's liberation.
♪ And the ear of the infinite still and silent night ♪ Ann: Dory went further than anyone else to confront issues around why women felt so trapped in their own identities.
♪ Coldwater canyon ♪ You got no grace ♪ If you got no place ♪ To be alone ♪ male: Besides her success with the record albums and at Carnegie Hall, Dory Previn came back to Los Angeles today after a well-received five-city nightclub tour, which concludes this weekend here at the Troubadour.
What pleases her even more than the albums and the nightclubs though is the news that her songs are now being used as tools in group therapy.
Dory: Well, I think it's sensational because, you see, the thing is, as I said, I'm conditioned to say almost anything, or try to reveal anything about myself, you know?
So consequently, people who are in therapy who have a difficulty in revealing things about themselves, what happens with this, from what I understand, is that they will--the therapist will read a song, and then the person begins to talk about the song like it's the song's problem, or maybe my problem.
♪ Control yourself ♪ Contain yourself ♪ Restrict yourself ♪ Contain yourself ♪ And always let-- ♪ Dory: I wrote "control yourself, contain yourself, restrict yourself, restrain yourself" in 1959, I think, and in 1969, I wrote "screaming in the 20-mile zone, let it out."
♪ I was riding in my car ♪ Screaming at the dark ♪ Screaming at the night ♪ Screaming at fright ♪ I wasn't doing nothing ♪ Just driving about ♪ Screaming at the dark ♪ Just letting it out Dory: When I wrote that, none of my friends had ever revealed to me that they--the ends to which they went in order to scream and let it out.
After I wrote it, people whom I've known for five, ten years, told me the various ways that they tried, you know, one took private flying lessons so he could go up in the sky and scream and no one would lock him up, you know?
And that was amazing to me because suddenly people said, "Hey, she does it.
I do it.
I'm not a freak.
I'm not alone, and what's so wrong with it?"
♪ You were doing it alone, you were doing it alone ♪ ♪ You were screaming Dory: And why shouldn't we?
We laugh, and we laugh loudly, and sometimes we laugh too loudly, and I think that perhaps it's because it's close to a scream, you know?
And that if we were occasionally allowed to scream when we felt like, why is that so terrible and so bizarre?
Why must we wait until we are screaming so uncontrollably, or we do harm to another human being, and then we're carted away and locked away?
♪ You were doing it alone, you were doing it alone ♪ ♪ You were screaming ♪ (as Dory) narrator: Today Max held me, and I saw that the bottom part of his torso was seaweed.
I asked, "Are he and Mama air plants?"
He said, "We are each and all bird, fish, and plant."
He asked me, would I be willing to come back in the next life as seaweed of the air?
And with conscious knowledge, I said, "Yes, but will people be mean to me?"
He said, "Yes, they will be mean to you."
I got scared, and then realized he meant, "Their meanness will be apparent to you."
Then his head became a receiver and my head entered his, but then I thought of a microphone and a speaker, and it seemed he is a transmitter.
Ann: I honestly think it's a miracle that Dory Previn got to make these records at all.
A woman performer in the 1970s, the industry would consider you tapped out probably at 35, tops?
And here comes this woman in her 40s making highly personal music that's a lot about sex, about, you know, her--not just her own journey, but her own emotions, her own traumas.
Dory: When my first album came out, in which I admitted that I had been insane during my life, and it was in all the papers, you know, that I'd had many breakdowns and all that sort of thing, from that day to this, I have never had a call from a movie studio to do a song.
I've written for television.
They didn't know, I guess, or didn't care.
♪ Do, do, do, do, do, do, do ♪ Who do you have to-- to get into this pi-picture?
♪ Peter: I was living in London and my TV agent told me about "Third Girl from the Left," written by Dory Previn.
"If you have any sense, you've got to direct this."
And really, he's the one who introduced me to Dory.
♪ Who do you have to know to stay on earth?
♪ Peter: I got her involved in several projects and things, and I was asked to make the movie "A Star Is Born" with Streisand.
I wanted Dory to write the script.
Barbara was very affected by Dory.
Joby: Streisand used to ask her to come out to the beach and talk to her, and interview her before the movie.
Peter: Regretfully, we didn't do the film, but it was part of Barbara's performance.
♪ Have to get into hell ♪ Hooray for Hollywood ♪ ♪♪♪ (as Dory) narrator: I locked myself up in my own house.
It was worse than a split.
I was fragmented.
One side argued, threatened, railed against another side.
I screamed at the voices to go away, and begged them not to leave me.
If one can remain alive, the most virulent disease finally burns itself out.
Why then couldn't mine?
♪♪♪ male: There is a Jesus theme that goes all through your music.
In "Afraid to Be Alone," there's a sweet, beautiful Jesus verse.
There's a "Jesus Was an Androgyne" or androgyny, from the show "Mary C.
Brown."
"Esther's First Communion," "Left Hand Lost," and now "Did Jesus Have a Baby Sister?"
What's the relevance of the Jesus theme throughout all your work?
Dory: I was raised an Irish Catholic.
My frame of reference for symbolism is very strongly influenced by that intense, almost fanatic religious upbringing I had.
So I use Jesus very, very often in every way as the sacrificial character, as the person who redeems us, who saves us, who laid terrible guilt on us, because forever, I mean, I'm born with original sin, according to Catholicism.
♪ The left hand is, we always say ♪ ♪ The demon devil's side ♪ The left hand does the dirty work ♪ ♪ The shameful things you hide ♪ ♪ Judas-- Peter: The first night, walking down the stairs with the band, and at one turn of the landing, I saw Dory.
She was just--had her head in the corner, going like this...and I said, "Dory, what's wrong?
Are you okay?"
Dory: I can't go on, I really can't go on.
I swear I can't go on.
Peter: I said, "Dory, you have to go on.
Everyone's waiting for you.
I'm waiting for you."
And she said, "Peter, I can't go on.
It's too much.
It's way too much."
♪ Left-handed children play with themselves ♪ ♪ And drive themselves insane ♪♪ [audience laughing, applauding] Peter: I said, "Dory, I'm gonna spit some words back that you once told me.
If you can't go on, just get up and go on."
So I said, "I'll see you down there."
Dory: So, I guess I'll get up and go on.
[tap shoes clicking] [tap shoes clicking] Dory: My father wanted me to be a famous movie star.
It was forced on me.
[tap shoes clicking] My father had been gassed in the war, and when he was waking up, he heard the doctors say, "These men may be sterile."
So when he came home and my mother got pregnant, he just refused to believe that I was his child.
♪ Ba ba ba male: He locked you and your sister and your mother in the dining room for several months?
Dory: Yes, yes.
I was raised to be a perfect child, an obedient child.
♪ Ba ba ba ♪ Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ♪ ♪ With my Daddy in the attic ♪ With my Daddy in the attic ♪ ♪ That is where my being wants to bed ♪ ♪ With the mattress ticking, showing ♪ ♪ And the tattered pillow slip ♪ ♪ And the pine unpainted rafters overhead ♪ ♪ With the door closed on my mama ♪ ♪ And my sibling competition ♪ And my Shirley Temple doll that truly cries ♪ ♪ And my essay on religion ♪ With the pasted paper star ♪ Proving tangibly I'd won the second prize ♪ ♪ With my Daddy in the attic ♪ With my Daddy in the attic ♪ ♪ That is where my dark attraction lies ♪ ♪ With his madness on the nightstand ♪ ♪ Placed beside his loaded gun ♪ ♪ In the terrifying ♪ Nearness ♪ Of his eyes ♪ Dory: If you're talking about things that are kind of difficult to take, I think if you put them to light music, it makes them easier to take.
And I wanted people to kind of hum along and jig along with my melodies, and then stop and say, "Wait a minute, what did she say?"
♪ My daddy says I ain't his child ♪ ♪ Ain't that something?
♪ Ain't that wild?
♪ Daddy says I ain't his child ♪ ♪ Ain't that something wild?
♪ Hey anybody I might have missed ♪ ♪ Would you care to state that I exist?
♪ ♪ I ain't quite sure what it is I did ♪ ♪ To make him swear that I ain't his kid ♪ ♪ But he told mama and she told me ♪ ♪ Back when I was just about three ♪ ♪ She felt my face and she kind of smiled ♪ ♪ And she said, he says you ain't his child ♪♪ Dory: We all do our tap dance for others, I think, whether you're a big movie star or whether you are the wife or the husband of another human being, you tend more to do it for endorsement.
And if you see yourself in the eyes of another, and they're looking approvingly on you, you kind of know you exist, you know?
(as Dory) narrator: Last night I ate candy at the movies, and felt guilty.
This morning, meditating, I hugged Max, my brother.
I tried to hug Mama and she bit my face off.
She bit Max's face off.
She was angry because I ate candy and was eating away my body?
male: How do your albums sell?
I would like to know.
Dory: Not terrific.
I mean-- male: No, I'm really interested to find out.
I mean, what would be the average sale on the Dory Previn album?
Dory: Two a year, three-- male: No, no, no, that couldn't be.
Not if you record seven albums.
Dory: No, they do-- Dory: They said you've got to go out and perform, you know, people--you want people to buy your albums.
Ann: In the 1970s, touring was the heart and soul of developing an artist.
She refused to tour pretty much altogether, which essentially added up to not playing the game of the music industry.
And there's great cost to that decision, even as understandable as it is.
Dory: I won't go far away for long periods of time because I think--there's a story about the flamingos, that when one flamingo flies away, the other flamingo thinks it's disappeared completely.
It doesn't think to look up, you see.
And I think that applies to me.
When I go away from my roots, I feel that my roots have disappeared and I begin to feel very disembodied.
Bob Harris: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome along to the program.
We're here tonight in the rather more intimate surroundings of the BBC Television Centre.
We're in Studio TC8 for a special whistle test, in every sense of the word.
I think we're very lucky to have the guest we have with us tonight.
It's her first tour of Britain, her first appearance on the program live.
Would you please welcome Miss Dory Previn.
[applause] male: Did it take a lot of guts for you to come to England, in view of the fact that you don't like traveling?
Dory: Yes, it did.
It took a long time to get here.
First of all, it took a long time psychologically to get here, in my mind, and then it took physically a long time.
Dory: I went about three and a half days by train across from L.A.
to New York.
Then I took the boat, which was six more days, and I gotta tell you, it was worth the trip.
I'm really glad I'm here.
I never thought I'd make it.
It's terrific.
male: Did you consider trying to fly this time?
Dory: Oh no, I wouldn't even consider it.
♪ Mary Cecilia Brown rode to town on a Malibu bus ♪ ♪ She climbed to the top of the Hollywood sign ♪ ♪ And with the smallest possible fuss ♪ ♪ She jumped off the letter "H" ♪ ♪ Because she did not become a star ♪ ♪ She died in less than a minute and a half ♪ ♪ She looked a bit like Hedy Lamarr ♪ Martin Mills: Well, we weren't a record label in those days, we were record stores, and we knew from what we were selling in the stores what there was a demand for.
And we were aware that there was demand for a number of artists who simply weren't available or touring or visible.
And she was one of them.
People wanted the records, they wanted to see her.
♪ Her name was in the obituary column ♪ ♪ Of both of the daily trades male: In her contract, she wrote down, "I want to stay at the oldest," and I don't know if she put haunted hotels, but apparently they were definitely haunted.
They were beautiful places.
♪ Oh, give me your poor, your maladjusted ♪ ♪ Your sick and your beat ♪ Your sad and your busted ♪ Give me your has-beens ♪ Give me your twisted ♪ Your loners, your losers ♪ Give me your blacklisted ♪ male: Did it scare you?
Dory: Oh, sure, but then lots of things scare me and I've kind of learned to live with it, so it doesn't, you know, it doesn't matter.
I deal with it somehow.
(as Dory) narrator: Before we left, I had a nightmare.
The ship hit an iceberg.
It was so real.
I turned to analysis for several weeks to work on the fear.
I began to be gripped by dormant demons.
Early in the morning, we felt the ship go into a strong series of vibrations.
We got dressed and went to find the ship's officer.
He told us the ship had hit a whale.
How often I cry for that creature.
♪♪♪ Dory: I'd like to talk about a dream, okay.
I had this--I'm--I'm in the room.
And both cats, both my cats are in the room.
And at that point, the cat, Cecilia, put its teeth in my neck and wouldn't let go.
And I kept trying to get the cat off me, and I thought, if I pull it'll hurt--it'll pull my flesh too, and I was trying to get free of it.
Yeah, I'm trying-- male: This is the cat.
Dory: Okay, harder.
If I--if I push, if I push, it will hurt me.
If I push you, it will hurt me.
If I push, if I push, it will hurt me.
male: Your voice is getting softer.
Dory: If I push, it will hurt me.
I can't--I won't let it go.
I won't push it away.
male: Say that to the cat.
Dory: I will--I won't push you away.
I--I choose to allow you to stay.
You have your teeth in me, but you are not wounding me.
You tell me, I just--I'm stuck there.
(as Dory) narrator: This morning, Mama and Max both said to me, "Die."
I was distraught.
I don't understand.
Mama faded and Max was inaccessible.
I tried to accommodate them.
I thought, what have I done?
I remembered in therapy when I reenacted being locked outside by my mother and father as a child.
I tried to understand it.
Maybe I must go back and relive that feeling in order to untwist the deformity.
Dory: Now I don't know what terrible means anymore.
And there is a lot of pain, and there has been a lot of pain.
Madness is quite the most hideous thing that one can experience, I'm sure.
I mean, there's no war that is like the internal war of the psyche, that a human being fights between itself.
There's nothing so terrifying as to be separated from what we think is reality.
(as Dory) narrator: Then I saw myself like this.
What is shown.
What is exposed to the world.
What is blown by the winds and battered by ships.
Surface of the ocean.
Ocean floor.
The real me, under the ocean floor.
♪♪♪ ♪ I watch the game ♪ And if I play, I know I'll go for broke ♪ ♪ It must be go for broke ♪ The game is fixed ♪ It's just a funny, foolish, never-ending joke ♪ ♪ A never-ending joke ♪ A never-ending joke ♪ ♪ The dealer winks ♪ And beckons with a toothless, taunting grin ♪ ♪ I know I cannot win ♪ I know I cannot win ♪ ♪ The game is fixed ♪ Okay, all right ♪ Okay, all right ♪ Okay, all right, God ♪ Deal me in ♪ ♪♪♪ Dory: True word, integration, means self-integrated.
And if one is self-integrated, everything else will take care of it-self, it hyphen self.
male: Have you got there yet?
Dory: No, all I can do is talk about it and write about it, and occasionally suspect what it might be like.
(as Dory) narrator: I began to question, what if those voices gave me no peace not because they were sick but because they were healthy?
If it were true, that would mean all those guards, techs, nurses, doctors, all those learned experts with their degrees, all of them were wrong.
Joby: Toyota didn't just switch over to economy cars.
That's all we've ever built, for 34 years.
Five years ago, we introduced our first car to the American public: Toyota Corona.
In this prized class, there hasn't been another car around that could touch it.
Joby: Now the sun was going down, I remember that, and she had this natural red hair, and she was backlit by the sun.
She lit up, you know.
It was like the sun found her hair and lit her up.
And I'm looking at her and I think, "Whew, you're beautiful."
♪ I love him ♪ He's an artist ♪ But he cannot find himself ♪ With puzzled looks, he ponders books ♪ ♪ Upon some ancient shelf Joby: So I got to La Scala Boutique, and she just happened to be in the back recesses of this restaurant.
Dory: We weren't at the same table.
A friend of mine who had just come in from London was with him, joined him, and had just met him there.
My friend kept coming over and saying, "There's this artist over there, you've got to meet him," that "you two are the same person."
♪ He does the best he can ♪ That's why I love that man ♪ But I also love the woman ♪ In his soul ♪♪♪ Dory: There were maybe 15 coincidences, which are not coincidences, that led to us coming together.
Joby: One night, I'm walking across this stretch of park.
It was storming.
The wind was blowing all kinds of papers all over the place.
And one piece of paper, right before I got to the other side, stuck to me.
And I pulled it off and it said "Dory Previn appearing at the Troubadour."
♪ He's incomplete Joby: So I called her up, and she answered the phone.
I said, "Don't hang up, don't hang up!
Listen, this is important!
Just don't hang up!
Listen to what I've got to say!
I'm walking across this thing, and it's Sunday night, and the wind is coming, and the thing is like, and this paper flew, and it said 'Dory Previn playing at the Troubadour.'"
She says, "I'll meet you for lunch."
Just like that.
♪ Woman soul ♪ Woman soul ♪ Woman soul ♪ Woman soul!
♪ ♪ Woman soul!
♪ [applause] Joby: Well, she wrote "Woman Soul" about me, because she saw the feminine side of me, you know, and she wrote this song.
Peter: When Joby came on the scene, she became very calm, very happy.
They were always laughing together.
Joby always had something funny to say and just cracked her up, cracked me up too.
Joby: So we're sitting in this booth.
And she says, "You know, I hear voices."
Said that to me.
"How many?"
I said.
"Three," she said.
"Mama, Max, and the lion."
I said, "Send them my regards."
Peter: I never heard any of her voices, no.
I didn't meet them.
(as Dory) narrator: I politely invited the voices to come in, quietly.
A welcome was extended.
They were free to exist in my head.
The door was unlocked.
I was willing to make them part of my reality as long as they behaved themselves.
After a long period, I learned my first lesson.
They had decided to accept my madness.
A sensible dialogue would be possible only if I behaved sensibly toward them.
male: Did your father desperately want you to be a star?
Did he push you?
Dory: Yes, pushed me without having the slightest notion how to do it, you know?
He saw an ad for children wanted for radio, Amateur Hours, in New York, and he brought me there, and I didn't--I didn't make it, and it was sponsored by Horn & Hardart's, and we were never allowed to go into Horn & Hardart's after I didn't make it.
He did that with Gillette razor blades, also.
He had this trick that he wanted me to do where I would do a back bend and pick up a razor blade between my teeth.
I mean, don't ask me, I don't want to go into how it was done, but I somehow accomplished it.
And then he wrote to the Gillette razor blade company and he said he had this daughter in Woodbridge, New Jersey, who did this amazing trick, and that he was there in Woodbridge, waiting to negotiate with them to do a national publicity campaign, and whenever they wanted to come to New Jersey, he was willing to come to terms.
Of course they never even answered the letter, and no one could use Gillette razor blades in the house after that.
So you see, there is a kind of touching, weird comedy to those actions, isn't there?
male: Did he live long enough to actually see you make it?
Dory: No.
male: Not quite in the field that he'd expected but-- Dory: No, isn't that ironic?
He didn't.
♪ The telephone rang ♪ My sister calling ♪ I got to run, I said ♪ No, no, no, no, no ♪ I just want to tell you ♪ To tell you Dad is dead Dory: When my father died, I went underground for like six weeks, and nobody heard from me and everybody started getting worried, you know, my friends.
And finally someone got me on the phone and they said, "What's happening?"
I said, "Well, my father died and I'm writing him off."
And what I meant was, I was writing him off, I was writing him off, sending him off, and I was writing him out of my system.
♪ Dad is dead ♪ Well, how is Mother?
♪ Good as she can be ♪ Say, I said, when Dad was going ♪ ♪ Did he happen to ask ♪ For me?
♪ What did you say?
♪ Never mind ♪ He died in his sleep ♪ God is kind ♪ (as Dory) narrator: Once you admit to hearing voices, you must admit that the voices hear you.
There are no secrets.
No more can we outwardly plead no responsibility for our words and actions without realizing our inner motives are heard.
That's not so terrible if you've already admitted to--near anything and everything and have a little left to hide.
male: Dory Previn is no one's image of the conventional pop singer.
She fits more easily into that genre known as a cult figure.
In some ways, she's withdrawn and vulnerable, but unlike many people who go under to such qualities, this extraordinary woman has used her talents to enshrine, in music and song, the harsher experiences hurled at her by life.
Were by any chance your years in Hollywood wasted years?
Dory: Oh, no, on the contrary, I mean, I think they were anything but wasted.
They were the most amazing and incredible experience for me, both as a kid coming from New Jersey, but then also as a woman who matured, who understood a lot about craft, I learned a great deal about it out there.
Joby: We went to the awards for Emmys one time, and we were sitting at a table.
And I said, "They don't know what's good."
And they announced her name to come up on the stage.
And I'm still sitting there by myself like, "Yeah," and here she was receiving the award, you know?
So she got up in front of these people, and I thought that she'd make a speech.
And she said, in front of the world, "I wanna thank Mama, Max, and the lion," and she sat down.
[applause] male: Do you think you really were mad during those periods?
Dory: Well, I have signed papers that say I was, so I guess I was.
I mean, it says on papers, people of great intelligence signed it and said, "Yes, this lady is a schizophrenic, certified," so I guess I was, yes.
But you see, what is madness?
Madness is just another reality, that's all.
And who knows what the real reality is?
Maybe what we're doing here, with the television camera going and the lights and all that, is in fact total unreality.
And the older I get, the more I realize that I really believe that matter, what I see and feel and touch, isn't real at all, and what I can't see, you know, and what I can't touch, has tremendous reality to me.
(as Dory) narrator: Now I travel along a finely balanced line, with one head in fantasy and one head in reality.
I won't say which is which.
No longer do I feel so alien in the 20th century.
As long as I listen, and I'm watchful, and ever on guard, I'm bound to be sure my inner friends love me.
♪♪♪ At last, we are integrated.
[plane taking off] Dory: I flew for the first time in 18 years.
[applause] Joby: She walked out on the stage and 4000 people stood up before she said anything.
And right before she went on, I'd looked through the curtain and I'd seen thousands of hairdos and aviator glasses.
Dory: Now, the reason I haven't been here in almost ten years is a very simple one.
I absolutely hate to fly.
I've changed now, because this time, however, I flew.
Hooray, I flew!
Hooray!
Isn't that great?
What a victory.
Now, the reason, the reason I flew is, because I have--I have had spiritual help from a lion, an enormous pussycat.
And the way I met this lion was very bizarre.
I had been asked to do some concerts, and as usual I was getting ready to refuse because it meant getting on a plane.
But all of a sudden, inside my head, I began to get this vision of this lion.
Not your ordinary vision, I mean, no halo and cosmic glow and all that stuff.
This vision was so tacky.
She had several teeth missing and a bump on the side of her head as big as an apple.
"Were you in a fight?"
I said.
"Take the plane," she said.
"What?"
"Take the plane.
I'll protect you."
"How are you going to protect me?"
I said.
"Hey," she said, "Am I not the queen of the beasts?
When the lionhearted tells you, "Take the plane," take the plane.
So I took the plane, after I told my husband.
Joby said, "What?
What?
You're gonna try to fly again after all these years?
Are you crazy?
Why would you want to do that?"
I said, "Because a lion is going to protect me."
"Oh," he said, "Well, in that case, let's go."
That's my husband.
So anyway, now I'm committed, and now I'm really scared because I know about being committed, okay?
My reputation preceded me.
So we're in the plane, and Joby is next to the window because I do not look out.
And I am sitting next to him very still so I don't tip the plane.
[audience laughing] And Joby leans real close and he says, "Dory."
"What?"
I said.
He said, "I wanna ask you a question."
"What is it?"
He said, "Is the--is the lion on the plane with us?"
I said, "Oh yeah, she's here."
"Oh, where?"
"Right next to me.
She's sitting in the aisle."
"Oh, in the aisle," he says, "Oh, that's good.
At least we won't have to buy her a ticket.
What is she doing in the aisle?"
he said.
"What do you think she's doing?"
I said.
"She's waiting for the movie to go on."
So finally we come in--we come in for a landing, very smooth, I have to admit, and I'm getting out, and I'm still alive and I can't believe it.
"Didn't I tell you?"
said the lion.
"Yes, you told me," I said, "but you don't count.
You're an ineffectual vision."
"Okay," she said, "Hey, listen, no problem, have a good day."
And I have to tell you that the cat and I have been flying together ever since.
[audience applauding] (as Dory) narrator: Dear Mama and Max.
Today is my fifty-fifth birthday.
How joyful I feel that we spend it together, how fortunate.
Mama and Max told me since I worked and suffered so hard, even going insane to find them, that they will always love me.
I awakened them from their reluctant sleep, but once forced into wakefulness, it is what they have always desired.
They love me.
I suffered them and myself back to life.
male: My next guest keeps very, very busy.
She's written screenplays, teleplays, and autobiography.
Her songs have been nominated for three, yeah, three Academy Awards.
I'll never know how she found time to be here, but I'm happy that she did.
Singing "I Wake Up Slow," the lovely Dory Previn.
♪ In the morning when I wake up ♪ ♪ If I act like I'm alone ♪ If I'm awful hard to get to ♪ Like a disconnected phone ♪ If I ask you, am I dreaming?
♪ Don't be mad, 'cause I don't know ♪ ♪ I ain't lying, I'm just trying ♪ ♪ To ♪ Wake up slow Ann: Dory Previn made seven albums between 1970 and 1977.
I mean, that's incredible.
That's Beatle-esque in terms of her prolificity.
♪ He'll have come and gone ♪ Gone and left me here Ann: This was her way of coping in the world, you know?
This was her way of processing her own emotions, her own traumas.
And she had a lot to talk about.
♪ So if you move in my direction ♪ ♪ Don't be mad if I say no ♪ I ain't teasing ♪ Here's the reason ♪ I wake up slow ♪ When I wake up ♪ I wake up slow ♪ In the morning ♪ I wake up slow ♪ [audience applauding] [telephone dialing and ringing] [telephone dialing and ringing] Dory: Hello.
David Garland: Hi, is that Dory Previn?
Dory: Yes it is.
David Garland: Hi, this is David Garland from WNYC.
Well, it was really, really great to make contact with you earlier today, and so I actually wondered if maybe I would be invading your privacy and you wanted to sort of leave this whole thing behind you.
Dory: Well, what do you mean by "leave this whole thing behind you"?
David Garland: Your music career, I guess.
Dory: Oh, no.
I have never stopped writing.
I'm happy.
I sit here and I write.
♪ Was it a minor cosmic joke?
♪ Under the pale faintly glow David Garland: Do you still feel close to the old songs that we know from your recordings in the '70s?
Dory: Oh, sure, I mean, they're like children, you know?
One doesn't disown what one has done in the past.
I kind of--I have a great feeling for all the songs I wrote, because I think that they come from someplace else.
♪ Was it a minor cos-- Oh, I'm sorry.
Because I played the wrong thing.
Also, even on Gilded Cross, I sang the wrong song.
♪ Was it a minor-- ♪ Dory: I went and I went and I went and I traveled and I ran and I fell.
And at that moment, you are alone.
And there is nowhere to turn but to yourself.
And once you turn to yourself, you realize that's what you were looking for all that time.
And instead of retreating now into myself, I have come to myself.
♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Dory: How beautiful.
♪ I'm staking my claim ♪ Remember my name ♪ You're gonna hear from me ♪ Make me some room ♪ You people up there ♪ On top of the world ♪ I'll meet you, I swear ♪ I'm staking my claim ♪ Remember my name ♪ You're gonna hear from me Mmm, that's pretty, isn't it, darling?
♪♪♪ Oh, it's beautiful.
male: That's it, yeah, you are a hair model.
That's it, yes, yes!
Dory: Look at all that.
It's so beautiful.
male: And she was just a hometown girl, you know, with a lot of questions.
♪ You're gonna to hear from me ♪ male: And that's how she became who she was.
Dory: I mean, I hope to be in transition when I die, and at that moment, I'll probably say, "Could you hold this up a minute?
I want to write a song about this last experience-- Or this first experience."
Dory: Oh Jesus, that's great.
♪ You're gonna hear from me ♪ Beautiful job.
♪♪♪ ♪ Would you care to stay till sunrise ♪ ♪ It's completely your decision ♪ ♪ It's just that going home is such a ride ♪ ♪ Such a ride ♪ Going home is such a ride ♪ Going home is such a ride ♪♪ announcer: This program is made possible in part by Barbara and Eric Dobkin; Dominique Bravo; the Better Angels Society and its members, Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine, through the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film; Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg, 1992 Charitable Trust; Levin-Goffe Family Foundation, Eden Shapiro; Cedric Winslow; New York State Council on the Arts; Delaware Valley Arts Alliance.
A complete funder list is available at doryprevindoc.com.


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