New Documentary Explores Forgotten Singer-Songwriter Dory Previn
She mixed her metaphors on painfully honest material that almost hurt to listen to. From her 1970 debut—when she was 45—to 1976 (when her final album, We’re Children Of Coincidence and Harpo Marx, was released to little or no fanfare), Dory Previn was right up there with fellow confessional songstresses like Carol King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon. So why don’t people remember her?
Born and raised in Woodbridge, her introspection and awkward confusion—brilliantly brought to the fore in her lyrics and haunting way with a melody—singled her out as an underground phenomenon. She wrote about her mental illness, she railed against society’s overt sexism, she didn’t flinch when writing about the physical and mental abuse she suffered as a child. Her music is DARK. And ripe to be rediscovered.
She fled New Jersey for Hollywood where she wrote music for films like Inside Daisy Clover (1965) and Valley Of The Dolls (1967). But her husband at the time, composer Andre Previn, left her for Mia Farrow, and she ended up heartbroken and institutionalized with a nervous breakdown. No one heard from her for the rest of the ‘60s until she re-emerged with On My Way To Where, arguably one of the first great singer-songwriter albums of the 1970s. Her wellspring of creativity only lasted for six albums but her cult followers adored her. Still, she gave it all up, left Hollywood, ended up in Massachusetts, and never made another album again. She died in 2012 at the age of 86.
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West Orange singer-songwriter Julia Greenberg certainly hasn’t forgotten her. Neither has documentarian Dianna Dilworth and East Orange animator Emily Hubley. The three have collaborated on a new documentary, Dory Previn: On My Way To Where, which had its premiere screening June 29 at The Claridge in Montclair as part of the North to Shore Festival.