Remembering Dory Previn

Posted by Vale

A week or so ago one of my heroines died – the musician, writer and singer Dory Previn.

She hasn’t recorded much, but for those who know her work she is unmatched in her musicality, wit, dark humour and willingness to explore the darker parts of the mind and a woman’s experience of the world.

My favorite album was Reflections in Mud Puddle. If I haven’t put you off, you can find it here.

In the meantime enjoy The New Enzyme Detergent Demise of Ali McGraw. Come on folks you must remember Love Story?

Mine was a Wednesday death,
One afternoon at approximately three-fifteen,
I gave up and died and nobody cried.

Mine was a bloodless death,
Not grim, not gory,
More like Ali Macgraw’s new enzyme detergent demise,
In Love Story.
Neat and tidy,
Unlike Christ’s on Friday.

Friends were fooled by the fact,
I still breathed, and I spoke, and I smiled, and I lied,
In my handy, dandy, imitation life disguise kit.
I sent away for it.

The styrofoam face fits so neatly in place,
With the pre-recorded voice of your choice,
And it almost sounds real – it’s a guaranteed deal
And you don’t feel a thing,
And you can teach it to sing,
And all your friends are deceived,
And nobody grieves.

Mine was a Wednesday death.
One afternoon at approximately three-fifteen,
I was quietly laid to rest,
And nobody guessed.

A handy disposable heart,
Marks time in a plastic breast,
And so it goes, and nobody knows,
I am non bio-degradable.

You can read more about her life here.