The Lyrics of Dory Previn- Page 2

[NYadgal]

Posted: 2/7/14 at 11:44pm

It's one of my all-time favorites, also, PJ. I sing it to myself EVERY Saturday as I'm waking up and setting about starting my day...

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/7/14 at 11:45pm

Another of Dory's poetic lyrics was sung by Judy Garland on the soundtrack for an odd 1960 movie called Pepe, starring the Mexican comedian Cantinflas.

The song, called "The Faraway Part of Town," was nominated for an Oscar.

http://youtu.be/kvZv5y1fuW4

It's also one of those of the most rare, little-known Judy Garland treasures.

It's more like an art song than a pop song.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/8/14 at 12:02am

^^^ Well, that was lovely.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 2/8/14 at 9:22am

All this talk of Andrew Previn makes me want to listen to the obc of COCO.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/8/14 at 9:56am

On this sunny but cold Saturday morning, here is Dory Previn's beautiful lyric to "Come Saturday Morning":

Just I and my friend, we'll travel for miles in our Saturday smiles.


Here's the classic version by the Sandpipers:

http://youtu.be/8nIdGutgymY


And here's Liza's version with the brief, memorable monologue in the middle:

http://youtu.be/-GfcmU2nTUY


Come Saturday morning,
I'm goin' away with my friend.
We'll Saturday-spend till the end of the day.
Just I and my friend,
We'll travel for miles in our Saturday smiles
And then we'll move on,
But we will remember
Long after Saturday's gone.

You know what the trouble is? Trouble is that probably all the good things in life take place in no more than a minute.

I mean, all added up, I betcha at the end of seventy years--should you live so long!--you can sit down, you can figure the whole thing out:

You spent nineteen years sleepin'. You spent five years goin' to the bathroom. You spent thirty-five years doin' some kinda work you absolutely HATED. Spent seven thousand eight hundred and fifty-three minutes blinkin' your eyes and added to that, you got that one minute of good things.

Then one day you wonder whether your minute's up.

And then we'll move on
But we will remember
Long after Saturday's gone.

Updated On: 2/8/14 at 09:56 AM

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 2/8/14 at 12:39pm

THEME FROM "VALLEY OF THE DOLLS" PART I: ANNE LEAVES LAWRENCEVILLE FOR NEW YORK (OPENING CREDITS VERSION):

Gotta get off
Gonna get
Have to get off all alone

Gotta find out
Gonna Find
Need to find life on my own

When will I know
Where will I
How will I know what I'll be

If I don't go
If I can't
If I don't go where I'm free

Somewhere ahead
Waits a hope
Waits a heart
That will know how I yearn, know how I yearn
Yearn for a dream
For a face with a smile
And a look of concern
What will I learn?

Tell me when will I know?
What will I see?
When will I return?

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 2/8/14 at 1:02pm

THEME FROM "VALLEY OF THE DOLLS" PART II: ANNE IN LOVE

When did I get
Where did I
Why I am I lost as a lamb?

When will I know
Where will I
How will I learn who I am?

THEME FROM "VALLEY OF THE DOLLS" PART III: REUNITING WITH LYON BURKE

When will I learn
How will I
Where will I fins what is real?
Was there one time long ago
When my heart knew how to feel?

THEME FROM "VALLEY OF THE DOLLS" PART IV: ANNE FALLS INTO THE VALLEY

Gotta get off
Gonna get
Have to get off from this ride

Gotta get hold
Gotta get
Need to get hold of my pride

When did I get
Where did I
How was I caught in this game?

When will I know
Where will I
How will I think of my name?

When did I stop
Feeling sure
Feeling safe
And stop wondering why?
Wondering why

Is this a dream?
Am I here?
Where are you?
What's in back of the sky?
Why do we cry?

Gotta get off
Gonna get off this merry go round

Gotta get on
Gotta get
Need to get on where I'm bound

Tell me
When will I know?
How will I know?
When will I know why?

THEME FORM "VALLEY OF THE DOLLS" PART V: ANNE RETURNS TO LAWRENCEVILLE (Ending Credits)

Gotta be here
Gonna be
Have to be where I belong

Now that I know
Had to know
Came to know where I went wrong

It was all here
Here it was
Why was I blind to it then?

This is my world
Here it is
This is where I'll start again

Was it a dream?
Was it real?
Was I there?

Tell me
When will I know
How will I know
When will I know...
Why?

[sabrelady]

Posted: 2/8/14 at 1:03pm

There was a proto feminist side to Dory too
Did Jesus Have a Baby Sister

Did jesus have a baby sister?
Was she bitter?
Was she sweet?
Did she wind up in a convent?
Did she end up on the street?
On the run?
On the stage?
Did she dance?
Did he have a sister?
A little baby sister?
Did jesus have a sister?
Did they give her a chance?

Did he have a baby sister?
Could she speak out
By and large?
Or was she told by mother mary
Ask your brother he's in charge
He's the chief
He's the whipped cream
On the cake
Did he have a sister?
A little baby sister?
Did jesus have a sister?
Did they give her a break?

Her brother's
Birth announcement
Was pretty big
Pretty big
I guess
While she got precious
Little notice
In the local press
Her mother was the virgin
When she carried him
Carried him
Therein
If the little girl came later
Then
Was she conceived in sin?
And in sorrow?
And in suffering?
And in shame?
Did jesus have a sister?
What was her name?

Did she long to be the saviour
Saving everyone
She met?
And in private to her mirror
Did she whisper
Saviourette?
Saviourwoman?
Saviourperson?
Save your breath!
Did he have a sister?
A little baby sister?
Did jesus have a sister?
Was she there at his death?

And did she cry for mary's comfort
As she watched him
On the cross?
And was mary too despairing
Ask your brother
He's the boss
He's the chief
He's the man
He's the show
Did he have a sister?
A little baby sister?
Did jesus have a sister?
Doesn't anyone know?

Updated On: 2/8/14 at 01:03 PM

[sabrelady]

Posted: 2/8/14 at 1:08pm

And this one was one of the best about the Hollywood success imperative
Mary C Brown and the Hollywood Sign
you know the hollywood sign
that stands in the hollywood hills
i don't think the christ of the andes
ever blessed so many ills
the hollywood sign seems to smile
like it's constantly saying "cheese"
i doubt if the statue of liberty
ever welcomed more refugees

give me your poor
your tired your pimps
you carhops your cowboys
your midgets your chimps
give me your freaks
your whores your harlots
your flunkies your junkies
give me your starlets

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"
'cause she did not become a star
she died in less than a minute and a half
she looked a bit like hedy lamarr

sometimes i have this dream
when the time comes for me to go
i will climb that hill
and i'll hang myself
from the second or third letter "o"

when mary cecilia jumped
she finally made the grade
her name was in the obituary column
of both the daily trades


i hope the hollywood sign
cries for the town it touches
the lady of lourdes in her grotto
saw fewer cripples and crutches

give me your poor
your maladjusted
your sick and your beat
and your sad and your busted
give me your has-beens
give me your twisted
your loners your losers
give me your black-listed

you know the hollywood sign
the witness to our confusion
a symbol of dreams
turns out to be
a sign
of disillusion.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 2/8/14 at 1:16pm

Last one- i really loved this one in my 20's

The Empress of China

i tell you how i hate you
in the voice my father used
you answer with your mother's worn cliches
and in another life
your father hears his wife
and i see his fury blazing
in your gaze

an echo hears an echo
and my mother's fist is raised
the hand i clench at you
shows her distrust
the way one behaves
is determined in the graves
of all the great grandparents
gone to dust
our fathers fight through us
as they fought their father's war
and the same old scene's repeated
as before and before and before
and before and before
and when i tell you how i hate you
before the birth of jesus
before the death of caesar
before siddhartha
before ulysses
before the trojan war
i tell you how i hate you
and a long decaying anger
comes alive inside a castle
and behind an ancient door
the empress of china
tells her lover how she
hates him
she tells him
once more
and once more
and once more
and once more...

Updated On: 2/8/14 at 01:16 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/8/14 at 6:15pm

I think the smart feminism was what what attracted my cousin Arlene to Dory as a singer-songwriter.

And her story had a courageous been-though-the-wars aspect to it then: Her Hollywood career as a lyricist came crashing down when Andre left her. She had a breakdown, she was institutionalized and given electroshock therapy.

She came out of it alive and began writing lyrics and music together, and there was a sense that her Hollywood years had been in the shadow of a man but in her singer-songwriter years she was coming into her own as a person, not defined by a famous husband. And she had earned the right to say whatever she damned wanted to.

Her song "Don't Put Him Down" was the song of a liberated woman who could have compassion for how hard a man had to work to be a man--including how hard it was getting a hard-on to please a woman. It was part compassion and partly making fun of men. I wish I had a link to her recording because it goes into a vaudeville riff in the middle and it's very funny.



oh babe
he loves you
but he just can't make it with you
and he just can't tell you it's true
how can he pass the test
when he just can't hardly move himself
let alone prove himself the best

oh babe
he wants you
but he just can't get it on as you planned
and i guess a girl just can't understand
how much a guy goes through
all she has to do is let herself
she doesn't have to get herself up
on cue
like a performing seal
in a zoo

how was last night's
performance babe?
was it better than
the night before?
are the old credentials
any good any good any good any more
or is the act beginning to bore you?
he can sing!
he can dance!
he can juggle!
he a regular one-man band
his costume's a little tattered
his label says
made in japan
but he beats his battered drum
and he rattles his empty can
and he somehow gets
his flag to fly
looka him
looka him
he's a man!

oh babe
inside him
it's like there's a
little kid in a jail
crying denying he's fragile and frail
hey looka him
he's a male
but it's the wail
of the weary minstrel
it's the dance
of the desperate clown
singing
don't put
don't put me down
if i fail
please babe
don't put me down
if i fail

Updated On: 2/8/14 at 06:15 PM

[sabrelady]

Posted: 2/8/14 at 11:10pm

PJ I well remember that song. Dang it she wrote so many good ones. I remember when she died I was pleased to learn she had found a very happy 20+ relationship w Joby Baker originally from Montreal.