Dory Previn - Mary C. Brown & The Hollywood Sign

"Hunky Dory" Irish TV program based on the show 'Children Of Coincidence, 1980

"Mary C. Brown & The Hollywood Sign"
by Dory Previn
featuring Colm Wilkinson.
original lyrics from 1971 album "Mythical Kings and Iguanas"

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.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• dory
• langdan
• previn
• colm
• c.t.
• wilkinson
• oz
• hollywood
• sign
• peg
• entwhistle
• freud
• virginia
• woolf
• sylvia
• plath
• lourdes

[acertainshape]

Criminally underrated. I'll take her over Joni Mitchell any day. So raw, direct, and honest--you just don't get anything this good anymore. If you are put off by her look, just listen to her on vinyl or her reissued CDs. It just may change your life. It did mine.

[iamthemightypop3]

You stupid bitches...you don't get it! Dory Previn's music is CULT because she sings about things she knows.

[yvonneszymczak]

This song is amazing.

[Gcbhenry]

Dory Previn is a goddess!!!!!!



[antony240755]

Love it, love it, love it. Love Dory Previn and love you for posting this. At last a talking, moving dory after all those years of just photographs.

[twonywomen69]

Dory is 84 years old now, she is alive and well.

[Robert9751]

I was at that Concert in the Albert Hall - too - never forgotten it - wow - I'm so pleased that you posted this - have just got her last albums on CD after all these years - and bless her, Dory is still going!

[stevejah7]

hello! ive waited for years to see dory in dublin like this! i missed a chance to se her30 years ago in edinburgh. love to you and all you care for. x

[Louisekyra]

Dory Previn, (born 22 October 1925 or 1929), is an American lyricist, singer-songwriter and poet.

In the 1970s, after their divorce, she released six albums. Dory Previn's lyrics from this period are characterised by their originality, their irony, and their honesty in dealing with her troubled personal life, as well as more generally about relationships, sexuality, religion and psychology.

[Guppychild17]

Thank you so much for posting this. I've wanted to see her performing live so long. All I have are the old vinyl records so I'd only seen pictures before. I wonder how old she is now. She's probably the one celebrity in the world I'd want to meet.