On the release of a new documentary on Dory Previn, Adelle Stripe explores an artist who learned to live with voices in her head, despite societal and institutional pressure to ignore them, and whose experiences demonstrate how female artists can seek a fulfilled creative life against the odds.
“There is nowhere to turn, but to yourself,” said Dory Previn. “Instead of repeating, I’ve come to myself.” In late 1969 the three times Oscar-nominated lyricist, and sometime chorus dancer, experienced a public breakdown on a jumbo jet parked on a runway, and pulled off her clothes in the seats, a reaction against a cataclysmic event in her personal life – her husband having an affair with her friend, a romance she found out about from the newspapers. Ejected from the plane, she was committed to an asylum. It wasn’t her first visit, yet this moment marked the beginning of a rejuvenated version of the artist – this middle-aged woman emerged from the crisis with a new set of songs written in therapy, and for the next seven years, Previn would record seven albums’ worth of acerbic, spiteful, exhilarating and often heartbreaking material, songs so elegantly crafted that they easily stand alongside some of the most revered female musicians of the era, such as Carole King, Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell. Although highly regarded for her soundtrack work, her solo legacy runs through contemporary acts such as Tindersticks, Ren Harvieu, Fat White Family and Jarvis Cocker. Previn is still relevant, but until now, has remained firmly in the ‘cult’ camp...