15 July : On My Way To Where

Dory Previn was already a triple-Oscar-nominated lyricist, with her then husband Andre Previn, when she had the breakdown that led to her first two albums. She was taken off a flight to London, screaming, before it took off. Her doctors encouraged her to write about her experiences in lyrics. When no one else wanted to record the songs, she did it herself.

On My Way To Where, her first album since an early effort in 1959, is essentially her demo recordings augmented by members of the Wrecking Crew. It was released 15 July 1970, more or less coinciding with her divorce from Andre.

She was deeply affected by what we’d now call an emotionally abusive childhood. Her breakdown in 1969 was triggered by Andre’s affair with Mia Farrow and the news that Farrow was expecting his child.

The songs on On My Way to Where, and 1971’s Mythical Kings and Iguanas, focus on the issues she was dealing with in therapy. If that sounds very California 1969, it is. The difference is that she was the first to go into such depths of honesty without wrapping things in metaphor and allusion. Just as important, she was already an established and respected lyricist who brought craft to the material.

Mythical Kings and Iguanas is, arguably, the more accomplished album, but On My Way To Where has key songs about her father (With My Daddy In The Attic, I Ain”t His Child); Mia Farrow (Beware Of Young Girls); her breakdown (Twenty-Mile Zone); her psychosis:

When I am going ’round the bend
I got a wild, imaginary friend

and her electro-convulsive treatment:

Just when I am sure he’ll stay
They shoot me with a bolt or two
They try to drive my mister friend away
And damn it all they nearly always do

(both Mister Whisper)

I’ve owned this album for a very long time, and saw Dory at the Glasgow Apollo in late 1976, my second gig. Even after all these years, it never fails to move me.

Today I listened on Spotify, and  there’s a YouTube playlist: