Mary C. Brown and the Hollywood Sign
| Mary C. Brown and the Hollywood Sign | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Dory Previn | ||||
| Released | November 1972 | |||
| Genre | Singer-songwriter | |||
| Label | United Artists | |||
| Producer | Nik Venet | |||
| Dory Previn chronology | ||||
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Mary C. Brown and the Hollywood Sign was the fourth solo LP by Dory Previn, released in November 1972. This was a thematic album about Hollywood misfits. The songs were intended for a musical revue that ran briefly in Los Angeles. It was planned to stage it on Broadway, but the previews were poor and the show was cancelled before it opened.
Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
Robert Christgau, writing in Creem, panned the album, saying "Previn doesn't just belabor a cliche, she flails it with barbed wire, and she never writes about a concrete situation when with extra words she can falsify it with abstraction."[2]
However, Charles Donovan, for AllMusic, wrote: "Even when writing in cliché she impresses: "The Perfect Man" is her take on the tale of the golden man with feet of clay, and should by rights be toe-curling and unimaginative. Instead, it's an arresting piece with a pretty, counterpoint piano accompaniment. Only the grating honky-tonk arrangements elsewhere disappoint."
Track listing
- "Mary C. Brown and The Hollywood Sign" (4'41)
- "The Holy Man On Malibu Bus Number Three" (4'45)
- "The Midget's Lament" (4'07)
- "When a Man Wants a Woman" (2'25)
- "Cully Surroga He's Almost Blind" (5'12)
- "Left Hand Lost" (4'56)
- "The Perfect Man" (3'11)
- "Starlet Starlet On The Screen Who Will Follow Norma Jean?" (2'36)
- "Don't Put Him Down" (3'55)
- "King Kong" (3'54)
- Medley (8'36)
- "Morning Star/Evening Star"
- "Jesus Was a Androgyne"
- "Anima/Animus"
Personnel
- Laurindo Almeida - guitar
- David Cohen - guitar
- Bryan Garofalo - bass
- John Guerin - drums
- Peter Jameson - guitar
- Tom Keene - keyboards
- Michael Lang - keyboards
- Joe Osborn - bass
- Earl Palmer - drums
- Reinie Press - bass
- Dory Previn - vocals, guitar
- Peggy Sandvig - keyboards
- Ron Tutt - drums
References
- ↑ Allmusic review
- ↑ "Christgau's Consumer Guide, Creem, April 1973, p.70
