Mary C. Brown and the Hollywood Sign
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Infobox album
| name = Mary C. Brown and the Hollywood Sign
| type = Album
| artist = Dory Previn
| cover = Marycbrown.jpg
| alt =
| released = November 1972
| recorded =
| venue =
| studio =
| genre = Singer-songwriter
| length =
| label = United Artists
| producer = Nik Venet
| chronology = Dory Previn
| prev_title = Reflections in a Mud Puddle
| prev_year = 1971
| next_title = Live at Carnegie Hall
| next_year = 1973
}}
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
{{Album reviews
|rev1 = Allmusic
|rev1score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}{{cite web|last=Donovan|first=Charles|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/mary-c-brown-and-the-hollywood-sign-mw0000849595|title=Mary C. Brown and the Hollywood Sign – Dory Previn|publisher=AllMusic|accessdate=April 22, 2020}}
|rev2 = Christgau's Record Guide
|rev2Score = D{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|publisher=Ticknor & Fields|isbn=089919026X|chapter=Consumer Guide '70s: P|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=P&bk=70|accessdate=March 10, 2019|via=robertchristgau.com}}
}}
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.""Christgau's Consumer Guide, Creem, April 1973, p.70
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