Beware of young girls

Als ihr Ehemann sie wegen einer jüngeren Frau verließ, flippte sie völlig aus. Die New York Times schrieb später darüber: Mr. Previn had begun an affair with the actress Mia Farrow, then in her early 20s, whom he later married, and Ms. Previn, who had a history of emotional fragility and mental illness, fell apart. Fearful of traveling in general and of flying in particular, she had a breakdown on an airplane that was waiting to take off, shouted unintelligibly and tore at her clothes, and spent several months in a psychiatric hospital. Die Frau, deretwegen ihr Mann sie verlassen hatte, war jung, sehr jung. Sie war eine Freundin der Betrogenen gewesen, ging bei ihr ein und aus. Sie hieß Mia Farrow und war gerade von Frank Sinatra geschieden. 

Die betrogene Ehefrau erzählte der ganzen Welt die Geschichte in einem Lied. Das Lied kannte auch Mia Farrow, die in ihrer Autobiographie What Falls Away schreibt: Dory Previn experienced things quite differently, and made that clear publicly through her songs. I am sorry to have contributed to her pain. Das Lied heißt ✺Beware of young girls, es findet sich 1970 auf Dory Previns erster Platte ✺On my way to where. Es ist leider nicht auf der Platte We're Children Of Coincidence And Harpo Marx, die ich schon sehr lange besitze. Ich habe in dem Post Rickie Lee Jones nichts Nettes über diese Platte gesagt, die ich damals nur gekauft hatte, weil die Sängerin Dory Previn auf dem Cover der Ingrid ein wenig ähnlich sah. Die auch schön singen konnte, aber nie in einem Flugzeug ausflippte. We're Children Of Coincidence And Harpo Marx war das letzte Studioalbum von Dory Previn, sie hat noch viel geschrieben und noch lange gelebt. Aber Beware of young girls hier wird immer an sie erinnern, ein Song, in dem jedes Wort der Wirklichkeit ihres Lebens entsprach:

Beware of young girls who come to the door
Wistful and pale, of twenty and four
Delivering daisies with delicate hands
Beware of young girls, too often they crave
To cry at a wedding, and dance on a grave

She was my friend, my friend, my friend
She was invited to my house
Oh yes, she was
And though she knew my love was true
And no ordinary thing
She admired my wedding ring
She admired my wedding ring

She was my friend, my friend, my friend
She sent us little silver gifts
Oh yes she did
Oh what a rare and happy pair she inevitably said
As she glanced at my unmade bed
She admired my unmade bed
My bed

Beware of young girls who come to the door
Wistful and pale, of twenty and four
Delivering daisies with delicate hands
Beware of young girls, too often they crave
To cry at a wedding, and dance on a grave

She was my friend, my friend, my friend
I thought her motives were sincere
Oh yes I did
Ah, but this lass, it came to pass
Had a dark and different plan
She admired my own sweet man
She admired my own sweet man

We were friends
Oh yes we were
And she just took him from my life
Oh yes she did
So young and vain, she brought me pain
But I'm wise enough to say
She will leave him one thoughtless day
She'll just leave him and go away
Oh yes

Beware of young girls who come to the door
Wistful and pale, of twenty and four
Delivering daisies with delicate hands
Beware of young girls, too often they crave
To cry at a wedding, and dance on a grave

Beware of young girls
Beware of young girls
Beware

Die Geschichte von dem Songtext von Dory Previn und Mia Farrow könnte hier zu Ende sein, aber es gibt da noch eine kleine perverse andere Geschichte mit einem Songtext, der auch auf der Platte On my way to where ist. Die Sache ist durch die TV Serie Allen vs. Farrow im letzten Jahr wieder hochgekocht worden, es geht um den angeblichen Mißbrauch von Woody Allen an seiner siebenjährigen Adoptivtochter Dylan Farrow. Die 2014 in einem Brief an die New York Times geschrieben hatte: What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me. He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we’d go to Paris and I’d be a star in his movies. I remember staring at that toy train, focusing on it as it traveled in its circle around the attic. To this day, I find it difficult to look at toy trains.

Woody Allen hat das immer bestritten, und er hat gegenüber der Presse erklärt, dass Mia Farrow ihrer Adoptivtochter die Geschichte eingeflüstert habe. Und dafür den Liedtext von Dory Previn ✺With my Daddy in the attic verwendet habe. Lassen Sie mich daraus einige Zeilen ziteren: 

With my Daddy in the attic, 
That is where my being wants to bed… 
With the door closed on my mama and my sibling competition, 
And my Shirley Temple doll that truly cries… 
With my Daddy in the attic, 
That is where my dark attraction lies…
In the terrifying nearness of his eyes,
With no window spying neighbors,
And no husbands in the future,
To intrude upon our attic,
Past the stair where we’ll live on…
And he’ll play his clarinet when I despair,
With my Daddy in the attic,
With my Daddy in the attic…

In seiner Autobiographie Apropos of Nothing hat Woody Allen geschrieben, dass ihn Dory Previn während der Sorgerechtsprozesse angerufen und ihn gewarnt habe: She alerted me to a song she’d written, the lyric of which referred to some encounter that went on between a little girl and her father in the attic. She told me Mia would sing it, and she was certain that’s what gave Mia the idea to locate a fake molestation accusation she would make in the attic. Popsongs sind eine gefährliche Sache.