Audio Autopsy, 1971: Dorothea Joyce and Her "Love's Lines, Angles And Rhymes," a #19 Hit for 5th Dimension + Covers
Diana Ross and the Brotherhood of Man covered "Love's Lines, Angles and Rhymes." The 5th Dimension, though, had a Top 20 hit with it in 1971. Meet the enigmatic composer of that powerful song.
Before Meeting Dorothea, 5D’s 1970 POV…
Most of us know the multitude of hits by the 5th Dimension in the late '60s and early '70s: “Up, Up & Away” (#7 on the US Charts), “Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In” (#1), “Stoned Soul Picnic” (#3), and “Wedding Bell Blues” (#1).
There were certainly more sprinkled in, but their “One Less Bell to Answer” got all the way up to #2 in the spring of 1970, and featured the stunning lead vocals of Marilyn McCoo, as did many of 5D’s hits, especially the ballads:
No Underestimating the Guts It Took…
The 5th Dimension dared to follow that Burt Bacharach/Hal David-penned smash less than a year later with a song from a virtually unknown (and certainly unproven) songwriter, Dorothea Joyce. It was the quintet’s first of four singles released in 1971, and it topped out at #19 on the charts: "Love's Lines, Angles and Rhymes."
Featuring another powerful, soaring vocal by Marilyn McCoo (as in "One Less Bell"), this song is notable on a few overlooked levels: Its little-known, enigmatic composer, and its remarkable, elevating chorus and arrangement, right up Marilyn’s vocal alley as produced by Bones Howe, with vocal arrangement by Bob Alcivar.
But, just as stunning is the recording by a well-known superstar diva who actually recorded “Love’s Lines” before the 5th Dimension did, but who never released it as a single (or even on an album) until decades later! More about her and her “Love’s Lines” recording later.
Dorothea’s Breakthrough
The 5th Dimension's hit version of “Love’s Lines, Angles and Rhymes” came from their album of the same name, released February 1, 1971, their 6th LP release within four years! Marilyn McCoo lip-synchs lead, here, to the group’s recording (with LA’s crack Wrecking Crew studio aces accompanying), as taped for an August '71 TV special:
Shortly after 5D’s chart ascent, Columbia Records’ resident instrumental hit interpreter, Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra, recorded their cover of “Love’s Lines” in the summer of 1971.
"Love's Lines, Angles and Rhymes" was written entirely by Dorothea Joyce, a self-described performer, producer, healer, and of course, award-winning songwriter. From her website: "Drawing from her professional experience in the arts, and her training in alternative health modalities, Dorothea offers concerts, workshops, lectures, and individual & group counseling."
A lovely and mature woman now (and blessed with long, silvery hair), she attended Indiana University, received her BM in Piano & Voice, Wayne State for a BS in Music Ed, and NYU for Music Therapy, CMT.
Dorothea was the opening act for the Bee Gees in 1973 for their Detroit show, and, at times, worked the New York cabaret circuit in the '70s, sharing bills with the likes of comedian Robert Klein and Bette Midler. She's also performed on Broadway, and off-Broadway.
“Taking the line and triangle rhyme and twisting it to bend the mind in all directions; it's love and want and need and all those things, tearing you apart.”
Landing Her First Published Song
While freelance-writing TV and radio ad jingles in the late 1960s, she also secured a 3-year deal from April-Blackwood, the US publishing arm of CBS Records. This is what led to her landing her first recorded song, in September 1969, with the late bossa nova singer, Astrud Gilberto (you know her from her vocal on the 1964 Stan Getz/Antonio Carlos Jobim hit, "The Girl From Ipanema").
Joyce wrote the lyrics sung by Gilberto on "Let's Have the Morning After (Instead of the Night Before)." The music was composed and arranged by Michael Leonard:
The Mysterious FIRST Recording of “Love’s Lines”
Diana Ross recorded "Love's Lines, Angles & Rhymes" for her June 1970 self-titled, debut solo LP, the ultimate test to see if she could make it without the Supremes. She could..and, of course, did!
With Diana leading with “Reach Out & Touch (Somebody's Hand)” (#20 in the US) and “Ain't No Mountain High Enough” (#1) as the kick-off singles off that album, she was off and running. Having recorded "Love's Lines" for that album's sessions, though, it didn't make the final track listing for the LP.
In fact, it didn't even see the light of day until the 2002 release of the extended version of the album as one of several bonus tracks! Here's Diana's arrangement:
Motown founder & chief, Berry Gordy hired the 5th Dimension's producer Bones Howe when Diana was going solo. Gordy, of course, was interested in finding a new direction for Ross (apart from the Supremes), and he must have liked what he heard when the Howe-produced "One Less Bell to Answer" went to #2 in 1970 for 5D.
Interestingly, about four years before, Gordy turned down the 5th Dimension as a potential Motown signee, but the label’s LA office chief, Marc Gordon, thought enough of them to manage the group after their audition. They had just changed their name from the Versatiles in 1966. Gordon got them signed to Johnny Rivers’ new Soul City label (distributed by Liberty Records).
Berry Gordy rallied from his initial mistake about a dozen years later, signing 5D to Motown for two 1978 LPs!
However, Gordy let Bones go from Diana’s album, most likely favoring the Motown-proven "Reach Out" and her cover of Motown stalwarts, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s "Ain't No Mountain" as lead-off singles for her debut solo LP. He ultimately rejected "Love's Lines" as even an album track for Ross, and it went on to become the 5th Dimension hit we know in early '71.
The song earned Dorothea Joyce a gold record, signifying 1 million units (singles) sold of the 5th Dimension’s recording.
Composer As Artist
Not to be outdone, however, Dorothea recorded her own haunting arrangement of “Love’s Lines” in 1972, on an album for Evolution Records, Enlightenment. This earned her an ASCAP Newcomer Special Award (ASCAP, or The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, is a performance rights organization, mainly charged with protecting musical copyrights).
Lacking, like most singers, the sheer power of a Marilyn McCoo, Joyce sings over her piano accompaniment with an ethereal determination that manages to merge an early Laura Nyro with Joni Mitchell’s most urgent deliveries (even amid Diana’s and Marilyn’s, it may become your favorite version):
Related: Robert Gilbert offers a deep dive on the “Sunshine Soul” of 5D:
The Brotherhood of Covers
The song lived to see another day, though, and another cover artist: The Brotherhood of Man, a British group who recorded their arrangement in April 1972 as part of their second album, produced by bandmember, Tony Hiller, for Deram (MCA affiliate in the US), We’re the Brotherhood of Man:
Joyce Meets “Jeremy”
Dorothea Joyce's next "hit" happened just 2 years later, as she placed a song in the Robby Benson/Glynnis O'Connor film, 1973's Jeremy, a romantic drama about two high school lovers.
A ballad (sung in the film by O'Connor), Joyce contributed the lyrics to the song which shared the title of the film. Lee Holdridge (who wrote the 1988 theme to the Moonlighting TV show, and the score for 1974's Jonathan Livingston Seagull film) composed the music. He and Dorothea won Best Song at the Cannes Film Festival.
O'Connor, singing "Jeremy" from the film:
Mysterious, multi-talented, and uniquely versatile, Dorothea Joyce was mostly known as a songwriter specializing in lyrics, sometimes grounded in love's reality ("Jeremy") and sometimes embracing the obtuse in affairs of the heart, prone to many interpretations ("Love's Lines, Angles and Rhymes").
What makes "Love's Lines, Angles and Rhymes" truly stand out is that it's one of the few times in her published pop music career that she stepped out to tackle composing, marrying a truly mesmerizing tune to her thought-provoking lyrics.
Love leads the lines of love in circles and angles
Love runs deep like a tunnel with a pendulum beat
That touches the heart in many directions
Moving the mind in silent reflection
Of the lines that touch the corners and fibers
Of the feeling that keeps running inside you
(Running inside)
Cycles of fears with the longing and tears
Lettin' out the needs and laughter of
Sunshine... love shine
Touching the fibers of the feeling inside you
Lettin' out the things you hide oh-oh yeah...
M-m-m-m...
Need leads the lines of love in circles and angles
Need runs deep like a tunnel with a pendulum beat
That touches the heart in many directions
Moving the mind in silent reflection
Of the lines that touch the corners and fibers
Of the feeling that keeps running inside you
(Running inside)
Cylinders of hope turning and yearning into pendulums of weary hesi... tation contemplation
Of the angles and rhymes and the triangle lines
The feeling touching mine with time
M-m-m-m...
Want leads the (want leads) lines of love in circles and angles
Want runs deep like a tunnel with a pendulum beat
That touches the heart in many directions
Moving the mind in silent reflection
Of the angles and rhymes of the circles and lines
With the tunnels of love running over
Taking the mind and triangle rhyme and twisting it to fill the cup... of
Sunshine... love shine
Touching the fibers of the feeling inside you
Lettin' out the things you hide...
That touches the heart in many directions
Moving the mind in silent reflection
Of the lines that touch the corners and fibers
Of the feeling that keeps running inside you
Cylinders of hope turning and yearning into pendulums of weary hesitation
Taken the fibers and leavin' in another heart and makin' all my love grow deeper
Angles and rhymes and the circles and lines
With the tunnels of love running over
Taking the line and triangle rhyme and twisting it to bend the mind in all directions
It's love and want and need and all those things
Tearing you apart
Songwriter: Dorothea Joyce
This is a lovely song, one I haven’t heard before. When reading the lyrics it reads very much like a poem, but not necessarily one that would work well as a song. But when I went back and listened to the 5D performance again while reading the lyrics, it actually works so incredibly well!