Entertainment For Lively Minds
Barbra Streisand..no wait!..
Posted by shane pacey on 27 April 2010 - 11:06pm.
..I accept that she's not big massive material, and she doesn't appear in my radar at all, but my missus is a bit of a fan, and I found this album ("Stony End") in a charity shop and well..it's bloody brilliant.
Recorded in (I think) 1971, she was obviously aiming at a hipper audience with songs by Randy Newman, Nillson, Delaney and Bonnie and most importantly, the great Laura Nyro (Now there's an unsung hero if ever there was one) represented with 3 tracks.
Produced by Richard Perry, and peppered with the usual session faces of the time it sounds stunning.
Here's the tile track..bask in those chord changes!
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Babs
It's good, eh? I picked up a copy a little while back and it's getting some very welcome spins here. And Laura Nyro? Oh yes!
This is worth a purchase:
http://www.cherryred.co.uk/revola/artists/lauranyroandlabelle.php
It closes with a great live version of this:
try as I might
laura nyro
just doesn't
press my buttons
Same here
I've tried (God knows I've tried). La Nyro does nothing to me.
I think it's the..
..slight "Broadway Musical" element to her songs that puts some people off.
As a songwriter I can only gasp at the audacity of her best work, at times she even puts her closest contemporaries (Joni and Carole King) to shame.
Funnily enough...
... my first copy of "Stoney End" was a charity shop find too (on cassette!), though I've had it for yonks on CD now. Excellent album, should have more fans for exactly the reasons the OP mentions, i.e. great songs from great songwriters, brilliantly sung. The album was vaguely controversial at the time, as it was Babs' first "rock" record, and greeted with "Judas"-type reactions after her nightclub years...
And it's always worth reminding ourselves how insanely successful she is - best-selling female artist of all-time in the US, and an Oscar-winning actress, not bad going.
(And I love Laura Nyro, too, but that's for another thread.)
And...
...an Oscar-winning songwriter.
I recognise this
from my childhood. I think it might of been a minor hit.
Great songwriting and arrangement.
After seeing
"What's Up Doc?" at around the age of 10 or 11 I thought Babs was just the coolest girl in the world: funny, sexy and smart. She also reminded me of my Auntie Anne who at the time was the kookiest person I knew, wore odd hats, men's shirts and had big glasses (with hindsight she was probably doing a Diane Keaton in Annie Hall). I had a crush on her.
Woman In Love (written by Barry Gibb) is also a fantastic song. I think her vocal performance is exceptional and it's one of the few songs of that "power ballad" type that I can listen to without wanting to harm small animals. If you gave it to Celine Dion, Mariah Carey or anyone else they'd ruin it with annoying vocal gymnastics but Babs just belts it out, absolutely works with the superb melody, enhancing it all the way and makes it a bench-mark classic.
I LOVE
Barbra Streisand's voice. It's a beautiful thing.
Barbra Streisand was the actress Diane Keaton
always wanted to be...
what's the basis for this claim stimpster ?
.
Dianne let it slip..
..when they were in bed together.(After telling him his lovemaking was "jejune"
Arf! No basis, merely a passing whimsy
based on Streisand's character in Funny Girl
Funny Girl
Started with Barbra after seeing her in Funny Girl. Currently have on my ipod rips from my vinyl copies of Stoney End, What About Today and Barbra Joan Streisand. Some excellent tracks on all of them.
'Guilty'
= excellent album. Unguilty pleasure.
Underneath Felt Mountain
A knowledgeable chum of mine and I were once discussing Goldfrapp's debut. He told me he liked it, but couldn't quite disregard A. Goldfrapp's vocal similarity to Babs. Once said, I could never escape it either (not that there's anything wrong with that, as they used to say on Seinfeld.
I dig Stoney End, too. Does anyone else feel Streisand was trying to pull off her own Dusty in Memphis? Both Just a Little Lovin' and No Easy Way Down can't be a coincidence, surely?