Barbra Joan Streisand - Barbra Streisand

Barbra Joan Streisand

Barbra Streisand

Columbia PC 30792

1971

I am now much older than my father was when I was living with him and I'm becoming more appreciative of the influence he had on the development of my musical tastes.  As a teenager I felt disdain for his music even though he had the first the Mamas and the Papas, Janis Joplin, Santana, Linda Ronstadt and Creedence Clearwater Revival albums that I ever heard.  Mostly I associated him with easy listening type stuff like Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, Al Martino, Vikki Carr, Johnny Mathis and above all Barbra Streisand who was his great favorite.  I loathed this stuff at the time although as I reached middle age I started to dabble with it particularly Sinatra.  Nonetheless I have a very limited appetite for it and to this day if I hear Martino crooning "Spanish Eyes" (which my father played over and over) I cringe.  I was surprised a while back when I found myself wanting to hear this album again.  My father had it on an 8-track tape (yecch) and played it often.  I did not like it much at the time but I preferred it to his other Streisand albums and I was intrigued by the two John Lennon covers, "Mother" and "Love" which I had never heard since I had yet to buy "Plastic Ono Band" where they first appeared.  Somehow this album stuck to me which led me to buy it a few years ago.  Listening to it again after all those years was definitely a little weird, but once I got past the memories and nostalgia it generated in me, I found I enjoyed it as music.  It was Streisand's third album of contemporary music following "What About Today?" and "Stoney End."  The knock on Streisand's forays into contemporary music is that she can't rock.  I won't dispute that but I still find merit in her work in this vein.  Unlike some crooners she is not condescending about the material and sings her heart out.  She is too uptight to rock convincingly but she definitely emotes a lot which I find engaging most of the time.  The album benefits from the presence of the producer Richard Perry who was one of the most successful producers of the era.  He was always excellent at providing a setting for the artist to succeed and compensating for their limitations as his exemplary work on "Ringo" demonstrates.  This album mostly features songs that suit Streisand's style and sensibility and I imagine she had no trouble relating to songwriters like Carole King and Laura Nyro.  The arrangements and supporting musicians are also well chosen for her.  My favorite tracks have always been the two Lennon songs which is probably a minority opinion even from a Beatles fan.  I admit that Lennon's own versions in particular his gut-wrenching performance of "Mother" are superior and more heartfelt but I am still taken with the depth of feeling Streisand brings to the songs.  "Love" in particular is given a spartan but appealing chamber pop arrangement that places all the focus on Streisand's gorgeous vocal.  "Mother" has a more robust arrangement driven by dual organs from Billy Preston and Perry.  I appreciate the majestic and dynamic quality of the performance and at the risk of sounding like a philistine, I'm kind of relieved not to have to experience the pain Lennon brought to the song.  My other favorite track is "I Mean To Shine" written by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker prior to the rise of Steely Dan.  They apparently had a low opinion of the song and never bothered to record it themselves, but I think it is a delightfully uplifting and inspired song which gives Streisand an opportunity to shine herself.  She's backed by Fagen on organ along with members of the female rock band Fanny and a whole bunch of studio pros who give Streisand a solid foundation for her exuberant vocal.  I also like her performance of Mathew Moore's "Space Captain" which had been part of Joe Cocker's stage show as documented on the "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" album.  Compared to Cocker's throat-shredding histrionics, Streisand sounds tame but it is still one of her most energetic performances and the closest she comes to rocking out on the album.  The song has a punchy arrangement by Fanny and they support her along with Preston and kudos to Perry for pairing his clients Fanny and Streisand.  They work together extremely well.  There are three Carole King songs (all from "Tapestry") on the album which makes sense considering King and Streisand's similar backgrounds.  Streisand sounds comfortable on all of them but I like "Where You Lead" the best.  It has plenty of propulsion courtesy of Streisand's vibrant vocal supported by another spirited arrangement and performance by Fanny.  Preston's organ riffs and the background singers give the song a winning soulful flavor that makes Streisand seem less uptight and it is the one other song on the album besides "Space Captain" that suggests Streisand is capable of rocking out.  Her upbeat performance of "Beautiful" is enjoyable but kind of forced as if she was trying too hard.  I think it would have benefited from the looseness that King brought to her own version of the song and that is also true of "You've Got a Friend" although I greatly prefer Streisand's version to James Taylor's hit version.  The remaining songs are closer in tone to the standards and show tunes that Streisand started her career with rather than actual rock songs.  Laura Nyro's "I Never Meant To Hurt You" is a sensitive song that benefits from Streisand's over-emotional style and gives her plenty of opportunities to show off her pipes.  I think it is the song that fits her best, but it is far from my favorite.  There is a medley of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "One Less Bell To Answer" and "A House Is Not a Home" which is also right in her wheelhouse although I prefer the far more subdued versions by The 5th Dimension for the former and Dionne Warwick for the latter.  Streisand invests so much emotion in them she makes their lyrics seem trivial since they can't match her intensity.  They do sound nice though.  Buddy Johnson's "Since I Fell For You" is an old-fashioned romantic ballad that was a hit for Lenny Welch in 1963.  It is basically the sort of the song Streisand could do in her sleep and she easily crushes Welch in emoting and vocal acrobatics but the song hardly fits the contemporary feel of the rest of the album.  This is equally true of "The Summer Knows" from the film "Summer of '42" by Michel Legrand and Marilyn and Alan Bergman.  It may have been a contemporary song but it is a lot closer to "People" or "My Man" than it is to any kind of rock music particularly with Dick Hazard's easy listening arrangement.  Of course it sounds gorgeous but I am not a fan of it.  I am a fan of this album though.  Part of me feels like it is a mistake, that Streisand should stick to the standards and show tunes she excelled at.  On the other hand I relate much more strongly to John Lennon and Carole King than Rodgers and Hammerstein or Kander and Ebb.  I would rather hear her sing contemporary music even if it is not her strength.  It gives me more of an opportunity to appreciate her tremendous gift.  Sure she is too stiff and over-emotes too much, but this album fascinates me.  The dialectical tension between the styles of traditional pop standards and contemporary rock music that drives this record is intriguing and stimulating to me.  This record has been in my life for decades even though for much of that time I did not have a copy of it.  I never forgot it and it was nearly as firmly imprinted in my psyche as my early Beatles albums.  I'm delighted that I finally do have a copy again and although I don't play it as much as my father did, it does spend plenty of time on my turntable.  Recommended to Timi Yuro fans.