BARBRA STREISAND – "Woman In Love"

My reaction to Streisand combines two things – the first, and more powerful, is a total recoiling from the Streisand public persona. We went to see Yentl as a family outing to the cinema when I was thirteen, and I’m traumatised to this day. I think What’s Up, Doc? is just about the only thing she has been involved in that I like in any way…
But beyond that, I can’t actually hear what it is that her many (often obsessive) devotees are so excited about. Ie, I don’t get what is meant to be so unique and so appealing about her as a vocal stylist…

No more tears is OK when it gets going.

I had that “tv special” album where she does a song to the accompanimenet of household objects and various white-goods.

It’s actually less interesting than it’s been described as.

I’m with Tom on this one: kind-of liking the song, but finding “nothing much to grip onto”, pretty much sums it up. The way the arrangement starts to swell towards the end, as BS raises her voice, those strings in particular – there’s something really great happening there, somewhere in the distance. But reach out, and it just sort of slithers away.

Perhaps the problem is that everyone involved with this record is very professional, but they’re being too professional. There seems to be a sort of Noel Gallagher approach on the part of the Gibbs: hook your target audience with some basic signifiers, then make the song so fuzzy and non-specific (lyrically and melodically) that while none will be consumed by it, none will feel locked out.

Interesting, though, that this is essentially a mum’s ballad, and would have sold to the same demographic as past number ones by Englebert, or perhaps The Pipes and Drums and Military Band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (my own stork song, to my chagrin). Clearly, something has changed – about pop, about Britain. You only have to listen to the record to get a sense of what that might be. What’s been lost between “Release Me” and “Woman In Love”? Innocence, primarily. What’s been gained? A certain sophistication, a certain sexuality (or at least a sense of oneself as a sexual being) – and a world-weariness that’s hard to ignore. It’s hard to think of too many future number ones, after “Woman In Love”, that sold to parents and didn’t have that mood: vague melancholia, with the head held high.

(Eventually, of course, we get to the point where parents and children start buying the same records, and the picture changes again.)

Seem to remember Paul Gambaccini telling me that this song has the longest-held note of any hit record. I have no idea if this is correct.

I would think Bill Withers holds a note much longer on ‘Lovely Day’

The Gibbs did head for the easy listening middle of the road with their collaborations once they’d struck disco gold. After that it was all Streisand, Dionne Warwick, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. What happened to Tavares, Candi Staton and Samantha Sang? Did the others just pay more?

“Life is a moment in space. When the dream has gone, it’s a lonelier place.”

Not sure about “metaphysical cheese” – I’ve got that down as one of the most desolate opening lines to any pop song, myself.

Pete’s nailed the performance. This is a 9 for me.

Babs took a lot of convincing to sing “it’s a right I defend”, apparently, in case anyone mistook her for a feminist.

Has any other act in the world been so unhip that they’ve had to farm out their best songs for several years? The Bee Gees didn’t release an an album between 81 and 87 knowing it would tank, yet wrote the Guilty, Heartbreaker, Eyes That See In The Dark and Eaten Alive albums for Babs, Dionne, Kenny and Diana, scoring a no.1 here or in the US off each one – and the best selling country single of all time (Islands In The Stream). Their feelings were understandably mixed – “that should be us” said Maurice to Robin when they first heard Heartbreaker on the car radio.

You can buy Barry’s Guilty demos on itunes – got to be worth 80p to hear him sing “I am a woman in love.”

PS regarding longest notes, this is from Everyhit.co.uk. Streisand doesn’t get a look-in:

“Longest Note Held In A Hit
This record is held by Morten Harket, lead singer with group A-Ha. In “Summer Moved On” (no. 33, June 2000) he holds a vocal note for 20.2 seconds. Runner-up, and the man responsible for the longest note held on a solo single is Bill Withers. In his 1978 (and 1988) hit “Lovely Day”, he holds a vocal note for 18 seconds. We’re told that the note is the ‘E’ above ‘middle C’. The longest note held by a woman, is found in “Dim All The Lights,” Donna Summer’s 1979 hit (16 seconds).

It is worth pointing out that a number of recent dance tracks have utilised digital ‘stretching’ techniques to give the impression of extended vocals. We have management / record company confirmation that the notes being held in the above tracks were all done in ‘real time’ and represent genuine vocal skill.”

I’m tangentially interested in Streisand given her status as a gay icon of a certain type that I definitely recognise, but have never actually knowingly heard her (apart from the mighty ‘No More Tears’) – I was surprised to discover that this was her only UK No 1, though, as I’d never heard of it and it’s not a title I think of as a Streisand standard. Do the people familiar with her career consider it “representative”?

(Mariah Carey – who I imagine is to me what Streisand is to lots of older gays – is another whose UK No 1s showcase maybe 1%, and an unimportant 1% at that, of what she’s about, but I guess that is a discussion for a few decades hence.)

Obv there is a degree of history involved in that nine as this is the only record that I can think of which, when played when both of my parents were suitable sloshed, that they would without fail waltz around the living room too. So it brings back happy memories. But I do think it is a beautiful and strident song even without that.

I can’t really hear “Woman In Love” now without being reminded of the superior “Hearbreaker” – I prefer Dionne Warwick’s voice and I think “Heartbreaker” flows better as an arrangement.

That said, “Woman In Love” is a fine recording in its own right. The feel of the opening riff always struck me as melancholic, almost bleak, and I used to feel quite sad as a kid when this came on the radio.

A 6 or 7 from me. 7 if Babs cut back on the histrionic pronunciation of “werrr man”

# 19. That’s uncanny. If it was just you, you are no longer alone. I’m imagining the Brits style duet. Uncharitably, I’m not certain which performer would be more wooden.

So no, this never made a great impact at the time, and despite the feeling that one ‘ought’ to investigate if only from a gay icom perspective, I’ve never really got Babs. As a pop thing, Guilty (the song) was surely better and the Bee Gees certainly went on to produce better third party hits than this one.

“Stomps” rings no bells with me. I think that the Students Union was rebuilt in about 1990, and the term must have gone with the old building. The better discos were always in the smaller ‘Holloways’, which was probably there in the eighties (and which has now been remodelled as ‘Chemistry’).

As No’s 1 and 18 say a real Radio 2 Number 1 this one, something by Manhattan Transfer* and a bit of Captain and Tenneille or Dr Hook the real sound of late70s/eighties Radio Two.

* unlike all the others mentioned Manhattan Transfer did however became briefly respectable – on the soul scene anyway in the mid-80s with ‘The Spice of Life’.

Tom, the Guilty album could be worth a moment of your time – What Kind Of Fool is another Babs/Barry duet, a (very) sweet soul ballad, with Barry aiming for the longest held note which anticipates his next line (hard to explain but will make sense once you hear it).

1980 in a nutshell was knocking on the door behind Woman In Love:
2. Quo – What You’re Proposing (NWOBHM-inspired biggest hit since Down Down)
3. Bad Manners – Special Brew (novelty hit = death knell for ska)
4. Matchbox – When You Ask About Love (decent rockabilly-ish cover anticipating Stray Cats/Polecats revivalism, and onwards to Psychobilly)

Has youth culture ever been more splintered?

“NWOBHM-inspired” — does this mean that Quo were inspired by the NWOBHM to write it, or that the NWOBHM-fans were rushing to buy it? (neither seems terribly likely)

or that it’s actually ABOUT the NWOBHM — which is admittedly my favourite theory —
What you’re proposin’ the other night
As I was leavin’, I looks left and right
And not believin’
And not believin’ that I’d finally be leavin’

“you” is the new wave, what it’s “proposin” is the arrival of this new young heavy sound; and francis can’t believe it’s time for him to leave the stage etc

i don’t even think of quo as being metal, and i’m old and from the midlands (haha like metal)

oh well, they’re better than maiden, ac/dc or sepultura so yay for jon needham and his secret ears

Exuse me?? At the end of “My Coloring Book” on her second album, Barbra holds the last note for 20 seconds. At the end of “Piece of Sky” from “Yentl” she holds that glorious note for 23 seconds. Barbra reigns. For those too closed minded and simple to not be able to appreciate her genius, it is your loss. You’re lucky to be alive in her time.

Back to the cheese and pickle sandwiches with this. My mum bought this and used to sing it in the house. For that reason I can’t hate it, nice memories I guess but its pretty dodgy and I don’t know who Barbara is in love with coz she looks like a geezer to me.

33, I normally struggle with Quo, but “Rock N Roll” is terrific. Best thing they ever did.

Do you remember “I’m all out of love” when the little bloke holds the final note at the end? That’s a big finish. Air Supply indeed. They were aussies, wernt they?

man you sing really good and it touches evryones heart…….

@ Trey Parker # 43:

Mecha Streisand is our god. She rules.

Love this song, I don’t buy the “not much to grab onto” idea either. It’s a sinewy tight production number that uses Streisand’s voice as a conduit. It’s like a beefy version ‘Evergreen’. There’s not much to hold onto because the song is a snake – a long tight muscle. It’s like the anti ‘I Will Survive’ – that song contained thumping beats and orchestra stabs and self-righteous yelled bombast; this contains vague platitudes about life and the importance of holding onto something worth having that flow over you without demanding you agree.

Not sure I agree that ‘Heartbreaker’ is better either; the age of the tacky synth was upon them when they produced that one, and the Dionne vocal can’t hide the squashed bontempi backing. It’s also a pop song more than a ballad; uptempo and hooky. ‘Woman In Love’ is a straight up ballad.

Something I wrote on my blog about the parent album:

http://croydonmunicipal.blogspot.co.uk/

I saw Ms Streisand perform this live in Tel Aviv earlier this Summer. She seemed to be singing it as a favour to her fans where it was clear she’s rather be performing American Songbook classics from the 40s and 50s. Nevertheless, it got one of the loudest and most enthusiastic responses from the crowd which appeared to take her entirely by surprise. My interpretation was that “Woman in Love” is not a song she spent much time thinking out over the past 30+ years. She recorded it. She had a surprise No. 1 and she forgot about it. For my money this is a great song, but not the greatest thing from the Guilty album which still represents one of the great combinations of songwriting and singing, up there with the greatest works by Simon & Garfunkel. I know there are Barry Gibb haters out there and I realize that not everyone has the stomach for La Streisand, but I rate Guilty up there with Jeff Buckley’s Grace, The Bends and The Queen Is Dead as some of the greatest complete albums ever recorded.

Wonderful singing from Barbra in my opinion, but I feel would go for a 4/10 . I agree with Tom that there just isn’t too much to grab on to here.