Kat: Friday, Barbra Streisand released her latest album RELEASE ME 2. It's new and it's not new. In fact, consider it Second Hand Rose, if you will. Surely, "Jake the plumber" would. The ten track album -- eleven if you purchase it via Target -- consists of previously unreleased tracks which she recorded for other projects between the years of 1971 through 2014.
Much attention has been given to her duet with Willie Nelson "I'd Want It To Be You." Honestly, their voices just don't work together. Not on this duet. He's sang with many -- including very well with Joni Mitchell on "Cool Water." Their voices just do not meet on "I'd Want It To Be You" and that's probably why the track was left off the 2014 album PARTNERS.
See, that's the thing, all of these tracks were already judged to not be worthy of release. But she's gathered them -- as she did previously on 2012's RELEASE ME -- and is issuing them to . . . please fans? Maybe just to make money, let's be honest. If she wanted to please fans, her career would have gone so much differently.
Barbra is a tremendous artist. Her voice is a one-of-a-king instrument. She more or less shaped her career single-handedly and did so by carving out a niche where none existed and where people didn't believe any would ever exist.
So you could argue that the true test of RELEASE ME 2 is to examine Barbra's judgments.
In that regard, "The Rainbow Connection" stands out. This duet with Jim Henson (voicing Kermit) is the highlight of RELEASE ME 2. It's a wonderful recording and humanizes Barbra in a way few recordings have. It was recorded in 1979 for the WET album.
Not including it?
One of the great mistakes of Barbra's career. That album sold very well because it included her duet with Donna Summer -- "Enough Is Enough (No More Tears)" -- a monster hit that made it to number one. The WET album was a 'concept' album. That's really stretching the term "concept," but that's what Barbra and COLUMBIA insisted. All the songs were about water. For "Enough Is Enough" to make the cut, this is a true story, Barbra insisted that an opening be inserted. Yes, folks, despite Jason Gould (her son) loving the song, Barbra would not have included it had the line "It's raining, it's pouring . . ." not been added.
The nine track album, though not a true concept album, is a strong one with seven strong tracks. "Niagara" is just amazing. "Kiss Me In The Rain," the title track, the duet with Donna Summer, ''After The Rain," "On Rainy Afternoons" BS "Kiss Me In The Rain" are great songs and wonderful performances ("On Rainy Afternoons" may be the finest recorded performance Barbra did in the studios in the seventies). But "I Ain't Gonna Cry Tonight" is a big clincker -- the same way "You're A Step In The Right Direction" is on her EMOTION It shouldn't have been on the album. "The Rainbow Connection" should have.
And what's really bad, for Barbra's judgment, is she also includes "Splish Splash" -- a remake of that oldie. It's completely wrong for WET. And it was embarrassing to hear her sing it in 1979. My grandmother bought me the album. And I felt that way the first time I listened and I still feel that way today.
"The Rainbow Connection" should have been included -- "Splish Splash" and "I Ain't Gonna Cry Tonight" should not have been included. They were and remain substandard.
Did greed play a part in her decision? Barbra got a co-song writing credit on the fifties hit "Splish Splash." Is that why she included it?
Did Barbra go back in a time machine to co-write the song? No. She got credit for some very inane chatter on the song. It was not an earned or deserved credit but it did put a little more money in her purse.
Speaking of credits, "You Light Up My Life." Don't groan. Barbra's not singing that ridiculous song that Debbie Boone made famous before she got in trouble for the con job she was helping to carry out with that pimple cream.
No, this is a Carole King song.
And, honestly, it's not a very good Carole King song.
Carole wrote it when her creativity was running on fumes. She's stopped pretending to be Laura Nyro (that helped her achieve TAPESTRY). And so she pretended to be someone else, anyone else, for her album FANTASY. It's not a great song. I wouldn't even consider it a good song.
In fact, if you'd asked me this time last week, I would've told you it was the worst song Carole ever wrote.
What changed?
Barbra's vocals. On that track, she reminds you of just how talented she can be when she commits to a song -- even a half-baked one. She brings the track to life.
It didn't make the album it was recorded for: BUTTERFLY.
And that's the other reason I'm writing this review.
Barbra recorded this song at the first session for BUTTERFLY.
The track, RELEASE ME 2's credits explain, was produced by Barbra, Jay Landers and Jochem van der Saag.
Anyone see the problem?
Let me say it slowly: BUTTEER FLY.
It's one of the most embarrassing periods for Barbra and BUTTERFLY remains her worst selling English language album to this day.
Let's be Sophia and "Picture it, 1974 . . ."
Barbra had gone man-to-man, as Joni Mitchell might sing -- and did on WILD THINGS RUN FAST -- following her 1968 split from Elliott Gould. Around this time, she falls for Lesley Ann Warren's husband Jon Peters who styles her wig for FOR PETE'S SAKE. (Don't e-mail that Jon doesn't do wigs. I confirmed this with C.I. Yes, he didn't do wigs but he did do it for Barbra -- she did not cut her hair for FOR PETE'S SAKE, that was a wig and C.I. suggests that anyone who wants to check on that check with Kaye Pownall -- that would be the woman who did Barbra's hair on films throughout the 70s.) So that's how they began and Jon wanted to be more than a hair dresser. Barbra gave many defensive interviews at this time and on through the seventies insisting that no one is 'just' anything.
They certainly aren't when they sleep with an artist with her pull.
So Barbra makes Jon the producer of her album BUTTERFLY. And numerous people quit the project and numerous people tell columnists that they deserve credit and that Peters did nothing.
Appears that they were right since Barbra doesn't credit him for this track. Per C.I., "You Light Up My Life" was recorded with other songs at the first date (including a still unreleased track entitled "Type Thang") and Peters was in the studio.
So what gives, Barbra?
She wanted to subsume herself to Jon Peters at that point in her life. It was a passionate -- and pathetic -- romance -- read director Frank Pierson's "My Battles with Barbra and Jon" about making A STAR IS BORN. Now she apparently feels differently -- possibly because Jon Peters voted for Donald Trump. So now, all this time later, she can tell the truth that (a) her judgment was off in letting Jon Peters take over her career and that (b) all the engineers who claimed that they were actually producing BUTTERFLY -- the ones Barbra insisted to the press that she'd never event met -- were doing the work and Jon was not.
The things she did for love.
Clearly, when she tests her own judgments, that one comes up short. Hope to read about that in her upcoming memoir now that she's finally finished it.
