In light of this you can begin to imagine the excitement that greeted the announcement that Barbra's latest album, Release Me, would be a collection of eleven unreleased songs from all stages of her career. Now that the album is here, some of the missing puzzle pieces in Barbra's recording history are falling in to place. Unlike many such compilations of studio rejects, when you can often hear the sound of a barrel being scraped in the background, the quality of the tracks is truly astounding. They also show how Barbra's voice has changed and developed throughout her career, as well as how she has adapted her style and musicianship to match the changing times. The album includes informative sleeve notes that explain the reasons these recordings lay gathering dust for so long and for a fan this is just as fascinating as hearing the music.
When Barbra first emerged on the music scene in the early sixties popular music was still a strange hybrid of crooners, rockers and poppers. The British Invasion was appearing on the horizon, middle America was still sheltering from Elvis' pelvis and mainstream pop music would as often feature full orchestras as it would guitars and drums. Barbra began her career as a nightclub singer and her early albums were filled with standards and popular songs from her live shows. Her voice on these early recordings is crystal clarity and her delivery was full of sensitivity or drama, as the song required. I adore Barbra's voice on these early recordings, for me it is at its most pure, as she seems to be testing her limits and abilities and constantly pushing herself. It is indeed the voice of an actress, but one so gifted that the listener has no trouble buying every syllable she utters. Eventually popular taste and her record label would force Barbra to begin recording more modern pop albums, but one of the lost tunes on Release Me was due to appear on her last hurrah as a standards singer, Simply Streisand, released in 1967. Willow Weep For Me was written in 1932 by George Gershwin's squeeze Ann Ronell and has subsequently been recorded by just about every great jazz artist. Barbra's version is as classy as you would expect, the arrangement and orchestration is lush and full of detail. Her vocal is exquisite, but maybe lacks a wow moment, which she so frequently delivers. Perhaps this is why she abandoned it when selecting the final tracklisting for the album.
A year later Barbra was looking for a way to connect with the zeitgeist and so she tried her hand at the trendy new musical fad, bossa nova. She recorded one of the lesser known of this new breed of songs by the leading bossa nova composer Antonio Carlos Jobim, Lost In Wonderland, possibly for inclusion on her first pop album. However, while an interesting experiment, it is clear why this track hasn't seen the light of day until now. While Streisand has mastered many genres, bossa nova is clearly not her forté. Technically she just about stays with the beat, but she is clearly struggling. Barbra also lacks the necessary languidness to pull off the inherent coolness that bossa nova demands. Let's face it, Barbra likes to be in control and she sounds as if she is fighting her instincts here. It is to her credit that she has included the track on this collection, as it a fascinating piece of history for the Barbra fan, if unlikely to make many lists of favourite tracks.
Barbra's first pop album, 1969's What About Today?, was not a major hit, but she knew that she had to continue to modernise her sound if she was going to remain relevant as a recording artist. In 1970 she began work on an album that was to be entitled The Singer. One of the tracks recorded was the Jimmy Webb composition Didn't We, which has all the trademark subtlety and depth of the best Webb songs. Barbra clearly connects with the song and produces a sterling vocal. However, the record company persuaded Barbra she needed a harder pop sound, so she abandoned the album to begin work on what would become her pop breakthrough, Stoney End. Naturally fans mourn this lost album, although a few tracks recorded were released on The Way We Were album a few years later, this is another glimpse of what might have been.
Another lost track from this era is the standout on Release Me, Randy Newman's poignant I Think It's Going To Rain Today. Barbra recorded the track with Randy on piano as a test recording while they were working on potential Newman songs for Stoney End. The track is a revelation, in one breathtaking take Barbra completely nails the melancholy and honesty required to make this song live. The sparse piano backing allows full focus to be given to that unique voice. Again it is a gift to Streisand fans, an extremely rare opportunity to hear a relatively unvarnished performance from Barbra, instinctual and natural, it is a moment of true greatness. You can also detect here Barbra's voice in transition, from the "stagey" quality of her early works to a more fluid pop sound. For me. this is Barbra in her prime, and her next pop album, Barbra Joan Streisand is in my view the pinnacle of her vocal prowess. What a thrill then to be gifted this performance from that era of one of the best songs ever written by one of the best singers that's ever lived.
Another lost project is the intriguing Life Cycle Of A Woman, which was intended to be a concept piece following a woman's life story from cradle to grave. Despite developing the idea for a number of years and finally recording five songs in 1973, the album was never completed and Barbra eventually abandoned the idea altogether. Two of the five songs destined for the album were released on Just For The Record... and now a third is revealed, the mother/daughter duet Mother And Child. Barbra sings both roles, repeating a self-duet technique she used to stellar effect on A House Is Not A Home/One Less Bell To Answer on her Barbra Joan Streisand album. While the song is lovely and a genuinely touching portrait of the bond between mother and child, I'm not sure the duet part works as well here, as it takes a while to realise Barbra is playing two parts. It may have been more successful if Barbra had recorded it with a child. The overall album concept is definitely intriguing and we can only wonder what the final album would have been like. Excitingly, the final two missing songs are promised to us on a second volume of Release Me, hopefully scheduled for release before 2032!
Of the remaining tracks, there are three that were intended for one of Barbra's hit albums of Broadway songs. When she decided in 1985 to release The Broadway Album she faced intense resistance from her record company who did not believe there was still a mass audience for such material. How wrong they were, the album went to number one on the Billboard charts and was an international smash hit. The opening track on Release Me was intended to be the opening track on The Broadway Album, but when it came time to sequence the record, Barbra plumped for her remake of Sondheim's Putting It Together, which she felt perfectly articulated her artistic struggles in getting the album made (particularly as she got Stephen to rewrite most of the lyrics for that purpose). The losing song, Being Good Isn't Good Enough, is taken from the musical Hallelujah, Baby!, which depicts the civil rights battles of African-Americans. The song highlights the truism that minorities need to be twice as good as the majority to achieve the same success, something that the kooky Jewish girl from Brooklyn could perfectly understand and identify with. It seems a shame that this track was left off the album completely as it is the equal of those that made it, but it also shows Barbra's skill as an editor. Including two tracks with the same theme would have been superfluous and change the overall tone of the album, but it must have been a tough decision to leave it off. All's well that ends well, as we get to enjoy it now.
The Broadway Album was to include a mix of standards, highbrow fare and more pop-oriented material, but as work progressed Barbra decided to omit the pop tracks she had recorded in favour of the more revered material. One of those pop rejects was the showstopping ballad Home from The Wiz, the all-Black version of The Wizard Of Oz. We get to hear it now and while Barbra does a great job with it, I believe she chose wisely. Part of the magic of The Broadway Album is that it takes theatre songs and makes them accessible for a pop audience, Home, though strong, is not in the same league as the songs of Sondheim, Gershwin, Bernstein and Hammerstein.
In 1988 Barbra began work on Back To Broadway, an irresistible follow-up, but was unhappy with the balance of material, so set it aside. The album bearing that title that was released in 1993 was very different from these early plans. Two songs were recorded, including a medley of How Are Things In Glocca Morra?and Heather On The Hill, from Finian's Rainbow and Brigadoon respectively. The combination is magical and this is a standout track on the album. It is another sign of Barbra's artistic integrity that she walked away from such strong material to wait for the timing to be right to complete the project. It would have been easy for her to plunder the Broadway goldmine ad nauseum, but Barbra is always more interested in stretching herself as an artist than constantly repeating the same formula.
Few artists could afford to have such high quality rejects sitting gathering dust for decades, thank heavens that they were saved. Release Me works as an album in its own right, but it is also a documentary of pop music history. The limitations of an LP record were a real restraint on artists in terms of editing their material, meaning that albums included the best tracks, with real thought having to be given to what was included . In my view this is something sadly lacking in the digital age. Just because you have 80 minutes available doesn't mean you need to fill it with every doodle and demo in your head.
One of the most charming aspects of Release Me is the little interludes from the recording sessions that feature on some tracks. They make you feel like we are actually there picking through the vaults and uncovering the riches within. Whether it was turning 70 (hard to believe) or a desire to control her own legacy, Barbra is finally beginning to curate her career with an eye to posterity. As well as another volume of songs from her vault, we are promised a 12-disc DVD collection of her musical career. This is not to suggest that she plans to wrap up anytime soon, there is also a brand new album of duets coming, which will include one with her son, Jason Gould, who has later in life decided to launch his own singing career. I'm not surprised it has taken him this long: look who he has to follow! So while this is far from the final chapter in Barbra's career, it is an important one, like the coda to a mystery novel when most of those nagging questions are finally answered.
If you enjoyed reading this blog, please consider forwarding it or linking to it from your Facebook or Twitter account. You can post feedback below or to my Twitter account, @divasblogger. Sign up for alerts at divasblogger@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter. Release Me is out now on Columbia Records.
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