“ Artistically, Streisand`s turning point came in the late `60s, less than a decade after her professional debut. Though still in her 20s, she already was beginning to rely on gaudy vocal mannerisms. After her brilliant work in Jule Styne`s stage show 'Funny Girl' in 1964 and her TV specials that quickly followed, Streisand had begun to slip into unwitting self-satire.
The CD excerpts from her 'Belle of 14th Street' TV special (1967), for instance, show Streisand indulging in a huge vibrato, garish vocal slides and hyper-melodramatic readings of lyrics. In her Central Park concert (1968), she turns even 'Silent Night' into a kind of star vehicle, distorting its phrases as if it were some big-finish Broadway number…
So what happened? Why did one of the most spectacular pop voices of this century turn from concerts to film?
To this listener, the answer is clear: As a singer, Streisand had quickly run out of ideas. Blessed with a magnificent instrument and rewarded with early success, she could find nowhere to go interpretively, no meaningful way to develop or deepen her work.
Thus through the `70s, her recordings (those already released and those unreleased until now) simply became increasingly overwrought and overproduced. Listen to Streisand`s syrupy recording of 'We`ve Only Just Begun' (1971), and the Carpenters` famous version will sound, by comparison, restrained. Check out Streisand`s recording of 'You`re the Top'-its phrases badly bent out of shape, its lyrics often unintelligible-and you will hardly believe this is the Cole Porter original.
So Streisand, having reached an artistic dead end, gradually withdrew from music and plunged into film.
It`s worth noting that it is not always so: Just consider earlier vocal stars such as Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. Like Streisand, each won fame as a singer early in life; like Streisand, each ventured into film.
But Garland, even as her voice began to deteriorate in later years, remained-to the end-the most commanding female balladeer of her generation. Fitzgerald, at 73, is singing more inventively and creatively than ever. And Sinatra, at 75, offers a dramatic insight that only a lifetime in music can yield.
Streisand never was able to reach that level of interpretive depth in music. Ultimately, it seems that only the most hard-core Streisand fans will be able to endure the more narcissistic aspects of this CD package. The many tracks devoted to recordings of Streisand accepting prizes and accolades test one`s patience. Ditto the 28 pages (of a 92-page program booklet) devoted to listing more awards.”
…ouch
