Barbra Streisand: C/D?

From ‘Yentl’ to ‘Prince of Tides’ her book is rough going. After that it’s unreadable. I feel as if I’ve learned a lot about her, but not necessarily what she intended to convey.

Do tell

She’s charming in many ways but the relentless disingenuousness is just too much to take. She becomes a bore and then she doubles down on it.

Isn’t that so often the case.

She reads the audiobook herself which surprised me. Not sure why, maybe it's more common than i thought.

I'd be surprised if she didn't.

Yeah she would never relinquish control of something like that. This is one of the themes that the book hammers into the ground.

I’ve seen a handful of those As Read By The Author audiobooks, not sure it’s always a wise choice.

She’s charming in many ways but the relentless disingenuousness is just too much to take. She becomes a bore and then she doubles down on it.

― Josefa,

It's as if wants to project a vanished era's idea of "girlishness."

According to the Spotify page for the audio book it "includes extra anecdotes and [exclusive] music" and is also over 48 hours long.

She reads the audiobook herself which surprised me. Not sure why, maybe it's more common than i thought.

this is honestly very impressive, I wonder how many days they tracked. doing an audiobook is very fucking tiring; you every time you say a word weird or skip a definite object or whatever you start that over, I guess in her cased the engineer just grabs it all and puts it back together instead of stopping, dragging back & punching (which saves a little time) -- but seriously, it takes a week to do 200+ pages, it's WORK.

Debbie Harry read her autobiography, it definitely gives you a different sense of the "voice."

apparently babs’ audiobook digresses from the actual book quite a bit with asides so yknow, babs being babs

_She reads the audiobook herself which surprised me. Not sure why, maybe it's more common than i thought._


this is honestly very impressive, I wonder how many days they tracked. doing an audiobook is very fucking tiring; you every time you say a word weird or skip a definite object or whatever you start that over, I guess in her cased the engineer just grabs it all and puts it back together instead of stopping, dragging back & punching (which saves a little time) -- but seriously, it takes a week to do 200+ pages, it's WORK.

Live at the Bon Soir is amazing. It's a shame they didn't have the noise reduction technology in 1962 to clean up the recording and make this her debut album. I know her actual debut won the Grammy for Best Album, but this live collection is better. The ease and relaxed humor she has at age 20 in front of what was purportedly a sophisticated crowd is almost uncanny.

Babs' half-sister covering Max Frost & The Troopers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmZl1BCaBuI

you know i've been wondering if i should explore Barbra's catalog! i do love her voice.

My two cents:

Get Live at the Bon Soir instead of her actual debut album.
My Name is Barbra and Color Me Barbra are great examples of her classic style.
Stoney End is perhaps the most successful of her "contemporary" albums.

Barbra Streisand... and other musical instruments is her most bizarre album.

Chris Molanphy's Hit Parade podcast just had an episode on her music and chart career, and I learned quite a lot!

https://slate.com/podcasts/hit-parade/2024/02/how-barbra-became-the-original-taylor

I'm waiting for the biog to come out in paperback because i don't care who you are, that hardback can not be easily read by a human.

Chris made the case for its best form being audiobook, not least because song clips are part of it. Based on the shared snippet I'm inclined to agree!

Damn yeah that does sound good. Bono's is like that, so it must be A New Thing these days.

lol at Roslyn Kind up there, she's such a total half-Barbra!