Luckiest Music Generation: Barbra Streisand - Stony End [View all]

[Genki Hikari]

I mentioned yesterday that a diverse array of artists covered songs written by Laura Nyro. A couple of those renditions are quite famous, but Barbara Streisand's version of "Stony End" has sorta slipped through the cracks of time. Maybe because the idea of Streisand and a more rock-oriented sound was too weird or jarring in 1971, given that her fame came from Broadway and American Songbook roots.

It is on the strange side to hear her in a more "rock" song, but I don't think she does a bad job at all with it. I do think she was a little too stylized and restrained, when she needed to trust her voice and really cut loose. She would get the idea later in the 70s, but maybe she was still too young here to be as sure of herself in a new genre as she would be then.

On a shallow note about the video itself, am I the only one that thinks Babs had an uncanny gift for choosing hairdos that were both forward-thinking and flattering to her? Save for that 70s frizzy abomination, her hair choices have been fantastic.