ODD NEW BARBRA PRODUCT...

For Babs fans like me, the arrival of the Streisand TV Specials to DVD is most exciting!

However, that doesn't mean one doesn't have to marvel at the oddness that is her 1973 TV special.


(odd and creepy cover of an Oscar & Hammerstein song...)

I can remember watching it on the big color TV in my Grandmother's living room. I guess I was about 6 years old. I remember being confused by it --- but mezmorized.

...I had a similar reaction tonight. ...32 years later.


(sing along with Schubert)


(Ray & Babs 'do' a Melanie song, then followed by a cover of a country song...)


(Barbra and Ray's girls gettttttt downnnnn...)


(Barbra funks it up --- and does some rather odd dance moves...)


(Touching on the experimental --- Barbra does a Rick Wakeman kind of thing!)


(...dealing with the destined Wakeman/electronic/moog issues of the day)


(Long before Bjork, Barbra was performing a concerto for voice ...and household applicances. Here she performs with mixers)


(musical electric toothbrushes...)


(sing with a washing machine...)


(...and the lovely sound of early 70's hair dryers)


(...doing a Middle Eastern belly dance thing)


(doing a Spain kind of thing. ...I think she may have borrowed Sonny Bono for this number, but he isn't credited)


(going Japanese on our ass)


(...and, off to India we go!)


(half-breed? one fifth, maybe?)


(trainspotting with Babs)

...but, I think my personal favorite is her "trip" to Africa. Yes, kids -- Barbra is really a woman of color.


(???????????????)


(Is she really doing that? ...yes, I think she is)


(what make this all the more odd is that she is doing an African-influenced cover of an old Ethyl Merman song)

Really strange, funny and uncomfortable. There is one really great moment in this oddity --- a performance of the Truman Capote/Harold Arlen song, "Never Has Seen Snow" --- great song and a great delivery.

The first two specials from the 60's are true classics, tho. And, there is something somehow really "creative" about building a TV musical variety hour special around Barbra Streisand and Jason Robards in some Vaudville act. There is actually a 10 minute performance of Shakespeare --- straight up. And, Jason Robards was kind of hot back in the late 60's. Who knew?!?!?


(Babs 1973 --- having not yet linked up to the mainstream)