Barbara Streisand "Evergreen"

Forgive me everyone: Barbra Barbra Barbra!

This song was released around the same early-teens time period in my life when I first became aware of my attraction to other guys and experienced my first guy crush; so it always makes me sort of smile and think of that time (and of him).

It's a classic, for sure. One of her three signature songs ('People' and 'The Way We Were' are the other two).

There has always been a little controversy with her participation with the song. She has always maintained that she composed the music and Williams wrote the lyrics (as you've said). However, for years, Williams' team has maintained that she contributed very little to the music composition (I think the first two lines ?) and he did the rest. Her very small contribution gave her a writing credit, which in turn has made her very wealthy and won her an Oscar. Of course, Streisand denies this - but how many times has she mentioned his contribution to the song, how many times has she ever acknowledged him or said his name in the (nearly) past 50 years ?

it made "A Star is Born" bearable

I always have loved it, for its musicality and simplicity.

I'll never understand how both she and Linda Ronstadt were SO freakin' lazy about writing. As we can see from this example, if you are famous enough you can just strum a few chords, have a co-writer take over and do all the heavy lifting, and still take a credit and make a bundle (ask Madonna). Both of these women could have been printing money if they had just put forth the SLIGHTEST effort. Linda in every interview: "Well, I don't write, so..." Girl, just TRY.

The song and the movie always reminded me so much of "the man that (sic) got away" that I never bought the record, and I didn't see the movie until earlier this year. It was so mired in its own crapulence, I didn't make it past 50 minutes. A shanda from the Didions.

I don’t believe she actually writes or plays an instrument. If she was a real songwriter she would have a body of work to show. It’s so obvious how she added the part in her A Star is Born where she’s writing and playing a guitar to Evergreen. In reality she probably wrote a line or two of the lyrics. That was right when Gaga’s ASIB came out and she was really writing and singing her own songs both on and off screen. . She didn’t want this new megastar to one up her. All of a sudden she’s on Netflix talking about how she added the deleted scene where she writes and plays guitar. I guess a divas ego never dies no matter how old she is.

That song is pure Paul Williams. Babs sang it, period. Credit stealing is rampant by pop divas.

Barbra contributed nothing to the lyrics to Evergreen exept being such a pushy pain in the ass that Paul went into hiding and stopped taking her calls so he could finish the lyrics without her constantly asking for improvements and then changing her mind again and again. Babs sent him a potted evergreen to lure him out of hiding and when he reappeared the lyrics were done. One final thing she asked for was to exchange the position of the first two lines".We´re gonna get laughed out of the town starting a song with singing about am easy-chair" he remembers thinking but gave in to Babs final demand and the rest is history.

The rumour about her not writing the melody was alleged in an 1980ies bio of Babs and taking out of the book before publication. It was the other song from ASIB "Lost Inside Of You" where Barbra played an unfinished melody she had been toying with for Leon Russel and he contributed a counter-melody and the lyrics. They shared equal credit "written by" on that one.

Paul Williams also had some nice things to say about Streisand. She asked him what he needed for his writing process and he joked "I can´t write without white-wine and peanuts". Next time he arrived at Barbras house there were bottles of wine and little bowls with nuts all over the place.

[quote]PW – One of the most exhausting, frustrating, exhilarating experiences of my life. Ending with winning the Oscar.

[quote]PW – I’ve had a very little contact with her, and only since I have re-emerged, have I cleaned up some relationships. I wish her the best, I think that she is a brilliantly talented lady.

[quote]Through the years I have had to make amends to various people. I called and made amends to Barbra about things that I had said about her, that weren”t very kind. I thought that they were very funny, at the time, – in fact they were – but they weren’t very kind. She was very sweet about it, a terrific lady.

[quote]PW – We have both been very fortunate, and Barbra has recorded it again and again. The song has made us both a lot of money and I am very grateful.

[quote]I always joke that I think Barbra got bored with songwriting quite quickly because she got the Oscar first time out. Where can you go after that?

[quote] Me i dabble.....my career is 46years old and in all that time i´ve written approximately 10 songs,which averages out to be about 2,3 songs per deacade. So i´ll never be Horovitz

Streisand wrote the music. There is nothing in Paul Williams’ song portfolio that sounds anything remotely like Evergreen.

You can tell Streisand wrote the music because it’s so unique - it has the mark of someone unconstrained by conventional song construction. There is no chorus. It’s what makes it such a compelling, engaging listen. The song just increases in intensity, there is no sense of repetition or a hook. It is beautiful, delicate and sensual, breathtaking, like love itself.

It is a unique classic. Nothing kitsch about it. Morris Albert’s Feelings is kitsch. Evergreen is a stone cold classic.

R12 - Thank you for setting us straight about your Mom's songwriting talent, Jason Gould !

I wish!

[quote]I'll never understand how both she and Linda Ronstadt were SO freakin' lazy about writing.

Ronstadt was even worse, because most of her songs were covers of other artist's songs. She had a powerful voice, but she wasn't much of an artist.

[quote] She had a powerful voice, but she wasn't much of an artist.

Really, R15? Having a great voice as Ronstadt had doesn't count toward artistry? Fuck outta here.