For fans of Barbra Streisand the holy grail of unreleased albums is a project which began in 1973 but was never completed. Michel Legrand wrote the music and Alan and Marilyn Bergman contributed lyrics to a concept album tentatively titled 'Life Cycle Of A Woman', described by the composer as "an oratorio for one voice and a symphonic orchestra". They began writing it sometime in early 1970 and it took three years to get Streisand into the recording studio. The album was to cover a lifetime, with the first song dealing with birth, and the last with death. In between are songs about childhood, adolescence, a first love at age 16, marriage, and motherhood. Recording sessions took place at TTG Studios in Hollywood, California in April 1973, as Streisand was also laying down tracks for 'Classical Barbra' with Claus Ogerman. Michel Legrand conducted the day-long 'Life Cycle...' session, which also included two Legrand movie theme songs that the Bergmans had written lyrics for but were not part of the 'Life Cycle...' album. Those songs were 'Once You've Been In Love' from the film 'One Is A Lonely Number' and 'The Smile I've Never Smiled' from 'Portnoy’s Complaint'. Streisand tried something new at that 1973 recording session, standing in the middle of the studio surrounded by the orchestra, and she found it thrilling being enveloped by the music, as opposed to standing in an isolated vocal booth with the musicians playing on the other side of the glass. However, it did make the record very difficult to mix, as if the vocal needed to be raised or lowered, it raised or lowered all the music around it. Later, the Bergmans and Legrand reworked the ending on another song written for the 'Life Cycle Of A Woman' album, and Streisand recorded 'Wait' for her 1999 album 'A Love Like Ours'. At the time of the original recording sessions, Streisand wasn't of the opinion that Legrand and his lyricists had fully mapped out their concept, except for the basic 'womb to tomb' idea, and she didn't relate either musically or lyrically with the birth and death songs.
As Legrand didn't want to change them, the idea lost momentum, and they all became involved in other projects. Ultimately, over the years, Streisand, the Bergmans and Legrand recorded only four songs for this project, and my original idea for this album was to start off with those songs and then add some more Streisand/Legrand recordings, for an album that would basically be 'Streisand Sings Legrand'. But as I was deciding which tracks to include, I realised that Legrand and the Bergman's writing style was very much based on life experiences, and some of their other songs could replace the missing ones from the 'Life Cycle...' album. I've therefore come up with a track listing which loosely follows the original concept, starting with the birth, then 'Mother And Child', followed by 'Can You Tell The Moment?', which would have been the third song on the album, then the questioning childhood years with 'Ask Yourself Why'. By the time she is a teenager she is looking for 'Something New In My Life', and she finds it after falling in love, and asking her lover 'What Are You Doing For The Rest Of Your Life?'. Motherhood soon follows, and then later her feelings about her marriage are summed up in 'Once You've Been In Love'. As she reaches her twilight years she reflects on the summer and winter periods of her life, before 'Between Yesterday And Tomorrow' closes the original album. OK, some of the tracks don't stand up to scrutiny of the lyrics, but because the songs are all written by the same people, I think this hangs together very well as a reconstruction of the 'Life Cycle...' album, or as just a collection of Legrand/Bergman songs as sung by Streisand in her prime.
Track listing
01 Birth (Intro)
02 Mother And Child
03 Can You Tell The Moment?
04 Ask Yourself Why
05 How Do You Keep The Music Playing?
06 Pieces Of Dreams
07 Something New In My Life
07 Look
09 What Are You Doing For The Rest Of Your Life?
10 Mother And Child Duo
11 Once You've Been In Love
12 Wait
13 Summer Me, Winter Me
14 Between Yesterday And Tomorrow
03 Can You Tell The Moment?
04 Ask Yourself Why
05 How Do You Keep The Music Playing?
06 Pieces Of Dreams
07 Something New In My Life
07 Look
09 What Are You Doing For The Rest Of Your Life?
10 Mother And Child Duo
11 Once You've Been In Love
12 Wait
13 Summer Me, Winter Me
14 Between Yesterday And Tomorrow
15 Last Breath (Outro)
