Although my posts often follow on from each other and are somewhat related, the two I wrote last week (from my sickbed) were very different indeed with no obvious link at all. Yet again however a strange synchronicity has come about, and this is the post that links them.
WARNING: It’s all about to get very girly!
In my last post I featured the song Single Girl by The Primitives/Sandy Posey (take your pick). It was all about a girl feeling a bit sad and lonely in a “great big town”. One of the best-known groups of “Single Girls” were those Manhattan-based stars of Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw and her pals, also at times known to feel a bit sad and lonely in a great big town (although not that often to be fair).
This reminded me that one of my favourite scenes from a SATC episode was the one where Carrie realises that her failed relationship with Mr Big (the nickname her ex-boyfriend is given – he was supposed to be The Big One, the one she married) was down to the same reason that it didn’t work out for Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand in the 1973 film The Way We Were. The world is made up of “complicated girls” with wild curly hair (Carrie and Barbra) and “simple girls”, the ones with tame straight hair – Big and Redford chose the simple girls!
As mentioned above, the female star of TWWW was Barbra Streisand. Who then appeared on the cover of the magazine that pops through my letterbox on a Saturday? – Yes, it was Barbra Streisand. I don’t know what it is about Streisand but she has always just looked so beautiful and timeless to me – Gorgeous hair, skin and that kinky nose. She is one of a very small group of artists who have won Grammys, Emmys, Tonys and Oscars, such is the breadth of her talent – The Queen of the Divas indeed.
Got me thinking and joy of joys I discovered that TWWW resides on Netflix so (again from my sickbed) I decided to give it another viewing as I have shockingly never watched it all the way through from beginning to end in one sitting. Of course I had to have a little weep once we got to that scene at the end where Katie (Barbra) tells Hubbell (Robert) that “his girl is lovely” (although she is no doubt crying inside).
Barbra Streisand doesn’t sing in that one but she did record the lovely theme song which contains the following lines:
Can it be that it was all so simple then
Or has time rewritten every line
If we had the chance to do it all again, tell me, would we, could we……?
Ironically, last year, after failing miserably to co-ordinate a date for a reunion weekend with my old “Single Girl” friends, I jokingly sent them an email quoting those very lines with the addendum – Well, apparently not! I thought it was quite funny….but they didn’t. We are all just about talking again now (perhaps that cultural reference was lost on them).
But back to Barbra, it has also of course been known for her to record great duets with some of the biggest artists of the day. Back in 1980 she recorded Guilty with Barry Gibb, on his own, without the rest of The Bee Gees. And this is where the reference to my second post of last week comes in – On St Valentine’s Day I featured a Bee Gees‘ love song and wrote about how sad I felt watching Barry, the lone surviving brother, all on his own at this year’s Grammys, watching a tribute being performed for the 40th anniversary of the album Saturday Night Fever.
Guilty by Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb:
I am quite frankly amazed that the song Guilty only made it to No. 34 in the UK Singles Chart but looking again at the video clip, Barry and Barbra (nice ring to it) did look oh so very white in it, and this was very much the era of new wave, post-punk and ska where the artists wore very little white indeed and were much, much edgier in terms of their output. Still a great duet however where each of them gets their own boy/girl lines and “nothing to be guilty of” in terms of liking it, as we don’t do that around here any more. The Bee Gees were great songwriters and as mentioned last week I am very proud to have come out and admitted to being a fan.
So, “What’s It All About?” – Who knew that the simple girls always get their man whereas the complicated girls don’t? Well, maybe they didn’t in TWWW, but thirty years later in SATC, Carrie Bradshaw did end up marrying Big. Yes, it turned out he’d made a massive mistake and he did want a complicated girl after all!
As someone with very tame, straight hair but who is not necessarily always simple this is good to know. Sadly back in 1973 it just didn’t seem to be the case but perhaps relationships have evolved and even complicated girls now can have it all!
Until next time….
Guilty Lyrics
(Song by Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb)
Shadows falling baby, we stand alone
Out on the street anybody you meet got a heartache of their own
(It oughta be illegal)
Make it a crime to be lonely or sad
(It oughta be illegal)
You got a reason for livin’
You battle on with the love you’re livin’ on
You gotta be mine
We take it away
It’s gotta be night and day
Just a matter of time
And we got nothing to be guilty of
Our love will climb any mountain near or far, we are
And we never let it end
We are devotion
And we got nothing to be sorry for
Our love is one in a million
Eyes can see that we got a highway to the sky
I don’t wanna hear your goodbye
Pulse’s racing, darling
How grand we are
Little by little we meet in the middle
There’s danger in the dark
(It oughta be illegal)
Make it a crime to be out in the cold
(It oughta be illegal)
You got a reason for livin’
You battle on with the love you’re buildin’ on
You gotta be mine
We take it away
It’s gotta be night and day
Just a matter of time
And we got nothing to be guilty of
Our love will climb any mountain near or far, we are
And we never let it end
We are devotion
And we got nothing to be sorry for
Our love is one in a million
Eyes can see that we got a highway to the sky
I don’t wanna hear your goodbye
Don’t wanna hear your goodbye
I don’t wanna hear your
And we got nothing, and we got nothing to be guilty of
Our love will climb any mountain near or far, we are
And we never let it end
We are devotion
And we got nothing to be sorry for
Our love is one in a million
Eyes can see that we got a highway to the sky
Don’t wanna hear your goodbye
Don’t wanna hear your
And we got nothing, and we got nothing to be guilty of
Our love will climb any mountain near or far, we are
What's It All About? 
I’m afraid I’m such a non-girly girl that I’ve never watched Sex and The City nor The Way We Were…. I feel a little out of line with my gender at times! But I love that whole theory about the simple and the complicated, interesting – and I’ve known a couple of (complicated) men who have always been drawn to the complicated girls when really the simple is what they needed…. it always ended in tears (or divorce!)
That must also render me somewhere in the middle (with short cropped hair that looks straight but is naturally wavy when it grows….) ?!
PS Hope you’re feeling much better now too…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi there – I’m afraid when it comes to chick flicks I’m an old romantic. Have watched SATC all the way through 3 times (it’s more about relationships than sex to be fair) and Carrie Bradshaw is a writer with a weekly column in a NYC newspaper, so is my idol!
Yes it is interesting isn’t it about the simple and complicated girls! Maybe that’s what is meant by opposites being attracted to each other. Then again no-one wants to be called a simple girl but there are definitely those who are a lot less “complicated” than others – I do have very naturally straight hair so not really sure what that says about me. Think I am quite easy to live with though (so I’ve been told) so maybe I am indeed one of the less complicated ones after all. All just a bit of fun really but if you do get a chance to watch TWWW I would thoroughly recommend it – Barbra Streisand is very feisty and political in it (which is why it doesn’t work out) but you have to admire her. As for Mr Redford, he is the “golden child”!
PS – Yes feeling much better but just had my first ever migraine this morning at work – not sure if it’s still a cold symptom or whether the thousands of lines of codes and numbers attached to the new job all got a bit too much for me! Wish I could earn money from doing this rather than from analysing thousands of lines of numbers – much more fun!!
LikeLike
One zillion per cent agree what a great song “Guilty” was and Bazza and Babs were the ideal duo to sing it. The lyrics are superb and the “It oughta be illegal” refrain is a stroke of genius. I was never really a fan of the Bee Gees (aside from To Love Somebody”,
“Nights on Broadway” – of which Candi Staton did the ace version – and “Love So Right” ) or Barbara Streisand (except for “What’s Up Doc” which should be in eyeryone’s top 10 comedy films list) but they did write some fine love songs.
I think my opinion of the Bee Gees was severely damaged by the spoof band The Hee Bee Gee Bees whose album “439 Golden Greats – Never Mind the Originals Here’s the Hee Bee Gee Bees” should be in every music fan’s collection.
At the risk of being banned for life from your wonderful blog, here’s The Hee Bee Gee Bees singing their biggest hit “Meaningless Songs (in Very High Voices)” live on Swedish TV.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks – I think! Yes a lot of society’s problems could be averted if being sad and lonely was made illegal (great refrain as you say).
Of course I know all about the HeeBeeGeeBees and their “body of work” has already been referred to last week when I wrote my St V’s Day post. Yes that era in particular caused a lot of mirth but would everyone have picked up on it if not for the comedy sketches going viral, so to speak? There were plenty of other artists at that time wearing the same sort of clothes and singing the same kind of songs (albeit not in quite such high voices) who escaped the parody. They didn’t help themselves I suppose by getting a bit miffed about it all – Do you remember when they walked out of a Clive Anderson interview after he started to crack a few jokes? Can’t really take yourselves too seriously and James Blunt I see is now beating the critics at their own game so good on him.
Anyway, Guilty is still a mighty fine song and Streisand did an equally good job with Neil Diamond (and of course I love the duet with Kris Kristofferson although he doesn’t really sing a note!).
LikeLike
To be fair to the HeeBeeGeeBees – they developed from my favourite comedy radio show “Radioactive” (still sometimes played on Radio 4 Extra) and had a great songwriter in Philip Pope, who also wrote songs for “Spitting Image” and “Not the Nine O’Clock News” back in the day. I missed your piece about the HeeBeeGeeBees in the Valentine’s Day post. I think my eyesight may be worse than I thought. Anyways – heading back there to check it out. Cheers.
LikeLike
Hi – It was a comment that was left by Mr S actually that mentioned the HBGBs – Yes they left their mark on these poor brothers!
LikeLike