Thursday, April 26, 2012

Life on Mars

Song: Life on Mars
Artist: Barbra Streisand
Album: ButterFly





So my friend Nick has started to collect vinyl over the last couple years, and recently a look through his growing collection stopped me in my tracks.  Among the 80's R&B and funk was this goofy cover of a stick of butter with a fly on it, a Barbra Streisand album, "ButterFly."  I'm not really a fan, or more accurately, kind of dislike all her music... but imagine the jolt I got looking at the album to see track seven as... "Life on Mars?"  As in... no, no way.

Yup, Barbra Streisand covered David Bowie.  It's kind of terrible but WTF... Streisand covered Bowie? Well, the record also contains Babs covering Bob Marley ("Guava Jelly" with some way dialed-down steel drum) Bill Withers, and Buck Owens.  Odd odd odd.

"Life on Mars" is done pretty straight-forwardly and is pretty-ish, given the strength of the song.  But man, what a head scratcher.

Apparently, in a 1992 interview with Larry King, Barbara (who just turned 70 this week) was quoted as saying that "ButterFly" was her least favorite of all her albums.  And it's the only one I now own.  Ha!

Enjoy.

Life on Mars
Guava Jelly
Grandma's Hands

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