David Remnick: Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour.

Barbra Streisand: Hi. Sorry to be a little late.

David Remnick: Not at all. How are you?

Barbra Streisand: [laughs] Oh my God. How am I?

David Remnick: Do you recognize that voice? Sure you do.

Barbra Streisand: Okay, let me see here. How about if I just do that? Is that okay?

David Remnick: Poyfect.

Barbra Streisand: Poyfect. What song was that that I did that?

David Remnick: I think you said poyfect more than once in your career. [laughs] For 60 years, Barbra Streisand has been a huge presence on the American scene. Singing at first in nightclubs when she was a teenager, she went on to conquer Broadway and Hollywood. Streisand was not a stand up comedian, but she was and remains hilarious, with a personality to match her talent.

There's a string of firsts attached to her name. For one thing, she's the youngest person ever to achieve the EGOT. She was just 28 when she had already received the Emmy, the Grammy, the Oscar, and the Tony. With the movie Yentl, she became the first woman to star, direct, write, and produce a major studio movie.

Barbra Streisand: Anyway, you're interesting.

David Remnick: Well, thank you. You're not so bad yourself.

Barbra Streisand: No, I'm interesting.

David Remnick: I gotta tell you, I read your book. I loved it. What's it like to finish a memoir that's that ambitious, that complete? Is it a satisfying thing to go back over your life from beginning to its most recent days? What's it like emotionally?

Barbra Streisand: No, emotionally, it was a pain in the ass. I mean, the point is I knew I should, for the ages, for the next millennium, I should have a review of my life, but for years and years, I thought about it, but never did it.

David Remnick: Was it painful?

Barbra Streisand: Yes, it was.

David Remnick: What was painful about it?

Barbra Streisand: Oh, just thinking at my life growing up without a father, and a father who was completely wonderful, I hear. I read [crosstalk]--

David Remnick: Your father was an academic who was gone by the time you were one or two, right?

Barbra Streisand: 15 months old. Yes.

David Remnick: His death remained a mystery to you when you were growing up and even when you were writing the book?

Barbra Streisand: Yes, yes, because as I said in the book, I would ask my mother, "Why didn't you speak about him? Why didn't you tell me about my father?" He's so interesting. He was interested in sports and education. He was an intellectual, but he was also an adventurer.

David Remnick: Your mother is portrayed in this book as a very difficult presence. Withholding doesn't begin to describe it.

Barbra Streisand: Yes. I always thought growing up that my mother was jealous of me because she wanted to be famous. She wanted to be known as a great singer.

David Remnick: Did you, by the process of writing this book, feel that you came to understand your mother better or to reconcile with her in some way, or is that really out of reach?

Barbra Streisand: Yes. I feel pathos now for my mother. I feel like I'm so sorry that she couldn't fulfill her dreams. My mother once told me she would stand with a broom and make believe it's a microphone, or she went with her sister to interview at the Metropolitan Opera, but she was too scared to sing. Or she didn't want to travel from Brooklyn to go there. There was always some excuse.

David Remnick: Did she ever get any [unintelligible 00:04:12] from your own success, or that was impossible?

Barbra Streisand: No. That was hard for her. After that understanding of my mother, I feel sad. I feel sad for her, not angry anymore. It's a sadness that she was unfulfilled. She did have a lovely voice, a soprano voice, very different than mine, but a very pretty voice. Her father would sing in the shul sometimes, so in other words, it's in the DNA, I think, in the vocal cords.

David Remnick: So much so that the way you describe it, you began singing, you had maybe one lesson, but it was like you emerged from Zeus's head with that voice. We hear it on your debut, The Barbra Streisand Album, and there is the Barbra Streisand voice fully formed.

[MUSIC - Barbra Streisand: Cry Me a River]

Barbra Streisand: Now, you say you're lonely

You cried the lone night through

Well, you can cry me a river

Cry me a river

I cried a river over you

David Remnick: Is that accurate to say?

Barbra Streisand: Well, yes, because the apartment building I lived in in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, had a beautiful sound in the lobby. I loved the sound, the echo. I loved the echo in that lobby at five years old, five, six years old, and so I would sometimes sing in that lobby with nobody there. I never would sing around anybody. To this day, I'm very sensitive to the sound of the music that I'm recording.

David Remnick: Tell me about this record of duets. This is something that Sinatra did in his time. You've done a version of it in, I think, 2014, an album of duets with other performers. Is it accomplished by two people in the studio together, or do you send audio files back and forth?

Barbra Streisand: It depends. I mean, I like to just sing alone, actually. I mean, I did with Paul McCartney because we were filming it, but I went into the studio and did a couple of renditions of it, and that's what we played, even though I sang live in the studio.

David Remnick: With Paul.

Barbra Streisand: Yes, I just sang again.

[MUSIC - Barbra Streisand & Paul McCartney: My Valentine]

Barbra Streisand & Paul McCartney: And so I do (And so I do) without a care (Without a care)

I know that someday soon, the sun is gonna shine

Barbra Streisand: I liked my original one, a line from here and a line from there, whatever, but I was singing with him, so it really doesn't matter. It's very easy to sing a song you like.

David Remnick: In 1971, Bob Dylan wrote a letter to one of his friends, Tony Glover, and he said that he had written Lay Lady Lay about you.

[MUSIC - Bob Dylan: Lay Lady Lay]

Bob Dylan: Lay, lady, lay

Lay across my big brass bed

David Remnick: Then, in 1978, you had, I think an exchange of letters or flowers or something like that.

Barbra Streisand: Right, right, right.

David Remnick: Then, in 2025, many years later, you do this recording together. Had you been talking with him, communicating with him, the idea of doing something together?

Barbra Streisand: Well, my representatives tried to speak to him, I guess. The fun thing is that we were both 19 years old in Greenwich Village. Never met each other. I was at The Bon Soir, and he was playing the guitar somewhere else. I remember him sending me flowers and writing me a card in different color pencils, like a child's writing, and "Would you sing with me?" I thought, "What would I sing with him? How could we get together on this?" [chuckles]

I couldn't understand it at that time, but it was sure wonderful to have picked a song, The Very Thought Of You, that-- it was actually my manager's favorite song that I never sang over 60 years of being with him. I sang it for his 80th birthday where I gave him a party in my backyard, but that was it, and Bob loved that song.

[MUSIC - Barbra Streisand & Bob Dylan: The Very Thought Of You]

Barbra Streisand & Bob Dylan: The little ordinary things that everyone ought to do

I'm living in a kind of daydream

Barbra Streisand: It was a wonderful experience because he's very shy, and like I am, but he was wonderful to work with. I mean, I was told he didn't want any direction, but when I talked to him about things that I suggested, he was so pliable. He was so open to suggestions. I mean, everything I heard about him just went out the window. He stood on his feet for three hours with me.

David Remnick: Does work mean something different to you at this stage of your life than it did when you were 30, 40, 50 years old? Is it something that you're as obsessed with as ever, or is it something quite different?

Barbra Streisand: I never thought of that. It seemed like just great to record with people I trust. I was so shocked and happy that my voice was there, and I was hitting those high notes. I walked into the room after I sang that first take and everybody was applauding. I was kind of dazzled by their [chuckles] reaction.

David Remnick: Is it there every day or is it some days it's there and some days it's not?

Barbra Streisand: No, it was there every day I went into that studio.

David Remnick: Would you perform again? After the 2014 album, you did a round of live performances at a bunch of big places, Tonight Show, Good Morning America, and so on. You've said more recently that you don't love performing live, certainly as much as you might have years ago.

Barbra Streisand: Oh my God. No, I never really enjoyed-- Well, maybe when I was 19, I kind of got a kick out of it because I would just say anything on my mind and pick songs that were interesting to me to act as an actress, because I never wanted to be a singer. I wanted to be an actress, so I looked for material that I could act from Broadway plays and to be silly, singing Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?. I was open to the audience and talking to them. Whatever I was doing was just about being in the moment, things that I was experiencing in acting class. It was never to be a singer. It was to be an actress.

They were fun times, but I could stand in a little club like The Bon Soir, I didn't have to move. Now the only problem I have would be because my back hurts.

David Remnick: Right.

Barbra Streisand: You know what I mean? I've always had a bad back, so it's not just age. I was born with a fusion between my sacrum and my L5, or whatever they told me. I don't like needles, so I've never had that.

David Remnick: I've had the needle. Can I tell you something?

Barbra Streisand: Yes, tell me.

David Remnick: Works. [laughs] It works.

Barbra Streisand: You had [crosstalk]--

David Remnick: Oh, yes.

Barbra Streisand: You had a cortisone shot, you mean?

David Remnick: Yes. After the shot, they give you a little cup of ginger ale and a cookie, and I was weeping like a baby with gratitude. It worked so well.

Barbra Streisand: What was the name of your doctor?

David Remnick: I swear to God, I'll send it to you.

[MUSIC - Barbra Streisand: Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?]

Barbra Streisand: Who's afraid of the big bad wolf

The big bad wolf, the big bad wolf

David Remnick: This is The New Yorker Radio Hour. Free medical advice plus Barbra Streisand. We'll continue in a moment. This is The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick, and I'm speaking today with Barbra Streisand. Barbra Streisand is 83, and she's releasing a new album. I have no idea what number this is by now. I lost count at a million. It is an album of duets, and it features Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Seal, and younger artists including Sam Smith, Ariana Grande, and Tim McGraw. The album is called The Secret Of Life: Partners, Volume 2.

I also wanted to talk about Streisand's recent memoir, which is called, wait for it, My Name Is Barbra, because if you've been a star as long as Streisand has, the anecdotes pile up and up. Let me ask you about memory. One of the most fascinating aspects of this book is the sheer power of memory. I know you used a researcher, but there are some things that researchers can't tell you. For example, you have a meeting with Marlon Brando, which is just hilarious.

You write, "About three hours into the conversation, he looked into my eyes and he said, 'I'd like to fuck you.' I was taken aback," you say. "'That sounds awful,' I said. After a moment of thought, he said, 'Okay, then I'd like to go to a museum with you.'" You say, "Now that's very romantic. I'd like that."

Barbra Streisand: That's exactly right.

David Remnick: I guess you can't forget that if that's what happened with Marlon Brando. Then, possibly the greatest line in the whole book, to my mind, is you say you can't remember if you slept with Warren Beatty. Now, I don't think anyone has ever written that line in the history of sex or Hollywood or anything.

Barbra Streisand: [laughs] I know I slept in the bed with him, but I can't remember if we actually had penetration. I swear to God, I can't. There are certain things I block out.

David Remnick: I didn't think I would ever say this in my entire life, but it might be that I'm calling bullshit on Barbra Streisand. Is that possible?

Barbra Streisand: You're calling what?

David Remnick: I'm calling BS on that. You can't remember. That's amazing.

Barbra Streisand: No, that's right.

David Remnick: Well, I'll bet he remembers one way or another.

Barbra Streisand: I can't, but I know we're still friends. Every year on my birthday, he calls me and we have a wonderful talk about our lives and our children and so forth, so we're still friends. I met him when I was 15 years old, and he was 21, I think.

David Remnick: Wow. Wow. Now, I happen to know that apparently there's a big running offer on the table for you from Scott Rudin and Barry Diller, who've been dying for you to do Gypsy on Broadway.

Barbra Streisand: How do you know that?

David Remnick: I'm a reporter.

Barbra Streisand: Oh my God. Why would I ever do anything on the stage again like that? I mean, it was horrifying.

[laughter]

Barbra Streisand: I mean, I love the rehearsal process. I loved learning every day and experimenting and all that.

David Remnick: Now, would you do a film version of Gypsy, something like that, where it's not as physically taxing?

Barbra Streisand: That's what I wanted to do. I had the script all-- I talked to Stephen Sondheim. I had it all down in my head, the musical numbers even. I had it in my head what I wanted to do with it, and unfortunately, and it was my one squabble with Stephen, was that he said, "You can direct it or star in it, but I don't want you to do both at the same time," even though I did it three times before.

David Remnick: Yes. Stephen Sondheim, right?

Barbra Streisand: Yes. He just never really wanted to have it made again. I said, but the other one with-- and he knew. He and Arthur Lawrence hated the first time it was made with Rosalind Russell, who couldn't sing, and they mixed up the play. I wanted to bring back more of the play because Arthur wrote a brilliant play, but I had musical ideas and so forth. It was such a sadness to me that I could never end my career like bookends.

David Remnick: Let's make some news here. Are you saying it's now still a possibility?

Barbra Streisand: No, I can't, because of my back.

David Remnick: Even a film?

Barbra Streisand: Oh, a film? A film, I thought I could play it because I happen to look young for my age.

David Remnick: Damn straight.

Barbra Streisand: Which I like. I like that. That's interesting about making Yentl into a musical, because this is interesting for me because I love spirituality and miracles, little miracles. I hadn't been to see my father's grave ever.

David Remnick: Where is he buried?

Barbra Streisand: In Long island, in a cemetery in Long Island. I didn't even notice at the time until my brother, who had taken a picture of me standing there, sent me the picture, and in a week, I looked and saw that, oh my God, the tombstone next to my father's-- I was wondering whether to make Yentl into a musical or not, and there on the next tombstone, right next to my father's, was the name Anshel. Anshel is a very-- It's not like the rest of the people in the cemetery. It was [chuckles] [unintelligible 00:20:30] or Robert or Sam or whatever. Anshel? I never saw that.

That's the name in Isaac Singer's book, that mental changes her name to to be a boy, to be a man. Now, what is that? That gave me the sign to make Yentl a musical.

[MUSIC - Barbra Streisand: Papa, Can You Hear Me?]

Barbra Streisand: Papa, can you hear me?

Papa, can you see me?

Papa, can you find me in the night?

Papa, are you near me?

Barbra Streisand: There are things in my life that are like that.

David Remnick: Do you listen to music all day long?

Barbra Streisand: Never.

David Remnick: You never listen to music?

Barbra Streisand: No.

David Remnick: Why?

Barbra Streisand: I don't know. I just don't feel like it. I don't know. If I listen to music, I like Callas or somebody like that.

David Remnick: Maria Callas.

Barbra Streisand: Yes. I rarely ever do. I mean, my husband always puts on the radio and then I shut it off, or I listen to [crosstalk]--

David Remnick: You sound like you really hated, not hated, but, well, hated performing, that it didn't make you happy at all.

Barbra Streisand: No, that's right. I did not like performing. Yes. If I saw one person in the audience, in the front, not applauding, I thought, "What's wrong? What didn't he like?"

David Remnick: Did that ever happen?

Barbra Streisand: Once.

[laughter]

David Remnick: Once, and I bet you remember the date.

Barbra Streisand: Oh, God, I remember that his feet wouldn't touch the floor. He was very short, obviously.

David Remnick: To hell with him.

Barbra Streisand: I was so curious, as why would you sit in the front row and not applaud? Did you not like the song? I was fascinated. Did you not like the way I looked, sounded? What was it? Why wouldn't you [crosstalk]--

David Remnick: You remember what you were singing?

Barbra Streisand: Just out of kindness, out of niceness. No, I don't. I don't remember the song. I just remember looking at him thinking-- It turned out to be one of my old writers from the early days when I first started to sing in shows in the 1970s.

David Remnick: I want to ask you this. When you're doing a record or a movie or something, when you're in your 30s or 40s, I assume ambition is part of the picture. Do you feel that, at this stage of life, you are beyond ambition and there's a different approach to whatever project that you decide to take up?

Barbra Streisand: Well, I don't know if I want to do anything that's called a project. I'm really enjoying the secret of life.

David Remnick: Can you tell us what that is?

Barbra Streisand: I love my grandchildren. I love family. I craved to have a family. I love my son. We're closer than we ever were. Did you ever hear his voice?

David Remnick: I haven't.

Barbra Streisand: Oh, you should hear his voice. He has a magical voice. We did a duet together too.

[MUSIC - Barbra Streisand: How Deep Is the Ocean (with Jason Gould]

Barbra Streisand & Jason Gould: How much would I cry?

David Remnick: Barbra Streisand, thank you so much. It's just such a pleasure talking with you.

Barbra Streisand: Oh, it's nice to talk to you. I've always enjoyed your writing.

David Remnick: Well, thank you.

Barbra Streisand: Yes. It's wonderful.

David Remnick: I'll get you that doctor's name.

[MUSIC - Barbra Streisand: How Deep Is the Ocean (with Jason Gould]

Barbra Streisand & Jason Gould: And how much do I love you?

I'll tell you no lie.

David Remnick: Barbra Streisand is Barbra Streisand. Her new album is called the Secret of Life, including duets with Bob Dylan, Ariana Grande, Tim McGraw, and a slew of others.

[music]

 

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