Duets written for two women are rare. This isn’t really a duet – it’s one song, followed by another song, and then briefly they merge together. This is the best I could find on Youtube. It’s rather a raw video, but I like the performances of the two women very much. They’re both very relaxed and open.
It’s from a killer duet from the “yuppie” Maltby/Shire musical Closer Than Ever: “It’s Never That Easy / I’ve Been Here Before”.
I also love the song because of the support and the love the women show one another, in the lyrics – they are talking TO each other, sharing experiences, and saying, “I know … I know …” That is what good friends do. It is nice to see women being kind to one another. Because that is MY experience of my female friends, not a catty one in the bunch. One of them calls the other “darling” during her singing, and by the end, they are talking TO each other. One takes the words from the other song and sings, “You’re fine alone …” which is a terrible thought, but comforting as well.
You ARE fine alone.
You are more than fine. You are alone, and you are enough. You, you, darling, ARE ENOUGH.
It’s when they switch – at the very end … when they switch songs … the one with the new love starts to sing “it’s never that easy”, and the more wise one, who’s been through it all, starts to sing “I’ve been here before” – that I lose it. Like clockwork.
Because that is how it is.
Nobody escapes this life without going through that transformation. It’s never not wrenching, and it never feels fair or right, but it just IS. The worst part of it is when you feel “I’ve been here before”. It is the familiarity that is the killer.
I first got into Closer Than Ever when I was in college. I thought I understood so much of it. Ha. My affection for the musical has waxed and waned since then, and only a couple of songs from it really have stood the test of time (for me). This is certainly one of them.
This song has been on my mind lately.
It’s never that easy.
I’ve been here before.
Oh Sheila. You put this on a tape for me years ago and I was thinking of it all day yesterday. And of you.
And you’re right – it is such an awesome duet. The two women in the clip you found do a great job. I haven’t heard the duet in years (the tape was destroyed when our basement flooded) but it plays perfectly in my head.
The conversation…their voices. I get goosebumps and tears every time.