In a recent interview published Thursday by Billboard, the singer, songwriter, actress, director and film producer said that she felt that it was time to put her political beliefs into her music.
Sonically, the song is a grand, lush and heavily orchestrated affair that’s very much in the spirit of much of her catalog; lyrically, however, Streisand is pointed — and not subtle. “You can build towers of bronze and gold,” she sings. “You can make castles in the sky. You can use smoke and mirrors and old cliches … don’t lie to me.” In the chorus, she brings it home: “How do you sleep when the world keeps turning? / All that we built has come undone / How do you sleep when the world is burning?”
Barbra Streisand – Don’t Lie to Me