I just watched the new Amazon Prime documentary on the music of James Bond. Too much Hans Zimmer and Billie Eilish for my taste, but generally an enjoyable 90 minutes. Some of the John Barry footage is great.
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John Barry was a brilliant composer of TV and film scores.
He had a lovely habit of using a bass guitar as lead instrument - exemplified by his theme tune to TV’s ‘The Persuaders’, with its very odd lead pairing of Tony Curtis and Roger Moore, usually to be seen cavorting round the French Riviera and other spots frequented by the idle rich.
I think that Barry was also behind ‘the James Bond theme’, co-written with Monty Norman.
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The authorship of the original James Bond Theme has been a matter of great debate, not least legally. Monty Norman’s and John Barry’s accounts of exactly who wrote what and when for Dr No are at considerable variance from each other, and even courts have had to rule on the matter. Norman sued at least two publications in his lifetime for suggesting that John Barry wrote any part of the theme. It’s quite a messy subject!
Mark
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I really enjoyed Casino Royale when it came out, but apart from that, Craig has been a pretty dismal Bond – too mopey, boring, humourless. He’s “modern”, but rather insufferable. Bond – Fleming’s Bond – is a glamorous but sadistic thug in a bespoke Savile Row suit with expensive tastes in food, booze, cars and women.
The first three Connerys – Dr No, FRWL and Goldfinger – are in eyeball-scorching Technicolor, have exotic locations, beautiful women, fabulous cars and splendidly nasty villains (Dr No, Rosa Klebb/Red Grant, Auric Goldfinger/Oddjob) and soundtracks to match. Glamorous and exciting, they are by far the best of the series.
Thunderball has a great soundtrack but is a bit too long and has too many dull underwater scenes. Twice is good in both the film and soundtrack departments but just falls short of the first three. OHMSS has a fantastic soundtrack and is a wonderfully-made film but Lazenby is just wrong for the part (how I wish Connery had been in that movie). Apart from the theme tune DAF is just awful. LALD is maybe the best Bond theme of all and represented a strong start for the Moore era. TMWTGG is almost as bad as DAF, except the soundtrack is gash as well. The fabulous The Spy Who Loved Me is the acme of the Moores and Marvin Hamlisch’s music is the best of the non-Barry scores. The other Rogers are entertaining enough – if increasingly silly – but the soundtracks are meh.
Dalton is the most underrated Bond, bringing some much-needed grit to the franchise but the soundtracks are rather forgettable. Broasnan made a very strong start with Goldeneye although the films once again declined into daftness. I can’t remember the music to any of them. Aside from his debut (and perhaps, Skyfall) Craig’s films have been bombastic leaden actioners with Bond cast as some sort of superhero. The music for these films has been as dour as the dun-coloured palettes their cinematographers use.
As Alan Partridge said: “Stop getting Bond wrong!” If Babs B and her team had any sense, they would reboot Bond, take him back to the 1950s or early 1960s, make him a chain-smoking, impeccably-attired thug who likes killing, shagging, driving fast and drinking, give him some credible but suitably malevolent adversaries and shoot in saturated colour in glamorous, photogenic locations.
And give him a worthy soundtrack – someone who understands cinema. Were he still alive, I’d plump for David Axelrod – otherwise, Goldfrapp might do a good job.
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Oh dear, bloody lawyers at it again!
Don’t worry, anyone - that’s a dig at myself.
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Dalton played Romeo for the RSC and has quite a few major stage credits to his name. As far as I’m concerned he was simply miscast - badly.
By the way, the New York Times today has a review of a new novel called Dr. No. It riffs - loosely - off of the Fleming formula and sounds like fun.
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Dalton excellent as Bond IMV…
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I just learned that Jimmy Page was a session musician on Golf Finger in 1964. Fascinating!
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Earlier during the year I watched the Bond movies one a week, in series at the local Odeon. Most I hadn’t seen for a long time and played a game of guess the artist of the theme tune. Some of them are good to very good but a few are just dire.
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Ah, the lovely Shirley Eaton. A Brighton girl, I believe.
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No, no, no, I mean Eva Green is lovely (and you wouldn’t throw her out of bed for eating crisps), but…
…Diana Rigg played the only girl that James Bond ever married (even though the marriage lasted only a few hours).
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Nah, Eva Green has more style - Lea S likewise.
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Now we’re talking!
By far and away…
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BOND GIRL EVER!!! 
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Is that Jane Seymour? She must be suffering from memory loss, as she appears to have forgotten to put on a shirt. (She should stay away from Tudor kings!)
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Come on Graham, get on the right page!
This was a pure indulgence in objectifying a VERY VERY beautiful Woman!!
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Karen
Would make a great Bond Babe