John Barry

donaldgrant

The James Bond films never would have superceded cult status without the enormous contributions of composer John Barry. His music is the aural persona of 007, and I often feel for actors Brosnan and Craig who don't benefit from the orchestral spine that Barry provided the other 007s. The last blowhard score by David Arnold for CASINO ROYALE is a case in point. Even the lame title song didn't make the soundtrack edition, and that's a Bondian first! I know that Barry's still active, so why the EON team has bypassed him mystifies me. Is it due to the falling out over who really created the James Bond theme, Monty Norman or John Barry. Whatever, I wish Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli had the good sense to let Barry score at least one of the Brosnan Bonds. As good as Pierce was, he never had the benefit of that extra Barry adrenaline.
David Arnold can't hold a candle to the master.

Napoleon Plural

There was some sort of falling out, a minor one. He was going to do TND, but demanded to do the theme song, which the producers baulked at, wanting a commercial song. That said, the stars they get in like Sheryl Crow never do much of a great song anyway, they get to number 11 or something.

Barry has gone off the Bonds, esp as he's an Oscar winner. He says he likes the old films, but the new ones aren't up to much - an opinion many fans share.

Personally I think his style suited the more superficial (emotionally) Bonds of the Moore and Connery era, where they added depth. I don't think it works as well for Dalton and maybe not for Brosnan's era either, but I agree it would have been good to have him do something.

Alan_more

When being asked this question, John Barry replies he was exhausted of new ideas after composing 11 scores for essentially always the same storyboard, Bond, the villain and the girls.

Sir Hillary Bray

Napoleon Plural wrote:

...Barry has gone off the Bonds...

Can't believe I never thought of this before, but seeing this phrase made me wonder...should we refer to the collection of 007 films he scored as the Barry Bonds?

Anyone not getting the joke need only Google...

yodboy007

I am also sad to no longer have John Barry scoring James Bond films. His 12 scores were all great. Goldfinger, Thunderball, OHMSS, Octopussy, A View to a Kill, and The Living Daylights are my favorites from him. His "007 Theme", which originated in From Russia With Love, is legendary, especially for Connery's Bond, and I wish he used it more. Glad he used it for Sir Roger in MR and I wish Arnold would use it in a better way than he did in DAD.

The best musical moments from some of his scores include:

GF: The music that plays instantly when 007 sees Jill dead in bed covered in gold paint. Also, the sequence where Goldfinger's goons are breaking into Fort Knox with lasers and dynamite.

OHMSS: The skiing music is fantastic.

Octopussy: Had the best use of the James Bond theme. Everytime 007 was about to do something amazing, he would whip it out so casually at the perfect time.

AVTAK: I loved the use of the song throughout as well as the music that played during the fight scene at Stacey's house.

TLD: His last score was one of the best. Every action sequence used the music from the song perfectly and very it was suspenseful. The Pretenders song he helped write was also great.

I hate to say that I am glad he missed a few because Martin's LALD was a fun score, Hamlish put a nice disco twist on the James Bond theme in the pre-credits of TSWLM, and even Kamen did good in LTK. Serra's Goldeneye score is underrated. Still, David Arnold is no Barry and he has gone downhill since DAD in my opinion. I only liked his first two scores.

Thanks for the great music, John. I hope you are enjoying your semi-retirement. You've earned it!

spectre7

Barry hasn't composed music for any film for a few years now, and there are rumours that he is actually blacklisted at some studios due to his reputation for being difficult (he's walked from quite a few projects in the past).

The trouble with Barry now is that he only does slow tempo stuff - he simply isn't up to scoring a Bond film these days. He just doesn't seem to be able to write anything with a faster tempo now.

JennyFlexFan

I must agree with spectre7. John Barry in his heyday wrote some great music! OHMSS is beautiful, as is GF (now that I got a better version), DAF and AVTAK are as well. However, the thing that irks me about some of his music is he writes these amazing action cues that are followed by a really boring slow section! I must say that's a weakness I can find both in Barry and Arnold is that some of their stuff is just overrun with slow sections! It seems the composers who aren't theme composed a lot of slow sections that were either interesting or they just weren't plentiful on the album.

I love slow sections, don't get me wrong, and both Barry and Arnold can pull it off with a flair most of the time, but some of the stuff is just boring to listen to. Does anyone else agree with this statement?

Barbel

Personally I find it varies according to the mood I'm in, musically speaking. Sometimes I like to hear the slow stuff (eg "Try"), sometimes the action music (say "Snow Job"). And sometimes I'm just happy with whatever order they come up in on an album.

clum

fast or slow, I love John Barry music!
But what i find weird is some of the Google ads at the bottom of this thread are for Barry White ringtones and Barry Manilow "Layouts"
John Barry must be rolling over in his...uh...bed
-{

mooreisbest

John Barry is a geniusm, pure and simple. His worst song is a thousand times better than anything that the new composers do. He was and is in a class of his own. And it is certainly not just the Bond films that he perfected. Midnight Cowboy, Chaplin, Dances With Wolves, Somewhere in Time...

Mark Hazard

Just a little piece of info:

In the Daily Express on Friday, mention was made of a petition on the Downing Street website that listed the supporters for people "deserving" knighthoods. I put deserving in inverted commas because the article was about some buffoon named Brucie - can't stand the bloke (well over 50 years doing the same tired old act), but lower down on the list (3rd) was JB with 220 supporters, just behind Lemmy from Motorhead (sorry, don't know how to do umlauts on forums) with 300 and in front of Ken Dodd (95) and Ringo Starr (64).

Why supporters rather than votes I'm not sure

Barry Nelson

Spending the afternoon, surfing the internet while listening to John Barry. Have finished Body Heat, Masquerade and now listeninig to OHMSS. Really enjoying his work, what a talent. Body Heat is very under appreciated.

Mrs.Bryce

I really enjoy Barry's work on Bond, especially Goldfinger, Thunderball, OHMSS, Moonraker and AVTAK, but I can easily understand how composing so many tracks for similar films could make one feel tired and bored of said films. I think that his work should be appreciated, which it is, but we should also be able to move onto someone who can atleast bring back some of that Bond feeling. I haven't particularly heard the scores for the present films the way I've heard the others, mostly because it just isn't the same. Hopefully, David Arnold can step up his game or we can find someone that can bring back something exciting and fun.

Napoleon Plural

Erm, you haven't been in the Skyfall forum much have you?

Arnold isn't doing the new film, it's, oh, erm, the guy Mendes usually works with, on stuff like Revolutionary Road and American Beauty and so on...

BTW John Barry died last year.... (not a sentence I'd usually follow with a big hearty grin)

Mrs.Bryce

Hahahaha! )
No I haven't! I should probably do that, but to be honest I'd rather it all be a surprise!
Oh, not sure how to feel about that, might just have to wait and see
That's quite unfortunate, he was quite amazing at what he did, certainly in a league of his own and always in Bond fan hearts :x
Thanks for the heads up about mendes {[]

Moore Than

I regard the late John Barry as something of a musical genius. His Bond scores range from very good to classic. Not only was so much of his music so memorable, he had this great ability to fit the music perfectly with what was on the screen. My favourite score is YOLT very closely followed by OHMSS.

I like all of David Arnold's scores except QoS. My main problem with him is in the action scenes, he did not score them well.

lotus

The first eight sound tracks will always be the best,the first eight films are the best ! I've got every one of the bond soundtracks but after live and let die I don't listen to them much at all.

Napoleon Plural

Well Moonraker is tops, but would be better if it had all the cues on it, such as Freefall and the Arrival at Drax Estate. I know what you mean, the others are a bit spotty with only maybe two great things on each. Personally I didn't like Barry for the more serious Bonds, I felt he weighed things down to much, it got too heavy. I hated his romantic theme for TLD, going all soppy when Bond meets Kara, dreadful imo.

Grindelwald

I dig Kong '76 {[]

Moore Than

John Barry - The Lost Tapes will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 (UK) at 11.30 on Tuesday 26th June. The programme explores the music, reveals insight regarding Barry's early film career and songwriting processes. It is drawn from a previously lost interview.

Moore Than

Moore Than wrote:

John Barry - The Lost Tapes will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 (UK) at 11.30 on Tuesday 26th June. The programme explores the music, reveals insight regarding Barry's early film career and songwriting processes. It is drawn from a previously lost interview.

John Barry - The Lost Tapes is now available on the BBC iPlayer at the link below for the next seven days.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/b01k1my3

Shady Tree

The DVD/Blu-Ray commentary tracks for 'Skyfall' reveal that, for the exterior shot of M's house, John Barry's house was used - a nice little nod.

Moore Than

A concert celebrating the film music of John Barry is set for the Royal Albert Hall in London on Friday 4th October 2013. The concert will feature Barry's music from films such as Born Free, Midnight Cowboy, Dances With Wolves, and Bond films such as Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, and Moonraker. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Nic Raine, is joined by guest vocalist Alison Jiear and Lance Ellington. Presented by Tommy Pearson, a renowned authority on film music. Tickets start at £15, click on link below.

John Barry celebration concert at the Royal Albert Hall on 4th October
http://www.mi6-hq.com/news/index.php?itemid=10882&t=mi6&s=news

Thunderpussy

This was news to me,
"The second signature James Bond theme, the 007 theme composed by John Barry had not been heard since Moonraker until this movie. An electronic version of the 007 Theme was re-worked by composer David Arnold and was heard during the car chase on ice sequence in DAD."

I've never noticed I'll have to keep an ear out the next time. )

davidelliott101

Thunderpussy wrote:

This was news to me,
"The second signature James Bond theme, the 007 theme composed by John Barry had not been heard since Moonraker until this movie. An electronic version of the 007 Theme was re-worked by composer David Arnold and was heard during the car chase on ice sequence in DAD."

I've never noticed I'll have to keep an ear out the next time. )

I just checked it on You Tube... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbAiYjovbBM Sure can't hear much music over the loud car sounds and what I hear sure don't sound like "007"!

Barbel

It isn't. Arnold did consider the idea but decided against it (a pity...).

Thunderpussy

I got it on a triva on DAD page from Imdb, But
honestly couldn't remember hearing it and played
the soundtrack ( some brilliant tracks -{ ) and
yes, It's not there. ) Agreed Pity, it would of
been great to hear it again. I was thinking "How'd
I never notice that !"

ixtore

One Barry invention, the 'Bond Back in Action' cue that starts with timpany, is something I'd like to hear in the new series. It has to run through an entire sequence which is not typical these days, but it has such a feeling of freedom and power. Maybe another version of it will make it into a Bond film one day.

hehadlotsofguts

Switching the Body from the TB soundtrack is one of Barry's best compositions in my opinion. the use of strings and flutes in the piece give it a suspenseful feel

ixtore

Yes - that is a great piece from Barry. Very sparse and moody.

Blackleiter

I love Mujahadin and Opium from The Living Daylights, Barry's final Bond score. Hearing that beautiful, transporting music set against the desert background affects me in a manner similar to the way I feel when I watch Lawrence of Arabia.