Thanks Barbel, now I think about it I recall someone maybe you talking about this stuff a few years ago and me losing track of the name of the orchestra that came highly recommended so I may snap these up.
Good price! Hope you enjoy it; star attractions are the Dr. No suite, "Tank Drive" from GE, and of course the tracks mentioned above (since none of them have been officially released).
I didn't care for the version of the MR main theme, though, and some of the TLD cues are a bit too fast. But these are minor crits, with so much Bond music in one package.
Listened to YOLT last night, it was alright, but a couple of the tunes sounded similar to other Bond riffs I have heard before. I did enjoy the title tune though, best Nancy Sinatra ever sounded.
I picked up Octopussy for £3 at HMV, most have gone back to £8 now.
When John Barry took a break by not scoring TSWLM, he came back refreshed with MR, one of my fave soundtracks. Here he had another break, from FYEO, but his return is a relative disappointment. I understand he didn't get so much time to score this, due to questions as to whether he'd be available.
It opens with the song All Time High by Rita Coolidge. It's a lush, opulent song that anticpates the film quite well. Rita's voice doesn't sound as flat as I remembered it, maybe they tweaked it in the remaster.
The opening sax is quite horrible. It's Bond with cheese. It evokes the image of a 50+ Bond, double whisky in hand at a golf club dinner, chatting with Freddie Fisher about the new improved greens, and has he checked out the chairman's secretary, she's a bit of alright, I'd say... It's Abigail's Party, with Alison Steadman looking down her nose and putting on a vinyl record while dancing around to herself, G+T in hand while her nervous Nehrys friend looks on. It's the laughter from the last sketch fading away as Misters Barker and Corbett sit besuited behind the news desk, shiny and benign with their big TV-shaped spectacles, saying: "And now, ladies and gentlemen, will you please welcome our very special guest, Rita Coolidge..."
The rest of the album is a disappointment.
There aren't many tunes on it. I mean, early stuff of Barry's was almost an operetta. With FRWL you can pick up what the film is like from tunes like Girl Trouble or The Golden Horn. Here you'd be none the wiser really, the music doesn't have any narrative, it just creates a mood. In YOLT Barry immersed himself in the culture and it sounds quite authentic, (if sometimes just as opulent and heavygoing as OP) the Wedding Theme for instance. You don't get this here, although I suppose it avoids the John Barry Does George Harrison approach. But it lends OP the feel of a tacky package holiday, as Bond sweeps in and out briefly.
The Bomb Theme (typo on the album, they call it Bond Theme!) I always liked the sound of, but it doesn't have the fast-moving flavour of the train, it's just the quiet, suspenseful mood thing and the album never really gets going. There's scarcely an action toon on it, which makes the whole thing seem middle-aged.
Then it's Rita back again, with the tune that sounds like something you'd hear in a north London Tandoori, on a mix tape between Barbra Streisand's A Woman In Love and Elaine Page and Barbara Dickson's I Know Him So Well. In that sense, it's an appropriate enough song I suppose.
A View To A Kill is better (I prefer the film too) as it has Duran Duran's punchy tune and Snow Job, the OHMSS derivative we hear in the Siberia pts.
That said, Snow Job gets used in different formats maybe three times. Otherwise you have slow, romantic variations on the theme tune which don't quite work, certainly not as well as the lush Moonraker romantic moments. Aside from that, there isn't too much on the album left, and Death of Tibbet is the moodiest, best track on it.
You can't compare this stuff with Barry's previous efforts on the likes of Moonraker, DAF, OHMSS etc, which come packed with tunes offering different themes and moods. This isn't really a sountrack in that sense, it's just background music. It works fine in the film, but that's where it should stay.
I have all of the James Bond OSTs except for DAD (expanded) which I will get next week
I have
1) Dr No
2) From Russia With Love
3) Goldfinger
4) Thunderball (Expanded)
5) You Only Live Twice (Expanded)
6) On Her Majesty's Secret Service (expanded)
7) Diamonds Are Forever (Expanded)
8) Live and Let Die (Expanded)
9) The Man with the Golden Gun
10) The Spy Who Loved Me
11) Moonraker
12) For You Eyes Only (Expanded)
13) Octopussy (re-release with dialogue)
14) A View to Kill (remastered)
15) The Living Daylights (expanded)
16) Licence to Kill (import)
17) Goldeneye
18) Tomorrow Never Dies (non Expanded)
19) The World is Not Enough
20) Casino Royale (deluxe)
21) Quantum of Solace
22) Chris Cornel single - "You Know my Name"
23) Four Tet single - "Crawl, end crawl"
"And if I told you that I'm from the Ministry of Defence?" James Bond - The Property of a Lady
By non-expanded, do you mean the standard version of the OST, which starts with the Sheryl Crow song and ends with Moby's take on the "James Bond Theme"?
By non-expanded, do you mean the standard version of the OST, which starts with the Sheryl Crow song and ends with Moby's take on the "James Bond Theme"?
The original OST. There was a second one released about 2000 with 5 extra tracks, including the "Bicycle" chase.
"And if I told you that I'm from the Ministry of Defence?" James Bond - The Property of a Lady
Had to take a drive up to Wisconsin yesterday, it's about a 4 hour drive to my destination so I took a number of Bond CD's with me. Listened to the soundtracks from GF, YOLT, FRWL, TB, DAF, and OHMSS. Surprisingly (at least to me) was that the one I liked the least was GF. I love the film, but the soundtrack seemed to have more percussion than I remembered and lacked some of the more romantic Barry melodies I enjoy. It had been awhile since I heard FRWL and I really enjoyed it, the music has a definite sinister mood to it. However, I was disappointed in the length of it, couldn't look while I was driving, but it seemed mighty short. I was also surprised I like DAF, with the exception of a few of the Las Vegas lounge act tunes it had a nice Bond/Barry feel. But, as I have stated before TB and OHMSS are still in a class by themselves.
It had been awhile since I heard FRWL and I really enjoyed it, the music has a definite sinister mood to it. However, I was disappointed in the length of it, couldn't look while I was driving, but it seemed mighty short. I was also surprised I like DAF, with the exception of a few of the Las Vegas lounge act tunes it had a nice Bond/Barry feel.
Equally always surprised by DAF, which I really enjoy now; my earliest memories of it (while watching the movie) were how cheesy it sounded. But I think it's a superb soundtrack that more than many Bond OST can really be identified as being from a specific time and place.
My version of FRWL is about 36 mins, which is very short for 18 tracks. I'm not an expert, but as I understand it that is the complete original OST as released in 1963. I think the possiblity of extra tracks is unlikely given the masters don't exist.
Ok, I tried to find a thread which talks purely about the CD issue of TND, but couldn't find it, not even with the search facility, so I'm bumping one of my old threads - one I'd forgotten - and talking about the additions to my collection which I have only recently got around to purchasing.
TND
starts with a dreadful theme song. I don't know if this is popular with most OO7 fans, personally, I can't stand it. I can't hear the lyrics, Sheryl Crow is straining to hit notes, its a dirge of the most inarticulate quality. I'm not a music expert, but it sound very, very, simple, as if she and her co-writer simply bolted the notes together and said 'that'll do'. I am not surprised it doesn't feature in David Arnold's soundtrack, which uses k.d.lang's Surrender to much good effect. I like Surrender. It's a fine song in its own right and would have suited the opening credits, leaving Moby to occupy the end titles with his rampaging Bond Theme. [Or even vice-versa]
So the songs are kind of hit and miss, but the soundtrack itself I found more than satisfying. The only false note was Paris and Bond, somewhat melodramatic and over-wrought. The opening salvo of White Knight was a lovely tension mounted reminisce through Bond sounds and sets the overall tone of the piece. Hamburg Break In / Out were urgent and Backseat Driver fun and fairly pounds along. Generally, Ms Crow's antics aside, I enjoyed this immensely.
Can anyone explain why the selections only come from the first half of the film? Is this because A&M had to press it before Arnold had finished his score?
I do agree with your comments about the "Paris & Bond' cue chrisno1. I love Arnold's score, and I certainly do enjoy that cue as a standalone piece of music, but I've always felt that the big orchestral build is a overplaying it a bit.
By the way, if you haven't got the second TND soundtrack release that includes music from the second half of the film I do highly recommend it. There is a lot of great music to be heard there. I've always really liked the Bike Chase cue, and Kowloon Bay is also really good. I also enjoy the big orchestral finale in All in a Day's Work.
I think I got the Tomorrow Never Dies soundtrack before seeing the movie. It's possible that the soundtrack came out before the movie. At first I thought the Sheryl Crow song was ok. I still like the background music of the song. I like the tech images during the credits. But I do feel that Surrender is better overall.
Well, well, for a film I generally dislike, this soundtrack has a lot to recommend it.
I'm not a fan of Garbage's opener. It feels as if it is trying to be too much like a James Bond Theme, something many of the songs from the 60s and 70s don't, and while this might be seen as flattery, it's actually just laziness. I was surprised to discover the tune is written by David Arnold and Don Black; Garbage - or rather Shirley Manson - merely performs it. Which makes me wonder why they didn't ask a more accomplished singer to take part - Scott Walker, perhaps, who graces the melancholy finale 'Only Myself to Blame' with his customary dexterity. I digress...
Neither tune is particularly successful, so its no shock to find Arnold relying much more on the James Bond Theme in this one. It's ripped off distinctly on two tracks. Come In OO7, Your Time Is Up may as well be Arnold's Bond '99; it races along and I thoroughly enjoyed this, more so than the speedboat chase it accompanies. Similarly Caviar Factory enters the spirit of Bond and has a wonderful swishing musical effect (not sure how they created that) which replicates the buzz of those deadly saw blades.
There are two more longer exerts which I found less successful, falling foul of Arnold's trademark of more being more. In fact most of the last quarter, as Bond reaches Istanbul and the climax comes upon us, is quite dull and doesn't have the strong themes of the earlier sections. Arnold's much better with shorter themes: Casino is good, opulent, understated; Elektra's Theme presents her character in musical form; Pipeline has tension; Body Double is lightweight, slightly humorous.
A good edition. Not a classic score, but competent.
Comments
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I didn't care for the version of the MR main theme, though, and some of the TLD cues are a bit too fast. But these are minor crits, with so much Bond music in one package.
When John Barry took a break by not scoring TSWLM, he came back refreshed with MR, one of my fave soundtracks. Here he had another break, from FYEO, but his return is a relative disappointment. I understand he didn't get so much time to score this, due to questions as to whether he'd be available.
It opens with the song All Time High by Rita Coolidge. It's a lush, opulent song that anticpates the film quite well. Rita's voice doesn't sound as flat as I remembered it, maybe they tweaked it in the remaster.
The opening sax is quite horrible. It's Bond with cheese. It evokes the image of a 50+ Bond, double whisky in hand at a golf club dinner, chatting with Freddie Fisher about the new improved greens, and has he checked out the chairman's secretary, she's a bit of alright, I'd say... It's Abigail's Party, with Alison Steadman looking down her nose and putting on a vinyl record while dancing around to herself, G+T in hand while her nervous Nehrys friend looks on. It's the laughter from the last sketch fading away as Misters Barker and Corbett sit besuited behind the news desk, shiny and benign with their big TV-shaped spectacles, saying: "And now, ladies and gentlemen, will you please welcome our very special guest, Rita Coolidge..."
The rest of the album is a disappointment.
There aren't many tunes on it. I mean, early stuff of Barry's was almost an operetta. With FRWL you can pick up what the film is like from tunes like Girl Trouble or The Golden Horn. Here you'd be none the wiser really, the music doesn't have any narrative, it just creates a mood. In YOLT Barry immersed himself in the culture and it sounds quite authentic, (if sometimes just as opulent and heavygoing as OP) the Wedding Theme for instance. You don't get this here, although I suppose it avoids the John Barry Does George Harrison approach. But it lends OP the feel of a tacky package holiday, as Bond sweeps in and out briefly.
The Bomb Theme (typo on the album, they call it Bond Theme!) I always liked the sound of, but it doesn't have the fast-moving flavour of the train, it's just the quiet, suspenseful mood thing and the album never really gets going. There's scarcely an action toon on it, which makes the whole thing seem middle-aged.
Then it's Rita back again, with the tune that sounds like something you'd hear in a north London Tandoori, on a mix tape between Barbra Streisand's A Woman In Love and Elaine Page and Barbara Dickson's I Know Him So Well. In that sense, it's an appropriate enough song I suppose.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I think it is naff too. The only thing about the soundtrack that I do like are Rog's long legs on the cover art
That said, Snow Job gets used in different formats maybe three times. Otherwise you have slow, romantic variations on the theme tune which don't quite work, certainly not as well as the lush Moonraker romantic moments. Aside from that, there isn't too much on the album left, and Death of Tibbet is the moodiest, best track on it.
You can't compare this stuff with Barry's previous efforts on the likes of Moonraker, DAF, OHMSS etc, which come packed with tunes offering different themes and moods. This isn't really a sountrack in that sense, it's just background music.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I have
1) Dr No
2) From Russia With Love
3) Goldfinger
4) Thunderball (Expanded)
5) You Only Live Twice (Expanded)
6) On Her Majesty's Secret Service (expanded)
7) Diamonds Are Forever (Expanded)
8) Live and Let Die (Expanded)
9) The Man with the Golden Gun
10) The Spy Who Loved Me
11) Moonraker
12) For You Eyes Only (Expanded)
13) Octopussy (re-release with dialogue)
14) A View to Kill (remastered)
15) The Living Daylights (expanded)
16) Licence to Kill (import)
17) Goldeneye
18) Tomorrow Never Dies (non Expanded)
19) The World is Not Enough
20) Casino Royale (deluxe)
21) Quantum of Solace
22) Chris Cornel single - "You Know my Name"
23) Four Tet single - "Crawl, end crawl"
By non-expanded, do you mean the standard version of the OST, which starts with the Sheryl Crow song and ends with Moby's take on the "James Bond Theme"?
The original OST. There was a second one released about 2000 with 5 extra tracks, including the "Bicycle" chase.
Equally always surprised by DAF, which I really enjoy now; my earliest memories of it (while watching the movie) were how cheesy it sounded. But I think it's a superb soundtrack that more than many Bond OST can really be identified as being from a specific time and place.
My version of FRWL is about 36 mins, which is very short for 18 tracks. I'm not an expert, but as I understand it that is the complete original OST as released in 1963. I think the possiblity of extra tracks is unlikely given the masters don't exist.
TND
starts with a dreadful theme song. I don't know if this is popular with most OO7 fans, personally, I can't stand it. I can't hear the lyrics, Sheryl Crow is straining to hit notes, its a dirge of the most inarticulate quality. I'm not a music expert, but it sound very, very, simple, as if she and her co-writer simply bolted the notes together and said 'that'll do'. I am not surprised it doesn't feature in David Arnold's soundtrack, which uses k.d.lang's Surrender to much good effect. I like Surrender. It's a fine song in its own right and would have suited the opening credits, leaving Moby to occupy the end titles with his rampaging Bond Theme. [Or even vice-versa]
So the songs are kind of hit and miss, but the soundtrack itself I found more than satisfying. The only false note was Paris and Bond, somewhat melodramatic and over-wrought. The opening salvo of White Knight was a lovely tension mounted reminisce through Bond sounds and sets the overall tone of the piece. Hamburg Break In / Out were urgent and Backseat Driver fun and fairly pounds along. Generally, Ms Crow's antics aside, I enjoyed this immensely.
Can anyone explain why the selections only come from the first half of the film? Is this because A&M had to press it before Arnold had finished his score?
By the way, if you haven't got the second TND soundtrack release that includes music from the second half of the film I do highly recommend it. There is a lot of great music to be heard there. I've always really liked the Bike Chase cue, and Kowloon Bay is also really good. I also enjoy the big orchestral finale in All in a Day's Work.
Well, well, for a film I generally dislike, this soundtrack has a lot to recommend it.
I'm not a fan of Garbage's opener. It feels as if it is trying to be too much like a James Bond Theme, something many of the songs from the 60s and 70s don't, and while this might be seen as flattery, it's actually just laziness. I was surprised to discover the tune is written by David Arnold and Don Black; Garbage - or rather Shirley Manson - merely performs it. Which makes me wonder why they didn't ask a more accomplished singer to take part - Scott Walker, perhaps, who graces the melancholy finale 'Only Myself to Blame' with his customary dexterity. I digress...
Neither tune is particularly successful, so its no shock to find Arnold relying much more on the James Bond Theme in this one. It's ripped off distinctly on two tracks. Come In OO7, Your Time Is Up may as well be Arnold's Bond '99; it races along and I thoroughly enjoyed this, more so than the speedboat chase it accompanies. Similarly Caviar Factory enters the spirit of Bond and has a wonderful swishing musical effect (not sure how they created that) which replicates the buzz of those deadly saw blades.
There are two more longer exerts which I found less successful, falling foul of Arnold's trademark of more being more. In fact most of the last quarter, as Bond reaches Istanbul and the climax comes upon us, is quite dull and doesn't have the strong themes of the earlier sections. Arnold's much better with shorter themes: Casino is good, opulent, understated; Elektra's Theme presents her character in musical form; Pipeline has tension; Body Double is lightweight, slightly humorous.
A good edition. Not a classic score, but competent.