John Altman talks about what went wrong with the Goldeneye score...
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Here's a very interesting article you might want to check out...
LA based, Matthew Chernov recently attended a luncheon hosted by the Academy of Scoring Arts. There, John Altman discussed his contribution to the Goldeneye score. Turns out all was not well behind the scenes...
http://jamesbondradio.com/composer-john-altman-explains-what-went-wrong-with-goldeneyes-score-exclusive-by-matthew-chernov/
LA based, Matthew Chernov recently attended a luncheon hosted by the Academy of Scoring Arts. There, John Altman discussed his contribution to the Goldeneye score. Turns out all was not well behind the scenes...
http://jamesbondradio.com/composer-john-altman-explains-what-went-wrong-with-goldeneyes-score-exclusive-by-matthew-chernov/
Comments
Pleasant Drive in Saint Petersburg is one of the oddest tracks within the score, interesting how the article called it the "bright-spot". If anything I find that it to be the silliest sounding track!
"Better make that two."
"A Pleasant Drive In St Petersburg" is the track Serra submitted, and it's the one you can hear on the OST album. This stinks.
"Tank Drive Around St Petersburg" is the track Altman wrote (er... arranged, as it's credited to Monty Norman... now where have I heard that before?
"Tank Drive" is the one the article called the bright spot.
Thank you Barbel! I assume something can be found on YouTube.
"Better make that two."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJWzNT2B810
The City of Prague Orchestra's cover of Altman's track.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anfxljPXg7M
There is an incomplete version of Altman's track on his Film and TV showreel album. It's not on Youtube but send me a PM and I can send it to you.
"You forgot the first rule of Mass Media Elliot! Give the people what they want!!!"
"I never miss..."
"Time to face gravity!"
"You forgot the first rule of Mass Media Elliot! Give the people what they want!!!"
"I never miss..."
"Time to face gravity!"
"You forgot the first rule of Mass Media Elliot! Give the people what they want!!!"
"I never miss..."
"Time to face gravity!"
There are some negatives about Altman's tank chase music. Because it's so brilliant, it just makes it even more obvious how lacking the rest of the film's music is. And because of this, Altman's music doesn't really fit with the rest of the film's music and makes the film feel unbalanced. I almost want to say that Serra's track fits better with the rest of the soundtrack. Altman's great music just comes out of nowhere, kind of like the scene on the beach. As fantastic as it is, I find it jarring, and it takes me out of the film. Serra's tank music has some good moments (in the context of his score), but overall it's not as solid as the PTS music. But I actually think if they went back to Serra and told him they wanted something more exciting, I might have preferred that for the sake of the film's score as a whole work. But considering the time constraints, Altman doing it instead was definitely the safer move.
Don't get me wrong, Altman's music improves the scene, but one scene does not make a movie. The mood gets better with the tank scene, and then it doesn't take long for it to drop again when the electronic sounds come back. Ideally, the film would have been better if Altman did the whole thing, but in understanding the situation, they did the best thing possible. If they had a month instead of a few days, I wonder if they would have hired Altman to re-score the entire film.
Just a lot of 'what ifs'.
You're right, IMO the PTS music is brilliant and iconic. It's a very good rendition of the Bond theme.
"Better make that two."
"You forgot the first rule of Mass Media Elliot! Give the people what they want!!!"
"I never miss..."
"Time to face gravity!"
It's actually very popular on here. It ruins the movie for me.
It doesn't ruin the movie for me, but it certainly detracts from the film in a way that a forgettable, but not offensive (think Newman's work in Spectre) score does not. For instance, the gun barrel music is easily the worst in the entire series.
"You forgot the first rule of Mass Media Elliot! Give the people what they want!!!"
"I never miss..."
"Time to face gravity!"
What a horrible thing to say when John Barry scored 11 gun barrels. But it seems like the ones that are most popular are never Barry's, probably because Barry's don't stand out compared to the ones that break the mould.
All of the 90s Gunbarrels are excellent. Better than Kamen's awful OTT mess.
"Better make that two."
Yup! Much prefer GF, TB... etc
We might be the only people who can tell all of them apart by the first chord. You can too, right? I think the similar structure of all of them makes people think they're not as special, but boy are they wrong.
To be fair, GoldenEye's gunbarrel was my first and I just love those cool synth sounds Serra created by remixing Goldfinger's Gunbarrel. I just love it.
"You forgot the first rule of Mass Media Elliot! Give the people what they want!!!"
"I never miss..."
"Time to face gravity!"
I think the idea of the GE gunbarrel is cool. It's the traditional gunbarrel done in Serra's electronic style, and it's a fantastic musical introduction to the rest of the film's music. But GF was my first. Whilst it's not my all time favourite, I see it as the gold standard of gunbarrel music.
{[] Can't disagree with that! And in answer to your earlier question: I haven't tried, but I'd think so.
I do like how white the background is and how clear Lazenby is though. Speaking of which, Connery's (not Bob's?) looks like he's about to fall over with his crouching stance, LALD/TMWTGG Moore looks like he's shot way left. Glad they changed Moore's one.
Dalton/Brosnan's ones look the best.
"Better make that two."