David Arnold is 59 so I am listening to...
chrisno1
LondonPosts: 3,599MI6 Agent
I understand David Arnold is 59 today.
Congrats to David.
He has a chequered reputation with many Bond fans, but I find his soundtracks far more 'James Bond' than the recent tosh we've had to put up with. I love the way he weaves the signatures we all know and love into his own themes, yet never allows them to overpower his scores. The DAD OST maybe took this too far, but that's a tribute movie in everything but name. I think he did a great piece of work on Casino Royale which wouldn't have been half as good without his prior experience. Keeping the same M, the same title designer, the same production designer, screen writers (love 'em or hate 'em) and the same composer, provided a smooth transition, with some recognisable elements thrown into a new mix.
Right now I'm listening to TOMORROW NEVER DIES which is my fav Pierce Brosnan, my fav Arnold OST and has some of my fav moments from Brosnan's era peppered throughout it. The blistering soundtrack is helping me to reconjure those memories now:
the archetypal Bondness of White Knight, the jaunty Company Car, the shimmery mystery of Hamburg Break In which morphs into the pseudo-techno drum n bass of Hamburg Break Out, Dr Kaufmann's Golden Gun inspired quietess, the pounding Back Seat Driver, the restive then surging Underwater Discovery - all augmented at the finale by Moby's stupendous James Bond Theme - which really ought to have replaced Sheryl Crow's disaster-strewn croaking warble of a tune.
Ah what a lovely hour.
Congrats to David.
He has a chequered reputation with many Bond fans, but I find his soundtracks far more 'James Bond' than the recent tosh we've had to put up with. I love the way he weaves the signatures we all know and love into his own themes, yet never allows them to overpower his scores. The DAD OST maybe took this too far, but that's a tribute movie in everything but name. I think he did a great piece of work on Casino Royale which wouldn't have been half as good without his prior experience. Keeping the same M, the same title designer, the same production designer, screen writers (love 'em or hate 'em) and the same composer, provided a smooth transition, with some recognisable elements thrown into a new mix.
Right now I'm listening to TOMORROW NEVER DIES which is my fav Pierce Brosnan, my fav Arnold OST and has some of my fav moments from Brosnan's era peppered throughout it. The blistering soundtrack is helping me to reconjure those memories now:
the archetypal Bondness of White Knight, the jaunty Company Car, the shimmery mystery of Hamburg Break In which morphs into the pseudo-techno drum n bass of Hamburg Break Out, Dr Kaufmann's Golden Gun inspired quietess, the pounding Back Seat Driver, the restive then surging Underwater Discovery - all augmented at the finale by Moby's stupendous James Bond Theme - which really ought to have replaced Sheryl Crow's disaster-strewn croaking warble of a tune.
Ah what a lovely hour.
Comments
You didn't mention Surrender, though, which is surely one of the two greatest unused pieces (the other being No Good About Goodbye) - wouldn't that have been a better finale?
my favourite track from TND has to be "an pressing engagement" which has probably one of the best renditions of the Bond theme
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
c&d, #surrender, ah well, now, I prefer it to Sheryl Crow, but I don't like it as much as Moby.
If Moby had been granted the title theme, I'd be quite happy to have Miss Lang over the end credits - as she is. It is noticeable that Arnold doesn't use the title track in his OST, but utilises Surrender quite a bit. Looks like Miss Crow was forced upon us all...
As chrisno1 said in the original post, his reputation has perhaps been viewed as 'chequered' in the past, but I feel that the only reason this could be the case is that his work is inevitably judged against the work of John Barry. Compared to most, if not all, other non-Barry composers who have tackled Bond I think that Arnold's scores are superior. His general adherance to Barry's method of writing a melodically rich song and then building the rest of the score around that is one of the greatest strengths of his soundtracks, even if those songs don't end up in the actual film. His action music doesn't always stand out as much as some other composers, but I feel that his romantic music is close to the standard of Barry.
I hope Mr Arnold had an enjoyable birthday. I always have a massively enjoyable time listening to his Bond scores.
Well, as 'forced' as any other Bond theme was on us, in that the people putting the film out picked her to do the song.
Which is kind if what I meant. How much input does the OST composer have? Arnold seems to have had little. I almost get the impression Crow got the gig because the producers liked "All I Wanna Do."
And yeah, Crow probably got the job because they liked her work and she’d had some hits: I can’t think of any Bond theme artists that’s not true of.
Mr KissKissBangBang?
even then, Barry wrote and recorded Thunderball with Tom Jones, and integrated its themes into the score.
were there other cases where Barry's themesong was rejected by EON and replaced by something he had no involvement in?
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=julie+rogers+you+only+live+twice&&view=detail&mid=EB8770E33F757987D379EB8770E33F757987D379&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Djulie%2Brogers%2Byou%2Bonly%2Blive%2Btwice%26FORM%3DHDRSC3
that was replaced by the one (still composed by him, of course) we all know and love.