You Only Live Twice Musical Score

Moore Not LessMoore Not Less Posts: 1,095MI6 Agent
For me, You Only Live Twice has the best musical score of the series. I can't remember the last time I watched the film from start to finish. I can't go past the wedding scene without pressing the rewind button at least three times, that piece of music blows me away every time, it is my favourite piece of music in the entire series. Other great music comes in the scene where Bond is buried at sea and two frogmen come along and carry his body to a nearby submarine. In fact I find virtually the whole score of YOLT inspirational.

I do not have the soundtrack album, so I would be interested to know how many tracks there are, and what they are called.
I would also like to know what you think about the score of YOLT, and what is your favourite piece of music?

Comments

  • MovieManOO7MovieManOO7 Posts: 1MI6 Agent
    It truly is one of the best scores in the series! Favorite selection: Kobe dock. The instrumental playing while Bond is being chased on the roof is excellent - the entire sequence is one of the grandest (and most metaphorical) of the Bond series!
  • taitytaity Posts: 702MI6 Agent
    Its not my favourite, but I do like it. I came across the CD, and got it immedietly. And then, I heard about the remastered versions. Oh well.

    In the movie, can anyone tell me where the song "Tanaka's World" (I think) comes in?
  • Moonraker 5Moonraker 5 Ayrshire, ScotlandPosts: 1,821MI6 Agent
    edited April 2003
    MNL, the YOLT score has recently be re-released with many other Bond soundtracks and for the first time now contains the entire score. Previously, the score was very limited, but new additions have added the gunbarrell, pre-titles music, Bond's funeral and arrival on the submarine, the cues heard when arriving in Japan...among many others. The Bond theme now features far heavier than before (almost non-existant) and the version of the 007 Theme now appears in "Little Nellie". At least 2 original tracks have also been extended slightly. Go out there and buy it, you won't be disappointed. There's over 75 minutes worth on there now, all gloriously remastered.

    Track listing...
    1. You Only Live Twice (Title Song) - Nancy Sinatra
    2. Capsule In Space
    3. Fight At Kobe Dock - Helga
    4. Tanaka's World
    5. A Drop In The Ocean
    6. The Death Of Aki
    7. Mountains And Sunsets
    8. The Wedding
    9. James Bond - Astronaut?
    10. Countdown For Blofeld
    11. Bond Averts World War Three
    12. You Only Live Twice (End Title) - Nancy Sinatra
    13. James Bond In Japan
    14. Aki, Tiger And Osato
    15. Little Nellie
    16. Soviet Capsule
    17. Spectre And Village
    18. James Bond - Ninja
    19. Twice Is The Only Way To Live

    13 onwards are the new tracks, but by far the best piece on there is Capsule In Space.
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  • Moore Not LessMoore Not Less Posts: 1,095MI6 Agent
    Thank you very much Moonraker 5, this is wonderful news. I will certainly be buying the soundtrack, and I will most likely wear it out within a couple of weeks, it will make a change from wearing out the video. Capsule In Space is a very good piece of music, but as I said in my original post I find virtually the whole score of YOLT inspirational.

    Cheers, the next time I drink one of Scotland's finest, I will remember to toast you. On the other hand I could be lying face down in a gutter and I won't even remember my own name.
  • taitytaity Posts: 702MI6 Agent
    Quoting Moonraker 5:Previously, the score was very limited...

    You can say that again!
  • Hugo DraxHugo Drax Leeds, United Kingdom.Posts: 210MI6 Agent
    My favourite piece of music from the film is the 'Capsule in Space' cue.

    The OTT, sci-fi fantasy films: You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, Moonraker seem to bring out the best in John Barry.
  • TracyTracy the VillagePosts: 369MI6 Agent
    "Tanaka's World" actually doesn't appear in the film, though it sounds like it does :))

    I absolutely love the YOLT score. Definately one of John Barry's best, rivalling OHMSS. Even John Barry haters like the score, so it must be quite good :)). "The Wedding" is one of my all-time favorite pieces of music in a Bond film, and the space march is unforgettable. Not a single weak piece of music in the film, and all of it's included on the new CD rerelease! Thank you Ryko!
    Flattery will get you nowhere, but don't stop trying.
  • 007Dalton007Dalton Posts: 3MI6 Agent
    My favourite is "SPECTRE and Village" from the new release, so haunting in the middle, so great at the start, and the last part with the base guitar is awsome. A great Barry score, with the his great ones (OHMSS, GF, TB, YOLT, OP, TLD).
  • TracyTracy the VillagePosts: 369MI6 Agent
    After listening to YOLT a couple more times, I'm finding John Barry's musical magic starting to wear off. Here the space march is used so many times that it gets annoying (at least 5 tracks at least, and a bunch of them in a row). My two biggest complaint are that "James Bond in Japan" is extremely long and that "the Death of Aki" is so nauseatingly overdramatic that I either start laughing or feeling like I'm about to throw up. Otherwise it's pretty good, but I don't regard it as the best anymore.
    Flattery will get you nowhere, but don't stop trying.
  • Cmdr_EgorunamuckCmdr_Egorunamuck Posts: 22MI6 Agent
    Re : Tracy's comments.... well, little lady, you're certainly no fun! YOLT too sweet? Makes you hurl? Barry too melodramatic? Well, live and let learn.... myself, I can't travel in the Far East without YOLT playing in my tiny, saccharin head. Just suaving through Hong Kong (yes, it's not Japan, it's better) evokes memories of golden girls and golden days. Shimatta! I have lost face, Bond-san.
  • Hugo DraxHugo Drax Leeds, United Kingdom.Posts: 210MI6 Agent
    What do you guys think of Nancy Sinatra's title theme? I think it is beautifully composed and sung. It doesn't really match the tone of the film but it's still a good theme.
  • Moore Not LessMoore Not Less Posts: 1,095MI6 Agent
    Quoting Hugo Drax:
    What do you guys think of Nancy Sinatra's title theme? I think it is beautifully composed and sung. It doesn't really match the tone of the film but it's still a good theme.

    Nancy Sinatra's title song is inspiring. For years it was my favourite piece of all Bond music. The sound really captures my imagination and instantly transport's me to the far east, but as you say it does not really match the tone of the film.

    Now I would place it third behind OHMSS and The Living Daylights, but I still rate it very highly and I never get bored of hearing it.
  • g_m_hg_m_h Posts: 1MI6 Agent
    YOLT is tops. JazzX is spot on with Fight at Kobe Dock reference - grand stuff indeed.

    I always thought that one day that some DJ would began a tune with Capsule in Space - dialogue samples and all - an obvious b-side would be the Soviet version.

    Plus Nancy's redition on the End Title is the stuff adulthood was made for. After all those years having only the title song on a compliation album - then to discover that was a great moment.
  • kmartkmart Posts: 19MI6 Agent
    Quoting JazzX:
    Quoting JazzX:
    Quoting MovieManOO7:
    It truly is one of the best scores in the series! Favorite selection: Kobe dock. The instrumental playing while Bond is being chased on the roof is excellent - the entire sequence is one of the grandest (and most metaphorical) of the Bond series!

    It had to be, the action on-screen is badly executed. Bond runs along the roof-tops pretending to hit all the bad guys, but because of the wide angle we clearly see that he never connects, yet the baddies fall over unconcious nevertheless. You`re right, the music`s top notch, though.

    It just depends on how far you want to suspend your disbelief. Yeah, the missed swings ARE pretty evident most of the time, but hey, how many times do we see people get shot in these pics but sport no bullet holes and squirt no blood? Or even worse, the times when a gun is supposed to be firing and yet there is no muzzle flash (those drive me BUG****!) Aren't those moments missing something as well, yet we roll with them anyway.

    The bold style of the YOLT rooftop shot sort of overshadows (for me anyway) the flawed details of its execution.

    I take the YOLT dvd out at least monthly to watch the gyro copter sequence (between cinema and tv and vhs and laserdisc and dvd, I have probably watched the helicopter battle 500 times by now), but I usually also watch the Kobe fight as well.
    "Achievement is it's own reward - pride obscures it."
    Major Garland Briggs, in TWIN PEAKS
  • kmartkmart Posts: 19MI6 Agent
    ^Oh, I quite agree with you there, but music saving a scene is a tradition in many action adventure pics (most of Jerry Goldsmith's best work has been salvaging questionable scenes and questionable movies)

    If you take the score out of STAR WARS, the first couple movies (SW & EMPIRE) -- the only decent ones in my opinion -- the films would fall flat.

    Lots of flatly-directed and straightforwardly edited adventure pics rely on music to hype the action (there's a scene in the middle of STAR TREK 3 when the klingons are trying to sneak up on the Enterprise that, if not for the score hyping the action, would play out almost like sitcom, because the live-action visuals are so static and unmemorable. Compare that with a similar scene in the middle of TREK2 -- directed by Nick Meyer -- and you see all sorts of great insert shots, camera movement, and a sense of the inexorable in the assembly of these dynamic shots ... same idea, totally different execution.)

    I think the way you feel about the YOLT rooftop is kind of the way I feel about the scene in OHMSS when Bond is fighting everybody in that room filled with bells. The scene is hysterically overcut, presumably to hide bad fight action (which is something even more wince-producing during the opening beach scene in OHMSS, when Lazenby is swinging punches like ... well, like a girl, and missing landing the blows by a mile, something not masked by the speeded up action), but basically I suppose the resonating sound of the bells is supposed to get the audience past the poor visual quality of the sequence.

    I didn't see OHMSS (except for that weird 2part ABC version) in the theater till around 1980 or so, and even though faster cutting had become more the norm by that point, the bell scene seemed like something from an experimental movie (that's being generous, I mean it seemed like something done in a Super-8 filmmaking class filled with teenagers who went crazy with the scissors & the splicing tape when assemblying their first scene.)

    Long digression, but anyway, I really DO get what you mean about the blows not landing.
    "Achievement is it's own reward - pride obscures it."
    Major Garland Briggs, in TWIN PEAKS
  • dbrian_calidbrian_cali Posts: 2MI6 Agent
    I think THUNDERBALL is right up there with YOLT in terms of genre, transition, and all around cool music. Both of these films have excellent scores.
  • KissyLoverKissyLover AustraliaPosts: 139MI6 Agent
    The YOLT soundtrack is my equal fav along with Goldfinger. I know alot of people on this forum will talk about music fitting or not fitting a certain scene and while I can understand those arguments I love the YOLT soundtrack (and GF soundtrack) as great collections of music...music for musics sake. :x
  • General_OurumovGeneral_Ourumov United KingdomPosts: 861MI6 Agent
    edited December 2006
    Just to add my two cents worth, You Only Live Twice is my favourite theme song in the series; really, the combination of the strings with Nancy Sinatra's soothing voice is just incredible. I could listen to it over and over. The tune of the theme provides the basis for the rest of the score, which I think is magnificent. I don't just mean the pieces such as the wedding, or where Bond and Kissy take the scenic route to the top of the volcano. The Space March, as it's known, is one of the best - and most tense - pieces of music in the entire series. The film is rounded off by some really great action pieces, such as the fight between Bond and Hans.

    YOLT has one of the most well-rounded scores of the series, for sure, and it displays some of John Barry's finest work.
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    Couldn't agree more, mein General, YOLT is Barry at his peak- I'd hate to pick between this score and OHMSS for a desert island disc.
    Slightly more importantly, this score is also tops with David Arnold. To paraphrase an interview with him at the time of TND, within the first ten minutes of the film you've heard the Bond Theme, "Capsule In Space" (aka "Space March"), and the YOLT song- Bond music just doesn't get any better than that!
  • NickNack2NickNack2 Posts: 2MI6 Agent
    Hugo Drax wrote:
    What do you guys think of Nancy Sinatra's title theme? I think it is beautifully composed and sung. It doesn't really match the tone of the film but it's still a good theme.

    My favourite bond song & fave score. Shame Robbie Williams had to butcher it. :(
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