Dish Out of Water: Eric Serra Appreciation

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  • GadgetManGadgetMan Lagos, Nigeria
    Posts: 4,247
    Indeed...it would have been controversial.
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 7,222
    It would have been odd, considering Serra already used an instrumental cue of "The Experience of Love" in LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL. Had it turned up in GE during the film it probably would have been even more controversial among fans, but since the song is relegated to the credits it doesn't get as much attention.




    There is one track that uses some of it. Don't remember which one but I'll come back to that.
  • Posts: 4,045
    GoldenGun wrote: »
    It would have been odd, considering Serra already used an instrumental cue of "The Experience of Love" in LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL. Had it turned up in GE during the film it probably would have been even more controversial among fans, but since the song is relegated to the credits it doesn't get as much attention.




    There is one track that uses some of it. Don't remember which one but I'll come back to that.

    One track in GE?
  • OctopussyOctopussy Piz Gloria, Schilthorn, Switzerland.
    Posts: 1,081
    GoldenGun wrote: »
    It would have been odd, considering Serra already used an instrumental cue of "The Experience of Love" in LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL. Had it turned up in GE during the film it probably would have been even more controversial among fans, but since the song is relegated to the credits it doesn't get as much attention.




    There is one track that uses some of it. Don't remember which one but I'll come back to that.

    Yes, 'The Experience of Love' uses a bit of the above track at 0:40.
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    edited March 2020 Posts: 7,222
    TEOL indeed uses some of that Léon track, but there is also a track on the GE soundtrack that uses some of TEOL.

    Found it:


    At 0:40 in The Scale to Hell you can hear the opening bars of TEOL.
  • MakeshiftPythonMakeshiftPython “Baja?!”
    Posts: 8,233
    From Some Kind of Hero, concerning Serra's hiring:



    Luc Besson's regular composer, Eric Serra fresh from scoring LEON (1994) was suggested by Campbell, "I got it into my head that we are in the nineties, we've got to update this musically." Serra visited Leavesden and noted eighty percent of the temp track on the rough cut was his LEON score, "proving that they really were fans of my work." However, due to album commitments, Serra declined. Barbara Broccoli would not take no for an answer, "She told me I would have the end title song and that I could choose the record company. I couldn't say no anymore!" Beginning work in summer 1995 Serra was given "cart blanche", Serra felt he captured all the musical moods within the first twelve minutes of score which he played early for filmmakers:

    Serra: I wanted feedback, I needed to know if I was going in the right direction. For the whole time Martin Campbell and the editor were kind of talking about their own work, clearly they were not really listening. At the end they turned to me, "It's great Eric. We love it, it's fantastic. Keep going." And they left.

    Later, editor Terry Rawlings had reservations, "When we cam eto the big scenes, like the tank chase, I asked Barbara and Michael and Martin to come over. 'We cannot mix the music he has given us because it doesn't work'". Serra was chagrined, "C'mon, if you wan to do something completely new and modern, you don't let a 65 year old guy [Rawlings] be the master of it." The cue in question, a version of the James Bond Theme entitled "A Pleasant Drive in St. Petersburg" was for Serra "completely new, completely modern, every half-second there was something effectively synced between the image and the music." Following an alternative tradition established by George Martin, Marvin Hamilisch, and Bill Conti, Eric Serra updated Monty Norman's theme for the new decade - Bond '95, if you will. Serra felt, "You could have taken all the foleys and the sound effects out", and the music would have perfectly punctuated the action. However, for Campbell that was the problem, "The tank and the rumble of the synths were all in the same tonal range." The french composer declined the request to re-score, but, with his approval, Serra's orchestrator, John Altman, conducted a more traditional version of the James Bond Theme for the sequence. This was at Cubby Broccoli's request only one week before the final print was completed and screened.

    Serra was extremely disappointed with the sound mix when he saw GoldenEye for the first time at the premiere. Voicing his frustration to Michael Wilson, while on a press tour in Japan, Serra remembered the response, "He was looking at me almost like I was talking Chinese. He said 'Eric, you are the Number 1 movie at the box office on the planet and you're not happy?' I was talking to him about an artistic wound that I was feeling".




    One last bit is that apparently Serra pitched a song to Tina Turner, but ultimately Bono and the Edge did the collaboration. Makes me wonder if Serra had worked with Turner we would have had that song integrated into the score. Oh well.
  • GadgetManGadgetMan Lagos, Nigeria
    Posts: 4,247
    Very insightful @MakeshiftPython. The story behind this score is somewhat mysterious. I just hope Serra is aware that a great deal of Bond fans adore his score, coz I really love it. Starting from his very inventive and futuristic Gunbarrel music....that can still work with any Bond's Gunbarrel today.
  • CraigMooreOHMSSCraigMooreOHMSS Dublin, Ireland
    Posts: 8,236
    While I prefer the other Brosnan era scores, I think Serra did exactly what he was hired to do and I wouldn't change his GoldenEye score at all. Well, except for maybe 'Ladies First'.
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 7,222
    Thanks for the Inside info @MakeshiftPython!

    I often wonder that too @GadgetMan. I love the GE score and a lot of his other scores too. He's one of my favourite composers.
  • GadgetManGadgetMan Lagos, Nigeria
    Posts: 4,247
    Indeed, @GoldenGun a brilliant and very inventive composer, Serra is.
  • MakeshiftPythonMakeshiftPython “Baja?!”
    Posts: 8,233
    What really surprised me reading it was learning that before being hired EON had his LEON score used as temp tracks. So it’s fairly obvious they knew what they wanted and what they were asking for from Serra, but once he delivered on it they seemed to have gotten cold feet.
  • GatecrasherGatecrasher Classified
    Posts: 265
    I've always enjoyed Eric Serra's score for GoldenEye. Hell, the movie is pretty much my childhood, so it makes sense it would coincide with nostalgia. I love it because it's modern (by 90s standards), it's different, and it suits the film itself so well. There's a couple tracks I could do without ("Ladies First" and "We Share the Same Passions") but other than that, it's so different and I couldn't imagine GoldenEye without Eric Serra's music.

    I just wished they could've included the Tiger Escape on the soundtrack - it's a great action cue and totally Bondian, suiting Brosnan perfectly.
  • GadgetManGadgetMan Lagos, Nigeria
    edited October 2020 Posts: 4,247
    I'm still patiently waiting and hoping GE gets a complete score release. Maybe La La Land Records can do it, like they did for TWINE and DAD.
  • ResurrectionResurrection Kolkata, India
    edited October 2020 Posts: 2,541
    Loved reading that @MakeshiftPython , thanks for sharing. It was surprising that Serra's wasn't completely satisfied with what he delivered. I personally love his score, it's very 90s.
  • CraigMooreOHMSSCraigMooreOHMSS Dublin, Ireland
    Posts: 8,236
    I would like to hear the music from the scene where Bond and Natalya are trapped in the Tiger helicopter some day.
  • MakeshiftPythonMakeshiftPython “Baja?!”
    edited October 2020 Posts: 8,233
    GadgetMan wrote: »
    I'm still patiently waiting and hoping GE gets a complete score release. Maybe La La Land Records can do it, like they did for TWINE and DAD.

    It's something we should have gotten for its 25th anniversary. Oh well. Hopefully one day.
    Loved reading that @MakeshiftPython , thanks for sharing. It was surprising that Serra's wasn't completely satisfied with what he delivered. I person love his score, it's very 90s.

    @Resurrection when Serra refers to being unsatisfied with the mixing of his music, he's specifically talking about how the editors repurposed pieces of music for scenes they were not supposed to play in. For example, in the final cut of the pen grenade scene it's replaying music for what was originally composed for the train exploding scene. Then there's reusing "Run, Shoot and Jump" during the climax on the dish, when it was supposed to play "The Scale to Hell".

    There could be a whole lot more examples we don't know of. I'm not only interested in GE for having the complete soundtrack but also for all the music that was likely cut out and never even heard before. That would be very enticing!
  • GatecrasherGatecrasher Classified
    edited October 2020 Posts: 265
    GadgetMan wrote: »
    I'm still patiently waiting and hoping GE gets a complete score release. Maybe La La Land Records can do it, like they did for TWINE and DAD.

    It's something we should have gotten for its 25th anniversary. Oh well. Hopefully one day.
    Loved reading that @MakeshiftPython , thanks for sharing. It was surprising that Serra's wasn't completely satisfied with what he delivered. I person love his score, it's very 90s.

    @Resurrection when Serra refers to being unsatisfied with the mixing of his music, he's specifically talking about how the editors repurposed pieces of music for scenes they were not supposed to play in. For example, in the final cut of the pen grenade scene it's replaying music for what was originally composed for the train exploding scene. Then there's reusing "Run, Shoot and Jump" during the climax on the dish, when it was supposed to play "The Scale to Hell".

    There could be a whole lot more examples we don't know of. I'm not only interested in GE for having the complete soundtrack but also for all the music that was likely cut out and never even heard before. That would be very enticing!

    I remember seeing a fan edit on YouTube of the scenes in Trevelyan's base where the original music by Eric Serra was put back - "Boris and the Lethal Pen" and "The Scale to Hell". I wished they wouldn't have cut those from the film, as those tracks work so well.

    Edit: Found it, if anyone's interested:
  • MakeshiftPythonMakeshiftPython “Baja?!”
    Posts: 8,233
    Here's the original music for the exploding pen scene:

  • GadgetManGadgetMan Lagos, Nigeria
    Posts: 4,247
    I would like to hear the music from the scene where Bond and Natalya are trapped in the Tiger helicopter some day.

    Yeah, Me too. I love that track. Lovely use of the Bond theme in it....with a mix of ambient, rock and electronic music in the Bond theme.
  • GadgetManGadgetMan Lagos, Nigeria
    Posts: 4,247
    Yeah, hopefully @MakeshiftPython fingers crossed for the complete release of the score, one day.
  • GatecrasherGatecrasher Classified
    Posts: 265
    GadgetMan wrote: »
    I would like to hear the music from the scene where Bond and Natalya are trapped in the Tiger helicopter some day.

    Yeah, Me too. I love that track. Lovely use of the Bond theme in it....with a mix of ambient, rock and electronic music in the Bond theme.

    Same here. There are a lot of solid action tracks from the score, but for me the Tiger escape with Bond and Natalya is a standout: love how it’s a shorter reworked version of “Half of Everything Is Fate”. It would’ve been really cool if this had been the main action motif throughout the film.
  • GadgetManGadgetMan Lagos, Nigeria
    edited October 2020 Posts: 4,247
    GadgetMan wrote: »
    I would like to hear the music from the scene where Bond and Natalya are trapped in the Tiger helicopter some day.

    Yeah, Me too. I love that track. Lovely use of the Bond theme in it....with a mix of ambient, rock and electronic music in the Bond theme.

    Same here. There are a lot of solid action tracks from the score, but for me the Tiger escape with Bond and Natalya is a standout: love how it’s a shorter reworked version of “Half of Everything Is Fate”. It would’ve been really cool if this had been the main action motif throughout the film.

    Yeah, true...I would have really loved that. But I think The Other Half Is Fate is the track you were referring to.
  • GatecrasherGatecrasher Classified
    Posts: 265
    GadgetMan wrote: »
    GadgetMan wrote: »
    I would like to hear the music from the scene where Bond and Natalya are trapped in the Tiger helicopter some day.

    Yeah, Me too. I love that track. Lovely use of the Bond theme in it....with a mix of ambient, rock and electronic music in the Bond theme.

    Same here. There are a lot of solid action tracks from the score, but for me the Tiger escape with Bond and Natalya is a standout: love how it’s a shorter reworked version of “Half of Everything Is Fate”. It would’ve been really cool if this had been the main action motif throughout the film.

    Yeah, true...I would have really loved that. But I think The Other Half Is Fate is the track you were referring to.

    Oh yes, you’re right! My mistake.
  • GadgetManGadgetMan Lagos, Nigeria
    Posts: 4,247
    GadgetMan wrote: »
    GadgetMan wrote: »
    I would like to hear the music from the scene where Bond and Natalya are trapped in the Tiger helicopter some day.

    Yeah, Me too. I love that track. Lovely use of the Bond theme in it....with a mix of ambient, rock and electronic music in the Bond theme.

    Same here. There are a lot of solid action tracks from the score, but for me the Tiger escape with Bond and Natalya is a standout: love how it’s a shorter reworked version of “Half of Everything Is Fate”. It would’ve been really cool if this had been the main action motif throughout the film.

    Yeah, true...I would have really loved that. But I think The Other Half Is Fate is the track you were referring to.

    Oh yes, you’re right! My mistake.

    Yeah, cool....I thought so.
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 7,222
    GadgetMan wrote: »
    I would like to hear the music from the scene where Bond and Natalya are trapped in the Tiger helicopter some day.

    Yeah, Me too. I love that track. Lovely use of the Bond theme in it....with a mix of ambient, rock and electronic music in the Bond theme.

    Love it too, one of my favourite cues in the series. You can listen to it over here:

  • GadgetManGadgetMan Lagos, Nigeria
    Posts: 4,247
    Oh! Many thanks @GoldenGun it was a good listen again. Another reminder why we really do need the complete work of Serra's GE score.
  • ResurrectionResurrection Kolkata, India
    Posts: 2,541
    Let's just hope they release it some day.
  • GadgetManGadgetMan Lagos, Nigeria
    Posts: 4,247
    Let's just hope they release it some day.

    Yeah, let's hope so.
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