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QoS I had at #19, so not very close with the group, but I do like it, particularly Night at the Opera. Agreed that it's Arnold's best.
GF I had in the 6th spot and was a little disappointed with the group ranking, but happy it made the top 10.
I was surprised to see FRWL beat GF, as I had it at #12 myself, but no doubt it's a very good score.
DAF was another disappointment, as it was my #4, but hey it wasn't too far off.
I had LALD exactly where it finished at #7 and I'm not ashamed to say I love it, but I can see how it's not everyone's cup of tea.
Lastly, I placed TB only one place higher than where it ended up and I agree it's definitely one of Barry's best.
One additional beauty of a cue I haven't seen mentioned yet is "Death of Fiona" with its deceptively sinister dance take on "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" that steadily transforms into a bongo roll of death before snapping back to the cute dance music with all the deftness of Bond letting his friend sit this one out. It's storytelling through music at its finest.
The only factors that prevent Thunderball from climbing into the upper half of my favorite Barrys are the dizzying and quite endless 007 theme variations that dominate the action of the latter half of the film and how the underwater suspense music at times makes such scenes feel several times longer than they actually are. But by and large this score was a fantastic achievement of Barry's and a big step toward even greater Bond scores to come.
When I listen to music, it's usually 19th century symphonies and piano concertos, and I guess Martin's 'soft' brass and his strings come closest to 19th century orchestra harmonies. A bit like the Dvorak sound, perhaps, to name one of my favourite composers.
Every time the 'boat chase' theme kicks in, it elevates the already great scene exceedingly. Apart from the sunny Louisiana/Caribbean locations (and some great action) it's the score that makes this movie, imo.
I recently listened, for several days, to nothing but 'Whisper who dares'/'James Bond Theme'/'Bond to New York' and enjoyed it immensely. Makes even a taxi drive one of the best and most stylish Bond scenes.
The instrumental part of the title theme has a great combination of dynamics and sweet melody, and the romantic cues aren't inferior to the franchise's best.
Altogether towering far above all other Bond scores, for me.
Jon Burlingame's truly epic book "The Music Of James Bond" elaborates on all the choices made, but I can't remember if he also talks about why Martin wasn't asked to return. Time for me to read the book again, I guess. ;-)
You know the perfect time for George Martin to return would be in '77 for TSWLM. Would have loved to hear what he could have done there.
I’ve just had a flick through the book and cant see anything particular about it. I think Saltzman and Broccolli were just loyal to Barry.
Yeah, I'm definitely going to side with @Thrasos on this. It's clear now that more people here reject the FYEO score in favour of the LALD score, but Conti is the better composer of these two in my opinion.
@Mallory. That is my memory of it as well.
While we may never know all of the details, based on his record, I don’t think that George Martin really saw himself as a composer of film scores in the vein of John Barry, Hans Zimmer, etc. In fact (off the top of my head), I only know of three other George Martin film scores in addition to LALD: A Hard Day’s Night (1964), The Family Way (1966), and Yellow Submarine (1968). And not surprisingly, each involved The Beatles or Paul McCartney (solo).
According to “Some Kind of Hero” (Field, Chowdhury), by 1973 the former head of Apple Records – Ron Kass – was working for Harry Saltzman, and that plus Barry’s unavailability may have been Martin’s “in” (as it were). In addition, Martin did produce the single version of Bassey’s “Goldfinger”, so he was not an unknown to the Bond folks.
Part of the reason for this is attributable to George Martin himself. Prior to Martin’s work with The Beatles, the “producer” was front and center in deciding a band’s lead singer and in the selection of songs. Early on, however, Martin decided to leave The Beatles self-contained democratic structure pretty much alone. In fact, he was quoted on many occasions as viewing his role as more a “facilitator” than a task master. He also, until 1966 (IIRC) stayed on payroll at EMI as a standard employee, rather than go “independent”, and even then, his role for the artists he produced did not really change.
Another factor was the great success the individual Beatles had post breakup, and with the possible exception of the band “America”, he didn’t really have a ton of high-profile successes – and even then, nothing on the order of his Beatles work. Only later, during the 1980’s – as the Beatles receded into history - did he really speak about those days in depth and fans really come to appreciate his innovations.
Today, record producers are often a “brand” in and upon themselves. And while we can retrospectively assign that label to George Martin, he did not see himself like that.
THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS
Music composed by
JOHN BARRY
I counted nine top 5's for TLD: two golds, two silvers, two bronzes, one 4th place and two fifth places.
Eight more top 10's were realised by Barry's swansong to the 007 franchise.
There was also a single bottom 5: a 23rd place.
In total the original music for TLD obtained 162 points.
John Barry won a BMI Film Music Award for this one. It was also nominated for an FMCJ Award for "Best Re-release of a Previously Existing Score" .
In any case, anything else but YOLT and OHMSS finishing in the top two spots would be a travesty.
These two are unsurpassable masterworks.
But not all is well here - how can MR be better than this???
I love every bit of this score, including If There Was A Man and Where Has Everybody Gone and how these songs were absorbed into the score. Then there's that musically dramatic takeoff of the jet in Austria, followed by that little victory tune, followed then by the Bond theme is just an outstanding piece of work.
The action music that Barry provides for both the PTS and Bond's snowy escape with Kara has a really cool beat to it. Though slightly more experimental than usual and somewhat at risk of sounding a tad repetitive, this music is actually quite adequate when it comes to showing off with the new Bond.
Especially when Bond rides deeper into Afganistan, Barry elicits an emotional response from me that works the magic every time. The music he composed for the blowing up of the bridge is unbelievably powerful. And when Kara sneaks back into her room right before the end credits, and Barry's soft strings start playing ever so gently, I just wish I was there.
I had this score at #2.
I don’t think anyone can argue with YOLT, OHMSS, and MR being the holy trinity of Bond scores.
Love how Barry uses the three original songs in equal measures throughout the score. I also like the mix of traditional instruments with synth elements.
Happy it made the top 5!
I've always enjoyed this song more than LALD. ;-)
That's one of my favorite musical moments from the series, I'd say.
I ranked TLD as my #4, on a par with OHMSS (5). I only prefer two other scores from Barry: AVTAK and (especially) YOLT. All of them have some very catchy, even epic melodies. One of many moments I love so much in TLD is the music during the prison fight and the already mentioned moment when the bridge is destoyed is awesome, too.
I'm really wondering where Zimmer's score would end in this game. I hope it will be a top 10 score but the competition is very tough.