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Diamonds Are Forever - Musical analysis of the title song

mattjoesmattjoes Julie T. and the M.G.'s
in Music Posts: 7,021
I leave you with an analysis of the DAF title song, which I found at Songlexikon.de. It was written by one Isabella Bieber. Although it's not too long, the text provides some very interesting details concerning the harmonies, vocals and orchestration of the song.

http://www.songlexikon.de/songs/diamondsareforever

The site features a few more analysis of Bond songs; however, they are only in German.

Comments

  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    Posts: 5,436
    Interesting article. Thanks for sharing.
  • bondsumbondsum
    Posts: 3,333
    Yes, interesting. Thanks for posting. There's also links for The Living Daylights, Live & Let Die, Goldfinger, GoldenEye and AVTAK there as well.
  • mattjoesmattjoes Julie T. and the M.G.'s
    edited October 2018 Posts: 7,021
    You're welcome.

    In listening to DAF once again, I noticed more closely what the article says about Bassey clipping certain words. I especially like how for the very last word of the song --forever-- she omits the f sound and delivers it like "oooorevahhh".

    A musical representation of a diamond is also achieved through the use of finger cymbals in the intro of the song, with their bright, "sparkling" timbre.

    Google seems to provide decent enough translations for the articles of the other songs.
  • vzokvzok
    Posts: 4,044
    Thanks for the link.

    When Saltzman criticised the vulgarity of the title song, didn’t John Barry say - What the eff do you know about music.
  • bondsumbondsum
    edited October 2018 Posts: 3,333
    I think our Barry liked to embellish a good story @vzok. He might have thought it, but I bet you Barry never actually said it to Harry's face. It's rather like Barry suggesting that he told Don Black to think of a penis when writing the lyrics for DAF, and yet Black totally denies this ever took place.
  • mattjoesmattjoes Julie T. and the M.G.'s
    Posts: 7,021
    Interesting that Black denied that. The Songlexikon article isn't specific about the source of that denial. I took a cursory glance at the article references by means of Google Books previews but couldn't find the exact source of that information.

    The Music of James Bond says after Saltzman expressed his dislike for the DAF song, Barry said "what the hell would you know about it?!" Of course, this could be paraphrased. At any rate, without passing any judgment, my impression is Barry could be strong-minded in his views about his work, so I wouldn't put it past him to get into a strong altercation with Saltzman, who seemed like an intense, temperamental fellow-- to me, anyway.
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