Barry, John Barry

A young John Barry... could have been Bond, eh?

As a huge aficionado of all things James Bond, I have a wealth of stuff to talk about on the subject. So where to start? Today I'll just touch on the Bond movie music, which is itself a huge area to cover, since so much outstanding music was created for the long-running film series. The classic era of Bond music was the 60's, though the 70's and even the 80's had some surprises for us.

To begin with, a man named Monty Norman wrote the music for the very first Bond film, Dr. No. Included in that soundtrack was the now-famous James Bond Theme, which has appeared in some form or other in every 007 film since. Composer John Barry was brought on board to tweak that Theme to suit the tastes of the film-makers. That created a years-long legal battle over who was responsible for the piece of music. Most deservedly, Norman finally won two libel action suits so that he could claim the Theme was his.

But that was the end of Norman's association with the Bond films... though he did receive a wack of royalties over the following decades.

John Barry took over the musical production duties on the second Bond movie, From Russia With Love. Here, he began to flesh out the musical world of Bond, introducing soundscapes that placed the listener in the driver's seat during a Cold War spy mission. The "007" theme that appears in FRWL became a motif that fit well into future Bond films. It's militaristic percussion and staccato horns collaborated with the more melodic string section to build a catchy, tense, and forceful piece.

And the rest is history. The now prolific English composer scored eleven of the Bond movies between 1963 and 1987. During his fifty year career, Barry created music for over one hundred films, not to mention the television themes, musicals, and his recordings with the John Barry Seven and John Barry Orchestra. A busy lad. 

When I began collecting the Bond movies for the first time during the late 90's, I became more and more aware of the great music this multiple award-winning composer gave to the world. So along with the movies, I also accumulated a set of the Bond movie soundtracks. Plus many of Barry's non-Bond scores, some of which are just as good if not better.

While the CDs are for my listening pleasure, a few of the old vinyl LPs (some are first issue) are proudly displayed on my walls for my viewing pleasure. 

The soundtrack albums are wonderful listening in their own right. Certainly, Barry's music is meticulously arranged for the films, from beautiful sweeping flourishes (as in You Only Live Twice) to gripping, tense pieces (as in On Her Majesty's Secret Service). It was for OHMSS that Barry invented some brand new motifs that would later be identified with Bond just as much as the original Monty Norman theme and the 007 Theme. The "OHMSS main title" especially would be re-interpreted many times over by modern artists.... Barry successfully captured the essence of the spy film in the piece, with its Morse code-like descending riff played against the lush, exciting horns and strings, plus the chase scene-paced percussion. 

While I generally favour the earlier Bond soundtracks, some of his best work appears a bit later in the film series. Moonraker and A View to a Kill contain some amazing orchestral pieces, again proving the music was better than the movies for which they were produced. 1971's Diamonds Are Forever also fell into that category.

And then there was Barry's (sometimes co-written) string of highly successful Bond movie theme songs: from Shirley Bassey's brassy rendition of Goldfinger to Nancy Sinatra's You Only Live Twice, from Louis Armstrong's We Have All the Time in the World to Duran Duran singing A View to a Kill. And Carly Simon's Nobody Does It Better. Click the link for my discussion of that huge hit. 

Whole books have been written about Bond music, so I see no reason to delve too deeply into things all in one shot, or at all. But it's important to recognize John Barry's contribution to film and to the Bond series. His legacy will stand for ages, for as long as we love living precariously through the adventures of 007.... and as long as we enjoy relaxing with a vodka martini, listening to CDs of some of the greatest movie music of all time.