Monday, July 09, 2007

"Now, pay attention 007"



Those of you were good at maths and stats and standard deviations from the norm and all that sort of mallarkey at school will be able to dig out your protractors, set squares and compasses and plot today's concept in graphical form tracking all key variables, so hey! your week is off to a great start already!

Our poser is this: if we were to assess every Bond film ever made according to two relative criteria - enjoyability of film and grooviness of music, what would come out on top? And, much more interestingly, for which films would the gap between the two ratings be greatest, i.e. what are the unmitigatingly shite Bond films with tremendous music, and what are the gobsmackingly fab Bond films with rubbish music? Are you still with me at the back? (ARE YOU CHEWING GUM BOY? WELL SPIT IT OUT).

For me, an excellent example in the rubbish movie but great music category is 'Octopussy' - a woefully bad outing for 007 with an antiquated Roger Moore camping it up, borderline racist 'Indian' villains, incoherent plotting, unsuspenseful chases and blah blah blah, BUT a superb late John Barry score echoing his very best early work, especially in rich orchestrations of the lovely title song 'All Time High' that run throughout.

And as for the best/best - hugely enjoyable films also with great music? 'Goldfinger', 'Dr No'? Of the later movies, 'The World Is Not Enough' with Barry-acolyte David Arnold's score and, way hey, Shirley Manson of Garbage?!

Whaddya think?

I have to tell you that there has always been a place in my heart for 'You Only Live Twice' (1967).

Film-wise it has peak-period Connery, Donald Pleasance's Blofeld, Little Nellie the jetcopter, lovely Asian women, spaceship-swallowing rockets and a villain's lair inside a massive volcano whose fake-lake surface rolls back like a big door. I mean come on! Musically - an awesome Barry soundtrack and, let us all give thanks, Nancy Bloody Sinatra!!!! Hmm, kind of beats Lulu, wouldn't you say?

Anyway, here are some musical excerpts for your delectation. Prepare to weep in awe at 'Mountains And Sunsets' (accompanies sweeping views of Japanese landscape) and thrill to the (much imitated, never bettered) tension of 'Capsule In Space' especially. Genius, truly.

John Barry (vocal, Nancy Sinatra) - 'You Only Live Twice - Title Song'
John Barry - 'Capsule In Space'
John Barry - 'A Drop In The Ocean'
John Barry - 'The Death Of Aki'
John Barry - 'Mountains And Sunsets'

[Buy the soundtrack here. This post based on an original pub discussion with my good friend Dr Al - happy birthday for tomorrow. In memory of Desmond Llewellyn 1914-1999].

11 comments:

  1. It’s because of this sort of excellent pub debate that Mrs Mick doesn’t bother asking me what we talked about after one of my rare visits to the local.

    Anyway, here’s my contribution. How about On Her Majesty’s Secret Service? Not a critical success but great fun AND it had Diana Rigg AND that Louis Armstrong song AND a good theme tune that in parts seems like a trial run for the great Persuaders theme.

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  2. ...oh and you look more like a Harry Palmer fan.

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  3. Nice work old boy.


    DVD

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  4. Mick - that is the Bond connoisseur's answer if I may say so. I even once heard someone argue that 'OHMSS' would have been the greatest 007 movie of them all (and certainly you are right about the soundtrack)had Sean Connery been it rather than poor old George L.

    I must upload the theme sometime (when you least expect it of course, Blofeld like...)

    Re. my avatar Harry Palmer - John Barry wrote the music for the 'Ipcress File' too fact fans!

    PS: Mrs Mick and Mrs H have similar 'crosses to bear' I fear.

    DVD: good to see you over hear my dear fellow.

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  5. PPS: Another entry in the good movie/pisspoor theme category (yes, I know I'm not supposed to be playing my own game, but I can't resist): 'Die Another Day' - gritty and tense Brosnan-era Bond, truly awful Madonna title song (though the incidental music by David Arnold is OK, I suppose....)

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  6. it's always nancy sinatra and fake volcanoes for me but i do have a soft spot for roger in a safari suit. live and let die would win the greatest gap bewtween ace film and bad theme. damn that awful mccartney.
    x
    never tell your lovers about things like this. ever.

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  7. Mick, spot on! And Dave, that 'someone' wasn't far off the mark - OHMSS is a wonderful Bond movie. Admittedly soiled by Wooden George (and they gave him such great lines - that opening scene "This never happened to the other guy" as his introduction - clearly an opportunity missed!). But what action (without the gadgets), what music and what emotion. Marvellous! Happy to send over theme tune if you haven't already uploaded.
    Mx

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  8. Davy-

    couple things: Thanks for the Borealic Gibbons doing Diamonds R 4eva.. that was cool to hear. I can't bring the film quality into the equation b/c I don't have strong opinions on that but my fave Bond themes are:

    1. Nobody Does It Better
    2. Moonraker
    3. Diamonds Are Forever
    4. Live & Let Die
    5. All Time High

    Another blog (I think it was ANAblog) once had the temerity to declare that "Die Another Day" was the best Bond theme. I almost punched my computer screen.

    Finally, thanks for your educative John Barry posts. There's also a feature on JB in this month's MOJO magazine...

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  9. I'd better leave you and Ally to fight it out over Macca then Emmett.

    I saw that ANAblog post a while back. Outrageous claim re. Madonna. And we had to endure her acting in the film too!

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  10. Yeah, realised 100 miles up the M1 yesterday. Funny how your subconscious does that... it managed to work out that you meant 'upload' to the blog rather than 'download' from the net. Clearly, if you had meant the latter you would have said that...
    Mx

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