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| There are 528 Reviews Done |
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John Barry - On Her Majesty's Secret Service
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| A review by James Southall found on movie-wave.net |
| By: |
Angel
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| Date: |
4 Jul 2010 |
| Rating: |
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On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the sixth outing for Bond, is a paradox of a movie - a pathetic, laughable performance by George Lazenby as Bond is countered by an intelligent and satisfying plot and a great, great score by John Barry.
It was notable as the first movie since the series really found its feet not to feature a title song - well, the title wouldn't really lend itself too well to lyrics - but instead a strident, thrilling instrumental theme by Barry which captured the imagination of a whole generation of fans and in its way sums up not only the sexiness and excitement of the Bond movies of the time, but the sexiness and excitement of life in Britain at the time. Nobody could have done it better than Barry (as has been seen since).
The other main idea in the score is the love theme. The unthinkable happens - Bond gets married, to Diana Rigg, who is then brutally murdered. Somehow Barry and lyricist Hal David managed to sum all this up with the ironically-titled "We Have All The Time in the World", made all the more poignant by Louis Armstrong's performance, the last he ever gave in a recording studio. Everything about the song is perfect - the beautiful main melody, the brilliant arrangement, the touching lyrics, Armstrong's throaty performance - and it has rightfully become an untouchable standard. It's the best song Barry's ever written - and he's written some good songs in his time. The various instrumental versions on the album are highly-attractive too, not least the previously-unreleased "Journey to Draco's Hideaway".
Not entirely clear from the original album is the amount of action music in the score, which can now be corrected. Of course, we were always familiar with "This Never Happened to the Other Feller" and "Battle at Piz Gloria", but now these can be joined by things like "Escape from Piz Gloria" and "Bobsled Chase". Another unreleased gem is the suspenseful "Gumbold's Safe", after which Barry fans have clamoured for years (34 of them to be precise). And finally we get the original version of the gorgeous "Who Will Buy My Yesterdays?" theme, later released on a Barry compilation, presented here as "Sir Hillary's Night Out". Also a joy to hear are the snippets of extra music that have been added to tracks we've heard before, like the gunbarrel music being added to the start of "This Never Happened to the Other Feller" and so on.
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2 of 3 found this review helpful |
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John Barry - My Life
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| A review by James Southall found on movie-wave.net |
| By: |
Angel
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| Date: |
4 Jul 2010 |
| Rating: |
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It's not hard to imagine what attracted John Barry to My Life, a romantic tragedy about a man dying of cancer who decides to record the final weeks of his life as something to pass on to his son, who won't be born until after his death. Nor is it hard to imagine what attracted the filmmakers to Barry - following the passing of Georges Delerue, Barry was easily the king of the bittersweet romance - and at that time, 1993, was still one of the most in-demand film composers there was.
There are a few major themes here, but the one that really sticks in the memory is the main theme (not least because Barry presents it so many times during the course of this short album). It's an absolute belter - so full of sadness, so full of beauty - classic Barry, and were it from a more famous film then I'm sure it would be ranked right up there with his very best. What stops the score as a whole from achieving a similar accolade is that Barry doesn't do a great deal with his theme aside from just repeat it - it's strong enough that it doesn't quite outstay its welcome, but a little more variety would have helped. When he does do something a little different with it (such as taking the chord progressions but not quite the melody to form the basis of "Moments", or the large-scale version for "The Roller Coaster") it's most welcome.
As I said though, it's not an entirely monothematic score, despite the dominance of that main melody. A lovely childlike synth figure is first heard in "A Childhood Wish" (and later developed in "Child's Play"), and there's a darker, more dramatic piece (though still flushed through with tragedy) in "I'm Still in the Game". The best of the secondary themes is introduced in "I Used to Hide in There" - it's almost like a lullaby, with typical Barry strings-high winds-piano orchestration, and is just gorgeous. Finally, there's another lovely little childlike piece - "The Circus" - which shows a lighter side not heard often from Barry during his later scores.
My Life has so many good things going for it - including that stunning main theme - and is so much better than anyone else would have written, I guess the only slight drawback is that by Barry's own very high standards there isn't quite as much here as perhaps there could have been - you could chop half of the 35-minute album away without really losing anything. Having said that, any fan of Barry's romantic side will be in raptures - and is there anyone, deep down, who isn't a fan of John Barry's romantic side?
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John Barry - Mercury Rising
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| A review by James Southall found on movie-wave.net |
| By: |
Angel
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| Date: |
4 Jul 2010 |
| Rating: |
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Mercury Rising shows just what he can offer - and also why nobody is interested in what he can offer. In the inglorious final years of his career, this score must have been one of the sorriest episodes - not because the music is poor (though it certainly isn't one of Barry's stronger efforts) - but because, for the umpteenth time, he couldn't agree with the director on a musical approach and so much of his score ended up being removed from the movie and replaced with a last-minute rush job from Carter Burwell.
The fact is though that however fashionable it may be to disagree, Barry's approach to this type of film is probably spot-on. He doesn't even bother trying to score many of the action scenes - and, really, there isn't much of a point. With all the helicopters, guns, cars etc, no music is ever going to be heard in the movie. He concentrates instead on the central character, an autistic boy being hunted by terrorists who want him to crack the government's ultra-secret new code (honestly, I'm not making this up), giving him a theme that is touching and tinged with an air of tragedy, quite sublimely beautiful despite being very simplistic. Unfortunately Barry does very little with the theme through the score, just stating it virtually in full without much variation every other track or so.
The rest of the score is mostly tense material, at which Barry has always excelled, though there is some genuine action music thrown into the mixing pot as well. "The Story Begins" opens the album with a menacing piece, clearly foreshadowing darkness to come. "The Train Search" is probably the standout piece of suspense music, with Barry adding layer upon layer of growling, dark material, using all the tricks up his sleeve to great effect. That track segues into the mean, moody "Art and Simon", featuring a lovely sax solo counterplayed by a wafer-thin flute theme. "Rooftop Arrival" is a pacy and punchy track that recalls some of Barry's latter-day James Bond music, though it isn't quite so dynamic. "Simon on the Edge" is the standout action piece featuring some effective brass effects which were something new for the composer, and making for a brilliant musical representation of desperation, the feeling of having nowhere to turn. It might be a bit on the slow side and there might be no Yamaha in sight, but it's better than 99% of action music being written today by even the most prolific and highly-regarded film composers. The end title cue, "The Story Ends", is probably the best on the album: opening with a brand new theme, a playful little melody, on strings, it segues into the main theme before going back to the new theme again, this time being heard on sax. It's a terrific ending to the album.
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2 of 2 found this review helpful |
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Don Black John Barry, John Barry - Man With The Golden Gun, The
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| A review by James Southall found on movie-wave.net |
| By: |
Angel
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| Date: |
4 Jul 2010 |
| Rating: |
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The title song seems to contain all the ingredients of a classic Bond song, including Lulu's powerful vocal, but somehow it never quite seems to fall into place properly, and the same is true of some of the score. It doesn't help that the film is so silly the music sometimes has to follow suit - "Scaramanga's Fun House" starts as if it's going to be vintage Bond suspense music before descending into funfair source; the instrumental of the main title song is in a honky tonk arrangement which might best be described as an acquired taste; and even that classic stunt is scored with a very silly slide-whistle which surely can't have been Barry's idea.
But... this is a John Barry score for a James Bond film! So, of course, even though it's not one of the better ones, there are still plenty of decent moments. The Asian tint to some of the cues might be cliche-riddled, but is great fun; the absurdly-titled "Chew Me in Crisly Land" is splendid, as is the later "Kung Fu Fight" - but best is "Hip's Trip", with a great little one-off theme in the middle. The jazzy sax opening to "Getting the Bullet" is brilliant - perfectly fitting into Barry's Bond sound but being something fresh-sounding; and it turns into a great piece of action music. "Goodnight Goodnight" is the only real romantic cue (Goodnight being the name of the Bond Girl, played by Britt Ekland) - somehow turning the main theme from the song into a lovely cue, as only Barry could.
The opening lick of the song is obvious material for action music so it's surprising that it's not until "Let's Go Get 'Em" that it's used in that way, but combined with the Bond theme (not heard much at all in this score) it makes for a really good track - apart from the aforementioned slide-whistle malaise. "In Search of Scaramanga's Island" is good fun too - another fine action piece - and the end title combines a brief, romantic, orchestral performance of the main theme and Lulu's vocal for a most satisfactory conclusion. This is one of Barry's weaker Bond efforts, but is still very enjoyable - ultimately, who can resist the Barry/Bond combination?
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1 of 1 found this review helpful |
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Paul Waaktaar-Savoy John Barry, John Barry, Chrissie Hynde John Barry - Living Daylights, The
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| A review by James southall found on movie-wave.net |
| By: |
Angel
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| Date: |
4 Jul 2010 |
| Rating: |
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Unusually, there are three original songs here. The title song is performed by a-Ha, and written by them too - John Barry shares the writing credit, but seems to have only written the instrumental hook which opens the track and arranged the orchestral accompaniment. It's a daft song, but good fun. Barry had far more involvement in the other two songs, which he wrote with Chrissie Hynde and which she performs - "Where Has Everybody Gone?" is the closest Barry got to doing a classic-style Bond song (rather than the ballads he favoured in most of his later movies) in a long while, and is a great, over-the-top one; and "If There Was a Man", used over the end titles, is a lovely love song given an edge thanks to Hynde's typically-classy delivery.
The first thing to note about the score is that Barry incorporated electronics into the action music far more than in any other score that he's ever done - it's only a drum loop and some synth bass for the most part, but it's very surprising to hear it from this composer, and - while occasionally it's undeniably dated - it's good stuff for the most part. He introduces the style in the pre-title sequence, "Exercise at Gibraltar", adding the electronics to his classic Bond Theme; and later offers up orchestral versions of both "The Living Daylights" and "Where Has Everybody Gone?" in the style, serving as dynamic action music. The latter works best, in the terrific "Necros Attacks" and "Inflight Fight", the pick of the score's action; the former, not so well (the melody really is a bit inane) in the strangely-titled "Assassin and Drugged", but a little better later on in "Hercules Takes Off". There's another great action track based on the Bond theme in "Ice Chase" where Barry cleverly weaves it around the electronics.
"Airbase Jailbreak" is a more traditional Barry/Bond action track, driven on in far more considered style than the synth-accompanied tracks - the bass flute is here, the snare drum's here, if the xylophone appeared we'd be back in 1962! It's actually probably the standout action cue on the whole album, vintage stuff. Late on, there's even some more exotic stuff for the scenes in Afghanistan, with some sweeping desert music and some pounding ethnic percussion in "Mujahadin and Opium" and "Afghanistan Plan".
Being a John Barry score composed after 1980, there is no shortage of romance here; most of the material is based around the "If There Was a Man" melody. "Approaching Kara" very subtly suggests the melody in a slightly darker piece, but then "Kara Meets Bond" expands upon it, there's a pop instrumental style arrangement in "Into Vienna" (which is a bit cheesy) and an absolutely lovely orchestral arrangement in the alternate end title, which is vintage Barry romance music.
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2 of 2 found this review helpful |
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John Barry - Lion In Winter, The
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| A review by James Southall found on movie-wave.net |
| By: |
Angel
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| Date: |
4 Jul 2010 |
| Rating: |
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Barry had never written anything like this before - the combination of Gregorian plainsong and his striking, brassy orchestral music (with more than a hint of jazz about it in the rhythms) is tremendously striking. The portentous opening heraldic blast of the trumpets sets the dramatic tone straight away - there is not a literal war in the film, but the war of words is almost as bloody in its way; Barry leaves the viewer in no doubt as to the strained conflict to come. The Latin plainsong accompanying the piece makes it one of the most powerful main title themes I can remember; pure brilliance.
What follows is every bit as good. The choral harmonies of the a capella "Allons Gai Gai Gai" stunningly beautiful; and speaking of beautiful, it doesn't get much better than "Eleanor's Arrival", even when put up against the body of work of a film composer who has written more gorgeous, lyrical themes than most others combined. Barry has not worked with a choir often, but the effect he is able to generate here is spellbinding. There's a real ethereal quality to some of this music - thoughtful, reflective - "The Herb Garden" in particular is outstanding in that respect.
Of course, a film like this is not going to have a score which is all sweetness and light - and the dramatic potency of some of the pieces is particularly stirring. It's all in the brass - so powerful - nobody could listen to "To the Chapel" and not feel themselves sitting up straight. "God Damn You" is in the same vein; "To Rome" is startlingly similar to the "Map Room" sequence years later in John Williams's Raiders of the Lost Ark, and is also startlingly good; but best of all is "Media Vita In Morte Sumus", featuring probably the most frenzied music of Barry's career, with choir and brass ending the piece in a tumultuous battle.
My favourite track, though, is the conclusion - "We're All Jungle Creatures" - with a stirring arrangement of the main theme bringing the score to a powerful climax. It's classic film music and deserves a place in anyone's collection. The original recording was released on CD first by Varese Sarabande and then by Sony; but my preferred recording is this one on Silva Screen, conducted by Nic Raine, which is surprisingly faithful (given the slightly eclectic nature of the music) and benefits from the improved sonics. It also features a suite from another classic Barry score - Mary, Queen of Scots. I couldn't recommend it more highly.
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John Barry - King Kong (1976)
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| A review by James Southall found on movie-wave.net |
| By: |
Angel
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| Date: |
4 Jul 2010 |
| Rating: |
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It should come as a surprise to nobody that even for King Kong, Barry chose an emotional path. There is action music here, but the score is dominated by lush, melodic material as one might expect. In fairness, there are several tracks of action music. They are typically slow, but typically effective. The brooding "The Opening" sets the tone well, sounding almost like it might come from Zulu, and casting an ominous shadow indeed. "Breakout to Captivity" is a tense, enveloping piece which is unbelievably effective at building suspense - Barry at just about his best. Later, "Incomprehensible Captivity" and the very similar "Climb to Skull Island" are darker still, quite uncomfortably so, but don't make for quite so satisfying listening.
The main romantic theme, first heard in "Maybe My Luck Has Changed", tends to dominate the score. It's a wistful, beautiful theme which is not as memorable as Barry's very strongest efforts, but remains very attractive and always good to hear. In addition to its appearances, another lovely (one-off) piece is "Arrival on the Island", a wonderful example of Barry's melodic scoring and one of the score's standout tracks. Also notable are a couple of pieces of Barry-composed source music. "Sacrifice - Hail to the King" isn't like anything else he's done, with wild percussion mixed with screeches of "Kong!" gradually building to a greater and greater fervour, before being skilfully integrated with some straight dramatic underscore. There's also the amusing light disco "Kong Hits the Big Apple", which is cheesier than the moon but still very entertaining.
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4 of 4 found this review helpful |
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Leslie Bricusse John Barry, Anthony Newley, John Barry - Goldfinger
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| A review by James Southall found on movie-wave.net |
| By: |
Angel
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| Date: |
4 Jul 2010 |
| Rating: |
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Everyone knows the main title song. Shirley Bassey was born to sing it, and from the portentous opening bars it was always destined to be a classic. Lyrically it may be laughable, but much like parts of the film that never seems to particularly matter. Barry takes the tune from it and uses it throughout the score to bind it all together, sometimes in the most disguised fashion, sometimes in the counterpoint in a suspense track, sometimes for full brass for an action sequence ( the wonderful "Oddjob's Pressing Engagement").
Much like his other entries in the series, it may be those action pieces which everyone talks about but the bulk of the score is suspense. With the shrill trumpet trills, the xylophone, elongated harp passages, of course this is no ordinary suspense music - it's Barry / Bond suspense music, and it just doesn't come much better. So stylish, done with such panache - listening to the anonymous noodling which dominates similar passages in the modern Bond films makes you realise just how important Barry was to the series' early success.
When it does come, the action music is phenomenal. "Dawn Raid on Fort Knox" is one of those iconic pieces which somehow escapes from being non-thematic underscore and takes on a life of its own, generating recognition even from non-film score freaks. Exciting, intense - it's everything a piece of James Bond music should sound like. The highlight of the album.
As part of the release of remastered and occasionally expanded Bond discs in 2003, EMI put this out with the extra tracks (including the terrific action/suspense piece "The Laser Beam", from the film's most famous sequence, and the florid opening to "Pussy Galore's Flying Circus", both of which are highlights of the score as a whole so it's great to have them on CD) which had only ever been available on vinyl before, but sadly it suffers from the same indescribably stupid album production that ruins the other expanded versions, because the extra tracks are just stuck at the end of the disc after the end title, so you have to reprogram it into a more sensible order to enjoy the score. Still, that's a minor price to pay for such an indelible, unforgettable film score. The ultimate Bond movie got the ultimate Bond score.
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3 of 3 found this review helpful |
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Monty Norman John Barry, Lionel Bart, John Barry, Lionel Bart (...) - From Russia With Love
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| A review by James Southall found on movie-wave.net |
| By: |
Angel
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| Date: |
4 Jul 2010 |
| Rating: |
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It was John Barry's first full Bond score, though he wasn't yet entrusted to write the title song, the producers opting instead for the not-inconsiderable talents of Lionel Bart, whose "From Russia With Love" is a truly classy ballad sung by the ever-wonderful Matt Monroe. The Bond films have inspired some truly wonderful songs over the years, and this is amongst the best of the lot. It wasn't actually heard over the opning titles (being used as source music later on in the movie instead), allowing Barry the chance to give it a dynamic orchestral arrangement for the titles, book-ending it with his brilliant "James Bond is Back" fanfare. Barry also incorporates the theme once or twice within the body of his score, including a lovely romantic arrangement in "Bond Meets Tania".
Elsewhere, Barry also took the opportunity to present an alternative theme for James Bond himself (one he was actually allowed to take the credit for writing), "007", a nice heroic piece which appeared in several later Barry/Bond scores, though of course it's not gone on to receive the iconic status of Bond's main theme (which itself is given a solid work-out in the bizarrely-titled "James Bond with Bongos"). There's not actually all that much action music here, but what there is can certainly not be sniffed at - "Girl Trouble" marks the first ever appearance of Barry's unmistakable James Bond action sound, complete with the driving percussion and brass - and xylophones!
"Death of Grant" is a superb piece, with muted trumpets playing a strained interpolation of the song melody before some more of that action music comes in. Even the source music here is good - OK so it's hopelessly dated, but there's still something damn cool about "The Golden Horn", "Gypsy Camp" and "Leila Dances" that's impossible to resist. You never really hear about it, but what tends to dominate Barry's Bond scores is the suspense music, and he does it in such a sexy way, it's unlike any other (and what makes the scores so special) - a piece so compositionally simple as "Man Overboard / Smersh in Action" or "Stalking" is emotionally, far-from-simple, and so full of sexy swagger. Brilliant!
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4 of 4 found this review helpful |
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John Barry - Eternal Echoes
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| A review by James Southall found on movie-wave.net |
| By: |
Angel
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| Date: |
4 Jul 2010 |
| Rating: |
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Unfortunately, John Barry seems to have all but given up on film music (or, perhaps, film music has given up on him): despite being probably more capable than any other at capturing the unique dramatic requirements of any film, he has fallen out of favour and has scored but a handful of movies over the last five years. At the same time, he has signed a recording contract with Decca enabling him to write orchestral concept albums - the first, The Beyondness of Things, was released to great acclaim in 1998, and Eternal Echoes is its follow-up.
It's a long time coming, but the album has been dogged by production problems. Originally designed to be a combination of wistful orchestral instrumentals and vocals featuring well-known artists, it eventually became clear that the desired vocalists either weren't interested, or simply didn't have time to contribute to the album. At first the likes of Bono, Van Morrison and Sting were touted; when that idea fell through, Decca's favourite popular classical singers Russell Watson and Charlotte Church were asked, but weren't interested. So ultimately the album was re-born as a purely orchestral one.
Barry was inspired to write the music by the writings of the Irish author and philosopher John O'Donahue, and the spiritual nature of the O'Donahue's work - which explores the very nature of being - certainly shines through in Barry's music, though the pieces are more directly inspired by incidents in Barry's own life.
The opening cue, very much resembling the composer's score for Swept from the Sea, is gorgeous, and sets the pattern for what follows. The most popular tracks will, I'm sure, be the jazzy, brassy "Slow Day" and "Fred & Cyd" - superb, catchy pieces showcasing harmonica, trombone, trumpet and saxophone. The remaining music is more traditionally orchestral. Some of these, like "Lullabying", "Returning Home" and "First Steps" are worthy of particular attention.
Eternal Echoes does not possess the memorable melodic material of The Beyondness of Things and so may at first seem to be a disappointment, but there is a more consistent air to it and its deeply spiritual, emotional nature should mean it will ultimately prove to be very popular. It's a winning album from Barry.
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