Previous Debate: John Barry - too much of a good thing?

John Barry.

Undeniable legend of the Bond canon. A musical genius who defined an era of 1960s intrigue. Let me first state that this debate is not questioning the effect he had on Bond.

Understandably, due to the gold he constantly produced, Barry had nearly a monopoly on scoring Bond films, filling 11 of the first 15 films with his classy tunes. However, Barry was not the only muscial maestro of the 60s through to the 80s, indeed the era was rather a hotbed for great music scores that fill our film music thread - and most of these guys didnt get a look in for Bond, and I suspect most were never even asked. So thats what I want to pose to you for week 2.

Are you content with the fact that Barry scored 11 films? Would you maybe have liked to see something like FRWL scored by Bernard Hermann? Or MR scored by John Williams? Or on the other side of the coin, DN, LALD, TSWLM and FYEO filled with Barry tunes? Would giving more composers the opportunity of Bond have resulted in a lesser amount of quality scores than we got through the Barry-dominant formula? More?

The floor is yours.

Moah! More Barry. Do it!

I really don't think composers like Herrmann or Williams would have been the right selection. Not because their music is above or below Barry's, but because Barry's style just seemed to be perfect for Bond. Barry was a master at creating fantastic motifs within his soundtracks and they really seemed to work well with the Bond franchise--even the lower quality Bond films that he composed for. I would have been content with Barry scoring every film of the franchise.

And when you take the Bond brand name off of his work, it's still, overall, brilliant music. YOLT, for example, is one of my all-time favorite scores.

While I know he would have never gone back to Bond, it's still a shame that we lost him.

I'd rather Barry have scored all the other films as well! All of his works have their own clear identity and melody. With all due respect to Bill Conti and his entertaining score, having just watched FYEO, Barry's music was sorely missing from the film! He delivered such a beatiful score to Moonraker, so I can't even imagine what he would've brought to FYEO.

That said, the only forgettable and bland pre-Arnold score to my ears was LTK.

Barry's music is a core part of what made the early Bond films in particular so great for so many people, including myself. Without it, films such as FRWL and Thunderball would be half the films that they are IMO. Whilst I do enjoy Conti and Hamlisch's efforts, Brown is spot on in saying that Barry's music felt just right for Bond - I can't imagine FRWL having the atmosphere that it does had it been scored by the likes of Herrmann, no matter how good a composer he is.
So my answer is no.

I'd have been alright with someone else for The Man With The Golden Gun, but none of the others. But every soundtrack since he left I wish had been done by him. Not enough of a good thing if you ask me.

Frankly, Barry's music almost served as the one constant linking together the disparate interpretations of Bond, as well as the different actors' tenure.

I can see M's point to an extent about TMWTGG, as it's easily my least favourite of Barry's Bond scores even though I still like it. I can see Colly's point about it being a shame that the likes of Herrmann never got to score a Bond film. But I wouldn't replace Barry for anything, especially his 63-71 and 79-87 contributions.

I like Martin's LALD score and think it brings something different, so I'm okay without Barry there. I also utterly love the Conti factor in FYEO, so again it's okay not having Barry for that IMO. LTK could do with sounding a bit less Die Hard, despite me liking (and even loving) a decent amount of Kamen's score.... ultimately I'd have wanted Barry for that one though, while it goes without saying that Bond's music output since Babs' takeover has ranged from underwhelming to plain f***ing dire, so I'd have loved Barry to have scored Bond right until his death.

A big part of my disconnection with the films from GE onwards is that John Barry hasn't scored Brosnan or Craig as Bond, as FS touched upon above. Brosnan never moved to a "He's Dangerous", while Craig will never move to a "Mujahadin and Opium" or "The Sniper Was A Woman", which just gives me one more reason to prefer watching Rog and Dalton respectively; those two weren't soundtracked with unlistenable sh*te.

So Barry's a massive reason (if not the main reason) why for me the Bond series will always be DN-LTK, followed by some half-assed and patchy tribute act from GE-QOS in the wake of the mammoth losses of Cubby, Maibaum and especially John Barry.

G section wrote:

Barry's music is a core part of what made the early Bond films in particular so great for so many people, including myself. Without it,

Yep. If there was one consistent Fleming quality in all those Bond pictures, it was Barry's music. He gave them a poignancy, romance, and soul, that let's be honest, the films themselves rarely deserved. I don't think Herrmann, North, Goldsmith or any others you could name would have been such a perfect fit. Barry in the 60s and beyond, was James Bond. He was scoring majorly with Jane Birkin and alike, maintained a bon viveur lifestyle, and was one of the three shaggers, alongside Caine and Stamp. His personality and musical identity - deceptively simple, masculine, and brooding - was Fleming's James Bond transcribed for a 60 piece orchestra.

Sharky wrote:

Yep. If there was one consistent Fleming quality in all those Bond pictures, it was Barry's music. He gave them a poignancy, romance, and soul, that let's be honest, the films themselves rarely deserved. I don't think Herrmann, North, Goldsmith or any others you could name would have been such a perfect fit....His personality and musical identity - deceptively simple, masculine, and brooding - was Fleming's James Bond transcribed for a 60 piece orchestra.

Agreed with this entirely.

I voted No. However, it might've been nice to have Henry Mancini or Jerry Goldsmith score at least one of the Bond films that Barry was unavailable for.

Anyone have a good idea for the next debate topic? This current one has run it's week.