The Fate of John Barry's MOONRAKER

Here's a sad interview of Stephane Lerouge, a french editor of music who's interested in rediscovering lost scores. Translated from French into English.

Quote :

Interviewer :
"Several American labels moreover tried to find the MOONRAKER score tapes, which was recorded in Paris"…

Stephane Lerouge :

“Here is another major disappointment … It is something annoying because a few years ago, the tapes of this movie could have been saved. I attended 1992 recordings in Studio Davout, where MOONRAKER had been recorded in 1979. It is necessary to know that John Barry, at the time, had spent two or three months in Paris to write the music of the movie, which was shot in France because the film was coproduced by Eon and Les Productions Artistes Associés. In fact, tapes of complete multitracks had stayed in Davout. And a little more than fifteen years ago, Davout sent a series of letters to producers and music publishers : "You worked here previously. We have here a room filled with tapes, some possibly belonging to you. If you do not come to look for them within three months, the unclaimed tapes will be destroyed. " Certain composers, such as Vladimir Cosma or Claude Bolling, rushed to Davout to save their material. This where the complete tapes of MOONRAKER disappeared : nobody at MGM went to collect them. But did the people in charge there receive the letter from Davout? I ignore it. Because, meanwhile, United Artists had closed its office in Paris and its catalogue had been transferred to MGM … Here is how MOONRAKER remains one of the last Holy Grails of John Barry's scores, but a lost one, sadly ”.

:(

MOONRAKER is one of my favorite Barry scores (right along with YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE and ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE).

If Barry kept the manuscripts at his house on Center Island, someone could always re-record the score.

Largo's Shark wrote:

If Barry kept the manuscripts at his house on Center Island, someone could always re-record the score.

I suppose, but the re-recordings we've had to date are lackluster, to say the least.

Harmsway wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

If Barry kept the manuscripts at his house on Center Island, someone could always re-record the score.

I suppose, but the re-recordings we've had to date are lackluster, to say the least.

Tadlow Muisc did a good job with EL CID. I say give it to them.

How sad. I guess as you say Sharky if there's the manuscript someone could record it. I imagine Barry had copies someplace.

Before you get too depressed, the report does assume two things: 1, that the Moonraker tapes were left at Davout; and 2, that no one collected them.

Actually, Jon Burlingame's new book "The Music Of James Bond" clearly states that the Moonraker tapes were ferried to London by Dan Wallin for mixing and dubbing. It seems unlikely to me that they'd be ferried back again.

When Lukas Kendall produced the 2003 soundtrack editions, he discovered the tapes were not stored in the same place as the tapes for Thunderball, OHMSS, Diamonds Are Forever, etc. So, the whereabouts of these tapes is still not clear (to us). But we do have clear documentation that the tapes were taken from France to London in 1979, and not left at Davout. Therefore the general dumping of tapes from Davout is not necessarily the final word on Moonraker.

Cheers

As for re-recording, I'd be in favour, but I have to say that John Barry re-recordings are not always satisfactory. Here's my theory as to why:

It's not that Barry's music is too hard to play - after all his music is not that complex.

I hink it's because of Barry's use of both studio recording techniques and synthesizers to get the exact sound he wanted, which might not be exactly the same as a 'straight', purely acoustic recording; and producing subtleties and nuances that might be hard to re-create.

(I'd bet there are almost certainly synthesizers augmenting some of the orchestral sounds in Moonraker, even though they don't call themselves out.)

So, even if there are manuscripts, making the recording sound just-so like the score as you know it might be tricky ... but of course, not impossible.

Cheers

The other thing about Moonraker is that it seems a bigger score than it really is. But the complete John Barry score is only about 45 minutes. (Like Barry's Mary Queen Of Scots score, it seems longer than it really is because there are lots of cues, but lots of them are less than a minute long.)

The frustrating thing is you could easily have got the complete score on the album: a 45 minute LP was longer than usual, yes, but heck, John Barry's 1966 album The Chase was 50 minutes! And I think the LP of The Man WIth The Golden Gun was almost 45 minutes.

It was an odd album that. Great, great score (one of my top ones, in fact), but surely it would have been better to include something like the "Freefall" pre-title sequence, with it's great use of the Bond theme, than "Bond Smells A Rat". (Still a good cue, but hardly one of the best available for the album.)

We could have had a much better Moonraker LP IMO.

Cheers

Thanks for your responses, Stephen.

I'm pretty certain there are synths in MOONRAKER (you can here one doing a resonance sweep in the second half "Space Laser Battle") but I'm not sure about them 'colouring' acoustic instruments. In the manuscripts for THE BLACK HOLE that Bill Wrobel studied (link here) there''s a Moog (that sounds more like Craig Huxley's Blaster Beam in the recording) and a Yamaha piano called for, but they're always pretty clear in the mix, not buried behind the orchestra like in John Williams's post-90s scores.

I think it's more the analogue studio sound and Barry's own recording/mixing habits that contribute to the the rest of sound. Film recording aesthetics have changed in 33 years, and MOONRAKER and the earlier Bonds sound a lot drier than the standard sound today.

It's also worth saying that Nic Raine's re-recordings of Barry's pre-America Bonds for Silva Screen were done by ear, and therefore a lot of the differences to the originals are probably down to his misjudgement of Barry's scores (he not only gets the orchestration wrong, but often the harmony/voicing too). Many of these mistakes are downright amateurish and could have been corrected with the help of a second opinion.

Re: the location of the tapes. That's great news. Will pick up Burlingame's book ASAP.

That said, even if the tapes are found - EMI have got to care enough to commission another set of remasterings.

Hi,

Thanks - yes I'm familiar with Wrobel's notes.Very good they are too.

MOONRAKER would most likely also have to be reconstructed by ear too, because while John Barry may have retained manuscripts, I don't think they are ever let out.

Silva's RAISE THE TITANIC also had to be reconstructed by ear (I used to own the very laser disc that was used as the source) and I believe this too was recorded without sythnesizers (again, I'm pretty sure synthesizers are there adding 'groan' to the low notes, something that was definitely also done in THE LION IN WINTER, though I could of course be completely mistaken).

(ROBIN AND MARIAN was recorded from manuscripts, but in that case the studio had manuscripts to offer.)

Fingers crossed that MOONRAKER gets released one day.

Or re-recorded, but hopefully as true to the original performance / cadence / mix as possible.

Cheers

This is definitely one of my favorite scores and I would love for them to finally release whole thing. What's stopping them? They could have done this for the 50th anniversary too. Rearrange all the tracks of each soundtrack to have them in chronological order too.

Can't imagine common sense is much associated with such people.

Khan and I once agreed that Moonraker contained the finest triangle ever recorded. We were not drunk.

I really hope the master tapes of Moonraker are safe, it'd be a shame it they were destroyed because it's one of my favourite Bond film scores, and I really dream of the day I see it has gotten a complete release, they say that hopes dies last, and that's what I want to believe they're somewhere safe, but if it wasn't the case, I guess a re-recording would be ok, if that happens, I hope the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra doesn't get involved in this, I love their work, but as for Bond re-recordings, I'd like something better, I think Barry's music deserves it. Let's wait and see what happens first.

Why didn't John Barry go and get them? Surely he'd have wanted to save his own work. If he was busy working on something, he could have sent an assistant to retrieve them. Seems very careless by all parties involved.

I don't know if a re-recording would work. It wouldn't be authentic. However, if someone wants to give Arnold the job...

(Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, Hilly).

Maybe JB was busy, ill or simply didn't bother (maybe he thought he had his own copies someplace).

Re-recordings have their charm as far as Barry goes. Robin & Marian and Raise The Titanic both got re-done by Nic Raine and though RTT lacks the film's original sound it can work. I personally would take what I could with the score (and same goes for VTAK). Arnold being the chap he is would do a good job I think. Provided he didn't slap techno up the side of Flight into Space, hoho.

His Capsule in Space and OHMSS medley was very good though. If Arnold wants to slap techno onto Flight Into Space, I'd buy that!

Sometimes I just wonder how well EON's vaults are archived since there has been rumors that MR is actually resting somewhere fine and unreleased like the rest of the complete scores.

As rumours go that's one that makes my eyes water. Trust EON, if that is the case, to sit on it.

I think Fields, I best bet is to petition Arnold over VTAK. That I reckon could gain traction.

You think Arnold would have that much swing with Eon?

And HGTB, do we have a source to quote these rumours?

I don't think he has that much pull with EON, no. But he has done, what, five scores which is second only to Barry.

I did some browsing, and somebody interviewed Film Score Monthly's Lukas Kendall, he did the remasters (or produced them) of the Bond OST's in 2003. They asked him about Moonraker.

Quote :

JL: Are you aware of the Kickstarter project from a couple of years ago to re-record the Moonraker soundtrack? Reportedly the master tapes were lost because the soundtrack was recorded in Paris as opposed to the UK. It’s my understanding that for tax reasons John Barry could not work in the UK during this time. The Kickstarter project was eventually cancelled. Is the report about the master tapes true? Do you foresee any possibility of finally hearing a complete score for Moonraker one day?

LK: I’m afraid I can’t shed any light on this, as I haven’t had anything to do with the Bond music since 2003. I’m sure the film music boutique CD labels have inquired about these titles with MGM and Universal Music, and continue to do so. You are correct, the Moonraker tapes were not in the Abbey Road vaults in London at the time of our CD productions, probably because the score was recorded in Paris (and yes, John Barry was a British tax exile). But whether the tapes are safely some place else, I don’t know.

full interview has stuff about the other soundtracks, his favourite Bond, state of play on scores and who he'd like to score Bond 25.

http://jamesbondradio.com/the-music-of-bond-an-interview-with-producer-lukas-kendall/

and this, which breaks down the score for Moonraker

http://www.filmmusicnotes.com/john-barrys-james-bond-scores-part-4-of-6-moonraker/

Bookmarked for later reading!

LaLaLand now has good relations with EON but they will likely work backwards with TND next as there are less legal hurdles that way.

That's what I'm hoping for. So many good unreleased tracks there. Carver's party music and the various Bond theme renditions (Bond in the jet, Bond's dolly escape from Carver's factory, etc.) especially.