FSM back issues from 2003 - Lukas Kendall on restoring the Bond scores

If you're bit of a film score geek like you me, you might appreciate this. I found it in some of Film Score Monthly's back issues available on line.

I figure it might prove helpful when I get round to doing those sequencing guides.

In case you wanted to know, the 2m1s, 3m4as, 7xs are what's called slate numbers. They're slowly dying out now with the popularisation of digital film, but in ye old days a cue of music would be denoted by its code, in the cue sheets, composer's sketches, fully orchestrated scores, instrumental parts, and recording logs, and so on. For example - 1m1 - the first '1' is the reel number (a reel of 35mm film lasts about 10 minutes), so this would be reel no, 1. The second is the cue number - the 'm' stands for music. So a reel could have 4 or 5 short cues of music - 1m1, 1m2, 1m3, 1m4 etc. An "a" is the first part of a cue, and an 'x' means the composer and/or filmmakers and uncertain where in the reel the music should be, but will probably edit it in, or overlay it somewhere in post-production.

Quote :

Nobody DOES IT BETTER

All fans discover sooner or later that the John Barry/James Bond soundtracks are among the best things in the world, while the non-Barry/Bond soundtracks are among the worst. All due respect to George Martin, Marvin Hamlisch, Bill Conti, Michael Kamen, David Arnold, Michel Legrand, Burt Bacharach and even Eric Serra—all of whom have written music I love in other contexts—but everybody but Barry stinks when it comes to Bond. (This is apart from the non-Barry title songs, some of which are excellent.) Barry understands that the Bond scores are about melody and easily identifiable architectural structures. In their ’60s heyday they were absolutely contemporary, but they are not “pop” scores. They are outrageous but told with a straight face—rather like the films. Look no further than the action cues to see how Barry gets it right and everyone else gets it wrong: His fight cues don’t even score the particular fight—they score the idea of a fight! They are huge but free of clutter, and always melodic. They are the embodiment of “speak softly and carry a big stick,” just like Bond. They never hide behind artifice—each note is what it says it is—but then when Barry wants to, WHAM, he hits you. In contrast, the non-Barry scores emphasize irrelevant pop elements and busy-body action nonsense. The subtlety, glamour and especially melody go out the window. David Arnold has created admirable pastiches of some of Barry’s licks, but too often in the latest Bond films he is reduced to frenetic and therefore meaningless action cues, which seem to be designed, as most “blockbusters” nowadays are, for illiterate teenagers who like wrestling. All of the Bond movies start as intriguing espionage films and end up as action mayhem; they used to take their time falling apart, now they start that way. —L.K.


ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE


Ah, the mother lode! O.H.M.S.S. is one of the most revered films and scores in the series, despite (or perhaps because of) the hideous non-presence of George Lazenby in the title role. With Lazenby so unable to carry any of the flamboyantly “Bond” elements, the film was reimagined along the lines of its literary source, a oneoff attempt (For Your Eyes Only excluded) to remain faithful to the original Fleming and shock audiences with a downbeat ending. Bond briefly became a more traditional adventure film, albeit a finely directed and well-produced one, and Barry rose to the occasion with one of his greatest love themes, “We Have All the Time in the World,” and a bounty of thematic material relying on a Moog synthesizer for a 1969 “mod” sound.

In my arrogance I originally planned to restructure both the O.H.M.S.S. and Diamonds Are Forever CDs into completely chronological programs, seeing as how the LPs wrecked each score for 30 years. (The O.H.M.S.S. album was not even assembled by John Barry but by record producer Phil Ramone, who produced the Louis Armstrong song.) I was informed fairly late in the game that for legal reasons all of the CDs had to feature the original album tracks first, followed by any bonus materials, along the lines of the expanded Living Daylights CD from a few years ago. This was a problem in that I had already assembled the albums to add previously unreleased music within tracks, and to avoid bowdlerizing two separate pieces of music into “Journey to Blofeld’s Hideaway.” Fortunately, after explaining the problem to EMI and MGM I was allowed simply to reorder the tracks so that they were called the same things as on the albums, despite the subtle musical differences. At least I think I was allowed. Nobody got mad at me, so I guess it’s okay. Both the O.H.M.S.S. and Diamonds CDs are designed to be re-sequenced entirely into film order, if anyone has that much free time. The order for O.H.M.S.S. is as follows:

2. This Never Happened to the Other Feller
1M1/1M2/1M3/1M4
The “Gunbarrel” music (with the theme on synthesizer) is added to the pre-credits sequence; we also put a couple of bars back into the end of 1M2. Despite the use of bass guitars in the orchestration, Barry does not once put the James Bond theme (the Monty Norman part) on its traditional electric guitar for this picture—it’s always played by keyboard. In Diamonds Are Forever, as soon as Connery walks on-screen in the gunbarrel and teaser, it goes right back to electric guitar. Similarly, Barry always scored the Roger Moore Bond with strings—apparently Barry had a musical characterization of each actor, or perhaps this was simply his maturation as a composer.

6. Main Theme—On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
1M5
We did not put back the extra vamping bars at the end—too repetitive. It was actually recorded with the extra bars as you hear it in the film.

8. We Have All the Time in the World (source instrumental)
2M1 record version

3. Try
2M2 record version

Both 2M1 and 2M2 were recorded in different versions for the movie and the album—the music is the same, the instrumentation subtly different. We didn’t have room to include the film versions, which were also shorter.

12. Journey to Draco’s Hideaway
2M3/2M4/3M1
2M3 is the brief unused cue that begins the track; 2M4 is the introduction of “We Have All the Time in the World” for Tracy and Bond at the hotel; 3M1 is the traveling music for Bond being driven to see Draco and was part of “Journey to Blofeld’s Hideaway” on the original album.

6. Bond and Draco
3M2/4M1
3M2 is another version of “We Have All the Time in the World” with a great, sly use of the Bond theme during the conversation between Bond and Tracy’s father. 4M1 is for Tracy returning home for her father’s birthday.

1. We Have All the Time in the World
Sung by Louis Armstrong 4M3 record version

We remixed this from the original 1” eight-track source(although only five tracks were used: strings, brass, rhythm section, vocal, and acoustic guitar). The acoustic guitar is carefully dialed in and out of the album version but plays throughout the film version (the two are essentially the same arrangement, but the film version is shorter). This was the last piece of music recorded by Louis Armstrong, although I guess they finished early because there were a few takes of Armstrong singing a jazz standard, “Pretty Little Missy,” at the end of the reel. “Missy” had nothing to do with Bond or Barry (although Barry may have conducted it), so we obviously didn’t include it. I don’t know if it was ever released.

14. Gumbold’s Safe
5M1
This is a classic piece of Barry suspense; it plays throughout the scene as recorded, but it was dialed in and out of the film. We made a few extremely judicious cuts of redundant bars—I can’t even remember where they are anymore. I dare anyone to find them.

7. Journey to Blofeld’s Hideaway
6M2
This track features the complete 4:53 cue, which was abridged on the album and dialed in and out of the film.

15. Bond Settles In
7M1/5M2
5M2 is a reprise of the “traveling” motive which was used twice in the film: once where intended and once here, as Bond surveys his room for bugs.

16. Bond Meets the Girls
7M2/7M3/8M1
Oh man, it doesn’t get any better than this.

17. Dusk at Piz Gloria
8M2
Bond is led from his meeting with Blofeld back to his room; in the finished film, this segues to a reprise of the
“girls” motive (7M2, as Bond uncovers the lipstick number on his thigh) and then is dialed out. As written, Barry underscores Bond breaking out of his room and going to see his first conquest.

18. Sir Hillary’s Night Out (Who Will Buy My Yesterdays?)
7M2/8M2A/8M3/9M1/9M3
7M2 is a reprise of the memorable “girls” sax-and strings motive from the film, even though Barry did not intend it to be reused. (In the film, it is used several times, like a recurring “erection” gag.) 8M2A and 9M1 are the theme for Bond’s romantic encounters, which Barry later recorded as “Who Will Buy My Yesterdays?” on his album Ready When You Are, JB. 8M3 is the undulating Blofeld hypnosis music. (Note the subtle Moog, which pings away even during the romantic material.) 9M3 is the music for the next day as Bond goes for more sex and is clonked over the head. Incidentally, there’s a great laugh line during 9M1, which I never noticed as a kid—Bond, who has already slept with one girl and uses the same pick-up line on the second about her being “an inspiration,” slyly adds, “you’ll have to be.”

19. Blofeld’s Plot
10M1/10M2/10M4 revised
10M1 is Bond being led from Blofeld’s chamber into captivity, scuffling briefly with guards. 10M2 is the music-box version of “Do
You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown?” heard briefly as source music. 10M4 (revised) is the lengthy cue (edited for redundant passages) as Bond escapes from his “cell” while Blofeld hypnotizes the women. The original version of 10M4 was essentially the same thing, but the orchestration was slightly different (the Moog sounded different) and it was not satisfactorily recorded.

20. Escape from Piz Gloria
11M1/11M2
11M1 is the only piece on all of the CDs where we had to use a take that differs from
what is in the film. Fear not—it’s essentially the same as the film version, save for the opening bars, which are here played by Moog and strings, and not strings alone. O.H.M.S.S. had a missing music reel (nobody knows when or where it went) containing the film take of 11M1 and, I suspect, the brief reprise of action music when Bond is later shot at while using a phone booth. (The latter is a straight re-recording of action bars, and I wasn’t going to put it on the CD anyway.) Maybe SPECTRE has it. 11M2 is more action music (the fight by the cliff), some of which wasn’t used.

5. Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown?
Sung by Nina Wild

The most hated song in the Bond canon— although recently supplanted by Madonna— it actually sounds much better now that it’s been remixed and re-equalized. There was a second source cue at the Swiss town, which we did not include. It has two parts: an oompah-oompah part and a more lyrical string line (what fans call the “skating” music), and it is used several times. Barry did write and record it, but I figured people loathed “Christmas Trees” so much, I wouldn’t dare give them more “oompah” music.

4. Ski Chase
13M3/13M4
13M3 is what was on the original album; we added 13M4 at the end of the sequence as Bond is rescued but worries about Tracy being taken captive.

9. Over and Out
14M2
Phil Ramone is a record industry legend, but why he faded this track out on the vinyl I have no idea. Was it intended for radio play? We restored the ending.

10. Battle at Piz Gloria
14M3/15M1
This track is as it was on the album. Most of this was replaced by “The James Bond Theme” (the original Dr. No recording) in the film.

21. Bobsled Chase
15M2/16M1
15M2 is a brief transition, not used. 16M1 is
the reprise of the fight music from the teaser,
with the abrasive Moog pinging away.

11. We Have All the Time in the World— James Bond Theme
WILD/16M3
This track is as it was on the album.

And that is 79:44 from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, essentially everything we could jam onto that little shiny disc. There are still a few previously unreleased cues, such as the Swiss source cue, another source cue for guitar (with an alternate adding strings) at Draco’s birthday party, and the straight rendition of “We Have All the Time in the World” for Tracy and Bond after their escape from the Swiss town (in the snowed-in garage). But 79:44, man! We couldn’t jam anything else on.


DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER


“Mmmmm...Diamonds...” is what Homer Simpson might say. To which the Comic Book Guywould respond, “Worst soundtrack LP ever.” Here is a magnificent, sultry, pulsating John Barry score, and the album features two Vegas source cues (not even the best ones), three renditions of the title song, another loungy cue, none of the great fight music, and almost none of the great Wint and Kidd theme. Who made this thing, Satan? Plus—it sounds bad. All in the past, my friends! Our 75:48 CD is the complete underscore and almost the complete source music (it’s missing wild “hits” of snare drums and “charge” trumpet calls from “Circus, Circus”—horrors!), entirely remixed from the 1” eight-track masters. Holy cow, it’s glorious. I mean, luscious, sumptuous, and wonderful—this score has it all. The recording was made so well, you can hear a pin drop. Unlike some Bond fans, I love the film, which is Tom Mankiewicz’s finest hour as a screenwriter (“I didn’t know there was a pool down there”) and full of high-modernist Vegas locations. I love the fact that Connery is fat and wears a wig (he’s lethal nonetheless, unlike his successors)—it only accentuates the joke and is proof that when it comes to “Bond, James Bond,” nobody does it better. Or even gets close.

13. Gunbarrel and Manhunt
1M1/1M2/1M3
I was tempted to call this “Action Back in
Bond” but thought better of it. (None of the previously unreleased cues had titles—I had to make them all! The cue sheets and recording logs only had reel and part numbers. I don’t know if Barry ever titles his cues prior to the soundtrack album. I wish I could have found vintage track titles but there may not have been any.) The teaser has the thrill of seeing Connery back in the role, defeating Blofeld in a five-minute mini-movie, with terrific music by Barry. In college, I used to sit at my Casio and plink out portions of the fight music until I had figured out most of it. It’s only two chords: a minor-major ninth chord (C-Eb-G-B-D) and an augmented chord (C-EG#). The power comes from the relentless orchestration: a wall of sound with trombones down low, piccolos up high, and everything else stacked (and I mean stacked) in between.

1. Diamonds Are Forever (Main Title, film version), sung by Shirley Bassey
1M4
We added the introductory “tag” for the shot of the cat that concludes the teaser. For a good yuk, A-B our new mix of the title song against the old CD. The mixes are intrinsically the same, but it’s like getting your teeth cleaned after 30 years of eating Twinkies. If you want further proof of Barry’s compositional creativity, examine his motive for the Diamonds song: eight notes (two groups of
four) played on electric keyboard—it literally draws a picture of a diamond, while the bells sound like glittering light but are also twisted by the organ.

14. Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd/Bond to Holland
1M5/2M1/2M3
Here is the elongated presentation of Wint and Kidd’s theme as everyone’s favorite gay assassins wipe out the first leg of the diamond smuggling chain. Barry’s slinky saxophone theme is brilliant. 2M3 is the Bond theme as 007 travels on a hovercraft to Holland.

9. Tiffany Case
2M5
This source cue was on the original album. I never disliked the Diamonds source cues; it was only frustrating that they were released instead of the underscore cues.

15. Peter Franks
3M1/3M2/3M3
3M1 is Bond rushing over to Tiffany’s place; 3M2 is the classic elevator fight music. 3M3 is the denouement as Tiffany and Bond
travel on a plane with Franks’ body now holding the diamonds; Barry creates a “traveling” version of the Diamonds theme.

16. Airport Source/On the Road
3M4/3M5
3M4 is the source cue—part rock and roll, part AM radio—heard at the airport as Bond meets Felix Leiter. 3M5 reprises the traveling music.

17. Slumber, Inc.
3M6/3M7/4M1
Oh yeah, baby! 3M6 is the organ theme heard at the Nevada mortuary. 3M7 and 4M1 are the choir-and-orchestra pieces for the
cremation service, with 4M1 a full-blast sturm-und-drang piece in the style of The Last Valley (written the same year), as Bond nearly gets incinerated. Barry’s choral arrangements are always first-rate. I started weeping when I first heard this off the masters.

18. The Whyte House
4M3
On the two occasions I’ve been to Vegas— not my favorite place, as I could feel money being sucked out of the air—I imagined hearing this piece at the town line. It runs for some five-plus minutes as performed, but only because a minute-long section is repeated verbatim five times. We faded it out accordingly.

19. Plenty, Then Tiffany
4M5/4M6/5M1
4M5 is a classic piece of Bond seduction, with the “kissing” muted trumpet for voluptuous Plenty O’Toole. 4M6 and 5M1 relocates the romantic material to the Diamonds theme as Tiffany and Bond seduce each another.

4. Circus, Circus
5M2
The same as on the original album, but sounding much better.

20. Following the Diamonds
5M4/5M5/6M1
5M4 starts with Tiffany’s escape from Leiter’s men at Circus Circus, continuing to the motel where Plenty’s body floats in the pool. 5M5 is a short cue (heard from 1:13 to 1:41) not used in the picture, perhaps written for the retrieval of the diamonds from the airport locker. 5M6 follows Bond into Blofeld’s desert laboratory. I love the slinky saxophones, like in Barry’s score for Petulia.

3. Moon Buggy Chase
6M2/6M3A/7M1
6M2 is the previously released beginning of this sequence, as Bond steals the moon buggy from the astronaut set. 6M3A is the “silly” music that leads to the more thundering brass chords (actually, a rewrite; see track 21, below). The LP cut a bar out of this piece on the transition from the silly to the straightfaced music; we left it in. 7M1 is the end of the sequence—the climax of the car chase, leading to Bond and Tiffany at their hotel suite.

6. Diamonds Are Forever (source instrumental)
2M4
This lounge instrumental of the title song was written for the early scene in Tiffany’s apartment. It was reused at the bridal suite of the Whyte House and I had intended to sequence it there. 5. Death at the Whyte House 7M2/8M1 7M2 is the previously unreleased music for Bond climbing onto the roof of the Whyte House. 8M1 was the track on the LP with the Wint and Kidd theme.

8. Bond Smells a Rat
8M2+8M3
Bond is buried alive rather than shot through the head—those bad guys never learn. The second half of the cue, dialed out, was intended to underscore the electric ratzapping machine.

2. Bond Meets Bambi and Thumper
9M2A/9M3
Bond is introduced to California feminism. This was actually a rescore (see track 21). We added 9M3, which is the third and final
appearance of the fight music, as Bond bests the beauties in the hot tub.

11. Q’s Trick
9M4

10. 007 and Counting
10M1
These two tracks are as they appear on the original album, in improved sound of course. “007 and Counting” is one of my all-time favorites. Space travel always brought out the best in Barry.

12. To Hell With Blofeld
10M2/10M3/11M1/11M2/12M1
This track is expanded to include the entire finale of the picture—somewhat lackluster on-screen (the producers ran out of shooting time with Connery) but musically exciting as it culminates in the “007” action theme. The original album track featured 11M3 alone.

19. Diamonds Are Forever (Bond and Tiffany)
12M2/12M3/12M4
12M2 is the saxophone tag for the shot of Wint and Kidd aboard Bond and Tiffany’s ocean liner. 12M3 is the romantic instrumental of the title song as it appeared on the LP. 12M4 is the brief action cue as Wint and Kidd get their just desserts. In the film, the end credits are then scored with an abridged version of the title song, not reproduced on the CD.

21. Additional and Alternate Cues
This 9:09 suite is a catch-all for the following additional material:

Wint and Kidd to Mrs. Whistler’s
2M2
A reprise of the theme for the assassins.

Hotel Muzak
4M2
This is a brief cue heard as Bond relaxes at his hotel room upon arriving in Vegas. There’s no real ending since it did not require one in the film.

Dixieland Source
5M2A
This was recorded without a slate at the end of one of the takes of “Q’s Trick”; it was used during the Circus Circus sequence. Zambora Source 5M3 Yeah, we’ve jammed everything on this disc. This is the sideshow source cue.

Moon Buggy Chase (unused original version)
6M1
Here’s something fascinating: the pre-Guy Hamilton-complaints version of the “Moon Buggy Chase” (the middle part), which Hamilton wanted comic but which Barry originally scored straight. They compromised by Barry re-recording it half-and-half for the film version (track 3). Barry’s original features the thundering, syncopated chords straight through.

Bond Meets Bambi and Thumper (unused original version)
9M2
This is the original version of track 2. The first half is the same as the film version, but the second reprises the Diamonds theme with saxophones (as in “Following the Diamonds”) rather than continuing with the Bond theme.

Wild Sting
3MX
This was recorded for the shot of Bond’s empty hotel room (Q is on the phone with him but Bond has left in a hurry) prior to “Peter Franks” (track 15).

A perfect end to the CD! There was one fascinating alternate we could not include for clearance reasons: a longer version of the title song. The additional lyrics (occurring around halfway through): “Diamonds are forever/I can taste the satisfaction/ Flawless physical attraction/Bitter cold I see fresh ’till they rest on the flesh they pray for.” The rest is identical to the film version, a different take. Incidentally, one of the reasons Barry did not do Live and Let Die, besides the fact that he was preoccupied with his stage musical, Billy, was that he fought with Harry Saltzman over the theme for Diamonds. Saltzman thought Don Black’s lyrics were obscene (“Hold one up and then caress it, touch it, stroke it and undress it”—not family material if it’s referring to male genitalia) and Barry did not appreciate the criticism. One last piece of trivia about Diamonds: At one time, at least, the LP was not planned to be so lousy. When the Bond scores were recorded, the master takes of cues planned for inclusion on the LP were typically snipped out and kept on their own tape reels, so that they would be grouped together later to mix. The “LP side one” reel (this is still the original eight-track master, just kept in a different place) had 3M2+2M1 (the elevator fight plus Wint and Kidd’s theme), 4M3 (“The Whyte House”), 6M3+7M2 (unused version of “Moon Buggy Chase”—without the car chase part— plus Bond on the roof of the Whyte House), 2M5 (“Tiffany Case”), 8M1 (“Death at the Whyte House”) and 5M2 (“Circus, Circus”). The “LP side two” reel had 12M3 (“Diamonds Are Forever” from the end of the movie), 8M2+8M3 (“Bond Smells a Rat”), 9M4 (“Q’s Trick”), 9M2A (“Bond Meets Bambi and Thumper,” revised film version), 3M4 (“Airport Source”), 10M1 (“007 and Counting”) and 12M1 (“To Hell With Blofeld”).


LIVE AND LET DIE


It’s rather anticlimactic after the Barry/Bond gems, but Live and Let Die was always my favorite of the non-Barry Bond scores, and it has some good ’70s licks. It was fun to remix it from the 16-track masters and discover previously unreleased cues, like Bond’s trip to New York and the boat chase. Here is the annotated track list: 1. “Live and Let Die,” Performed by Paul McCartney and Wings We did not remix the title song; the master tapes were not part of the scoring sessions kept at Abbey Road, and remixing McCartney’s work is contractually forbidden, which is fine with me—he’s Paul McCartney!

2. Just a Closer Walk With Thee/ New Second Line
This is the New Orleans source music; it was most likely recorded live on set and was not part of the scoring sessions. We took it from the album master.

3. Bond Meets Solitaire
3M3

4. Whisper Who Dares
2M3
The car chase in New York City.

5. Snakes Alive
4M2

6. Baron Samedi’s Dance of Death
3M5

7. San Monique
3M6-4M1 revised
Source music in Bond’s hotel room; bleeds into “Snakes Alive” in the film.

8. Fillet of Soul—No/Live and Let Die/ Fillet of Soul
Source music for the soul clubs, with another vocal performance of “Live and Let Die.” This was not part of the scoring sessions; we took the track from the album master.

9. Bond Drops In
5M3/12M2
This track joins two cues from different parts of the movie. “Bond Drops In” (5M3) is Bond hang gliding into Kananga’s compound. The edit is at 0:40; everything else is 12M2 and was apparently written for Bond and Solitaire’s train ride at the end of the film, which is rudely interrupted by the Tee Hee (the mechanically armed henchman).

10. If He Finds It, Kill Him
6M3

11. Trespassers Will Be Eaten
9M1/9M2
The alligator farm music.

12. Solitaire Gets Her Cards
8M2

13. Sacrifice
11M1

14. The James Bond Theme
3M1
A sequence from early in the film with Bond in a taxicab pursuit.

Bonus Tracks

15. Gunbarrel/Snakebit
1M1/1M3
The end of 1M3 was meant to segue into the title song, which we were prevented from doing on the CD.

16. Bond to New York
2M1/2M2/2M4/3M4

17. San Monique (alternate)
3M6-4M1
An earlier, more reggae-styled version of the hotel source music.

18. Bond and Rosie
4M3/4M4/4M5/5M1/5M2

19. The Lovers
5M4/6M1/6M2
6M2 is the recorder music played by Baron Samedi in the forest, which we used briefly.

20. New Orleans
6M4/7M1/7M2

21. Boat Chase
10M1/10M2/10M3
10M3 is the brief tag of the Solitaire theme which was not used in the film. There was an alternate, earlier version (never satisfactorily recorded) of 10M1, which included a quote of a sea-shanty-styled tune—I forget if it was “Popeye the Sailor Man” or “Anchors Aweigh.” Something like that—a Moore-era musical gag. It was nixed in the finished version— although “Here Comes the Bride” remains as Bond disrupts a wedding party.

22. Underground Lair
12M1/12M2/12M3
The climactic music for the action underground. 12M3 is the short tag that was designed to lead into the end-title version of “Live and Let Die,” a segue we could not do on the CD.

THE Tracks NOT Taken

Yeah, yeah, yeah—where’s Moonraker, and so on. If five of the Bond soundtracks could be done properly, why not all the others? The answer: time and money, and in some cases, lack of master elements. Master tapes to the first three films—Dr. No, From Russia With Love and Goldfinger—are not at EMI’s Abbey Road vaults in London, where most of the expanded Bond material was kept. (The four additional cuts on the Goldfinger CD come from the British LP master.) I would presume they are lost. Moonraker is missing because it was recorded in Paris—maybe the tapes are still in France. A View to a Kill was recorded in London, but the tapes are not at Abbey Road for whatever reason. For Your Eyes Only and The Living Daylights were already expanded for the Rykodisc CDs. This leaves three titles that theoretically could have been expanded: The Man With the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me and Octopussy. For Octopussy, there may be tapes of extra music at MGM in Los Angeles, but there was not time to evaluate them. There are 24-track tapes of The Spy Who Loved Me atAbbey Road, but I don’t know if these are for the film soundtrack or the LP re-recording; furthermore, 24-track mixes are very time-consuming and expensive. So we end up with only one title that missed narrowly: The Man With the Golden Gun. Originally, EMI was going to try to remix and expand both Live and Let Die and Golden Gun from the 16-track tapes. As the transfers were being done at Abbey Road, I was informed that the process was becoming far too expensive and time-consuming, so Golden Gun would not be done. Had I known we could only do one of the early Moores, I would have suggested the Barry score rather than the George Martin one—but I didn’t, so we couldn’t. The only other thing that fell by the wayside due to a lack of time and money was the tank chase from GoldenEye (the Bond theme arranged by John Altman), which was recorded on fancy modern digital tape that required expensive equipment to transfer. So that’s the true story. —L.K.

http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/backissues/viewissue.cfm?issueID=79

Interesting stuff. Thanks for posting, Shark.

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Barry understands that the Bond scores are about melody and easily identifiable architectural structures. In their ’60s heyday they were absolutely contemporary, but they are not “pop” scores. They are outrageous but told with a straight face—rather like the films. Look no further than the action cues to see how Barry gets it right and everyone else gets it wrong: His fight cues don’t even score the particular fight—they score the idea of a fight! They are huge but free of clutter, and always melodic. They are the embodiment of “speak softly and carry a big stick,” just like Bond. They never hide behind artifice—each note is what it says it is—but then when Barry wants to, WHAM, he hits you. In contrast, the non-Barry scores emphasize irrelevant pop elements and busy-body action nonsense. The subtlety, glamour and especially melody go out the window. David Arnold has created admirable pastiches of some of Barry’s licks, but too often in the latest Bond films he is reduced to frenetic and therefore meaningless action cues, which seem to be designed, as most “blockbusters” nowadays are, for illiterate teenagers who like wrestling. All of the Bond movies start as intriguing espionage films and end up as action mayhem; they used to take their time falling apart, now they start that way. —L.K.

Very well-put!

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7M2 is a reprise of the memorable “girls” sax-and strings motive from the film, even though Barry did not intend it to be reused. (In the film, it is used several times, like a recurring “erection” gag.)

Lol, I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees that little sax bit as an accompaniment to an erection.