No clowns anymore, please! It scares me too much!
Right, okay. I don’t get that at all, but fair enough.
It clearly is a new recording each time, otherwise how would it fit the scenes…? Plus it sounds different.
I think it goes like this:
Barry’s “strings” version of the Bond theme = Roger Moore era and Roger = clown.
It’s taking another (tired) swing at Rog and catching Barry on the chin, a good mental image as IMHO it misses the mark. But as with all things, YMMV.
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Was actually the drop back to an E every 3rd note at that bpm that makes me think clown, as it ends up matching that bobbing motion that clowns used to enter circus rings to. it’s just on that iteration of the Bond theme (which Dalton also has) and is more jovial than how Barry scores anything else in the 5 films in which it features. If Roger played it as a clown it wouldn’t bother me, but it ends up giving a light, jovial tone to scenes, and films, that don’t share it.
Though, I think it was John Glen who kept using it, as it is blatantly a reuse of the same recording, not a new one each time, and it’s massively out of place usage turns up in a film he edited, and 3 films he directed. It’s first use (TMWTGG Gun Barrel) does not shove it into any other place of the film, leaving instead Barry’s fitting score over every scene.
I actually don’t get that vibe at all. I confess it’s a pretty laid-back, almost somnambulant rendition of the theme, which lacks the “punch” of the guitar version. As noted upthread, it’s fascinating and curiously thrilling how Barry’s slow, waltz-like tracks could counter-intuitively enhance various action scenes, but the Bond theme itself loses a lot when it’s just strings. I might even go so far as to compare it to hearing a favorite rock song as rendered by Muzak. But I never think of clowns.
On a (wild) tangent, I wonder what’s to become of clowns? Here in the States, anyway, circuses have breathed their last, partly due to pressure from animal rights groups and partly, I gather, just to simple indifference on the part of audiences. But while everyone’s probably happy for the elephants and lions, what’s to become of the clowns? Mind you I never found them appealing and veered more towards “-phobia” than “-philia”, but it is sobering to think we may have seen the last of them. I wonder if I’ll have to stop “Octopussy” to explain to my (eventual) grandkids what a “circus” was.
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On the subject of sounds that make you think of certain things, though: I’ve never been able to hear Barry’s “007” without thinking of cowboys. It sounds like it belongs in a Western, and whenever it’s played I feel like it’s in the wrong movie.
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Yes! That’s exactly what it is! A rock song covered for Muzak!
It is very specifically the bobbing feeling it puts in my head with the bpm and the note drop, but that could just be me who then immediately thinks clown.
Have you heard Johnny Cash’s submitted theme for Thunderball?
Yep. That’s a weird one, for sure.
Many years ago I found an album of film & TV themes by, I think, the Alan Tew Orchestra. It included a weird version of the theme from TV Western series The Virginian played in the style of Barry’s original 1962 Bond theme. I’ve searched for it on YouTube but, alas, can’t find it anywhere.
On a vaguely related note, Ennio Morricone was asked to revamp the Virginian theme for the final season to reflect the popularity of Italian Westerns. As with the Bond theme, his classic title theme from The Good, The Bad & The Ugly also loses something when given the more symphonic (as opposed to the original, rawer, more ‘electric’) treatment. And Ron Grainer’s Dr Who signature tune suffers when rendered by a full orchestra rather than the Radiophonic Workshop.
it was certainly the same arrangement, though different recordings of it every time and tweaks here and there. Dalton’s version had the more menacing synth and drum machine which gave it a little edge that the jingle bells never gave Moore’s version. Conti, Martin and Hamlisch also gave interesting versions of the Bond theme in the Moore era
I remember watching Moonraker again last year and finding myself weirdly excited when it cuts in in the gondola chase. Even weirder because I knew the chase I was about to watch was rubbish! But the music does bring that little tingle when Bond opens that gadget panel and it cuts in.
It’s also very clearly a different recording: those slow bits when the coffin gets tipped in are unique to it. It was re-recorded each time.
Then perhaps ‘007’ isn’t so out of place in Moonraker, since it comes right after a sample from the Magnificent Seven theme.
In my Moonraker soundtrack compilation I have that called ‘The Magnificent 007’.
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He gets the guitar in LALD - Sir George Martin makes it funky and adds a dirty wah-wah pedal. One of, if not my all time favorite GB themes.
It does sound very Aaron Copland- esque, now that you mention it. Good call.
Fun article about the gun barrel sequences…
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As someone who appreciates the nuances of the different gun barrels probably a bit too much, that was a great read. Thanks for sharing.
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The soundtracks I constantly find myself going back to:
GoldenEye
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Casino Royale
Die Another Day