John Barry, supergenius (RIP Jan 2011)

You mean a score that sounds like Bill Conte or Jerry Goldsmith? I dunno...

The question you should be asking is "Does he have an equivalent, say, of Morricone's Spasmo?"

Yes, please recommend any other Barry pieces, lesser or better known...

The Beat Girl soundtrack is quite fun...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WczHADTsIec

Think this is my favorite music cue from any of the Bonds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c7hzHwETyk

I was gonna post Capsule in Space!

the theme for "Walkabout" - one of the most exquisite, heartrendingly beautiful pieces I've ever heard. Would do a classical master proud with its sublime simplicity.
The aqueous Ligeti-disco of "Down Deep Inside" (with Donna Summer) is staggering too

yeah, i love both of these

To answer Ned's original request for Barry in true epic mode-- Dances With Wolves is generally viewed as the culmination of late Barry epic-ness. For 70s epic Barry, see The Last Valley, King Kong and The White Buffalo.

There's much, much more to this guy's music than the Bond scores.

I've just started t0rrenting a 4-disc comp.

Which one? There's one called Themepedia or Themependium or something that looks really good + comprehensive...

That's the fella.

I think that will be a good conspectus because usually Barry will derive most of a complete score from variations of his main theme. So you'll get a good idea of all the scores represented.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6nzQu4ysb8

always remember this theme from my childhood

rip John Barry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArYrfQ7fE-w

Beyondness:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yIrAXZlSx8

RIP Mr John Barry, without you James Bond would have just been an alcoholic, misogynistic sadist with a pathetic grasp of the subtleties of international politics. As it was, he was all those things but his theme music made it seem cool.

RIP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4ZWsGHb2gU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcqtuHssM04

Left us with so much good stuff. RIP cool dude.
http://www.vanityfair.com/images/culture/2009/02/john-barry-0902-01.jpg

Helped himself to some cool stuff too, it seems.

He deserved it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MagCoUYvIXE

RIP

I should probably have more Barry than just a "best of" in my CD collection. Which score is first-cue-to-last essential?

RIP, sir.

Jerry Sadowitz and Vic Reeves apparently bonded over their love of John Barry

I should probably have more Barry than just a "best of" in my CD collection. Which score is first-cue-to-last essential?

Born Free
Out of Africa
Somewhere In Time

I don't think these will be to everyones taste, esp. Somewhere In Time which is (perhaps) the most 'easy listening' but (and maybe it's cos I'm old and soppy) I love 'em.

Different to the Bond stuff (obviously), most of which stand up on their own pretty well too.

RIP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au9A9ohOtQ8

hmm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au9A9ohOtQ8

A real original. Supergenius is about right. RIP.

I remember looking at some article about chord changes and it said something like: most songs are basically a variant on I-IV-V or I-vi-IV-V or ii-V-I. Then there are are some other interesting things you can do, with modulations, parallel keys, substitutions etc. And then there is John Barry, who is in a class by himself.

Always my favorite Bond theme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5OCxwZI7YA

I'm sure I love a ton of his music without having any idea he is behind it.

Or have loved it without having any idea he was behind it.

That means you stopped loving it.

Now I want to post youtube link to "He Stopped Loving Her Today" although it has nothing to do with JB.

Actually the song "Sock It To 'Em, JB" could equally apply to Barry as to Bond.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIKT_n7qTro&feature=related

RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmgmqiPE32k

RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WczHADTsIec

http://s7.directupload.net/images/110131/g3clme8c.jpg

One of the most exquisitely melancholy pieces of music ever, even more so today :-(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGORPUzLxtU

When I met him, his vituperative words were reserved for Prince Of Tides and its producer, one Barbra Streisand. ‘She said she loved it and then she did what she always does. She came back and said, “John, I’m hearing something else, you know what I mean?” And I said, “No, I don’t know what you mean; I’ve spent a lot of time on this.” But she kept on. Eventually I said, “Look, I’m going back to New York.” But she’s like, “I want you here in LA.” So I’m like, “Even if I did stay here, Barbra, you’re not going to be over every bloody day, listening to every bloody cue I’m doing because that’s not the way I write. I’ve done 100 movies and I have five Academy awards, so maybe I know something about my profession that you don’t.”’

‘Still, no better, so eventually I called her and said, “Barbra, I’ve been working with you for five weeks and I gotta say, it’s been the most joyless professional experience of my life. So get someone else.” The line went dead and that was that, until 18 months later when David, the guy I was doing my demos with, happened to be producing Barbra’s album. Well, they’d finished 11 songs, and Barbra was casting around for one more, so she goes, “Do you know anything that would fit?” David starts playing the very thing that Barbra had rejected for Prince of Tides and she’s like, “That’s so beautiful! What is it?” When he told her, she walked out of the studio.’

http://www.spectator.co.uk/arts-and-culture/touching-from-a-distance/6660763/music-thats-the-key-john-barry-remembered.thtml

^^
priceless

The story about Bruce Willis is good too.

Like the note about the booming baritone voice he had -- you can always tell it's him within a syllable on the Bond DVD commentaries.

Yes. Also the part about about him learning composition through a corresponding course! Although didn't he in fact study with some guy who had some interesting unorthodox ideas... William Russo, maybe? Also thought the writeup that said he wasn't the most innovative of film composers (was it that link) was not really fair.

The course was taught by Stan Kenton's arranger, if I remember Bob Stanley's piece in the Guardian correctly, so it wasn't some random dude!

This piece? http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/jan/31/john-barry-composer-soundtracks?CMP=twt_gu
Couldn't find any mention of that. But yeah, I see other places that the correspondence course was indeed with Bill Russo.

Kind of amazed that, since he's so identified w/Bond, he DIDN'T score Dr. No. Didn't know that til a few minutes ago.

I think that's simplifying. I think he did score it, he did write and orchestrate most of the music for it. Monty Norman had written something before Barry took over and then later sued Barry, claiming to have written the well-known melody of the theme and much of the rest of the music. so today his name is on the songwriting credit, the same as Gene Roddenberry has his name on the Star Trek theme along with Alexander Courage's.

http://www.jollinger.com/barry/lawsuit.htm

OK, now that I read that I see that I misrepresented the confusing Dr. No credit as well.

Monty Norman's name has always been on the James Bond theme.

For many years, John Barry said that he wrote it but due to pre-existing contracts he had to cede credit and copyright to MNorman.

I guess Monty eventually got fed up with it.

This morning on "Daybreak" they were talking about the 'doomy' sounds of the Jaws soundtrack. Then, for some reason, it went into the 'slashing strings' from Psycho.

That's a wrong, innit?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkdLK4UGV2Y