Count the Notes Mr. Bond....Day 30 of Bond 365

Welcome to Friday and can you believe we are 30 days into 2015 and hence 30 days into Bond 365. At lunch today I got to talk Bond with a Bond aficionado from another team that I don’t usually work with. He mentioned how much he had liked the underwater scenes from Thunderball and at a drop of a hat, I mentioned Lamar Boren because he was featured earlier this month. Anyway, always cool when I get to talk with someone who is passionate about the franchise.

Composer John Barry

John Barry

Passed away this day in 2011

Composer, multiple James Bond films

One cannot go to far into a conversation about the franchise and not bring up the music, which is a component of filmic Bond’s success over the decades. Bond is indebted to Monty Norman who created the initial theme in Dr. No, but for the next 25 years, Barry’s signature musical style and innovation did lend to Eon Productions' success. 

The last Bond film that Barry scored was Timothy Dalton’s The Living Daylights. He was supposed to score Dalton’s follow up film, but was recovering from throat surgery and could not travel. Michael Kamen (Pink Floyd – The Wall, Brazil, Lethal Weapon) filled in. 

After the lengthy break between movies that lasted into the 1990s, Barry recommended composer David Arnold, who had created new versions of Barry’s scores in Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project.

I’m linking to Adrian’s Film Music blog where the top two entries feature Barry. The first is a discussion of Dances with Wolves, a film that Barry composed and won an Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1990. The second entry is a remembrance and includes a clip from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. In Eddi Fiegel’s John Barry: A Sixties Theme: From James Bond to Midnight Cowboy (2001, Macmillan), Barry stated, “I have to stick my oar in the musical area double strong to make the audience try and forget they don’t have Sean….to be Bondian beyond Bondian.” He nailed it in my estimation. His score for OHMSS is one of the best, all-around powerful soundtracks of all the Bond films that have been released thus far.

Guy Doleman as Count Lippe

Guy Doleman

Passed away this day in 1996

Count Lippe in Thunderball

Born in New Zealand, Guy Doleman was an international actor, landing roles in his native country as well as American and Britain. He is probably best remembered as Count Lippe in Thunderball who tangled with Bond at the clinic and who was later bumped off by fellow SPECTRE agent Fiona Volpe (the gorgeous Luciana Paluzzi). 

I really need to revisit Thunderball, which I have not seen since last year when I started to watch each film in order. I'm embarrassed, I did not get far...why can I not get paid to write and watch films?? 

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