I collect James Bond soundtracks. And the only piece I can play on the piano with two hands, from memory, is the ‘Two Socks’ theme from Dances with Wolves (1990).
So yeah, it’s safe to say I’m a John Barry fan.
So I cannot help but note that Variety magazine ran a bunch of articles on him and his music yesterday. Here they are:
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Composer with the midas touch
John Barry turns 75 today. The composer of “Out of Africa,” “Dances With Wolves,” “Born Free,” “Midnight Cowboy” and “The Lion in Winter” — as well as such iconic James Bond themes as “Goldfinger,” “You Only Live Twice” and “Diamonds Are Forever” — is believed to be the sole Brit to have won as many as five Academy Awards.
True, he’s scored only three movies in the last 10 years (the last was “Enigma” in 2001), but he’s still waiting for another great one to come along. . . .
And what a history. No modern film composer has undergone as radical a musical transformation as Barry. Starting with the twangy guitar, rock ‘n’ roll sound of “Beat Girl” in 1960, he soon shifted into a pop-jazz-orchestral sound for the James Bond movies while simultaneously creating a quiet, brooding ambiance for such low-budget Brit films as “Seance on a Wet Afternoon.”
The period historical dramas of the ’60s and ’70s — “The Lion in Winter,” “The Last Valley,” “Mary, Queen of Scots” — demanded choirs singing texts in Latin, German and French. Eventually, Barry became Hollywood’s go-to composer for richly orchestrated, grandly romantic scores like “Somewhere in Time,” “Out of Africa” and “Dances With Wolves.” . . .
John Barry invented the spy movie score
Very few composers can be said to have created a new style of film music,” says David Arnold. “John Barry single-handedly created the spy genre.”
Arnold, who recently completed scoring “Quantum of Solace” (his fifth James Bond score), has a long way to go to catch up to Barry’s record of 11 complete 007 scores (not counting his arrangement of the original “James Bond Theme” for “Dr. No”).
Arnold admires Barry’s accomplishments — saluting them in his 1997 album “Shaken and Stirred” — and Arnold’s Bond scores, from “Tomorrow Never Dies” to “Die Another Day,” still draw on the musical ideas that accompanied 007’s earliest film adventures 40 years ago.
It was a combination of the time (the early ’60s), a collision of musical cultures (the end of the big-band era, the beginnings of rock) and the offbeat qualities of Ian Fleming’s creation that led to Barry’s unique mix of jazz, rock, pop and traditional orchestral writing. . . .
Collaboraters reflect on the composer
When Sydney Pollack started editing “Out of Africa,” he assembled a temporary score that consisted entirely of excerpts from earlier scores by John Barry: “Somewhere in Time,” “Robin and Marian,” even “Mary, Queen of Scots.”
“Barry’s scores were so clearly movie scores,” the late director told Variety in 2001. “His music was always very evocative. ‘The Last Valley’ (a Barry score from 1971) had a piece that gave me an idea how to put together the whole flying sequence, when Denys takes Karen out over Africa. It had a somber feeling that was achieved by using a chorus of male bass voices humming. It gave it a religious, liturgical feeling.”
Both Pollack and Barry won Oscars for their work on the film.
Pollack’s experience was not unique. Barry’s many collaborators over the years have talked about his dramatic instincts and his melodic sense. . . .
Barry succeeds in theater and TV
With five Oscars on his mantelpiece, it’s easy to forget that John Barry has enjoyed success in other musical realms, notably the London stage and in both American and British television.
In fact, a revival of Barry’s 1974 musical “Billy” is now in the discussion stages. Based on the play and film “Billy Liar,” about a daydreaming young Yorkshire clerk, it ran for three years on the West End and made a musical star of Michael Crawford. . . .
John Barry reflects on 10 of his scores
“Goldfinger” (1964) . . . “Born Free” (1966) . . . “The Lion in Winter” (1968) . . . “Midnight Cowboy” (1969) . . . “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” (1969) . . . “Somewhere in Time” (1980) . . . “Body Heat” (1981) . . . “The Cotton Club” (1984) . . . “Out of Africa” (1985) . . . “Dances With Wolves” (1990) . . .
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