![\"\"](\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/SQwXezl-2ZI\/AAAAAAAACAk\/i7uWUiun7lc\/s1600-h\/johnbarry-a.jpg\")
<\/a>I collect James Bond<\/a> soundtracks. And the only piece I can play on the piano with two hands, from memory, is the \u2018Two Socks\u2019 theme from Dances with Wolves<\/a><\/i> (1990).<\/span><\/p>\n
So yeah, it\u2019s safe to say I\u2019m a John Barry fan.<\/p>\n
So I cannot help but note that Variety<\/i> magazine ran a bunch of articles on him and his music yesterday. Here they are:<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n
Composer with the midas touch<\/a><\/b> John Barry invented the spy movie score<\/a><\/b> Collaboraters reflect on the composer<\/a><\/b> Barry succeeds in theater and TV<\/a><\/b> John Barry reflects on 10 of his scores<\/a><\/b> I collect James Bond soundtracks. And the only piece I can play on the piano with two hands, from memory, is the \u2018Two Socks\u2019 theme from Dances with Wolves (1990). So yeah, it\u2019s safe to say I\u2019m a John Barry fan. So I cannot help but note that Variety magazine ran a bunch of articles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
John Barry turns 75 today. The composer of \u201cOut of Africa,\u201d \u201cDances With Wolves,\u201d \u201cBorn Free,\u201d \u201cMidnight Cowboy\u201d and \u201cThe Lion in Winter<\/a>\u201d \u2014 as well as such iconic James Bond themes as \u201cGoldfinger<\/a>,\u201d \u201cYou Only Live Twice\u201d and \u201cDiamonds Are Forever\u201d \u2014 is believed to be the sole Brit to have won as many as five Academy Awards.
True, he\u2019s scored only three movies in the last 10 years (the last was \u201cEnigma\u201d in 2001), but he\u2019s 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 \u2018n\u2019 roll sound of \u201cBeat Girl\u201d 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 \u201cSeance on a Wet Afternoon.\u201d
The period historical dramas of the \u201960s and \u201970s \u2014 \u201cThe Lion in Winter,\u201d \u201cThe Last Valley,\u201d \u201cMary, Queen of Scots\u201d \u2014 demanded choirs singing texts in Latin, German and French. Eventually, Barry became Hollywood\u2019s go-to composer for richly orchestrated, grandly romantic scores like \u201cSomewhere in Time,\u201d \u201cOut of Africa\u201d and \u201cDances With Wolves.\u201d . . .<\/p>\n
Very few composers can be said to have created a new style of film music,\u201d says David Arnold. \u201cJohn Barry single-handedly created the spy genre.\u201d
Arnold, who recently completed scoring \u201cQuantum of Solace\u201d (his fifth James Bond score), has a long way to go to catch up to Barry\u2019s record of 11 complete 007 scores (not counting his arrangement of the original \u201cJames Bond Theme\u201d for \u201cDr. No\u201d).
Arnold admires Barry\u2019s accomplishments \u2014 saluting them in his 1997 album \u201cShaken and Stirred\u201d \u2014 and Arnold\u2019s Bond scores, from \u201cTomorrow Never Dies<\/a>\u201d to \u201cDie Another Day<\/a>,\u201d still draw on the musical ideas that accompanied 007\u2019s earliest film adventures 40 years ago.
It was a combination of the time (the early \u201960s), a collision of musical cultures (the end of the big-band era, the beginnings of rock) and the offbeat qualities of Ian Fleming\u2019s creation that led to Barry\u2019s unique mix of jazz, rock, pop and traditional orchestral writing. . . .<\/p>\n
When Sydney Pollack started editing \u201cOut of Africa,\u201d he assembled a temporary score that consisted entirely of excerpts from earlier scores by John Barry: \u201cSomewhere in Time,\u201d \u201cRobin and Marian<\/a>,\u201d even \u201cMary, Queen of Scots.\u201d
\u201cBarry\u2019s scores were so clearly movie scores,\u201d the late director told Variety in 2001. \u201cHis music was always very evocative. \u2018The Last Valley\u2019 (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.\u201d
Both Pollack and Barry won Oscars for their work on the film.
Pollack\u2019s experience was not unique. Barry\u2019s many collaborators over the years have talked about his dramatic instincts and his melodic sense. . . .<\/p>\n
With five Oscars on his mantelpiece, it\u2019s 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\u2019s 1974 musical \u201cBilly\u201d is now in the discussion stages. Based on the play and film \u201cBilly Liar,\u201d about a daydreaming young Yorkshire clerk, it ran for three years on the West End and made a musical star of Michael Crawford. . . .<\/p>\n
\u201cGoldfinger\u201d (1964) . . . \u201cBorn Free\u201d (1966) . . . \u201cThe Lion in Winter\u201d (1968) . . . \u201cMidnight Cowboy\u201d (1969) . . . \u201cOn Her Majesty\u2019s Secret Service<\/a>\u201d (1969) . . . \u201cSomewhere in Time\u201d (1980) . . . \u201cBody Heat\u201d (1981) . . . \u201cThe Cotton Club\u201d (1984) . . . \u201cOut of Africa\u201d (1985) . . . \u201cDances With Wolves\u201d (1990) . . .<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"