Friday, August 11, 2017

Score Sample: You Only Live Twice (1967)

When comes to the James Bond films of the 1960s, you can count on one name - Barry, John Barry. He was involved with the scores to all the official James Bond films up to The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977. He would return to the franchise after that film off and on. But lets be hones here, when you think of James Bond music, you think of John Barry's brassy, bold, jazzy style. He created some amazing scores in the late 60s for the series and these tend to be my favorites from that era of the franchise.

The score to You Only Live Twice not only has a great main theme (and theme song sung my Nancy Sinatra) but it also has some excellent supporting themes to back it up. Since the film takes place in Japan, you get a solid dose of interesting instrumentation, as well as some asian sounding style thrown into the mix. But where Thunderball went bold and brassy with its sound, You Only Live Twice went for a more lush and romantic sound. I better stop here, or this will go from a Score Sample post to a Movie Music Musing post.

In today's sample, you get the music that is used whenever we enter space in the film. Barry creates a tense motif that builds in tension as the small capsules are helplessly engulfed by the monstrous creation the villain sends up after them. Barry does a great job at creating incoming dread and increasing it as the track goes along. I love how the trumpets almost sound like they are screaming for help at the end of the cue followed by that timpani roll. So enjoy the Capsule in Space track from You Only Live Twice composed by John Barry.


5 comments:

  1. Great piece of music! I feel like John Barry's music defined those early Bond films. I remember Mad Men used "You Only Live Twice" for one of their season finales.

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    1. Barry's sound really did define these films, as well as the whole spy genre of the time. Listen to any of the films that came out after "Goldfinger" and they really attempt to capture Barry's style. Some actually do a pretty good job. Ennio Morricone did some great work on Italian spy films. And Barry's influence still remains in the Bond films, especially the David Arnold scores. "The World is Not Enough" is a wonderful fusion of 1990s electronica and John Barry's jazzy and romantic styles.

      Thanks for commenting!

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  2. Barry influenced themes for the whole genre. It created Spy sound in the same way that there is an identifiable Western sound. An obvious example is the theme for the US release of of the Secret Agent MAn TV show in the 60s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG-VChTYfOk

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    1. Preface "You are right that" to the first sentence above. I was taking off on your last comment, not claiming a new insight.

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    2. No worries. I followed you. :)

      It is really amazing when you think about these films and the huge legacy they have on film and pop culture in general. We are still influenced by them in some way, and when they keep planning new 007 films (and the way the world situation is shaping up) it is hard to this hero and his influence fade away any time soon.

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