6 replies to this topic

[TGO]

Whom do the folks at CBN like more? Me personally, I like John Barry. Williams's music coldly manipulates emotions to me.

[General Koskov]

Hmm, you're asking CommanderBond.net to decide between the most famous Bond musician ever, and some guy that happens to share the same first name? I wonder...just kidding

I agree with Barry, of course.

[ray t]

i adore barry...as a bondophile, his music for the bond canon makes him the greatest in my book....

but....

where has he been since The Living Daylights?

meanwhile john williams continues on like a juggernaut...

...his "Across the Stars" love theme for Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala is beautiful, haunting, joyous, and with a hint of imminenent doom all at once.

the guy is a genius...and has been since 1975 with that menacing JAWS theme.

meanwhile, poor old john barry seems to have fallen off the face of the earth........

[Hardyboy]

They're both great musicians, but if you put a gun to my head and forced me to choose, I guess I'd have to say I prefer John Barry for no other reason than he seems to have the greater range. Barry can work in a number of styles and moods, and he has a knack for absorbing the music of different cultures and countries. He's simply a more well-rounded musician, I feel.

Williams's forte is symphonic music, which really does raise the pulse and create a sense of awe and wonder. The trouble, though, is that there's a certain sameness to it--I've found myself humming Raiders of the Lost Ark, seguing into Superman and ending up with Star Wars. Yes, I realize Williams has done softer, gentler, and more melodic things--I don't mean to diminish him--I just prefer Barry on the whole.

[rafterman]

I prefer Barry, Williams has been around just as long, but I don't think he's consistently good, his Star Wars and Indiana Jones stuff is easily his best as Barry's Bond stuff is his best, but I'd say Barry has greater range, while, at least lately Williams seems to coast on reputation.....

[MrDraco]

John Barry is the better man, even though i did like John Williams "Duel Of Fate" for Phantom Menace which was quiet evil sounding but real good... i guess it was the Blofeld in me...hehe

[Turn]

As Hardyboy said, Barry does have greater range. When I think of Williams, I think of epic, bombastic music.

When I think of Barry, I think of Bond foremost, but many other things too. He can go from the honky tonk sounds of something like Midnight Cowboy to Out of Africa (both Oscar winners) to film noir on Body Heat to frontier music on Dances With Wolves and on and on.

It also always amazes me that Barry could take whereever a Bond film was set and take that country's style of music and incorporate it into the score so easily. He only scored Golden Gun in like two weeks and had tight schedules on some of the others and came out with memorable tunes. That, to me, is genius.