18 replies to this topic

[Brian Flagg]

Okay, so almost every John Barry Bond score is a gem! But after listening to the new remaster almost daily (in all it's incomplete glory), it has become one of my top five Bond scores. I love how Barry used strings as the sound of choice for Moore's 007, like he did synth for Lazenby and guitar for Connery.

The OP score has wonderfully lyrical melodies, like "Bond Look Alike". the beautiful "That's My Little Octopussy" and probably the least talked about cue of the Moore era (actually there's one even more underrated from AVTAK, but I digress) which is the fantastic "The Palace Fight." Great stuff that fit Roger's Bond like a glove. I also like the fact that the score doesn't skimp on "The James Bond Theme", as OP was competing against that Connery insurgent film, so the producers wanted the people to know they were watching an "official" Bond film.

And if anyone can provide a list of cues that are missing from this release, I'm all eyes.

[Qwerty]

Well there we're three dialogue only tracks also included, Brian Flagg.

And for the most part, I'm with you on this. I think it's a very underrated soundtrack by Barry, perhaps his most underrated of all. I think the action tracks are more subdued in this one, but in such thrilling ones like "The Palace Fight" as you mentioned, there is clearly evident a strong theme running through.

There's loads to like about this score I think. The quiet, yet very appropriate cue when James Bond speaks to Octopussy when they're first meeting.

A fine score if you ask me.

[Brian Flagg]

Well there we're three dialogue only tracks also included, Brian Flagg.

...Which were thankfully omitted from the 2003 release.

BTW, even though OP is truncated, it makes for a heck of an album listen. What's there is lean and mean and not a second is wasted.

[Qwerty]

Well there we're three dialogue only tracks also included, Brian Flagg.

...Which were thankfully omitted from the 2003 release.

BTW, even though OP is truncated, it makes for a heck of an album listen. What's there is lean and mean and not a second is wasted.

I agree. They seemed to just be placeholders.

Why throw something under par on there? Not needed. Like the Moonraker soundtrack though, I would have appreciated more on the CD's.

[Brian Flagg]

Well there we're three dialogue only tracks also included, Brian Flagg.

...Which were thankfully omitted from the 2003 release.

BTW, even though OP is truncated, it makes for a heck of an album listen. What's there is lean and mean and not a second is wasted.

I agree. They seemed to just be placeholders.

Why throw something under par on there? Not needed. Like the Moonraker soundtrack though, I would have appreciated more on the CD's.

The upside of the skimping of the latter scores is that they were reasonably priced at around $12.99 a shot, even for the jam-packed, nearly complete and additional tracks added scores. I don't know how well they did saleswise, but it took me nearly two months to finally snag a copy of LALD, no doubt due to the Beatles/McCartney/Bondfan appreal of that release.

As for OP's title song, I have a great sense of nostalgia for it, as this movie was the first Bond film I ever saw in the movie theater. "All Time High" has grown on me and makes for a good instrumental in the film's score.

[Qwerty]

Well there we're three dialogue only tracks also included, Brian Flagg.

...Which were thankfully omitted from the 2003 release.

BTW, even though OP is truncated, it makes for a heck of an album listen. What's there is lean and mean and not a second is wasted.

I agree. They seemed to just be placeholders.

Why throw something under par on there? Not needed. Like the Moonraker soundtrack though, I would have appreciated more on the CD's.

The upside of the skimping of the latter scores is that they were reasonably priced at around $12.99 a shot

Are you speaking of all the 2003 EMI released scores though?

(Since they all had a $12.99-$13.99 average price about)

[Brian Flagg]

Yes. All the scores. Even something brimming with music like my beloved YOLT score was a mere $12.99, as were the skimpy releases for the Moore films. Lukas Kendall wanted to release an expanded TMWTGG, but some confusion ensued and it was a happy accident that LALD got the nod instead.

[Qwerty]

Yes. All the scores. Even something brimming with music like my beloved YOLT score was a mere $12.99, as were the skimpy releases for the Moore films. Lukas Kendall wanted to release an expanded TMWTGG, but some confusion ensued and it was a happy accident that LALD got the nod instead.

Yes, but even the full blown ones such as Thunderball also were $12.99.

I just didn't agree with all of the choices regarding which soundtracks they considered "musts" for new tracks to be added.

Might as well taken more time and done more, I think.

[Harmsway]

I'm not a fan of Octopussy's score. It just seems boring to me and lacks the typical Barry umpf that his better scores had. It's by no means a bad score, heck it's better than a lot of the stuff out there. But compare it against the majestic score for YOLT or the beauty of TLD and it just doesn't hold up.

[Turn]

Good call on this one, Brian Flagg. I've long been a fan of the OP score. It's a great blend of action, romantic and suspense, and I personally find it a more satisfying all-around score than Barry's efforts for MR and AVTAK, which seem to appeal to more fans while many dismiss the OP score.

The suspense cues in particular are good on this one. 009 Gets the Knife is a scene I can't even picture without the music, and the Chase Bomb Theme is another good cue. Another one I like is Bond Arrives at Octopussy's Island. Also, this was one of the last scores that incorporated a lot of local flavor music. Michael Kamen did that with the LTK score, but not nearly as effectively.

According to the Bond music Web site Bond Smells a Rat, there are 17 missing cues. The list is at http://www.geocities...bondsmellsarat/

[agent007jb]

I just didn't agree with all of the choices regarding which soundtracks they considered "musts" for new tracks to be added.

Might as well taken more time and done more, I think.

I cannot agree more. The James Bond remastered soundtracks fell into the John Barry favor. Lukas Kendall had only a limited amout of time [even though these albums were announced back in 1999] to produce the remastered versions. Of course he choose to do the John Barrys albums.

I also agree they should have tried to expanded upon as many of the soundtracks as they could. Considering some of the most dreadful produced Bond albums were overlooked.

Dr. No (No score, what gives?)
The Spy Who Loved Me (Marvin Hamlish does John Barry? You Bet he does, but you can't tell by the album)
Moonraker (30 Minutes, what is this a Varese Sarabande produced album)
Licence To Kill (should have been added, should have been expanded, nuff said)
GoldenEye (more Serra is NEVER a bad thing)

I would have waited a year longer if it meant having ALL the Bond soundtracks remastered and expanded. However there will always be the second round of Remastered soundtracks sometime down the road.

As far as there being more Octopussy music. I am all for expanded albums, and I would never shoot down the chance to hear more of Octopussy. However in my review on my website [that is currently not up yet], I stated the following: " John Barry's score alone is roughly about 30 minutes, but is an adequate amount of material."

[Qwerty]

I just didn't agree with all of the choices regarding which soundtracks they considered "musts" for new tracks to be added.

Might as well taken more time and done more, I think.

I cannot agree more. The James Bond remastered soundtracks fell into the John Barry favor. Lukas Kendall had only a limited amout of time [even though these albums were announced back in 1999] to produce the remastered versions. Of course he choose to do the John Barrys albums.

I also agree they should have tried to expanded upon as many of the soundtracks as they could. Considering some of the most dreadful produced Bond albums were overlooked.

Dr. No (No score, what gives?)
The Spy Who Loved Me (Marvin Hamlish does John Barry? You Bet he does, but you can't tell by the album)
Moonraker (30 Minutes, what is this a Varese Sarabande produced album)
Licence To Kill (should have been added, should have been expanded, nuff said)
GoldenEye (more Serra is NEVER a bad thing)

I would have waited a year longer if it meant having ALL the Bond soundtracks remastered and expanded. However there will always be the second round of Remastered soundtracks sometime down the road.

As far as there being more Octopussy music. I am all for expanded albums, and I would never shoot down the chance to hear more of Octopussy. However in my review on my website [that is currently not up yet], I stated the following: " John Barry's score alone is roughly about 30 minutes, but is an adequate amount of material."

Well I can understand in the case of Dr. No and Moonraker. But it seems like they went first for the Connery/Barry classics. (DAF, OHMSS, YOLT)

[Brian Flagg]

To answer your question again Qwerty: All of the Bond scores went for $12.99 each, whether they be expanded or not. As far as the expandeds go, for 79 minutes of music on say, THUNDERBALL--that's one heck of a deal.

Turn, thanks. I have stated before that OP was perfect for an album, and sometimes expanded scores contain much repetitive or "moody suspense tracks" which many may find boring, but I find that John Barry's such cues are nearly always interesting.

LTK was not released because that title is held under copyright by another company.

I actually agree with Lukas Kendall's decision to put out the 1960s Barry scores, as they represent both Barry and Bond at their peak of quality and popularity. In addition, they are less expensive to remix and remaster. Tracks for MR and AVTAK were not found. If they weren't in either the USA or UK vaults, the scores weren't done, owing to cost. Lukas Kendall mentiond in his great 2 part Bond score article that he never even saw the AVTAK tapes. Damn shame, too.

Intersting note about LALD: Kendall mentioned that he didn't touch McCartney's title song, as Sir Paul's contract prohibits any remixing of Macca's work.

[Tanger]

Octopussy is my absolute favourite of the later Barry scores. So many fine tunes and cues. I love how Barry started to create new motifs for the films at this point such as the one that appears in Palace Fight, which is the best cue on the album and the cue that appears in AVTAK under Snow Job/He's Dangerous/Gate Fight etc. They really help to give the scores their own identity and set them apart from all his other ones.

[Qwerty]

To answer your question again Qwerty: All of the Bond scores went for $12.99 each, whether they be expanded or not. As far as the expandeds go, for 79 minutes of music on say, THUNDERBALL--that's one heck of a deal.

Oh no, I know that. I probably was just being confusing.

I was just pointing out for the work they did for some of the earlier soundtracks like Thunderball and You Only Live Twice, they should have done the same for others.

Seems the first release got more included than the second release two weeks later.

[Triton]

I can't fault Lukas Kendall for the decisions he made concerning the Remastered/Expanded soundtracks. He wisely used the limited time and resources he had for this project by deciding to concentrate on expanding the classic John Barry scores. It seems that some of you feel that Kendall should have taken an all or nothing approach.

But I don't believe that it was pratical, or even possible, for Kendal to wait another year on this project to assemble additional soundtracks or to delay the project so that the original Moonraker session tapes could be found.

In any case, I don't believe that this will be the last time that we will see the James Bond soundtracks issued by EMI records on CD. In the future the label may give Kendall, or someone else, the budget to expand the other soundtracks.

I also wonder if the current project to remaster the current monoaural James Bond films into 5.1 stereo might result in additional soundtrack elements being discovered, remixed, and then later made available on CD.

[Qwerty]

I can't fault Lukas Kendall for the decisions he made concerning the Remastered/Expanded soundtracks. He wisely used the limited time and resources he had for this project by deciding to concentrate on expanding the classic John Barry scores. It seems that some of you feel that Kendall should have taken an all or nothing approach.

The only real fault of the project of remastering these soundtracks was the lack of time affecting how much they could produce. If they had been given more, I would have loved to see what more they could have done. Looking at them now, they're very good, but they could have been better with more soundtracks longer.

[agent007jb]

It took me a year to assemble the original 1988 EMI issues and now I repurchased the 2003 remastered issues. I can appreciate what Lukas Kendell has done, but in my opinion they should have waited to remix the other soundtracks that they had available. I e-mailed lukas once and asked him the status of the source tapes:

The Man With The Golden Gun*
The Spy Who Loved Me*
Moonraker [lost]
For Your Eyes Only [Satisfied Release]
Octopussy*
A View To A Kill [lost]
The Living Daylights [Satisfied Release]
GoldenEye*

* Master tapes available, the remixing was too time consuming

I understand that they could not go to ever vault in the world looking for Moonraker, [they could have given John Barry a call and got his backups, but....] If they had the other scores ready, they should have delayed the releases to give time for proper mixing.

The project was rushed from the beginning, leading to many faults in the albums production [including some sucky liner notes. [i]I am no grade A reviewer, but come on, DONT review the films plot in the soundtrack book.][/i]

Granted when they reissue the Bond soundtracks AGAIN, ill buy them again I guess. I only hope someday they come to an agreement and have complete scores of all the Bond soundtracks [if 2 cds are needed, use 2 cds].

- glexter (no relation)

Edited by agent007jb, 12 July 2004 - 04:29 AM.

[Qwerty]

Granted when they reissue the Bond soundtracks AGAIN, ill buy them again I guess. I only hope someday they come to an agreement and have complete scores of all the Bond soundtracks [if 2 cds are need, use 2 cds].

- glexter (no relation)

I am with you for sure. Get all of the music out there.

What a fine pun too.