15 replies to this topic

[Station T]

I was listening to the remastered Live and Let Die CD and made a startling discovery--it has been remixed as well! And not all for the better, unfortunately. (I am surprised, with all the Bond music zealots here, no one else has mentioned this already!)

I haven't had the time to compare every track, but I can tell you it is extremely obvious that changes beyond those of sonic quality have been made, for example, on my favorite track of the old album, "Bond Meets Solitare."

To see if I could notice the improvement in sound quality, I popped in my old LALD score CD prior to the new one, and listened to funky track number three. "Bond Meets Solitare" has a distinctive use of bass guitar doubled with keyboards that propells the track about fifteen seconds in and then throughout. When I listened to the new release, I was very unhappy to notice the bass/keyboard combo's first, crucial five or six seconds had been removed from the "remastered" version! This wrecks the sharp pacing, and the atmosphere of the track. Also, there is a spastic percussive moment later in the track that is not there in the original unremastered release (I don't recall the exact moment, but it should be obvious to anyone who listens to both versions back-to-back what I am talking about).

If I am not mistaken the same phenomenon occurs in the track "James Bond Theme," which sounds like a different take entirely! I support the concept of the remasters wholeheartedly, but am quite disappointed that tracks are being altered without any warning to the consumer.

Like most remastering efforts, the LALD CD (the only one I have of the Bond remasters so far) sounds much louder at the same volume setting than the old disc, with better overall instrumental fidelity (another favorite of mine, "Fillet of Soul," was merely remastered, not remixed, and sounds better than ever). But on "Bond Meets Solitare," some overzealous engineer virtually changes the arrangement by switching emphasis! I dread this becoming an issue on the other "remastered" Bond discs.

My copies of the OHMSS (well, hopefully it's OHMSS, not FRWL!) and DAF remasters are waiting for me at Barnes and Noble as I type this. But given my frustration with the meddling with LALD's mix, I am not sure whether I still want them!

[Johnson Galore]

You've answered a question that I posted a few weeks back. Some of the initial press releases about these CDs specifically use the word "re-mixed". I wondered if they were, in fact, remixed. One of the initial notices said that Goldfinger will not be re-mixed. I assume it will be re-mastered, however. For what it's worth, OHMSS and DAF sound so good, you should not pass them up. Fidelity is amazing!

[Red Grant]

Not having heard the new CD's yet I can't comment properly but what I am lead to believe is this....
The new CD's have been mastered from the original recording sessions (ie the music that appears in the film itself) and not the soundtrack recording sessions. The two are naturally different as the soundtrack sessions are often played by different musicians and mixed for an album version and therefore more accessible. This is the case with most soundtrack albums and especially ones of this period. For years I listened to the original soundtracks from films like Bullitt, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West. Then new full versions of the scores came out which again are from the original recording sessions and sound like they do in the film not how they did on the soundtrack album.
I hope this makes sense...please correct me if I'm wrong but the fact that the gunbarrels have been added to the new CD's makes me think this is why the music is different as it's from a different session.

[Neil S. Bulk]

Originally posted by Red Grant
I hope this makes sense...please correct me if I'm wrong but the fact that the gunbarrels have been added to the new CD's makes me think this is why the music is different as it's from a different session.

Having the gunbarrels tacked on doesn't mean that entirely different takes were used, it means they were just edited onto a cue. I have my own custom Thunderball album (soon to be retired) that starts off with the gunbarrel and then goes right into "Chateau Flight". I was able to take the 19 seconds of music from the "Thunderball Suite" and cut it into "Chateau Flight". It's all done editorally. Just listen to "This Never Happened to the Other Feller" (when you get the OHMSS album) and you'll see that the gunbarrel was just edited onto the front of it.

Neil

[Red Grant]

Originally posted by Neil S. Bulk

Having the gunbarrels tacked on doesn't mean that entirely different takes were used, it means they were just edited onto a cue.  I have my own custom Thunderball album (soon to be retired) that starts off with the gunbarrel and then goes right into "Chateau Flight".  I was able to take the 19 seconds of music from the "Thunderball Suite" and cut it into "Chateau Flight".  It's all done editorally.  Just listen to "This Never Happened to the Other Feller" (when you get the OHMSS album) and you'll see that the gunbarrel was just edited onto the front of it.

Neil

Yep, get your point Neil but I think some of the tracks now must be taken from both sessions if STATION T thinks they are different? I doubt that they have been completely remixed so that they now don't sound as they used to on the original album.

[Neil S. Bulk]

Sadly, I'm not as familiar with LALD as some of the other scores. Having listened to OHMSS several times now, I know that the music sounds stunning, and seems to be the same takes as used on the original album.

Neil

[Neil S. Bulk]

I just recieved this e-mail from Lukas Kendall, the producer of the album.

Yes, the Live and Let Die CD was remixed from the original 16-track 2" master tapes (except for the song and the two New Orleans source tracks). However, we *religiously* followed the original mixes. What the listener is reacting to is the fact that we did not recreate a number of edits that were made to the tracks for the original LP -- "Bond Meets Solitaire" is now the complete version as heard in the film (2:43 vs. 2:15 on the old album). What the listener thinks are instrumental changes are just previously unreleased passages. While he may prefer the shorter versions, we wanted to present the music as it was heard in the film. And we would never monkey with a mix just to be cute!

Hope this helps!

Neil

[Red Grant]

Thanks for that Neil, that's more or less what I was getting at. Original soundtrack albums are often rerecorded or remixed to suit that format. Nowadays we prefer the full score as heard in the film. I guess this is why a lot of the stuff is such a surprise to us. I can't wait to hear the new CD's when I hopefully get them later this week.

[Bond In BR]

Arguably another one of the most listened tracks on this disc "The James Bond Theme" has also been remixed and lengthened.
After the opening there is a longer quiet section before the main Bond melody kicks in (it's not bad just not the same as what I've been listening to for the last 20 odd years). This version of the bond theme has always been one of my favorites (It must be somebody else's as well since they used it to nice effect in the trailers for TLD). The instrumentation that you can pick out on the track now is akin to having cotton in your ears listening to the previous version, there are bongos on the track that I never heard before.

All this is just another unashamed plug for all of the new cd's.
All these are must buys for Bond music fans.
I bought Dr No and FRWL first (just because that's all the place had at the time)
As soon as put FRWL in the cd player and heard the difference, I knew I had to have them all!


Keith Lane
Bonding in Baton Rouge

[Blox]

When the LALD LP was released in 1973, the tracks you cited were cut down for the LP. Only the Quadrasonic 8 Track release for LALD contained the full length versions of Bond Meets Solitaire and James Bond Theme with the long intro. So throw away the old CD -- the new remastered edition is correct.

Cheers,

B l o x

[Doubleshot]

On the subject of the LALD album, can somebody point out to me what scene the second half of "Bond Drops In" comes from? I don't know the score as well as I should, but I seem to remember only a small portion of the cue as heard in the album appear in the film. Is the second portion simply unused underscore?

[Station T]

I especially appreciate the remarks from Lukas Kendall that were posted here. He has done a fabulous job on his past reissue projects (like the RAIDERS score), so I should have figured the changes were in the name of accuracy.

I sure have become accustomed the old, edited LP version of "Bond Meets Solitare" though! I will hang onto my old CD for that reason, though I do intend to buy the other remasters now that I know the logic behind any changes I hear.

Ian

[Lukas Kendall]

The 2nd half of "Bond Drops In" was slated as 12M2 which
places it towards the end of the movie, probably for
the train ride. It was not used in the film.

Lukas

[Johnson Galore]

Originally posted by Lukas Kendall
The 2nd half of "Bond Drops In" was slated as 12M2 which
places it towards the end of the movie, probably for
the train ride. It was not used in the film.

Lukas

Great to have you on board! Thanks for all your efforts to improve film score releases!

[Neil S. Bulk]

Originally posted by Johnson Galore


Great to have you on board!  Thanks for all your efforts to improve film score releases!

Yes, indeed. Thank you Lukas for helping us here, and always setting the record straight.

Neil

[JackChase007]

I just got the LALD CD (I've been looking forward to it for a LONG time - one of my favorite scores ever!), and I couldn't be happier. It has all of the cues, and it sounds amazing. I agree with the above comments that George Martin's arrangement of "The James Bond Theme" is wonderful and very enjoyable, and I'm glad to have the full version of it now.