A THEME TO A KILL
JOHN BARRY ...AND JAMES BOND

by with Mark and his guests David Arnold, Don Black and Tim Rice
A SteynOnline audio special
June 25, 2011

http://www.steynonline.com/4199/on-the-town

For the first of our summer audio specials, we celebrate the work of James Bond's music man and the composer who defined the sound of spy music. John Barry died earlier this year, and we had so much response to Mark's 007 double-bill Song of the Week that he decided it would be nice to hear a bit more of the music, and also some of the stories behind it from John's friends and colleagues. So to discuss the Barry style Mark rounded up two Oscar-winning lyricists and a composer. All three were part of the big memorial concert last Monday night at the Royal Albert Hall in London, so, if you couldn't get tickets, we hope you'll dial up our podcast as the next best thing:

Tim Rice and Don Black were guests on our Christmas Show two years ago, when they touched briefly on their Bond songs. Tim is best-known as the lyricist of Evita, Aladdin and The Lion King, but he also collaborated with John Barry on the theme song for Octopussy. And Don has written more James Bond lyrics than anybody else, from Thunderball to The Man With The Golden Gun, Diamonds Are Forever to The World Is Not Enough.

Joining Tim and Don is David Arnold, the composer of Independence Day, Godzilla, the remake of Shaft, Hot Fuzz, Voyage Of The Dawn Treader and the TV series Little Britain. But he's also John Barry's successor in the James Bond music chair. He's composed every Bond picture of the last 15 years, from Tomorrow Never Dies to A Quantum Of Solace, and is about the only person other than Judi Dench's M to survive the transition from the Pierce Brosnan era to the Daniel Craig regime. He also made an album of Bond songs, Shaken And Stirred.

Our two-part special provides over two great hours of music and conversation. We'll track Bond themes from You Only Live Twice, Moonraker, A View To A Kill and many more performed by Tom Jones, Nancy Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Lulu, Rita Coolidge, Duran Duran, A-Ha and, of course, Shirley Bassey. We'll also hear Barry songs performed by Frank Sinatra, Tom Petty, Anthony Newley, Kanye West, Iggy Pop, Pulp, Coldplay, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, plus TV themes like "The Persuaders", other Barry film scores from The Ipcress File to Out Of Africa, and the world's greatest shampoo commercial.

In Part One of the show, Tim Rice delves into the John Barry Seven's raucous pop career, Don Black distinguishes the anatomical origins of "Diamonds Are Forever" from the non-anatomical origins of "Thunderball", David Arnold takes us behind a unique moment in On Her Majesty's Secret Service – and Mark explores the evolution of the James Bond theme from Dr No to The Living Daylights.

In Part Two, Tim explains why the Octopussy song isn't called "Octopussy", Don recalls his and John Barry's Oscar-winning song "Born Free", David picks some favorite moments from Barry's later orchestral scores – and Steyn sings "Goldfinger".

To listen to Part One, click here. To listen to Part Two, click here. Each is a little over an hour.

The picture above shows John Barry and his then wife Jane Birkin back in the Swingin' Sixties and looking not un-Bondlike.