Amidst the flurry of big news stories this past week, you may not have heard the new that the film score composer John Barry died of a heart attack on Sunday, aged 77. He's best known for composing the scores to 12 James Bond films, amongst which Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever and From Russia With Love are probably the most well known in terms of them tune. I must confess though that, until he died on Sunday, John Barry's name wasn't really known to me. Sad perhaps, and I felt a wee bit left behind when a large amount of the musical community started singing his praises and heralding his legacy. Even Mark Ronson said his two cents.
So I decided to check things out and see exactly how stunning this man's legacy was. And when I did, I realised that John Barry's music has been woven throughout my life for years, and I didn't even realise.
One of my earliest and most formative musical memories is being in the car with my mum on the drive up to Colchester to visit my nanny and grandad. And for the many years we made that journey, we would invariable have on CD on - Matt Monro's Greatest Hits. Matt Monro, if you don't know, was the British Sinatra, but tragically died of cancer aged 54 in 1985. On that CD, two of the songs that I just totally adored and that I could listen to non-stop were "Born Free" and "From Russia With Love". They're two songs that hold a really firm and formative place in my memory. And both of them were written by John Barry for films of the same name.
Those melodies just captivated me at a young age. I sometimes find it contrived when I read about people saying the were "profoundly moved" by a piece of music at a very young age, but I think something like that really happened for me with that music. The melodies are just so sublime. Even detached from the words, they tell an amazing story, if you get what I mean. They really captured my frantic childhood imagination, catapulting me across these vast, unknown, exciting worlds that I'd never seen before. "From Russia With Love" really does put me in the streets of Moscow, a cold wind wafting snowflakes into my tightly drawn overcoat. There's this sense of mystery in the melody that I just can't put my finger on. The singer never GETS there, he's still on the journey, still wrapped up and in love with Russia as well as his lover, wherever she might be.
"Born Free" is really evocative for me as well. After I reached my nan's house after the aforementioned car journey to Colchester, I would repeatedly watch an old Rolf Harris video, back in his animal days, and on it he did a whole section about the story of the film Born Free, and the music featured quite heavily in the program which, for whatever reason, captivated my little mind.
It also pops up in one of my favourite ever gags from Porridge, the stunning Ronnie Barker sitcom:
Of course, his work on the Bond films is just sensational, it almost goes without saying. A lot of the Bond films aren't amazing, but I think they hold a special place in many of our hearts, and theme tunes certainly do. "Goldfinger", "Diamonds Are Forever", "You Only Live Twice" and "From Russia With Love" are the most famous and are all just stunning pieces, alongside "We Have All The Time in The World" from On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The melodies are just unstoppable. There's a sublime sense of melodrama in them all, they're so lush and glorious, yet in a way that doesn't seem to echo the hollow bombast of many of the bond films. Could very well explain the frequent involvement of Shirley Bassey... "Moonraker" and "Thunderball" are pretty awesome too.
I'd always thought to myself that, even if some of the Bond films are pretty dreadful, the music is undeniably brilliant. And when I looked at the films Barry composed for, all my favourite Bond songs were from the man himself. Aside from that, some of the Barry composed Bond themes hold a wonderful place in my memory as one of my friends, whilst extremely strung out on some narcotic substance, wondered why all the Bond themes couldn't be to the tune of "Goldfinger". The next several minutes were filled with him repeating "Moooooonrakeeeeeeeerr!"
So there you have it. John Barry wove himself into some of my most formative musical memories without me even realising. It's been wonderful discovering that this man whose name meant nothing to me a week ago has had a really influential effect on me. It's just a shame it took his death for me to realise. There may very well be other people who've done the same and remain as yet unknown to me, behind the scenes. I guess we'll see!
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