Every once in a while, I get the urge to give myself an
\neducation in all things James Bond, and promise myself that I’m
\ngoing to start watching all the James Bond films from the start –
\nand by that, I mean by scrounging up a copy of “Casino Royale”. But
\nsomehow, this personal pledge always seems to fall by the
\nwayside… meaning I have now gone almost 30 years without seeing
\nan entire James Bond film from start to finish. (I also have gone
\nthat long without seeing “The Wizard Of Oz” – an admission that
\nusually earns me drop-mouthed stares from those I tell this
\nto.)<\/p>\n
There has been a rebirth in interest in the music of the James
\nBond films – and
\nBond Back In Action<\/i>, a collection of selections from scores
\nas recorded by the City Of Prague Philharmonic, helps to capture
\nthe Sean Connery years well, though there are times this collection
\nlags. But we’ll talk about that soon enough. (This disc also
\nexamines the one film from the George Lazenby era, “On Her
\nMajesty’s Secret Service”.)<\/p>\n
This disc is not meant to mimic the soundtracks, nor is it meant
\nto replace them. Instead, with the inclusion of selections labeled
\nas “previously unrecorded,” this disc means to present elements of
\nthe individual scores the way that composers Monty Norman and John
\nBarry meant them to be heard.<\/p>\n
Possibly the one item that should send Bond fans into manic
\nrejoicing is the appearance of Vic Flick on guitar for “The James
\nBond Theme”. Flick was the guitarist on the original version of the
\ntheme, and hearing his presence on this new recording gives both it
\nand the entire project much credence.<\/p>\n
Interestingly enough, it is the suite of the three earliest
\nfilms that provide the listener with the most interesting
\nselections. The two selections from “Goldfinger” – “Into
\nMiami\/Alpine Drive” and “Dawn Raid At Fort Knox” – provide the
\nlistener with almost as much excitement as if they were watching
\nthe film. Likewise, the selections taken from “From Russia With
\nLove” (co-written by Lionel Bart) fit the mood perfectly, and suck
\nthe listener into a magical experience.<\/p>\n
The one selection (save for the title track) from “Dr. No”
\n(“Death Of The Tarantula\/Killing The Guard\/Death Of Dr. No”) should
\neasily be enough to send longtime Bond fans scurrying back to their
\nDVD drives to watch this film again – and to try and differentiate
\nhow the score sounds with how it was supposed to sound. The liner
\nnotes for this particular track are absolutely fascinating.<\/p>\n
What I have to wonder, though, is why the music for the next
\nthree films – “Thunderball,” “You Only Live Twice” and “On Her
\nMajesty’s Secret Service” – doesn’t have the same kind of energy
\nand interest level as the earlier works. It’s not that these
\nportions of the scores are boring, nor is it that the orchestra
\ndoes a subpar job on these performances. It’s just that they don’t
\npack the same kind of emotional power as the early works – or, for
\nthat matter, the selections from “Diamonds Are Forever”, which
\ncloses this disc. The only thing I can think of – and I’m not
\nclaiming this to be gospel truth – is that Barry settled into a
\ncomfort pattern, and didn’t feel challenged enough by the task.
\n(This would soon change, as we’ll see in the review for
\nBond Back In Action 2<\/i>.)<\/p>\n
Is
\nBond Back In Action<\/i> still worth checking out? Absolutely –
\nthough I would dare say this is the kind of disc that is aimed
\ntowards the diehard fan of James Bond. But who knows? Listening to
\nthis disc might pique someone’s interest in the early films of the
\nseries – and I’m again promising myself I’m going to start renting
\nthe films and watching them in order… though now I’ll get them on
\nDVD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5729],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-36869","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-soundtrack","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36869"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36869"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}