John Barry: The Persuaders

I couldn't find this at first. It wasn't next to my other John Barry compilations (1, 2), and I couldn't remember seeing it. Then I realised it was a record, not a CD. £7.99 from Record Collector. Mint condition, too. I can't remember when, or why, I bought it.

Still, it's consistently enjoyable. In fact, Side 2 stayed on my turntable for a couple of days, and had several spins. The debt that Barry Adamson and David Holmes owe to music like this is clear and substantial. I wonder how much of my early James Bond fanaticism was sustained by this music. Did I tell you that I'd read all the James Bond books by the age of nine, including the innuendo and soft porn scenes (when Ian Fleming wrote that Bond had his hand on Solitaire's breast, did he, could he, really mean her bosom?!?). It started when my dad took me to see Live and Let Die on its initial release — allegedly as a reward for continuing with my swimming lessons, but actually because he fancied going — and took off from there. My first ever school nickname was Bond, and I never had one nearly so flattering again.

I wonder: did Barry deliberately arrange The Theme from The Persuaders for crappy 1970 synthesiser because he knew it would be heard through crappy 1970 3" TV speakers, while the pieces from From Russia With Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Thunderball have an incredible cinemascope, Cubby-Broccoli-technicolor arrangement?

And do all soundtrack composers recycle their material and plagiarise themselves? I know Tangerine Dream soundtracks did that a lot, and The Danny Scipio Theme lifts from Diamonds are Forever — or perhaps it's vice-versa if Danny Scipio came first.

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Comments

[Terry Walstrom]

John Barry obtained exotic instruments from collector John Leach adding a moog synth bass line to punch up the sound for TV. Those are plucked and strummed acoustic instruments in Persuaders such as the OUD.

Here is my synth mock-up of 007:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1595587/Barryesques/008.mp3

(Source on Persuaders: John Barry: the Man with the Midas Touch)
(You may have to cut and paste the URL)

[David]

Many thanks for the fascinating insight, Terry. (I'm always touched when my ignorant ramblings elicit some authoritative facts from someone who really knows...)

And your mock-up shows how far synths have come in 40 years.