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Friday, 14 May 2010 14:23

Mr Moses LP lined up in '60s?

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 by Ian McDonald
"Tony Palmer, head of A&R at EMI UA in the mid 60's had this (a Mr. Moses LP, ed.) all lined up. It even got a listing in the 'Gramaphone' Catalogue (!!). I actually saw the front sleeve proof when I visited their offices in Manchester Square. Alas, it never saw light of day, but surely those tapes are somewhere in the EMI vaults. It was never listed for a US release... Probably around 40 mins or so."

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Keith Calnan
New Dulux advert on ITV has Midnight Cowboy as backing track

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Paul McCartney in an interview with Paul Gambaccini, December 1978:

(transcribed by Gareth Bramley)
" I was asked to write Diamonds Are Forever. Somebody I knew was connected with the Bond thing and said 'would you like to do a song' and I said 'Yeah!!!! (straight away, you know, YEAH!!!)

I couldn't do that one coz I think it was John Barry and they had it all sewn up anyway, so maybe (you can do) the next one. "

Sunday, 07 March 2010 13:19

A Man Alone - the lyrics

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"A Man Alone"

David Butterworth submits:

"A Man Alone" - vocal: Pat Boone
From (sic.) "The Ipcress File"
DOT 16808 - 45rpm - 2:27

He keeps his heart in hiding,
his feelings are in disguise.
He may not seem exciting,
but danger is in his eyes.

No love may try to trap him
or capture him in his spell.
No love can ever hold him,
for he knows intrigue too well.

This is a silent stranger,
his destiny is unknown.
He plays the game of danger,
and this is a man alone.

Alone!

--J.Barry / R. Tillison / Russell T. Lesslie

Thanks to Alan More for the scan of the single

------------------

Website http://countrydiscography.blogspot.com/2009/08/pat-boone-part-i.html gives as date "ca. December 1965 poss. Hollywood, CA – Pat Boone"

It would seem as though people just added lyrics. The publisher would have given permission, though.
As an aside, Leslie Bricusse said *he* wrote an Ipcress song. Which was not used.

Geoff.

Friday, 05 March 2010 13:19

The Criminal

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A report recently circulated that director Joseph Losey heard John Barry's brassy score for Beat Girl, and wanted him for The Criminal (1960), but Barry turned down the gig because he was working on the Peter Sellers Never Let Go movie at the time.

We cannot confirm or deny this but it is on record that Barry & Losey were to work together on the original aborted musical of Brighton Rock in 1964, and eventually did work together on Boom! (1968) so the story could well be true.

Wednesday, 03 February 2010 13:18

Whispers about "The Horse Whisperer"

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Ian Macdonald contributed a fascinating piece to the Barry Yahoo group:

I have just been viewing the 'Filmnotgraphy' section of the website. I note with interest that it is thought that JB wrote and recorded a full score for this movie, so, for what it is worth, I thought I would contribute my knowledge of what actually happened and why Barry left the film.

As some of you may know I was fortunate to attend the last 2 days recording sessions for 'Swept from the Sea' (aka Amy Foster) in march 1997 at Abbey Road.  At the end of the last day JB thanked the ECO for their hard work and announced to them that he would be doing the score to Redford's movie and that he would be working with them in October of that year when the score would probably be recorded.

On JB's return home he worked on some 'demo's recorded them in a small NY studio and arranged to meet Redford.

My information is that there were three themes in all which RR did not like. Evidently he accused Barry of not understanding his film's intentions and trying to make it into a pastiche of Born Free and encouraged Barry to be more dramatic and 'cut the thematic crap'.

JB was evidently and understandably upset at Redford's comments and an intense discussion (being polite) broke out. It ended with Barry sweeping up his work and storming out of the meeting. Evidently from that day to this they have not spoken and both went out of their way to avoid each other when dining at the same NY Restaurant a few weeks later.

As I think is widely known 'Meadow of Delight & Sadness' (from the 'Beyondness' Album) was one of the pieces originally written for this movie. The other 2 pieces I am not sure about, but I have it on good authority - from the man who acted as 'fixer' for his work with the ECO - that Barry DID NOT get to the stage of writing or recording a full score for this film.

I think I am right in saying (please correct me if I am wrong) that this was the only piece from that intended score to reach the 'Beyondness' Album, so maybe, some time in the future the other two will surface....................or maybe they already have in some other form (Playing by Heart, Echoes, Ten Tenors albums?)........who knows?

Ian

--------------------------------

Prior to Ian's post, there has been a number of stories and theories about what happened to the music. Here's a selection:

Someone was recently asking me about recording sessions for The Horse Whisperer, forgotten whom. Anyway, I asked Nic Raine and he said it wasn't recorded apart from initial demos of the main cues, which is Barry's usual method. But 'Goodbye Lover' apparently was, though it's not entirely clear whether it was rejected or if Barry simply refused to re-score some parts after many changes to the film were made. (N.B. since then Wayne Kramer has confirmed he has heard the full recorded score to Goodbye Lover.)

Geoff

--------------------------------

I do think that sometimes he's his own worst enemy: it was only two years ago when he was scoring The Horse Whisperer, a film that would have put him right back on the map, and probably won him yet another Oscar - and yet, rather than do what he was employed to do, and give the director what he wanted, he stubbornly refused, and hasn't even sniffed a quality project ever since. That they only disagreed over the scoring of one scene, and Barry refused to budge, is such a pity, and really quite stupid when you think about it.

James

--------------------------------

My first question was about the music for "The Horse Whisperer" being used for "TBOT" I asked if this was a rumour could he scotch it or confirm it was true. He said it was true that music was from "THW" and that the music was personal to him. Then, proceeded to damn the film saying that the original novel was superb and that the horse dies at the end in the book but for some strange reason Robert Redford insisted the horse survive. He said the film was mostly made up of shots of Redford from this angle and that angle, smiling now, frowning now, etc. Afterwards his wife said 'Now you know the whole truth' and JB went 'Shh!' and shook my hand.

Barry

--------------------------------

I think most people on this site do not understand is that John Barry when he accepted the job of writing the score to the Horse Whisperer, John saw the rough cut of the movie, Robert Redford and John Barry talked about where music cues would go. Off John went and 3 to 4 weeks later in "piano" form John played 5 to 6 themes and cues for Robert Redford. Mr. Redford didn't like what he heard cuz he has paper stuck in his ears, and John Barry not compromising his position and off they went into two different direction.

"Samantha's Mom"

--------------------------------

I've always thought that 2 or 3 themes from Horse would be the maximum (on TBOT), though apparently at the concert Richard Kraft was indicating to people which tracks were from Horse and it was 3 or 4 of them. Make that 'allegedly' in case Richard is looking in!


Geoff

Saturday, 30 January 2010 13:15

From Russia With Love - Matt Monro

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From Russia With Love - Matt Monro
January 30, 2010

We are grateful to Richard Moore, who was responsible for the remastering on the new Matt Monro box-set, for providing the following definitive explanation to something which has puzzled Bond fans and others for years.

"The noise on From Russia - which I haven't been able to remove - is George Martin talking to Johnnie Spence during the Tack Piano overdub. This was recorded at half speed so what you're actually hearing is their conversation sped up - audible on both Mono and Stereo versions. The only way to remove it (and find out exactly what was said) is to listen to the multi track which was mysteriously missing until last week!!!!!"

Richard also confirmed that John Barry had no hand in the recording of the song, contrary to the impression given by various EMI soundtrack albums.

Source: Geoff Leonard

Matt Monro's From Russia With Love original session tapes missing
January 30, 2010

"Two of the missing tracks on my listing (From Russia With Love and Tahiti) were not supplied as they were marked NOT EMI – UA in other words United Artists.

This is not to say that we can't use the tracks, but that the original session tapes I wanted to use have been sent back to United Artists films in 2006. This leads to two months of fevered searching. United Artists is owned by MGM and they search everywhere they can think of – The James Bond archives, the MGM archives in the UK and USA and various sub archives – they can find nothing and what's more there is no record of anything being returned to them in the past three years.

So unfortunately these tapes have disappeared down some form of black hole – so I am left with Mono mixes of these tracks for this compilation.

I haven't given up though and although I haven't found the tapes yet, they are out there somewhere and can hopefully be used in a future project."

Source: http://mattmonro.com, Richard Moore, "Spotlight on ... ' The Making of 'The Complete Singles Collection'

Source: Geoff Leonard

From Russia With Love - continued
February 3, 2010

Richard Moore, the co-researcher behind the "Special Reserve" Matt Monro book, lists Colin Keyes as arranger and conductor on Monro's This Way Mary/Wish Now Was Then single. We pointed out to him that EMI had provided label-copy to Play It Again (for The Don Black Songbook) which indicated that John Barry had this role, and that the original single bore that credit.

His reply was interesting:

"Yes this was a mystery solved in many ways. The original single doesn't list an arranger or conductor and no paperwork for this session other than the "red form" (which was the session booking form) survives and this has no indication of who it was. However, as I'm sure you're aware, Matt does not appear on the soundtrack of the film so it wasn't clear if John Barry had any involvement.

As luck would then have it, whilst Michele was interviewing Colin he spoke of his first session - This Way Mary/Wish Now Was Then.

A short while later Michele uncovered some contemporary paperwork which listed arrangers and conductors of all recent material (dating from about 1973) which once again confirmed Colin as Arranger and Conductor."

I found this pretty convincing, especially as I noted my (demo) copy of the single did not have any credit, but Barry expert Gareth Bramley is having none of it.

"The record release clearly states 'Orch. Arr & Cond by John Barry on both sides:

7YCA 33021/2 (DB 8860) p. 1972 by George Martin

The other 'Barry connection' (Curiouser & Curiouser/The Me I Never Knew) quite clearly sounds nothing like Barry and wasn't him and is also clearly credited:

7YCA 33158/9 (DB 8936) p. 20/10/72 by George Martin. Orchestra arr & cond by Colin Keyes

Why on earth should these details be wrong. It's obvious that - by listening to them - both are quite different in sound and are clearly different arrangers."

Source: Geoff Leonard

 

Saturday, 30 January 2010 13:15

John Barry's music used on TV

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January 30, 2010

In the January 28th, 2010 edition of BBC 2's The Culture Show, a feature on Wikileaks, used the main theme from The Ipcress File, presumably to reflect the secrecy aspect of this website.

In the January 29th, 2010 edition of Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain: The Land of Lost Content, focusing on the 50s and early 60s, Barry's music from Out Of Africa ("Safari") was used to accompany archive scenes from that era.

On 29 December 2009, BBC's documentary, The Many Faces of June Whitfield, included Barry's The Roll Dance (Chaplin) as the background music for the final three and a half-minutes, including the end credits.

During an episode of the popular BBC TV series Yes Minister, entitled "The Death List", Jim Hacker and his wife go to see a Bond film.
However, although the excerpt we see on the cinema screen is not from a real Bond film, the music we hear accompanying it is one of Barry's Mood tracks, recorded for Chappell a couple of years before the Bond series began!

Source: Geoff Leonard

Saturday, 30 January 2010 13:03

1970s John Barry concerts

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MUSIC FROM THE MOVIES (1973)
added January 30, 2010

presented by
BRYAN FORBES and ROGER MOORE

Part I conducted by MUIR MATHIESON
The Dambusters Eric Coates
1954 Directed by Michael Anderson. Starring Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd.
Legend of the Glass Mountain Nino Rota
1949 Directed by Henry Cass. Starring Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray.
Things to Come Sir Arthur Bliss
1935 Directed by William Cameron Menzies. Starring Raymond Massey and Ralph Richardson.
Limelight Charles Chaplin Solo violin, Erich Gruenberg
1952 Directed by Charles Chaplin. Starring Charles Chaplin and Claire Bloom.
The Big Country Jerome Moross
1958 Directed by William Wyler. Starring Gregory Peck and Jean Simmonds.
The Magnificent Seven Elmer Bernstein
1960 Directed by John Sturges. Starring Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen.
Henry V: St Crispin's Day Scene Sir William Walton, arr. Muir Mathieson Spoken by Bryan Forbes
1944 Directed by Laurence Olivier. Starring Laurence Olivier and Leslie Banks.

Interval of twenty minutes

Part II conducted by JOHN BARRY
Featuring John Barry's compositions for Bryan Forbes's films including:
Seance on a Wet Afternoon
1964 Starring Kim Stanley and Richard Attenborough.
The Whisperers
1966 Starring Edith Evans and Eric Portman.

And more John Barry compositions including:
The James Bond films
From Russia with Love
1963 Directed by Terence Young. Starring Sean Connery, Daniella Bianchi and Lotte Lenya. Goldfinger
1964 Directed by Guy Hamilton. Starring Sean Connery, Honor Blackman and Shirley Eaton. Thunderball
1965 Directed by Terence Young. Starring Sean Connery, Claudine Auger and Luciana Paluzzi.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
1969 Directed by Peter Hunt. Starring George Lazenby, Diana Rigg and use Steppat. Diamonds are Forever
1971 Directed by Guy Hamilton. Starring Sean Connery, Jill St John and Charles Grey.

Born Free
1965 Directed by James Hill. Starring Virginia McKenna.

The Knack
1965 Directed by Richard Lester. Starring Rita Tushingham and Michael Crawford.

Midnight Cowboy
1969 Directed by John Schlesinger. Starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
1972 Directed by William Sterling. Starring Fiona Fullerton and Hywel Bennett.

Zulu
1963 Directed by Cy Endfield. Starring Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins and Michael Caine.

The Persuaders and The Adventurer: Themes from the TV series.

Mary Queen of Scots
1971 Directed by Charles Jarrott. Starring Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson.

The Quiller Memorandum
1966 Directed by Michael Anderson. Starring George Segal and Alec Guinness.

Research: Tony Rayns Production: Brian Eastman

Source: Geoff Leonard

Filmharmonic '72
added January 30, 2010

Goldfinger
Born Free
The Knack
Midnight Cowboy
The Lion in Winter

Suite - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: Curiouser and Curiouser, I've never been this far before, The Me I Never Knew

The Big Country

Deadfall
TV Themes including The Persuaders, The Adventurers

Mary, Queen of Scots
Zulu
The Quiller Memorandum
The Concert James Bond: James Bond Theme, From Russia With Love, Thunderball, 007,
You Only Live Twice, O.H.M.S.S., Diamonds are Forever

Encore?

This was one half (the second) of the concert, the first half being music composed and conducted by Miklos Rozsa.

Source: Geoff Leonard

Friday, 29 January 2010 13:01

The Concert John Barry

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"Being one of the lucky ones, I attended the 1972 Filmharmonic Concert at RAH that this album was based on. More...

Prior to the album being released, Gordon Gray, who was A&R man at Polydor and in charge of the albums release, advised me over the phone that the arrangement of 'Zulu' played in the concert - much more dramatic and vibrant than the original, togeher with 'The Knack' and 'ipcress' were 'on the list' for inclusion on the album. Alas, they never made it.

So, I presume they are gathering dust somewhere, possibly never to be heard................ unless, of course Sony (Universal, ed.) have access to ALL the tracks recorded for the album and include them, but I'm not holding my breath!!"

Source: Ian MacDonald, John Barry Yahoo group.

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If you wish to send an email, for example with content for the website, please contact Geoff Leonard:

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Geoff (owner) and Ruud (webmaster) have been running the John Barry website since June 18, 2001.

This website is not endorsed by the composer's family.
Use of copyrighted materials and logos are for promotional purposes only.

All files on this website are for personal use only and cannot be bought or sold.

 

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