James Bond is better than everything

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,629]

10 minutes ago, Stark said:

Am inexperienced when it comes to Bond music… are any of the earlier expansions (by EMI, I believe) definitive?

 

FRWL, Goldfinger, Thunderball, YOLT, OHMSS, DAF, LALD, FYEO, and TLD were all pretty good.

[Yavar Moradi 3,461]

11 hours ago, Stark said:

Am inexperienced when it comes to Bond music… are any of the earlier expansions (by EMI, I believe) definitive?

 

It depends on your definition of "definitive". Lukas Kendall was limited by some constraints on those. He was able to greatly expand five Bond scores, given the resources and three weeks of time he was given. Of the five that he selected to tackle for expansion, two of those still remained incomplete because he was only allowed what was able to fit on a single disc, and the complete scores for Thunderball and On Her Majesty's Secret Service both would require two CDs. Of the remaining three which were ostensibly "complete", he still was required to have the original album program first (which sometimes included alternates rather than film takes), and then add previously unreleased cues afterwards as "bonus tracks". I think these days most of us would prefer to get the complete score chronological, rather than the album assemblies being preserved and then the other cues tacked on as an afterthought.

 

Live and Let Die was one of the three EMI expansions considered "definitive" before... at least, it was ostensibly complete. And yet I think we'd all agree that LLL's 2CD 50th Anniversary edition is more definitive, right? Ideally, since the album programs sometimes included alternate takes, unique edits, and special (sometimes not chronological) assemblies of different cues... there's a case to be made that only releases that include the complete score plus the original album program are "definitive".

 

Yavar

[Tom Guernsey 3,101]

No Mr Bond, I expect you to buy it. Immediately!

 

[Jay 41,830]

Every time LLL issues a new Bond expansion I'll update and repost this

 

Year	Title	Composer	Film	Music	Expansion
1962	Dr. No	Monty Norman	MGM/UA	UMG
1963	From Russia With Love	John Barry	MGM/UA	UMG
1964	Goldfinger	John Barry	MGM/UA	UMG	2024 La-La Land (60th)
1965	Thunderball	John Barry	MGM/UA	UMG	2003 EMI
1967	You Only Live Twice	John Barry	MGM/UA	UMG	2003 EMI
1969	On Her Majesty's Secret Service	John Barry	MGM/UA	UMG	2003 EMI
1971	Diamonds Are Forever	John Barry	MGM/UA	UMG	2003 EMI
1973	Live and Let Die	George Martin	MGM/UA	UMG	2023 La-La Land (50th)
1974	The Man With The Golden Gun	John Barry	MGM/UA	UMG
1977	The Spy Who Loved Me	Marvin Hamlisch	MGM/UA	UMG
1979	Moonraker	John Barry	MGM/UA	UMG
1981	For Your Eyes Only	Bill Conti	MGM/UA	UMG	2003 EMI
1983	Octopussy	John Barry	MGM/UA	UMG	2023 La-La Land (40th)
1985	A View To A Kill	John Barry	MGM/UA	UMG
1987	The Living Daylights	John Barry	MGM/UA	WMG	1998 Rykodisc
1989	License To Kill	Michael Kamen	MGM/UA	UMG
1995	GoldenEye	Éric Serra	MGM/UA	WMG
1997	Tomorrow Never Dies	David Arnold	MGM/UA	UMG	2022 La-La Land (25th)
1999	The World Is Not Enough	David Arnold	MGM/UA	UMG	2018 La-La Land
2002	Die Another Day	David Arnold	MGM/UA	WMG	2017 La-La Land (15th)
2006	Casino Royale	David Arnold	Sony	SME	2006 Sony
2008	Quantum of Solace	David Arnold	Sony	SME
2012	Skyfall	Thomas Newman	Sony	SME
2015	Spectre	Thomas Newman	Sony	UMG
2021	No Time To Die	Hans Zimmer	MGM/UA	UMG

 

 

Here are the next 5 years worth of quinquennial anniversaries for the ones that LLL hasn't done yet, in case that factors in to when they'll be tackled:

 

2024:

1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (55th)
2. The Man With The Golden Gun (50th)
3. Moonraker (45th)
4. License To Kill (35th)

2025:

1. Thunderball (60th)
2. A View To A Kill (40th)
3. GoldenEye (30th)
4. Spectre (10th)

2026:

1. Diamonds Are Forever (55th)
2. For Your Eyes Only (45th)
3. Casino Royale (20th)
4. No Time To Die (5th)

2027:

1. Dr. No (65th)
2. You Only Live Twice (60th)
3. The Spy Who Loved Me (50th)
4. The Living Daylights (40th)
5. Skyfall (15th)

2028:

1. From Russia With Love (65th)
2. Quantum of Solace (20th)

[Yavar Moradi 3,461]

Of course, Goldfinger sadly isn't an expansion, as the missing 12 minutes still remain missing. That said, I'm very glad to have it chronological at last, and with the Chris Malone touch on the sound!

 

I'm starting to worry that only decennial anniversaries matter to the studio, and that we'll have to wait far longer for Licence to Kill and Moonraker. The Man with the Golden Gun certainly seems very likely this year, though.

 

Yavar

[Mr. Who 999]

1 hour ago, Yavar Moradi said:

Of course, Goldfinger sadly isn't an expansion, as the missing 12 minutes still remain missing. That said, I'm very glad to have it chronological at last, and with the Chris Malone touch on the sound!

 

I'm starting to worry that only decennial anniversaries matter to the studio, and that we'll have to wait far longer for Licence to Kill and Moonraker. The Man with the Golden Gun certainly seems very likely this year, though.

 

Yavar

Moonraker and Golden Gun are two of my favorite Bond scores so I really hope they happen soon and that the recordings are intact.
 

Honestly I would take bad sounding unreleased music in the bonus disc over no unreleased music though I understand that this is not something an album producer would like to do😂

[Edmilson 10,211]

What about the two missing Arnolds? They're post-2005 but AFAIK they were recorded in London so theoretically there'd be nothing stopping them, right? Either way, if they're only releasing them in quinquennal anniversaries, CR wouldn't come out until 2026 and QoS until 2028.

 

But of course the priority must be the Barrys. They're classic scores that deserve to receive the "modern LLL upgrade".

[Tom Guernsey 3,101]

2 hours ago, Yavar Moradi said:

Of course, Goldfinger sadly isn't an expansion, as the missing 12 minutes still remain missing. That said, I'm very glad to have it chronological at last, and with the Chris Malone touch on the sound!

 

I'm starting to worry that only decennial anniversaries matter to the studio, and that we'll have to wait far longer for Licence to Kill and Moonraker. The Man with the Golden Gun certainly seems very likely this year, though.

 

Yavar

I’m guessing there’s close zero chance of a new recording of Goldfinger? I mean if they could isolate Shirl’s vocals, they could mix it with a newly recorded orchestral track for the title song. I guess my only quibble if it were possible that it wouldn’t quite capture the original intensity. Ordinarily I’m a big fan of new recordings but I concede there are some scores where it would be hard to recreate the alchemy of the original recording (see also Ennio Morricone western scores). 

[Edmilson 10,211]

"Skyfall" and "Spectre" director Sam Mendes won't helm a third James Bond film because the studio wants filmmakers "who are more controllable."

“Never say never, to quote the man, but I would doubt it. It was very good for me at that moment in my life. I felt like it shot me out of some old habits. It made me think on a bigger scale. It made me use different parts of my brain. You have to have a lot of energy. They want slightly more malleable people who are earlier in their career, who perhaps are going to use it as a stepping stone, and who are more controllable by the studio."

 

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/sam-mendes-james-bond-controllable-directors-1236169972/

[Jurassic Shark 14,690]

On 01/10/2024 at 5:33 PM, Yavar Moradi said:

Of course, Goldfinger sadly isn't an expansion, as the missing 12 minutes still remain missing.

 

What exactly is missing? Good Omen, Bad Omen?

[Meredith McKay 7,691]

16 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

What exactly is missing? Good Omen, Bad Omen?

A statement of the Goldfinger theme with a jazzy trumpet riff

 

A banjo cue that segues into a Americana-ish cue.

 

The cue for the Barn scene between Bond and Pussy Galore

 

Et al.

[Yavar Moradi 3,461]

36 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

What exactly is missing? Good Omen, Bad Omen?

Here’s a very good reconstruction of all the unreleased Barry music from the film. (Of course it’s possible he may have written some cues which went unused in the film.)

 

 

Yavar

[Naïve Old Fart 11,389]

7 hours ago, The Great Gonzales said:

The cue for the Barn scene between Bond and Pussy Galore

 

Oh, man! I've wanted that cue for so long.

It isn't on the new release?

Oh, well 

[Meredith McKay 7,691]

3 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

 

Oh, man! I've wanted that cue for so long.

It isn't on the new release?

Oh, well 

It's only on the music and effects track on the laserdisc (?).

 

Though with it being mostly strings IIRC, it could be easy to get clean with stem separation tech

[Sweeping Strings 2,804]

13 hours ago, Edmilson said:

"Skyfall" and "Spectre" director Sam Mendes won't helm a third James Bond film because the studio wants filmmakers "who are more controllable."

“Never say never, to quote the man, but I would doubt it. It was very good for me at that moment in my life. I felt like it shot me out of some old habits. It made me think on a bigger scale. It made me use different parts of my brain. You have to have a lot of energy. They want slightly more malleable people who are earlier in their career, who perhaps are going to use it as a stepping stone, and who are more controllable by the studio."

 

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/sam-mendes-james-bond-controllable-directors-1236169972/

He's right, and this is why the likes of a Nolan-directed Bond seems highly unlikely. There's no way he'd give the amount of control to EON that they'd want to have.  

[jacksparrow900 38]

I was going through the music and effects track for Dr. No and noticed that some music is included and some are not. Does anyone now if the film mix we have today is not the same mono mix from 1962. I believe that this track is from the mono mix. Like the last cue before the end credits is not on here. 

[Nick1Ø66 6,640]

19 hours ago, Edmilson said:

"Skyfall" and "Spectre" director Sam Mendes won't helm a third James Bond film because the studio wants filmmakers "who are more controllable."

“Never say never, to quote the man, but I would doubt it. It was very good for me at that moment in my life. I felt like it shot me out of some old habits. It made me think on a bigger scale. It made me use different parts of my brain. You have to have a lot of energy. They want slightly more malleable people who are earlier in their career, who perhaps are going to use it as a stepping stone, and who are more controllable by the studio."

 

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/sam-mendes-james-bond-controllable-directors-1236169972/

 

This is more or less what LucasFilm and Marvel are looking for in directors as well. In fact as franchises have come to dominate cinema, it's sort of marked a return to the producer/studio controlled system and away from director driven films.

[Edmilson 10,211]

It's interesting that since QoS they tried to bring some award-winning "prestige" filmmakers to do the Bond movies (Marc Forster, Sam Mendes, Cary Fukunaga, Danny Boyle was considered at some point), perhaps to give Bond a "prestigious" look ("We're doing fancy movies, not just mass entertainment!"). But now they're just reverting to the Marvel strategy of just bringing in a guy with little to no experience with studio movies because they're easier to control.

[Trope 1,137]

Sorry to hijack the discussion, but would anybody here have access to or know where one could find high resolution scans/images of the album art for the 2003 expanded/re-released 007 scores? I've just recently started watching the original films and really getting into the John Barry scores. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[mstrox 7,160]

I think I see some of them on AlbumArtExchange.com

[Jay 41,830]

Wow, this is cool.  It was David Arnold who got LLL's foot in the door at Eon to start doing Bond releases!

 

It makes total sense in hindsight, but it hadn't occurred to me before reading this.

 

 

Can we please stop with bs conspiracy theories? Unless you are MV or Matt you know jack about anything going on..

 

1. Why did we do Arnold Bond first?
Answer: we worked with him on Stargate, Godzilla, Shaft, Stepford Wives, Independence Day. We have a great working relationship with him. It only made sense to ask this amazing composer if he wanted expanded versions of his scores. He got us in at Eon. Eon liked our work. The rest is history

 

2. I don't care what they did or didn't do in 2003. That was then this is now. We are a totally different label. What we are doing now and have planned for 2024 and 2025 is what matters. Some awesome stuff underway and we hope we get approvals on time.

 

3. Goldfinger is selling great! Thank you all for the pre orders. The fellas were working over the weekend and even today during the holiday to get orders packed up and ready to ship out. As we have mentioned before...please be patient. We are getting them out as quickly as we can.

 

I'm happy to read that those who have received Goldfinger are enjoying it.

 

MV

 

https://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=158017&forumID=1&archive=0

[OneBuckFilms 429]

Absolutely cool to know how the floodgates opened.

 

I hope that relationship remains good, and that La-La Land get to do more.

 

These La-La Land releases essentially gave me an excuse to dive a little deeper into the Bond scores, including a marathon watch of all of the Bond films last year, and I have become more of a fan of these scores.

 

[Nick1Ø66 6,640]

13 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

#1 GOLDENEYE 

#2 THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS 

#3 THE SPY WHO LOVED ME

#4 ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE 

#5 SPECTRE (sorry! Don't kill me! I can't help it; I really like this film )

(moved)

1. The Spy Who Loved Me
2. Skyfall
3. From Russia With Love
4. Goldeneye
5. The Living Daylights

Agree on three!

 

Though sadly, your entire ranking is disqualified with the inclusion of Spectre. You were so close.

[Jay 41,830]

On 01/10/2024 at 9:32 AM, Jay said:

Every time LLL issues a new Bond expansion I'll update and repost this

 

Year	Title	Composer	Film	Music	Expansion
1962	Dr. No	Monty Norman	MGM/UA	UMG
1963	From Russia With Love	John Barry	MGM/UA	UMG
1964	Goldfinger	John Barry	MGM/UA	UMG	2024 La-La Land (60th)
1965	Thunderball	John Barry	MGM/UA	UMG	2003 EMI
1967	You Only Live Twice	John Barry	MGM/UA	UMG	2003 EMI
1969	On Her Majesty's Secret Service	John Barry	MGM/UA	UMG	2003 EMI
1971	Diamonds Are Forever	John Barry	MGM/UA	UMG	2003 EMI
1973	Live and Let Die	George Martin	MGM/UA	UMG	2023 La-La Land (50th)
1974	The Man With The Golden Gun	John Barry	MGM/UA	UMG	2024 La-La Land (50th)
1977	The Spy Who Loved Me	Marvin Hamlisch	MGM/UA	UMG
1979	Moonraker	John Barry	MGM/UA	UMG	2024 La-La Land (45th)
1981	For Your Eyes Only	Bill Conti	MGM/UA	UMG	2003 EMI
1983	Octopussy	John Barry	MGM/UA	UMG	2023 La-La Land (40th)
1985	A View To A Kill	John Barry	MGM/UA	UMG
1987	The Living Daylights	John Barry	MGM/UA	WMG	1998 Rykodisc
1989	License To Kill	Michael Kamen	MGM/UA	UMG
1995	GoldenEye	Éric Serra	MGM/UA	WMG
1997	Tomorrow Never Dies	David Arnold	MGM/UA	UMG	2022 La-La Land (25th)
1999	The World Is Not Enough	David Arnold	MGM/UA	UMG	2018 La-La Land
2002	Die Another Day	David Arnold	MGM/UA	WMG	2017 La-La Land (15th)
2006	Casino Royale	David Arnold	Sony	SME	2006 Sony
2008	Quantum of Solace	David Arnold	Sony	SME
2012	Skyfall	Thomas Newman	Sony	SME
2015	Spectre	Thomas Newman	Sony	UMG
2021	No Time To Die	Hans Zimmer	MGM/UA	UMG

 

 

Here are the next 5 years worth of quinquennial anniversaries for the ones that LLL hasn't done yet, in case that factors in to when they'll be tackled:

 

2025:

1. Thunderball (60th)
2. A View To A Kill (40th)
3. GoldenEye (30th)
4. Spectre (10th)

2026:

1. Diamonds Are Forever (55th)
2. For Your Eyes Only (45th)
3. Casino Royale (20th)
4. No Time To Die (5th)

2027:

1. Dr. No (65th)
2. You Only Live Twice (60th)
3. The Spy Who Loved Me (50th)
4. The Living Daylights (40th)
5. Skyfall (15th)

2028:

1. From Russia With Love (65th)
2. Quantum of Solace (20th)

2029:

1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (60th)
2. License To Kill (40th)

[Trope 1,137]

Getting Moonraker this year is super exciting, and completely unexpected given the discussion I've seen online about its subpar recording experience and the lack of tapes/sources being found up until now.

 

Thunderball, Diamonds Are Forever, and A View to a Kill are some of my personal favourites, so I'm definitely looking forward to the next few years! 

[Jay 41,830]

Here's the cadence that Neil's expansions have come out so far

 

2017

• Die Another Day (15th)

2018

• The World Is Not Enough

2019

•  

2020

•  

2021

•  

2022

• Tomorrow Never Dies (25th)

2023

• Live and Let Die (50th)
• Octopussy (40th)

2024

• Goldfinger (60th)
• The Man With The Golden Gun (50th)
• Moonraker (45th)

[Trope 1,137]

Trends are looking good!

[Edmilson 10,211]

Yeah, they're increasing the amount of Bond expansions by the year! One in 2022, two in 2023 and three in 2024. Can we expect four Bonds in 2025? 

 

Also, it's funny that Die Another Day is considered one of the worst Bonds ever and yet it was the first to get expansions by LLL in the modern era.

[Jay 41,830]

How good or bad a film is has nothing to do with how good or bad its score is

[Holko 11,231]

And neither have necessarily much to do with how quick and easy it is to license and get elements for and get it approved

[Jay 41,830]

Yep

[Luke Skywalker 2,151]

SO bond is the new Star Trek for intrada...

 

Good

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,629]

Why do anniversaries have to be on a year ending with a zero or a five? Just release it when you've got it.

[Naïve Old Fart 11,389]

Here's hoping for a 50th THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, in 2027 (it's not that far away ).

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,629]

Just make a 49th anniversary edition.

[Tallguy 5,386]

1 minute ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Here's hoping for a 50th THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, in 2027 (it's not that far away ).

 

That might conflict with the ULTIMATE STAR WARS 50th Anniversary Extravaganza.

[Edmilson 10,211]

25 minutes ago, Jay said:

Yep

I know, I just think it's funny. r/mildlyinteresting

 

16 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

ULTIMATE STAR WARS 150th Anniversary Extravaganza.

Fixed 

 

Better eat a lot of healthy food and exercise to be alive in 2127 when the John Williams Star Wars collection gets released!

[Tom Guernsey 3,101]

Helpful post from Lukas Kendall on his blog basically confessing to being one of the instigators of the inaccurate belief that the Moonraker tapes were lost… essentially they just weren’t listed in the Abbey Road archives when he was producing the earlier expanded editions which led to the spurious notion of them being lost passing into film music myth…
 

https://www.lukaskendall.com/post/more-la-la-bonds

[Naïve Old Fart 11,389]

If MOONRAKER was recorded in Paris, how did it end up at Abbey Road?

[OneBuckFilms 429]

It depends on where they did the post production of the movie. So many things have been found due to just a sheer lack of knowledge as to where the tapes went, then they turn up or were cataloged quietly and show up in a list of tapes.

[Naïve Old Fart 11,389]

That makes sense. The film was mixed at Pinewood, by Graham Hartstone and the guys, so the mastertapes could have been stored at Abbey Road for safekeeping.

[Jim Ware 580]

2 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

If MOONRAKER was recorded in Paris, how did it end up at Abbey Road?

It didn’t. The tapes were never at Abbey Road - they weren’t listed on the inventory in 2003 and there was no budget for Lukas to search elsewhere at the time.

 

Stephen Woolston’s substack post on this subject is most informative. https://open.substack.com/pub/stephenwoolston/p/no-the-moonraker-tapes-are-not-lostand?r=1ugak3&utm_medium=ios

[Tom Guernsey 3,101]

24 minutes ago, Jim Ware said:

It didn’t. The tapes were never at Abbey Road - they weren’t listed on the inventory in 2003 and there was no budget for Lukas to search elsewhere at the time.

 

Stephen Woolston’s substack post on this subject is most informative. https://open.substack.com/pub/stephenwoolston/p/no-the-moonraker-tapes-are-not-lostand?r=1ugak3&utm_medium=ios

See also Lukas’ post that I linked to earlier… https://www.lukaskendall.com/post/more-la-la-bonds

[Damien F 1,877]

This is fantastic news. Two big holy grails for me. 

Including older expansions by other labels, From Russia With Love and A View To A Kill are now the only Bond scores by Barry that have not yet been expanded, and I fully expect LLL to do at least one next year, especially AVTAK for its 40th anniversary.  

[Yavar Moradi 3,461]

40 minutes ago, Damien F said:

This is fantastic news. Two big holy grails for me. 

Including older expansions by other labels, From Russia With Love and A View To A Kill are now the only Bond scores by Barry that have not yet been expanded, 

Goldfinger has never been expanded, and apparently never will be.

 

Yavar

[Damien F 1,877]

1 minute ago, Yavar Moradi said:

Goldfinger has never been expanded, and apparently never will be.

 

Yavar

 

????. If this is a joke, it has gone over my head

[Yavar Moradi 3,461]

18 minutes ago, Damien F said:

????. If this is a joke, it has gone over my head

It’s not a joke. La-La Land was not able to find any additional music source to expand Goldfinger. (The mono stems included as a bonus feature on an old Laserdisc release of the film were apparently not high enough quality to try and salvage for inclusion for the first time on CD.)

 

Just as with the 2003 EMI CD Lukas Kendall produced, there is no new music to add over what was made available in Britain around the time of the film’s release in 1964. (Yes, the British LP of the time included four tracks not on the American LP — maybe that’s why you’re confused and think that additional music was found?)

 

The best we will probably ever get for unreleased Goldfinger music is this impressive by-ear reconstructionist’s work on YouTube using virtual instruments:

 

Yavar

[Meredith McKay 7,691]

14 minutes ago, Damien F said:

 

????. If this is a joke, it has gone over my head

The LLL release is basically the same as the OST, just rearranged, and with non-score bonus tracks.

[Yavar Moradi 3,461]

1 minute ago, Doo_liss said:

The LLL release is basically the same as the OST, just rearranged, and with non-score bonus tracks.

And those bonus tracks had been previously released too; this is just the first time all these bonus tracks were compiled onto one release.

 

Yavar

[Damien F 1,877]

11 minutes ago, Yavar Moradi said:

And those bonus tracks had been previously released too; this is just the first time all these bonus tracks were compiled onto one release.

 

Yavar

 

Yes, that is what I was thinking of. The OST has already been expanded. For example "The Laser Beam" was not on the OST. So to say it has never been expanded doesn't make sense to me. 

 

I'm basing this on my OST which is this: 

 

 

Perhaps there are different versions of the OST??

 

I am aware that other cues were included in 1992 (along with some from Thunderball) on the 30th Anniversary Collection album.