John Barry has died and though his scores, heavy on strings and sentimentality, went out of style in the seventies and eighties during the John Williams-centered universe of movie scoring, which itself went out of style with the song-oriented and electronica scores of the nineties on, I always loved his music. In fact, his scores for You Only Live Twice and Somewhere in Time are two of my favorites.
He was my favorite movie composer and the list of his scores that are among the best ever scored is too long for this space. Just go to his Wikipedia entry and look at the impressive number of films he scored and then, if you can, find as many as are available and listen to them.
Rest in Peace, John Barry.
27 comments:
My favorite, too. He had me from the start, back in 1965, when that white dot dashed across the screen at the beginning of THUNDERBALL. From that point on, I never gave up on John Barry. Never.
I love all of his scores and tie many of my favorites to favorite moments in movies, like the raising of the Titanic in Raise the Titanic. I don't care if the movie's dull, Barry's music always sweeps me up.
This ALWAYS blows me away -- fusing flutes with the xylophone! Genius!!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avAeh9L3Txw
Genius, no doubt. Great music!
Yes Greg, this is very sad day for music and for film. Barry was huge, so huge in fact that in the pantheon of film composing he ranks firmly with the likes of Herrmann, Steiner, Morricone, Rosza, Korngold, Rota, Newman, Williams, Waxman, Goldsmith and Elmer Berstein as one of the greatest in film history. His passing further narrows the field of the fraternity of true greatness in the film composing ranks, and it beings many memories of his incredibly prolific and lyrical work. Many may not know that Barry began as a rock star, before shifting his talents to the silver screen.
Yes, he is best-remembered for his James Bond scores, but he did more resonant work throughout his career. My absolute favorite Barry score is the ravishing one he composed for Roeg’s WALKABOUT (1971), but few would argue the magnificence of the work he did for:
The Lion in Winter
Dances With Wolves
Somewhere in Time
Peggy Sue Got Married
Chaplin
Mary Queen of Scots
Seance on a Wet Afternoon
Midnight Cowboy
…..and a host of others.
I am a proud owner of 27 John Barry original CDs (some from Film Score Monthly) in my movie score collection, and I’m sure I’ll be visiting many this week in remembrance. Barry is surely an excellent choice for the #1 film composer ever. Mine seems to Herrmann, but as I said earlier he is one of the titans, who can easily be felt as the best. It's a kind of thing where you would have a different answer every day of the week, when you have those people in front of you. Some days I say it's Rosza or Steiner or Newmaqn or Elmer Bernstein. I guess it all depends on what mood I'm in.
Yeah he has a few clunkers, but they all did. BORN FREE (still awarded!) was one such instance.
Lovely post.
R.I.P.
Sam, one of the highest praises I can sing for John Barry is that I listen to his scores with the film removed from the framework. That is, when I watch a film he scored they always seem to fit perfectly but I can also listen to them separately and not rely on memories of the film to enhance the effect, which is the case with many other composers.
For instance, Chaplin is a film I never liked and yet, I've listened to Barry's score for it hundreds of times because the film itself is not required to enjoy the mastery of the music.
And the music to Midnight Cowboy, a film I do very much like, has been with me since I listened to the 8-track soundtrack of it I had in the early seventies. I still have the music, in downloaded form but no longer the 8-track. Wish I did though.
He will definitely be missed.
"Sam, one of the highest praises I can sing for John Barry is that I listen to his scores with the film removed from the framework."
Indeed Greg, that is the highest tribute you can afford him, and that is most assuredly proof parcel of your love for his music. This entire post in fact is suffused with a singular passion for John Barry. That CHAPLIN admission too further amplifies it. Barry's work is universally admired, and imminantly repeatable.
BORN FREE was a clunker?
I don't think so.
I'd better leave before I say what should be said.
Easy, Ray. I think Born Free is a lovely melodic piece but I think perhaps its overplay has worn away some of its charm over time (and obviously that would not be any fault of Mr. Barry).
But Sam was quite effusive in his praise of the composer and is clearly a huge Barry fan. It's not like some novice is coming in here and saying that so I respect Sam's opinion even if I may not share it.
By the way, it was one of the first songs I ever taught myself on the piano.
Flickhead....
Geez, I came here to praise Caesar, not to bury him! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE John Barry! That is just one single one of his scores that I felt was played to death on AM radio, and came off as more cardboard that his other (stellar) work.
I own the wonderful Film Score Monthly CD of it (with a terrific booklet of liner notes) and still enjoy in a guilty please sort of way.
Flickhead, you are scaring me though. I'm not sure I know what 'should be said.' (and hope it's nothing personal) I'm a huge Barry fan, right behind Greg, and if I make a tiny tiny reservation, it's only to show he's human, though larger than life.
And thanks Greg of course.
That's a wonderful remembrance of that song being the first you learned on the piano.
OK...OK... (fanning my brow furiously) I'm composing myself...well, not *composing* in the John Barry sense...but, you know, well, uh...sorry for the outburst. Only twice have I shed a tear for someone who died whom I did not know personally, but whose work touched me heart and soul. The first was John Huston. The second is John Barry.
To lighten this up, Sam, your mentioning Caesar reminded me of this!
Thanks, Sam and Flickhead. Shatner makes everything better.
Hahahahahaha Flickhead!!!
That's a classic for sure and thanks for bringing it here!!!!!
The only time I previously connected Shatner with Shakespeare was in the original series episode "The Conscience of the King" but this one has me in stiches. Nice. Love the black top and the beads.
And your tears my friend are most understandable. This was a man whose work move mountains, and the world is so much poorer with his passing.
Okay, this is unbelievable but I give you my word, this is absolutely true.
I work at the National Archives in Washington, DC and moments ago was in the gift shop. The shop has multiple Americana CDs (Motown, 70's MOR, 40's and 50's pop, etc) that it plays daily. The popular music is all I've ever heard when I go in there. Today, I walked in and playing as the for-sale selection? The Soundtrack for Somewhere in Time!
I asked, "Is this in tribute to John Barry?" No one in the gift shop knew who he was or that he had died the day before. By sheer coincidence, someone selected it at random.
The universe must have really loved Mr. Barry.
Isn't that amazing Greg! And what an appropriate selection from him to be played! That's my wife's favorite movie ever, and the score, bulit around a ravishing Rachmaninoff motif is filled with melancholy and all kinds of romantic possibilities. I'd say it's his most wrenching moving score ever. Time stopped for you today in that D.C. gift shop!
Greg, that's nice that they played it; slightly distressing they didn't know the circumstances.
Still, it pales in comparison to my grocery shopping yesterday at the Chambersburg Super Walmart. The PA usually plays a lot of country/western (we're in cow country, partner), but then a vaguely familiar organ riff went out over the speakers. I thought it was an audio commercial, but no. Then the bass and drums came in. Then the wha-wha, and then the deep voice thumping out "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"... frikkin' blew my mind. And it wasn't the three-minute single version, but the whole enchalada, drum solo and all.
As an old friend of mine once said, "Eek-A-Wow-Wow!"
Sam, it's a favorite of mine, too - the movie, not just the score. And it is so hauntingly fitting.
Flickhead, I have found that many folks under thirty, hell, forty, don't know half of what I assumed they would know. I should probably stop assuming but I keep right on doing it. Earlier this week I brought up Walter Matthau only to have someone on the younger side (late teens, early twenties) ask, "Who's Walter Matthau?"
Not only don't they know; they don't care!
That's because whatever happened before they went to high school never actually happened.
But...did it?
Not that I'm aware of, no.
tdraicer: My favorite is the late great Jerry Goldsmith (with The Blue Max my single favorite film score) but Barry was certainly up there.
tdraicer, like we've talked about before, I love Goldsmith too, with his scores for Planet of the Apes, Patton and Tora, Tora, Tora all being in my personal collection. I don't have the soundtrack for The Blue Max but I should.
The love theme from Out of Africa! Simply amazing.
The soundtrack for Titanic, has been one of the best soundtracks yet made. Many will not agree but when you listen to it closely, the rhythm, words or no words, touch deep within the heart. These can even bring tears to your eyes. When I first saw the movie, I didn't think of it much but sad, now that it's been a few years since I saw it, I can relate to the movie, not with the experiences but with the music that was made for it. It really makes a connection. This has been so far, the best soundtrack I have ever heard, and the movie, is my all time favorite. I really hope that once, when you get a chance to listen to the item played, you can hear their meaning.
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