"Doug's Corner"

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		"Doug's Corner"

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"Doug's Corner"

Random ramblings from Intrada's "Grand Poobah."

11/15/08

Time moves fast. Every two weeks seems to be a blur lately. Anyway, we're maintaining our rhythm with new music to offer every other Tuesday. Which means two new Intrada CDs are being released this coming Tuesday (the 18th).

One's by a composer new to our label - but not the music business. Witness his many soundtrack albums over the years. We've just turned one of his really classic ones into a CD for the first time! The other's a world premiere from one of our best friends in the scoring industry. We've released a lot of his music before, no doubt we'll release more of it in the future.

And speaking of releases, thanks to some licensing breakthroughs, some of the stuff we have coming up in 2009 will be - in a word - spectacular things you never thought you'd get to own. Okay, that's more like 9 words... but who's counting?

11/5/08

On Obama, Bond songs and Michael Crichton.

My congratulations to the American people for helping bring about needed change in Washington. Me thinks we've made a great choice.

After ragging on the latest James Bond score, here's my coda - after which, I'll just see the new movie as soon as I can like I always do with James Bond movies and just let the score be. Anyway, random thoughts on Bond songs. My best and my not best.

I'm a fan of just about all of them. But my favs are admittedly old-fashioned. GOLDFINGER. It's both a title song and the center piece of John Barry's score. They even make room for the James Bond theme in the middle of it, too. Bond songs don't get any better than that. I'm also big on LICENCE TO KILL. I don't hear people bring this one up often but it wows me. Another one with a great melody and harmonic scheme is A VIEW TO A KILL. In the other direction, many fans are down on DIE ANOTHER DAY. I'm sort of neutral. It's okay. Starts cool with those scorpion images on screen and whatnot. But I can't help thinking the recording is full of drop outs! I understand the engineering gimmick, I just don't care for it. But I like the chopping synthesized string figures and the tune well enough. So I guess I'm okay with this one.

Where I break most ranks is probably with LIVE AND LET DIE. I like Paul McCartney and all but I don't like the tune. Yep. It's brazen enough for Bond but I just can't stand it. It's the only Bond song I hate. Oh, well. As they say, that's what makes horseraces.

And it's sad to hear this morning of the passing of Michael Crichton. He lost a battle with cancer yesterday, on the same day we elected Obama as President. Cancer takes so many people away from us. Crichton was both a great writer and a respected filmmaker. He had incredible success with composers, too. Williams and Goldsmith top the list, of course.

Farewell, Mr. Crichton. And say hello to Jerry when you get up there.

11/1/08

A post scriptum. I decided to spend more time with QUANTUM OF SOLACE. In fact, instead of eating left-over Halloween candy, I gave Arnold's music a really good third listen.

Okay. I'm right back where I was.

I just can't get past the thought that action music - and this score certainly qualifies - is now becoming faceless. There's plenty of energy and rhythm. Plenty of notes, too. But darn if the film makers held the reins too tight or something. Arnold never gets to bust loose with themes. The action music is all just energy.

I really think James Bond action music is best when the composer - be it Barry or whoever - gets alongside the guy and goes into action with him. Not when its buried somewhere underneath all the noise. (These explosive sound mixes are a messy factor but that's for another time.) George and I were talking back in the mailroom yesterday (in between Jeff's enthusiastic playing of INDIANA JONES music) about how different the Bond scores had now become in comparison to the very stuff Jeff was playing. Maybe this is nothing terribly profound or whatever but the Indy music sounded like Indy music. You knew who was running around in the middle of things. But the new Bond score just couldn't keep up.

I'm not saying all action music has to have a theme. Goldsmith wrote arguably the greatest action music in history without necessarily using his themes but... let's face it. He built his action stuff from incredible motifs to begin with and made everything cohesive.

This is probably one of those topics that just brings in everything including the kitchen sink. But I think James Bond is an icon. He's been smashing villains on screen for some forty-five years and off screen for even more! So I hold his musical support to pretty high standards. And basically - on QUANTUM OF SOLACE - those standards weren't met. I want my James Bond music to be iconic. I want it in the foreground. (Selfish me.) Whatever. There's something just not quite right when I can take the latest James Bond score and simply plug it into the latest BOURNE IDENTITY installment and my kids wouldn't notice. Come on. 007 used to have a theme. It was always so. Just think of the trailers. In fact, after FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, the guy even had two themes!

Now he's got none.

10/29/08

My take on the latest James Bond music. If I'm steppin' on some toes, sorry.

Early James Bond music had character. We had a sound, we had great tunes. Everything felt just right.

Not this time. I speak without having yet seen QUANTUM OF SOLACE. But movie music is marketed as a stand-alone entity. It's okay to talk about it that way.

David Arnold gives QUANTUM OF SOLACE plenty of energy, plenty of color, plenty of flavor - but not much melody. The title song (written by Jack White, performed White & Alicia Keyes) is... well, it's just there. It surely didn't inspire Arnold in any case.

On the other hand, Arnold throws so many different ideas into his action music that it's hard to grab a hold of any one item. One idea just runs pell mell into another. It's like musical freefall. Cool stuff sometimes, but structurally sound... I don't know.

I think Bond music should fit the character like the suit he wears. It should be consistent. A strong theme should carry 007 from one locale to another. The film makers wouldn't dream of having Bond's suit change from one cut to the next. If he's going up a hill in a black car, he wouldn't suddenly be coming down the hill in a red one. You get the idea.

And maybe that's what bothers me here. Bond music should be like... well, like the other foreground elements of the movie. Right there, up front. It's not background music. It shouldn't be. When I watch early Bond movies the themes are part of everything. The tunes carry Bond up the hill and consistently bring him right back down again. Or whatever. But what we get with QUANTUM OF SOLACE is just what I think most background music's become today. There are thumps and whumps and it all does whatever the action on screen wants it to but it's in the background. It doesn't carry anything. It isn't a character anymore. Not at least with James Bond. And if there were ever true foreground movie scores, James Bond scores get to make the claim. (So do Leone-Morricone-Eastwood movie scores but that's another subject.)

Anyway, this new score has exciting moments to be sure. I wasn't thrilled about the album's overall architecture but maybe seeing the movie will explain this. That aside, it all starts out with a bang and ends with a whimper. Not what I want my Bond music to do. By the end, the score just peters out. Having a mediocre song play as a coda adds to my internal confusion.

James Bond has given us some historically important movie music over the past four decades. I can easily recall a lot of great tunes and pin them to great set pieces, various plots, you name it. But I'm not sure I'll remember the tunes in QUANTUM OF SOLACE four years from now, much less forty.

I'll just sum it up this way. Put YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE or ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE or GOLDFINGER or just take your pick up against QUANTUM OF SOLACE. It's sad to find that James Bond music has truly moved over the last forty years from the foreground to the background.

Shame on somebody!

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