The great MI6 Community JAMES BOND Advent Calendar

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  • Agent_99Agent_99 enjoys a spirited ride as much as the next girl
    Posts: 3,117
    Why, @MajorDSmythe, how did you know exactly what I wanted for Christmas? And happy birthday!
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    edited December 2016 Posts: 12,459
    Wonderful posts by everybody, and such a variety of things shared! This thread has been such a gift to us. I have thought and thought but cannot come up with anything new to add here. So I will focus on the music, and in particular The Man when it comes to James Bond music: John Barry.

    Well, first up here's just a cool pic I found of John Barry, with Jane Birkin. This is so 60's. ;)
    john_barry_and_jane_birkin.jpg

    I'd like to note that John Barry composed for many films. My personal favorite other than a Bond film would be "Born Free."
    johnbarry_cover_oscars.jpg


    But focusing on James Bond on this thread. Here is: The music, the sound of 007:
    (only about 22 minutes, but quite nice)







  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    edited December 2016 Posts: 12,459
    Here's lovely article from Vanity Fair, talking with (and about) John Barry. Do take a moment a
    to read this.
    http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2009/02/john-barry200902

    And it finishes with this:

    I ask about the vein of melancholy and loss that runs through so much of his work, not only in Midnight Cowboy and Out of Africa and Dances with Wolves, where Barry’s score almost single-handedly turns what could have been a Boys’ Life adventure saga—arrowheads! tepees! abducted white women!—into a meditation on the vanishing frontier, but even in some of the Bonds. You Only Live Twice, for instance, in which the downbeat title song, with its shivering counter melody, has the singer, Nancy Sinatra, sounding as if living twice weren’t such a great idea after all. Or On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, with its poignantly ironic love song, “We Have All the Time in the World,” sung with a breaking voice by Louis Armstrong in “What a Wonderful World” mode. Armstrong was ailing at the time of the recording, having been hospitalized for heart problems; Barry chose him, he says, precisely because Armstrong “didn’t have all the time in the world.” He would die two years later.

    But where were we? Melancholy and loss. Rather than tackle the subject head-on, Barry segues rather abruptly into a long remembrance about the Luftwaffe fire bombing that devastated York in 1942, when he was eight: “I remember looking over the city—this big, big red thing in the sky. And then my mother took me down into the city. And the stink—ugh—the burning … whatever. It was just … it was just horrendous. My school was hit. And five of the nuns who stayed there—they were all killed. That was the first time we were in the thick of it. And the streets had melted. The heat from the houses burning on both sides actually melted the tar in the road. And years later they found all kinds of stuff that had been blown out of windows and into the tar. I still think of the stench. Oh god, it was unlike anything you ever smelled or smelled since.”

    This isn’t the first time he has shared this memory with a journalist, and there’s something almost rote about the way he launched into it as soon as I brought up the subject of loss. But it’s hardly a canned response. His voice has gotten softer and even lower, and he seems genuinely moved by the memories he has summoned, that early experience of fragility of life and place. What he’s showing me, I think, either purposefully or reflexively, is that he’s a kind of Method actor, or Method composer.

    “You make it personal,” he says. But he’s reluctant to delve too deeply into his psyche, plus he seems tired—we’ve been talking for a few hours—so instead I ask if I can look at his Oscars, and we both brighten up.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,459
    Just a few of my personal favorite Bond scores by the maestro, John Barry ~

    You Only Live Twice - whose theme song alone is hauntingly beautiful


  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,459
    Another favorite is A View To A Kill
    However, I cannot find the entire score on line.
    Here is a special track, "Wine With Stacey" and I'm sending this out especially dedicated to my friend, @royale65.



    ... along with the killer theme song in the opening credits (Duran Duran)

  • Great posts... Great seeing JB @4EverBonded my mother worked at a club John Barry seven played. My mum was good friends with John Barry's niece were friends in there teens, always felt a strong connection to John Barry from my mother's story's.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,459
    I love some films' theme songs more than the entire score; Diamonds Are Forever and Goldfinger being two of those. But every Bond film John Barry composed for was dusted with his own special magic. He really was golden.

    I will conclude my contribution today with this lovely tribute.
    Here is a June 2011 John Barry Memorial Concert, in full. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. This salutes his entire career.
    Note: This is the full audio (not video; could not find a decent video of it). Includes Michael Caine and many more.
    Here is a partial list of what you can hear in this tribute:

    01. Opening & Michael Parkinson Introduction (0:00)
    02. Goldfinger (3:37)
    03. The Knack (5:56)
    04. Michael Caine Remembers John Barry (7:45)
    05. Zulu (11:05)
    06. The Ipcress File (13:30)
    07. Somewhere in Time (17:41)
    08. John Barry Recalls The Lion in Winter (21:25)
    09. Don Black Remembers John Barry (23:01)
    10. Born Free (27:25)
    11. Midnight Cowboy (30:36)
    *Julian Jackson, harmonica
    12. Dances with Wolves (34:03)
    *Julian Jackson, harmonica
    13. Nicholas Dodd remembers John Barry (39:01)
    14. We Have All the Time in the World (40:22)
    *sung by Rumer



    I hope you enjoy listening to these, as well as the nice article I posted. Cheers! We are almost into 2017. Let's go out with a grand celebration. :-bd
  • BondJasonBond006BondJasonBond006 on fb and ajb
    Posts: 9,020
    Dear friends,

    first of all let me thank the contributors to this thread, who have done one or more Advent Calendar windows.
    Needless to say you all did such a great job, this thread has been a constant joy!

    @ToTheRight (Dec. 2nd)
    @Thunderfinger (Dec. 3rd)
    @4EverBonded (Dec. 4th, 11th, 30th)
    @PropertyOfALady (Dec. 5th, 20th)
    @TR007 (Dec. 6th, 25th)
    @ggl007 (Dec. 7th, 17th, 22nd)
    @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 (Dec. 8th, 23rd)
    @Major_Boothroyd (Dec. 9th, 16th)
    @Murdock (Dec. 10th)
    @jake24 (Dec. 12th)
    @fire_and_ice (Dec. 13th)
    @Shark_0f_Largo (Dec. 14th, 21st)
    @Some_Kind_Of_Hero (Dec. 15th)
    @Gustav_Graves (Dec. 18th)
    @Dragonpol (Dec. 19th, 24th)
    @BeatlesSansEarmuffs (Dec. 26th)
    @Birdleson (Dec. 27th)
    @Agent_99 (Dec. 28th)
    @MajorDSmythe (Dec. 29th)

    I have opened the first window on Dec. 1st. and in circa 12 hours I will open the last window today on New Year's Eve.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,333
    It's been a pleasure to be apart of this wonderful thread and contribute some Christmas and holiday spirit for everyone. Thank you Jason.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    edited December 2016 Posts: 12,459
    Thanks, @fire_and_ice and @Birdleson. I could have posted so much more, but these were a well rounded enough offering today, I think. I'm especially happy with the audio tribute. Just playing it while puttering around my home. :) And that is very cool, your mum being friends with John Barry's niece, fire_and_ice. I bet you heard some good stories; that's just a nice connection to Barry.
  • 4EverBonded4EverBonded the Ballrooms of Mars
    Posts: 12,459
    Yes, I'm looking forward to your closing out this special thread, this year's Advent Bond celebration, Jason! I'm sure it will be spectacular and a real Bond lovefest. :-bd
  • This has been a great thread not sentimental in nature though enjoyed reading the posts, I have been estranged from my family for many years though reading posts on here made me remember there are good people out there.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    Great stuff on Barry, @4EverBonded. Hearing him talk of the bombing of Britain was chilling, and it's so hard to imagine living through something like that, going outside your house and seeing your school blown to ash and the streets melting under your feet. Christ.

    "We Have All the Time in the World," will always be a high favorite for me. It's an ironic song in every way, not only in the context of the film but also in "our world." Armstrong produced it while ill and when he was just two years from death (it was also the last song he ever recorded). And of course there's the genius of Barry, who designed it as the love theme for Bond and Tracy when he knew the lyrics would become a sad irony as the film closed and the last piece we hear is a melancholic instrumental of the tune as Bond says the immortal words. I could tear up every time I hear the horns of the song, and there's no moment where I can watch Tracy's death without tears running down my face. How she says Bond gave her the greatest gift of all, "a future," chokes me up instantly, and Lazenby gives a performance that guts me all the more. Everything in that movie, from the narrative to the music, came together to produce one of the greatest gut-punches in cinema, and Barry was a massive part of that.

    Truly a one-of-a-kind.
  • royale65royale65 Caustic misanthrope reporting for duty.
    Posts: 4,422
    Another favorite is A View To A Kill
    However, I cannot find the entire score on line.
    Here is a special track, "Wine With Stacey" and I'm sending this out especially dedicated to my friend, @royale65.



    You remembered. :). A truly moving piece of music that. Cheers @4EverBonded! You're a star. A beard full of stars...

  • BondJasonBond006BondJasonBond006 on fb and ajb
    Posts: 9,020
    Preparing my post now. I shan't be long :)
  • JohnHammond73JohnHammond73 Lancashire, UK
    Posts: 4,151
    Excellent, looking forward to it Jason. . As I've looked forward to every new day and post that has appeared on here. . A wonderful thread.
  • BondJasonBond006BondJasonBond006 on fb and ajb
    Posts: 9,020
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  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Haha, that s funny. Happy New Year, everyone!
    religionsplanetearth143_04.jpg
  • JohnHammond73JohnHammond73 Lancashire, UK
    Posts: 4,151
    Great stuff Jason, a super post.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,852
    A great wrap-up of the year that is so nearly at an end, Jason. Thank you for creating the wonderful idea of this thread. I'm really honoured to have had two bites at the cherry on it, as it were.

    Happy New Year 2017 to you all! <:-P
  • Posts: 3,336
    Great thread and a very good final post Jason.

    Happy New Year everyone!
    <:-P
  • ggl007ggl007 www.archivo007.com Spain, España
    Posts: 2,540
    Great album, Jason! Thank you and Happy New Year to everybody!
  • edited December 2016 Posts: 15,850
    Great post, BondJasonBond006. It's been a lot of fun seeing everyone's posts here. Kind of sad that December and the Christmas season is over. But it's been a blast following these posts this past month.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,333
    Great Post Jason. With 2016 coming to a close. Let's end it with a bang!
  • Happy New Year. Hopefully a more positive 2017.
  • Sometimes you increase the likelihood of finding something if you actually start looking for it. Just for now, let's look for a better year ahead...
  • Posts: 12,287
    Birdleson wrote: »
    Not with Douche-Cock in office. Not likely.

    @Birdleson you are the best :)) read my mind
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,904
    Happy new year everyone (including those of you that don't like Dalton ;) rotters that you are ).
  • M_BaljeM_Balje Amsterdam, Netherlands
    Posts: 4,459
    Happy New Year


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  • JohnHammond73JohnHammond73 Lancashire, UK
    Posts: 4,151
    Happy New Year all...
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