Good sign, Bad sign, Monty Norman - shocking

edited October 2012 in Music Posts: 2,782
I've never heard the lyrics with the origination of the Bond theme tune - it's shocking shimply shocking.


Comments

  • Posts: 12,506
    It is quite an eye opener hey? Stroke of genius by him though to create the Bond theme from that though!
  • MartinBondMartinBond Trying not to muck it up again
    edited October 2012 Posts: 858
    RogueAgent wrote:
    It is quite an eye opener hey? Stroke of genius by John Barry though to create the Bond theme from that though!

    fixed it for you ;)
  • edited October 2012 Posts: 2,782
    I know the vocals were awful - but from that they made one of the, if not the most famous tune in the world.
  • TheWizardOfIceTheWizardOfIce 'One of the Internet's more toxic individuals'
    Posts: 9,117
    What has never been revealed (and I doubt Montys in any hurry to make it public) is what Monty delivered to John Barry that he then arranged into the Bond theme.

    Mr Biswas undoubtedly is the tune but it was transformed into the Bond theme by the orchestration and who exactly is responsible for that is an extremely grey area.

    All we know for sure is that one man is recognised in law as the person who composed the Bond theme yet despite apparently delivering this stunning piece of music Cubby and Harry decide to hire the bloke who merely arranged it and played it with his band to score every film bar 3 for the next 25 years.

    And incidentally that guy went and won a handful of Oscars during his glittering career whilst Monty disappeared without trace except when popping up to cash his royalty cheques every 2 years.
  • Posts: 5,767
    MartinBond wrote:
    RogueAgent wrote:
    It is quite an eye opener hey? Stroke of genius by John Barry though to create the Bond theme from that though!

    fixed it for you ;)
    I think he was being sarcastic ;-).

    It´s really amazing though how Norman got the full credit for the Bond theme out of this.

  • SandySandy Somewhere in Europe
    Posts: 4,012
    The lyrics are actually quite funny!
  • edited November 2012 Posts: 3,333
    Barry has often said that apart from the familiar guitar notes of the opening bars, he found little to work with in Norman's material and just made up the rest, including the bass line, the counter-melody and the jazz-orientated bridge. Though the "dum da-da da dum dum" portion is certainly taken from Norman's trunk song "Good sign, Bad sign" from an aborted musical, the rest is pure Barry... just listen to Barry's "Beat Girl" and you can hear the inspiration. Personally, I think the JB Theme credit should be shared equally like a Lennon & McCartney song as both contributed to the overall theme.
  • Posts: 366
    The James Bond theme was John Barry's theme, he only took very little from Monty and the rest was his own work and took ideas from old John Barry Seven records.

    Norman is a twat...but a very rich man.
  • Here's Monty playing his original Bond theme:
    http://www.youtube.com/embed/qcILuuZxIag?
  • Posts: 157
    Another interesting link:
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,350
    Very interesting. Thanks for posting this @grunther.
  • Monty Norman can't even play it, hahahahaha
  • Posts: 1,645
    Just like Bob Kane , trying to take all the glory even though others helped.......
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