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Quick Big Mi6 Music Score Ranking Game

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  • Quantum_of_TomorrowQuantum_of_Tomorrow
    Posts: 508
    Time for TMWTGG?
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 6,786
    Hi folks, sorry for the delay. Had a busy day yesterday.

    Now on to our number 16:

    THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
    Music composed by
    MARVIN HAMLISCH

    JAMES_BOND_THE%2BSPY%2BWHO%2BLOVED%2BME%2B-%2B180GM%2BVINYL%2B-%2BSEALED-732468c.jpg

    Spy received five bottom 5's, out of which one 25th place was the lowest.

    One 7th, one 8th and three 10th places were noted, giving it five top 10's. Another two 12th places, three 13th places and two 15th places were giving to Hamlisch's only 007 score.

    The original music of TSWLM scored 102 points, edging out LTK with one point.

    This was a very popular score among critics. It was nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and a Grammy. All the big ones, indeed. It, however, didn't win any of those.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Bottom five for me.
  • BennyBenny In the shadowsAdministrator, Moderator
    Posts: 14,876
    13th on my list. It's my favourite of the one and done, Bond composers.
    Surely QOS is next.
  • Quantum_of_TomorrowQuantum_of_Tomorrow
    Posts: 508
    I had this at #23, not a fan I'm afraid.
  • CraigMooreOHMSSCraigMooreOHMSS Dublin, Ireland
    Posts: 8,034
    My #20. I love Bond '77 and there are a couple of nice moments but overall it doesn't really do it for me.
  • MonsieurMerciMonsieurMerci France
    Posts: 98
    Bond 77, time for the amazing Q The Music Show cover =D>

    Score is #10 here
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    Yes, Bond 77 is great.
  • pachazopachazo Make Your Choice
    Posts: 7,314
    My number 10. Great score. Quite pleased it made it this far.
  • Quantum_of_TomorrowQuantum_of_Tomorrow
    Posts: 508
    Yeah, I like Bond 77 too
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 23,547
    I like the film and the score is an essential part of it. The theme song is, at times, blended in well with the rest of the music. Some bits work, like Bond '77 (even if the disco tunes have not aged well), and some bits are just not good enough for a film of this magnitude. My favourite part is when Stromberg releases the "instruments of Armageddon"--some very menacing cues kick in. That moment sets the tone for the big threat that Bond has to fence off.
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 6,786
    Love the disco stuff myself and I'm a huge fan of Bond '77. Had it somewhere between 12th and 15th.
  • ThrasosThrasos
    Posts: 1,469
    #7. I think it's a brilliant score. For one thing, how can you miss when Bond is in Egypt? That locale lends itself to all kinds of regional musical flavor and instrumentation. I especially like Ancient HQ, where Bond is walking to meet with M and Gogol. That segues into General Gogol, when Hamlisch uses a Russian motif which is quickly coupled with part of the Bond theme, as they meet eye to eye. Hamlisch uses a chorus during the Giza plateau show to help signify "the mightiest of human achievements", as the announcer says. I love the ethnic Mojaba Club music. The Pillars is cool, with its quick blast of trumpets, and it turns suspenseful as Bond and Anya hunt for Jaws. And Ride to Atlantis with its vibrato-like synths and rising and falling notes conveys a sense of the watery base.
  • ShakenNotStirredShakenNotStirred
    Posts: 1,395
    MonsieurMerci wrote: »
    Bond 77, time for the amazing Q The Music Show cover =D>

    Score is #10 here

    Thanks for sharing this!!
  • vzokvzok
    Posts: 4,024
    Thrasos wrote: »
    #7. I think it's a brilliant score. For one thing, how can you miss when Bond is in Egypt? That locale lends itself to all kinds of regional musical flavor and instrumentation. I especially like Ancient HQ, where Bond is walking to meet with M and Gogol. That segues into General Gogol, when Hamlisch uses a Russian motif which is quickly coupled with part of the Bond theme, as they meet eye to eye. Hamlisch uses a chorus during the Giza plateau show to help signify "the mightiest of human achievements", as the announcer says. I love the ethnic Mojaba Club music. The Pillars is cool, with its quick blast of trumpets, and it turns suspenseful as Bond and Anya hunt for Jaws. And Ride to Atlantis with its vibrato-like synths and rising and falling notes conveys a sense of the watery base.

    And most of that isn’t on the album. Hopefully next year we might get an expanded release.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,473
    TSWLM came in at 19 for me, really not a fan of it, despite a highlight or two here and there.
  • ThrasosThrasos
    edited July 2021 Posts: 1,469
    vzok wrote: »
    Thrasos wrote: »
    #7. I think it's a brilliant score. For one thing, how can you miss when Bond is in Egypt? That locale lends itself to all kinds of regional musical flavor and instrumentation. I especially like Ancient HQ, where Bond is walking to meet with M and Gogol. That segues into General Gogol, when Hamlisch uses a Russian motif which is quickly coupled with part of the Bond theme, as they meet eye to eye. Hamlisch uses a chorus during the Giza plateau show to help signify "the mightiest of human achievements", as the announcer says. I love the ethnic Mojaba Club music. The Pillars is cool, with its quick blast of trumpets, and it turns suspenseful as Bond and Anya hunt for Jaws. And Ride to Atlantis with its vibrato-like synths and rising and falling notes conveys a sense of the watery base.

    And most of that isn’t on the album. Hopefully next year we might get an expanded release.
    You're right--Ancient HQ/General Gogol is missing, as is The Pillars. I found those on YouTube, an album someone put together, probably by recording it off a DVD.

    Something I realized just now is that the main Ride to Atlantis theme sounds like a reworked version of part of the song Solace, which Hamlisch did for The Sting, where the notes go up and down (I know, all songs do that! but I guess I would say it goes up and down in semitones (half notes). That was written by Scott Joplin, so maybe Hamlisch did a little nicking there. If you want to hear that the part starts at about 48 seconds in.
  • Some_Kind_Of_HeroSome_Kind_Of_Hero
    edited July 2021 Posts: 6,844
    There is some similarity between that part of the song and "Ride to Atlantis." Still, nothing compared to the Bee Gees lift in "Bond '77" or the near verbatim temp-tracking of FRWL's "Stalking" when Jaws stalks Bond and Anya through the pillar complex. There are a couple parts of TSWLM that I like. My favorite part of the whole score is that fantastic haunting music that plays when Bond chases after Fekkesh and Jaws at the pyramids and finds his diary. That part sounds almost on par with what Williams did for Raiders in "The Map Room: Dawn." But I'm not a fan of Hamlisch's schmaltzier orchestrations of "Nobody Does It Better" or the jaunty "Ride to Atlantis" or the over-the-top tanker of doom music. It's pretty strange that Hamlisch got the Oscar nom for his one attempt at Bond while Barry received not a one for any of his superior eleven. But that's the Oscars for ya.
  • ThrasosThrasos
    edited July 2021 Posts: 1,469
    Some_Kind_Of_Hero wrote: »
    There is some similarity between that part of the song and "Ride to Atlantis." Still, nothing compared to the Bee Gees lift in "Bond '77" or the near verbatim temp-tracking of FRWL's "Stalking" when Jaws stalks Bond and Anya through the pillar complex. There are a couple parts of TSWLM that I like. My favorite part of the whole score is that fantastic haunting music that plays when Bond chases after Fekkesh and Jaws at the pyramids and finds his diary. That part sounds almost on par with what Williams did for Raiders in "The Map Room: Dawn." But I'm not a fan of Hamlisch's schmaltzier orchestrations of "Nobody Does It Better" or the jaunty "Ride to Atlantis" or the over-the-top tanker of doom music. It's pretty strange that Hamlisch got the Oscar nom for his one attempt at Bond while Barry received not a one for any of his superior eleven. But that's the Oscars for ya.
    I agree about the music for Bond, Fekkesh, Jaws and diary at the pyramids. A great sequence. And agreed about Barry not getting an Oscar nom--an outrage, considering some of his very creative scores yet to come on the list, and the fact that he did get four Oscars for other film scores outside the series. Probably shows you what Hollywood thought of the Bond films; I guess most "popcorn" movies don't get Oscars, plus there are some stats on what people think about the portrayal of women and minorities in Bond films, so maybe that played into it as well, as Hollywood has lots of liberals.
  • Some_Kind_Of_HeroSome_Kind_Of_Hero
    Posts: 6,844
    Thrasos wrote: »
    Some_Kind_Of_Hero wrote: »
    There is some similarity between that part of the song and "Ride to Atlantis." Still, nothing compared to the Bee Gees lift in "Bond '77" or the near verbatim temp-tracking of FRWL's "Stalking" when Jaws stalks Bond and Anya through the pillar complex. There are a couple parts of TSWLM that I like. My favorite part of the whole score is that fantastic haunting music that plays when Bond chases after Fekkesh and Jaws at the pyramids and finds his diary. That part sounds almost on par with what Williams did for Raiders in "The Map Room: Dawn." But I'm not a fan of Hamlisch's schmaltzier orchestrations of "Nobody Does It Better" or the jaunty "Ride to Atlantis" or the over-the-top tanker of doom music. It's pretty strange that Hamlisch got the Oscar nom for his one attempt at Bond while Barry received not a one for any of his superior eleven. But that's the Oscars for ya.
    I agree about the music for Bond, Fekkesh, Jaws and diary at the pyramids. A great sequence. And agreed about Barry not getting an Oscar nom--an outrage, considering some of his very creative scores yet to come on the list, and the fact that he did get four Oscars for other film scores outside the series. Probably shows you what Hollywood thought of the Bond films; I guess most "popcorn" movies don't get Oscars, plus there are some stats on what people think about the portrayal of women and minorities in Bond films, so maybe that played into it as well, as Hollywood has lots of liberals.

    The thought had occurred to me that perhaps some of Barry's scores were snubbed outright because the Academy wouldn't deign to award anything to the films they were attached to (Moonraker? A View to a Kill?). But a case like Goldfinger is a pretty big oversight. On Her Majesty's Secret Service too, but that's looking at it from a 21st century perspective. I know the film was pretty unfairly overlooked at the time, likely due to Connery's absence.
  • vzokvzok
    Posts: 4,024
    The Pyramids music is very well used, mixed with the narrator of the Pyramids show.
    Here are the Bee Gees up against Marvin.

  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 6,786
    Today we enter the top 15, and we've still got three Arnold scores, one Martin score and all the Barry ones, though not for long because our number 15 is:

    THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN
    Music composed by
    JOHN BARRY

    599ccd309938922e9f897ecca63eddb6d6f5fbe4.jpg

    So here we are, looking at the least popular of the Barry scores. However, 'least popular' is a bit of an exaggerated term, since it only received three bottom 5's, with 24th being the lowest rating.

    Now, this score has quite a few fans as well. It reached the 5th place on one occasion. It also received one 6th place, one 7th place, three 8th places and one 9th place. Five more top 15's were noted.

    In total TMWTGG's original music received 114 points.
  • CraigMooreOHMSSCraigMooreOHMSS Dublin, Ireland
    Posts: 8,034
    My #15, so I'm not too far off the consensus. It is arguably Barry's weakest score but it is still a very good score with some wonderful highlights. "Let's Go Get 'Em" and "Journey To Scaramanga's Island" are stunning.

    I think we're in a very interesting place now whereby most of the scores are generally adored by a majority (and universally in Barry's case). This is going to be fun.
  • Quantum_of_TomorrowQuantum_of_Tomorrow
    Posts: 508
    I had this at #24, and I actually quite like it, but the fact I don't like the theme song puts it down in my rankings a lot. I know that the theme song doesn't count towards this competition, but naturally the score is partly based off of the theme song, so although I like what Barry does with the score, the song drags it down. Maybe I should have put it higher, as I like some of the exotic music. Looking back on it I would probably put it around #20 now.
  • goldenswissroyalegoldenswissroyale Switzerland
    Posts: 4,397
    TSWLM was #20, while TMWTGG is #8 on my list. I love the exotic melodies, the flight to the island is scored perfectly and there are some moments that increase the tension immensly (i.e. when Bond is on the boat with Hip).
  • royale65royale65 Caustic misanthrope reporting for duty.
    Posts: 4,422
    CraigMooreOHMSS wrote: »
    My #15, so I'm not too far off the consensus. It is arguably Barry's weakest score but it is still a very good score with some wonderful highlights. "Let's Go Get 'Em" and "Journey To Scaramanga's Island" are stunning.

    I think we're in a very interesting place now whereby most of the scores are generally adored by a majority (and universally in Barry's case). This is going to be fun.

    Indeed "Journey" is a wonderful piece of music. So tense and, erm, climatic.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,473
    TMWTGG ranked #18 for me, surprised it didn't go even lower than that. One of Barry's weakest, and the film as a whole being rather dull to me doesn't help.
  • Some_Kind_Of_HeroSome_Kind_Of_Hero
    Posts: 6,844
    This was my lowest ranked Barry, placing just below my second lowest Barry. Looking at the two scores again, I probably should have had them flipped. There are some quite lovely and even haunting variations on the main theme in Golden Gun and I love the music that plays as Bond flies to the island. The more suspenseful music heard during the PTS and during Bond's showdown with Scaramanga is quite good as well. But as a whole this was simply not Barry's strongest or most interesting work. Also, the film's most impressive stunt—the AMC Hornet's corkscrew river jump—is massively undermined by that silly slide whistle. Even Barry admitted that was a mistake in hindsight.
  • mattjoesmattjoes Kicking: Impossible
    edited July 2021 Posts: 6,726
    royale65 wrote: »
    CraigMooreOHMSS wrote: »
    My #15, so I'm not too far off the consensus. It is arguably Barry's weakest score but it is still a very good score with some wonderful highlights. "Let's Go Get 'Em" and "Journey To Scaramanga's Island" are stunning.

    I think we're in a very interesting place now whereby most of the scores are generally adored by a majority (and universally in Barry's case). This is going to be fun.

    Indeed "Journey" is a wonderful piece of music. So tense and, erm, climatic.
    I second that; magnificent work by Barry on this one. I love the rhythmic contrast between the melody and the triplets played on low strings and bassoon. I also love how Barry adds tremolos and those high-pitched woodwinds in the later half, as Bond gets closer to the island and the radar ping grows more frequent-- great marriage of music and SFX there. And then the fact the whole piece --except for the middle interlude when Scaramanga answers the phone-- is built on the same Em chord but feels so dynamic and interesting.

    I did a transcript of this track for the sheer pleasure of it.

    I also enjoy all the variations of the title song, romantic or action-oriented. I especially like the version heard in the first part of Let's Go Get 'Em, with the woodwind-heavy melody and the descending runs at the end of each phrase. Kick-ass version of the Bond theme there, too. I like how it doesn't rhythmically sync to perfection with every single moment of the onscreen action-- it's perfectly in sync with the dramatic cut from "you goofed boy" to the car flying past the camera, but it feels more energetic than the action of the car stopping, turning and starting to move in the opposite direction. There's a looseness and freshness to that, I've always felt.

    I also find both funhouse track to be among Barry's best. The scenes they accompany are quite varied and full of surprises, so the music has to follow suit, and it does so very well, whether in the creepier, more suspenseful moments, or the comparatively lighter ones, such as the reveal of the cowboy and the mobsters. The deranged version of the Bond theme at the end of the second funhouse track, with that echoey piano in the background, is something else.

    These are four of my favorite unreleased cues. Gkgyver did wonderful work recreating the whole score.



    In this next one, I love how the music begins as merely mysterious, but halfway through, a layer of sensuality is added on top, to the point the mood it conveys is a bit eerie and unnerving. That's what a good film composer does: taking the emotional beats of a scene and magnifying them --even potentially revealing hidden aspects of them-- through imagination, sensitivity and skill.







    Edit: I forgot to say I like the reverb-heavy sound of the album.
  • BennyBenny In the shadowsAdministrator, Moderator
    Posts: 14,876
    14th on my ranking. Certainly not a bad soundtrack.
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