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Yeah. I think The Specialist gave us a hint of what Barry's GoldenEye would have sounded like. But still, I love Eric Serra's take on Bond.
So I watched a documentary on low-budget filmmaker Cliff Twemlow that has a "LIve and Let Die" story to tell. He lost a lot of money over it.
Other Bond connections Bond's red Lotus Esprit Turbo and another Bond car appear. And Carole Ashby.
Known for the tag line "Nobody Dies Forever".
MANCUNIAN MAN: THE LEGENDARY LIFE OF CLIFF TWEMLOW (2023) TRAILER (2:40)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRwVFMucA9Q
Mancunian Man - The Legendary Life of Cliff Twemlow (2023) (2:04:05)
Mancunian Man - The Legendary Life of Cliff Twemlow (2023)
Salena Jones Live and Let Die (2:37)
The 70's arrangement and use of the Bond theme remind me of Franck Pourcel's version of the Bond theme. They make good companion pieces.
Would be interesting to know more about this story.
Since the song uses the Bond theme, and per Wikipedia, it was released before McCartney recorded his own theme, that means someone had to go request a licence for the Bond theme and it was granted. Did no one bat an eye when someone, filling out a form, wrote "Song name: Live and Let Die" or something? Perhaps it's not the business of the people who handle those things. And the title of the film was known since 1971 so it's not like the people behind this other song didn't know about it.
And how did McCartney or his people (or EON's people, or UA's, whoever) find out? Is it standard procedure to look up recent songs with similar titles when registering a new one?
And why did the McCartney song win out in the end? I wonder what the legal justification is for that. A cash-in attempt on the other party, presumably, one which would confuse people as to which was the official song? In fact, can someone today publish a Bondian-sounding song that quotes the Bond theme (with a paid license of course), or will it get blocked?
Someone give us the full story! I'm going to have to check out the documentary.
EDIT:
More info (not from the documentary):
"The same year however Cliff would encounter legal problems due to a song of his - recorded by Salena Jones - bearing the name ‘Live and Let Die’. Though released shortly before Paul McCartney recorded a song by the same name for the eponymous James Bond film, a court case was instigated by the publishers of the McCartney song and an injunction slammed on the Twemlow record. Twemlow’s defence was that it was simply an innocent example of two songs bearing the same title, unfortunately a “James Bond” style pose on the picture sleeve threw doubt on this, and the court found in favour of McCartney’s people. The Twemlow/Salena Jones record was subsequently withdrawn."
(source: https://www.wefunkradio.com/song/play/981_at/peter+reno/silver+thrust)
Of course it's not just the picture sleeve that gives away the deliberate Bond style, but the use of the Bond theme itself!
The Salena Jones LALD song was composed by "Peter Reno", who is, in fact, Cliff Twemlow. And when I read he had composed for DeWolfe Library Music, I immediately remembered where I'd read the name that sounded familiar to me...
That's right, he's the guy who did the Greek source music in FYEO. His LALD song was sabotaged, but he still managed to sneak his music into a later Bond film. LOL!
EDIT AGAIN:
Even more connections! This Twemlow guy wrote an autobiography, Tuxedo Warrior, adapted into a film in 1982 and starring... Erich Kriegl-- I mean John Wyman!
Twemlow is like a winding vine, entangled in strange, unexpected ways into the history of the Bond films. I'm afraid I'm next going to find out his nephew was a key grip on No Time to Die or something.