Demo version of living daylights that I listened to is on the album Stay on These Roads Deluxe Edition. It does sound like a demo version. Why because I've heard a demo version of a View to a Kill and it sounds much like that. The music is kind of there and the lyrics are very sketchy. This does fit with what Thor said that Barry wrote the lyrics and the orchestrations.
Demo version of living daylights that I listened to is on the album Stay on These Roads Deluxe Edition. It does sound like a demo version. Why because I've heard a demo version of a View to a Kill and it sounds much like that. The music is kind of there and the lyrics are very sketchy. This does fit with what Thor said that Barry wrote the lyrics and the orchestrations.
Yes, listening to the track on the Deluxe Album is why I restarted this thread. Barry had no involvement with the lyric, Paul Waaktaar wrote it. I'm not even aware of any confusion over that. They were simply under developed at the time of the demo, which is not strange in itself for how a-ha work. Paul has said he liked the title, and the song came to him pretty quickly and the lyric took him a little longer.
I'm not sure when Thor said Barry wrote the lyric?
Well, I still hold to the view that JB is light Walter Mitty fluff, but that said ....
this discussion as to whether Hynde's song or A-Ha's is better:
maybe surprisingly, since you'd think Hynde might be more feministic, her song is all about the futility of the fantasy of waiting for a perfect chap to come along (presumably James). The song has little else really.
On the other hand, A-Ha's lyric is more profound ... about this hero who's aiming for it all and is a vicarious scapegoat for humanity ... 'Living's in the way we die' is such a potent line, I mean, you can't better a line like that. It's timeless and in keeping with the REAL heroic archetype that JB sort of ... isn't.
When you say a certain song for this kind of film is 'better' than another, don't just say it because it's the EXPECTED cliche of what a Bond song ought to be like.
And the chordal treatment for the word 'die' is excellently handled, elegaic. It's not Shakespeare or even Dylan, but it's good. It's about more than shagging. Hynde's isn't, not really.
The A melodic line is considerably improved in the finished version.
If Barry had a hand in this, then his contribution was significant, and not mere arrangement. The chorus is largely unchanged.
Neil has posted the demo.
Where is Barry's significant contribution? The structure and melody of the song is already there. Lyric was written by a-ha. The finished version simply had a slightly different tone. What do you think Barry contributed that deserved a writing credit?
I just published a Norwegian book on the Bond films (with the great title: The Big Book on James Bond).
Well, point is we got to interview Paul Waaktaar about the song for The Living Daylight. Waaktaar had heard about the gripe Barry had about the band not attending the premiere. Well, the story was that a-ha was playing on Iceland, and was invited to the premiere that was at the same time. The bands management did not work it out - and they probably should have, says WAaktaar, but they would have liked to have been there.
Barry didn't have a gripe about this absence from the Premiere. His gripe was that they refused to watch the film prior to writing/recording the song. He pointed out that even the ailing Louis Armstrong had managed that.
Where is Barry's significant contribution? The structure and melody of the song is already there. Lyric was written by a-ha. The finished version simply had a slightly different tone. What do you think Barry contributed that deserved a writing credit?
Yes, it's 90% theirs, and they deserve the credit.
The sung melody though is very different at the first A statement in the demo. Barry has changed a riff too to include the trademark bass guitar thing that we think of as his original JB theme's orchestrational trick. The chorus is the same, as I said.
They clearly retained the Barry changes in their third album version, hence the bit Waaktaar approved of above.
Their original 'virgin soil' lyric is too obscure, and meant little, they were right to change that, and of course the 'Living's in the way we die' is the key lyric.
It should be mentioned that 'arrangement' and 'orchestration' are of course different terms, as ofttimes discussed.
I don't know if the initial 'A' melodic change from demo to OST was Barry's or A-Ha's, but the third album version has the same STRUCTURAL arrangement in terms of lines of texture as the film's: it just doesn't have an orchestra. The lines are taken up by different textured synths.
Hmmm, it's more than likely that a-ha made that slight change to the final version as Barry. And even if they didn't, I'd still say a court would hand this credit entirely to Waktaar.
Possibly Barry's gripe is that he saw Duran in action, composing the song from the ground up (if I recall). But a-ha did it themselves and only involved him after the fact.
I'm on a-ha's side on this one (and yes, I'm a fan who bought that deluxe edition last week). I know Americans think they were one hit wonders, but they still have a huge reputation in the industry. They count U2, Oasis and Coldplay amongst the bands who have publicly declared their love for them.
Here's a recent interview with Paul from a-ha discussing the recording of the song (if you can read it, that website is dire). He suggests that it was in fact the band who changed the chord in Barry's underscore, which appears to have annoyed him...
Here's a recent interview with Paul from a-ha discussing the recording of the song (if you can read it, that website is dire). He suggests that it was in fact the band who changed the chord in Barry's underscore, which appears to have annoyed him...
Boy, John Barry sure looks out of place in that picture with A-ha, although the generational clash looks cute in its own way.
The bottom line is: Barry had been used to being in charge creatively in the Bond films for two decades, and when commercial pop bands got in his way to make more money for the producers, he checked out. As Pete Greenhill said, it definitely seems like Barry stayed to score The Living Daylights more out of respect for Albert Broccoli than out of sheer will.
Regarding the song itself, a clear indication that Barry didn't write it is the fact that he seldom used it during the film, something he would NEVER have done with a song of his own, especially in a Bond film.
I'm sure its a song Barry wouldn't want to be attached too, lyrics + its music base a stinker I really mean that, you've had classics that had rhythm, Bassey, Sinatra, McCartney, Monroe, Easton, Jones, Simon, A-ha I don't care for their work.
Probably some 15 years ago, EW featured an article about Bond music and songs. What I remember is that a-Ha was very forthright about "The Living Daylights." As quoted in the article, the band asserted that Barry didn't deserve any song credit and that he must have had some sort of good old boys deal with Cubby Broccoli to procure the credit.
Probably some 15 years ago, EW featured an article about Bond music and songs. What I remember is that a-Ha was very forthright about "The Living Daylights." As quoted in the article, the band asserted that Barry didn't deserve any song credit and that he must have had some sort of good old boys deal with Cubby Broccoli to procure the credit.
I don't know about rights. Barry did mix a version A-ha wasn't pleased for some reasons, huh, it took the band 2 decades later to compliment Barry for his arrangement that its better than their original.
