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And here we go again... 
GoldeneEye is THE most underrated score of the last 25 years in the entire industry.
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Serras Goldeneye score is so bad,that the only one that i can think of that is even worse ( Unoffical or not ) is Michael Legrands awful music for NSNA.
The music for the opening car chase in GE sounds more suited to a Sonic The Hedgehog video game!
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I seem to remember reading back in the day, that john Barry was asked to send a demo tape in, as the guys at the office did not know his music ,or it seemed his name, for one of these bond scores ,can any body verify this at all ?
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Posted: |
Jan 4, 2021 - 1:03 PM
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By: |
riotengine
(Member)
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During the Christmas holiday I read the new and enjoyable book "Nobody Does it Better: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of James Bond", by Mark Altmann and Edward Gross. The book consists of quotes from actors, directors, scriptwriters etc. who all worked on the Bond films. They are often quite candid and don't always tell the "official" sunshine stories we all heard before.
For us movie score fans there is a couple of quotes from Goldeneye director Martin Campbell about the music. He says he offered the film to both John Barry and then Bill Conti - but both turned it down. He does not go into detail about the reason, but goes on to say he was the one who then suggested Eric Serra - thinking the composer would update the Bond sound. They gave the brief for Serra to inject the James Bond Theme throughout the film, and were appalled when Serra almost left it out entirely. Campbell says right out that Serra did it in order not to have to share royalties with Monty Norman.
And when they tried to match Serra`s version of the tank chase music to the action on screen, they discovered that the tonal pitch of the music was the same as the droning pitch of the tank engine, making the music almost impossible to hear. Campbell called Serra on the phone asking for a quick rewrite, and Serra refused, instead asking them to change the film. Campbell is on record saying "F**ck you!" to Serra and slammed the phone down. Then John Altman was asked to write a new version during the weekend.
The heart-breaking thought here is that John Barry could have done it. Just as he almost did Tomorrow Never Dies. And I think Bill Conti would have been fantastic to get back. About this time he did the utterly stunning "The Thomas Crown Affair", and was obviously up to scoring a 90s Bond with supreme elegance and....no disco beats this time around.
Thanks for posting this. Ah, what could have been. Serra's score is pretty much unlistenable to me. Conti or Barry could only have improved what was already a quite decent Bond film. Hell, if only they could have brought Arnold in, a film earlier. 
Greg Espinoza
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Take the cue from the Aston Martin/Ferrari chase. My god!
This score would be much more popular without that cue.
And even the more orchestral pieces, from the casino sequence is pleasant but very wrong in its melancholy. It needed glamour, not depression.
That melancholy is note perfect. The idea is that everything is a little bit different.
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As someone who was privy to the Barry Goldeneye negotiations at the time, John Barry turned down scoring Goldeneye for one reason and one reason alone: his fee. Barry's agent wanted to get him a substantial raise over what he had been earning as a composer and the producers wouldn't pay it. Barry felt slighted that he wasn't appreciated enough after all the years he had dedicated to the series, not to mention creating the Bond sound and told them to go fuck themselves. It had nothing to do with Barry not getting to compose the title song, which was never a point of contention. It was all about the Benjamins and Barry's agent overplaying his hand and thinking Barbra Broccoli would step up for Barry.
EDIT: Actually - sorry - I'm mistaken. That was the situation on TOMORROW NEVER DIES. Barry was actually excited to score one final Bond film and all of the above is what transpired, which led to David Arnold landing the gig. I have no idea what happened with GOLDENEYE.
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Posted: |
Jan 6, 2021 - 1:56 AM
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By: |
MusicMad
(Member)
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Yes, this is a topic which has been raised/discussed before (as with many others concerning the JB007 music scores) but, I'll admit, I don't recall any prior reference to Bill Conti ... John Barry, certainly.
I do recall that Eric Serra's score was lambasted at the time such that the the quarterly publication Soundtrack introduced a new grade for its contributors' reviews of recent releases: one considered downright poor, or worse, was awarded a rating of GoldenEye
After a near 10 year break in which his life had changed I doubt very much that John Barry was interested in scoring the film ... and, even if he was approached, I'd bet he priced himself out of the running based on the succees of Dances with Wolves. Given JB007 was back under new management, new actor, etc. was the budget that great that it would accommodate this ... remember, a lot of people had written Bond off by then, suggesting that the public now wanted Riggs & Murtagh, McClane, Ryan ... or a host of other, soon-to-be-forgotten, action heroes.
But I'm only surmising ... none of us knows (or those that do won't publish details or provide evidence to indicate how they know). I have, however, read numerous publications about the JB007 franchise and, taking what is written as truth (very dangerous, I know), I'm sure I have read that Pierce Brosnan wanted a change in approach so as to distinguish his characterisation from what the audience knew and expected. Perhaps director Martin Campbell did, too ... he had no prior working relationship with Barry and we all recognise that the film's style was siginficantly different from what had gone before.
The failure of the score (other than perhaps the title song which was a throwback to earlier films) brought about a re-think
For me, happy to have a new JB007 film in the cinema, disappointed at what was displayed ... and heard, I've come to accept the score as the years have passed ... at least on the Hi-Fi. I still find it jars when heard against the visuals and, for me, it is not a JB007 score though it does have passing references (ignoring the overlaid James Bond Theme re: tank chase scene).
I don't agree with my learned friend, TG, that the franchise should have a new composer each film, just as with the director, I think there's a required talent which is only achieved with experience. Of course, this approach does have its downside ... when we have one lousy director accompanied by a lousy composer it's bad enough to have one lousy JB007 film ... to replicate this is disheartening!
For the record, I've struggled with some of David Arnold's scores, especially Die Another Day but its expansion has made if far more listenable. Despite some of his action cues being almost never-ending, I'd take those in preference to the mind-numbing nothingness of the two (well, one really) Thomas Newman efforts.
As discussed before ...
Mitch
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What's "Die Another Day" has to do with "Goldeneye" or the bland, generic Thomas Newman/RCP scores?
What does RCP mean?
And do you really think everybody knows that? Please don't speak in code. It's exclusionary.
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BTW, what did you think of the Tina Turner song? I thought the song was pretty good though!
