When I was younger, around the time Evanescence came out with their first album, I always thought Bring Me To Life had an awesome 'Bond Song' vibe. The darkness of that song, mixed with that driving, nu-metal riff conjured a very bleak opening title sequence in my mind.
Conversely, we could do Bond songs that don't sound like Bond songs:
Nobody Does It Better All Time High
Except that as someone growing up in those years, Nobody Does it Better made perfect sense for me as a Bond song.
When Live and Let Die introduced Moore as the new Bond, it felt like having Paul McCartney and Wings do the song signaled a refresh. And that song worked pretty dang well (I would say that, it was my first "grown up" soundtrack album).
And after the kind of retro (and almost embarrasingly silly*) Man with the Golden Gun, Carly Simon and Marvin Hamlisch seemed the perfect next step in the evolution.
And keep in mind that I had been a Bond fan essentially from birth - Dr. No came out a couple of years after I was born; James Bond was my touchstone for cool growing up - and Sean Connery was the only other Sean I knew of in the whole world!
And even so, I had no problem with the transition to different approaches, though still and always love John Barry's Bond music best.
Except All Time High. That is definitely NOT a Bond song to me.
*I say embarrasingly silly, but I have loved belting out Golden Gun with Lulu for nearly 50 years now. Just was doing that very thing a couple weeks ago.
Symphorch, I agree! I never thought of the Evanescence s a Bond song, but always thought of it as cinematic. But yes, absolutely.
Plus, Bring Me to Life would be a decent title for a Bond movie.
So glad I'm not the only one! Imagine if Die Another Day came out three years later and was a little more serious...that would've gone PERFECTLY with that song.
Symphorch, I agree! I never thought of the Evanescence s a Bond song, but always thought of it as cinematic. But yes, absolutely.
Plus, Bring Me to Life would be a decent title for a Bond movie.
So glad I'm not the only one! Imagine if Die Another Day came out three years later and was a little more serious...that would've gone PERFECTLY with that song.
Ok, I have to admit I was thinking the same thing when I wrote my post.
Though I'm one of the seven or so people on the planet that actually likes Madonna's song. Her laugh and "I need to lay down" won me over.
The thing about the Bond songs--and the scores and the movies themselves--is that they have evolved over the years. There is practically NOTHING that connects every Bond film, other than the basic premise.
Some might think the scores, the songs, the gadgets, the stunts, the villains, the women, chase scenes are the connective tissue, but I'd say that the stunts really started in the 70s, the gadgets were used minimally in the first two films, and chase scenes became more of a later development as well.
That leaves the music, the women, and the villains.
I get that Nobody Does It Better is a beloved song and acceptable for most as a Bond song--I just disagree. All of these artists in the last couple of decades doing their Bond songs are not using the Hamlisch song as a blueprint: They're following the Barry style.
But, what does it matter? With so little continuity in the series why should a song or score try to emulate John Barry when the films are so different from the ones Barry scored? My only good answer is that it seems right.
