Copyright 1997 Times Newspapers Limited
Sunday Times
October 12, 1997, Sunday
SECTION: Features
LENGTH: 1156 words
HEADLINE: The spy we love
BYLINE: Andrew Smith
BODY:
Why are all the coolest rockers queueing up to record James Bond theme tunes?
It's no mystery to ANDREW SMITH.
In 1971, the Vietnam war was in full swing and the western world was moving
into recession. The Beatles had split amid incredible acrimony and the Rolling
Stones were being accused of corrupting youth. You'd have had no idea of
any of this from watching that year's Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever. Until
1994, Bond films appeared to exist in a parallel cultural universe. Then
Portishead released their stunningly atmospheric, Mercury Award-winning
album, Dummy. Nobody who had ever sat through Goldfinger or You Only Live
Twice or From Russia With Love needed to ask where that group had sought
their inspiration. The work of the Bond soundtrack composer, John Barry,
was stitched into the very fabric of that album. You couldn't miss it. Clearly,
Bond's significance now extended beyond an uncanny ability to save the planet
from total destruction at the last minute.
Since Dummy, Barry has become a name for musicians to drop. The words "John
Barry? We were into him way before Portishead and Dummy, man" have
become a staple of the modern pop interview. What we've realised is that
Barry's scores are to Bond what hair was to Samson, even though other composers
have followed in Barry's footsteps. Shorn of those trademark sweeps and
cascades, of the oblique harmonies and distinctively idiosyncratic arrangements,
Bond would stand no chance at all. Oddjob would make mincemeat of him. Plenty
O'Toole would look elsewhere. Even when the movies themselves have not deserved
them, Barry's music has been superbly evocative. There can be few people
in the English-speaking world incapable of humming at least one of the title
songs.
David Arnold can hum all of the title songs. He has just scored and, with
lyricist Don Black (who collaborated with Barry on Diamonds Are Forever
and Thunderball), written the title song for the 18th Bond production, Tomorrow
Never Dies. Involvement in that project gave him the impetus he needed to
realise a long-cherished dream. Thus it was that, over recent months, a
selection of vocalists was invited to Air Studios in north London to tackle
a range of better-and lesser-known Bond themes. Those who found their way
onto the resulting album, Shaken and Stirred, include Chrissie Hynde, Iggy
Pop, Jarvis Cocker, David McAlmont and Shara Nelson (the voice on Massive
Attack's seminal Blue Lines album). Instrumental contributions have come
from Leftfield, drum'n'bass notable LTJ Bukem and Propellerheads - whose
lively reading of On Her Majesty's Secret Service has already been issued
as a single.
Collections such as this usually disappoint, but Shaken and Stirred has
been assembled with such energy and verve as to buck the trend. Particularly
fine are Iggy Pop's improbably emotive delivery of We Have all the Time
in the World, from the end of On Her Majesty's...; Transglobal Underground
singer Natacha Atlas's spicy From Russia with Love; the camp drama of McAlmont's
Diamonds Are Forever; Leftfield's stirring Space March; and Hynde's chaotic
Live and Let Die (Liam Gallagher, who was recording Be Here Now at Air,
was originally slated for this, but dropped out). In all cases, Arnold's
thoughtful, vigorous arrangements are as important as the vocal performance.
Visiting Arnold at Air, you naturally fall to discussing the choices he
made. Where is the majestic You Only Live Twice (originally sung by Nancy
Sinatra)? Why do Pulp take on All Time High, from - of all things - Octopussy?
(Arnold says: "I told Jarvis that was my least favourite song, that
I wanted him to do From Russia with Love and he said, 'No, I like that song,
it's got a sadness to it.' ") More importantly, why has he included
the insipid Nobody Does It Better, ably sung by the American singer Aimee
Mann, but which features one of the most toe-curlingly inappropriate
lyrics of all time, from the wildly overrated Carole Bayer Sager? Arnold's
version is much better than the original, by the way.
"I'm glad you're saying that, because people love that song,"
Arnold smiles, going on to reveal that Radiohead and Tori Amos both wanted
to do it. "Some think it's the best of them all. But when we were talking
about the lyrics, I thought, I have no idea what this song's about. 'Heaven
above me/The spy who loved me/Baby, you're the best'? A similar thing happened
with the new one, Tomorrow never Dies, which k d lang sings. Halfway through,
she suddenly stopped and asked, 'What does "Tomorrow never dies"
mean?' Everything had been going great until that moment."
Born in Luton, the son of a boxer turned club singer, Arnold has had an
unlikely career. Only in the past three years has he been given the chance
to score movies such as The Young Americans and, later, Independence Day
(for which he won a Grammy) and A Life Less Ordinary. Early in his career,
he auditioned for the Clash. Then he worked for nothing on a succession
of independent short films while doing a series of dead-end jobs to pay
the rent. He was spotted by Alan Parker, after one of the no-budget shorts
he'd scored won a BBC Young Film-makers' competition. Parker was a judge.
"One week, I was cleaning the inside of cornflake ovens for a living,"
he notes. "The next, I was opening the door for Madonna and Mel Gibson
at Alan Parker's Bel Air mansion."
His stated aim, in both Bond projects, was to recapture the grandeur and
excitement of the likes of Goldfinger. "I wanted to go completely old
school with it, which was a problem, because there aren't that many singers
around who can sing that sort of song any more. Who is the contemporary
Shirley Bassey? There are only a few people who can carry a song like that."
Ask those involved - all of whom jumped at the chance to take on a Bond
theme - what the allure of Bond is for them and you get a variation on a
single theme. It's his Britishness. The fact that you know nothing about
his background means that we can all associate with him. "Yeah,"
says Martin Fry, who stepped into Tom Jones's shoes for an intriguingly
dark rendition of Thunderball, "he's quintessentially English and there
aren't that many English heroes. And the opening sequences are still the
best in the business. As to the music, it's never dated because it sounded
so old-fashioned to begin with."
Arnold sums it up best, though, when he says: "When you watched them
for the first time, the films made you feel invincible. This guy had the
cars, the gadgets, the girls, a licence to do anything he wanted at any
time, anywhere in the world, without any fear of consequence at all."
In short, being James Bond is the next best thing to being in Oasis. No
wonder he's done so well.
Shaken and Stirred is released on October 20. Themeology: The Best of John
Barry, which includes the Persuaders Theme, Midnight Cowboy and Born Free,
is out now.