What's new

James Bond 007 soundtracks - Golden Gun, Spy, Moonraker, View To a Kill & Octopussy (1 Viewer)

Osato

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2001
Messages
8,167
Real Name
Tim
I am a bit puzzled that the 50th anniversary of the James Bond films came and went and there was no further news about expanding the Roger Moore James Bond scores.

As you may recall many of the EMI and MGM Bond scores were remastered and some were also expanded with additional tracks not contained on the original releases.

Note - Rykodisc reissued The Living Daylights, Octopussy and For Your Eyes Only. Only The Living Daylights was expanded.

Due to budget constraints and lack of effort to track down all materials, most of the Roger Moore James Bond soundtracks were only remastered and not expanded. Those titles that were only remastered and not expanded are:

The Man With the Golden Gun (tapes exist at Abbey Road but lack of project funds to expand in 2002)

The Spy Who Loved Me (The soundtrack is re recordings of the film score. Lack of time and project funds to sort through the Abbey Road tapes to sort out the soundtrack album and the film score)

Moonraker (score recorded in Paris. There was no attempt to search for the tapes. The score was initially only in mono for theatrical release, but later recorded in stereo for home video releases.)

Octopussy (score recorded in London, but the tapes were not at Abbey Road.)

A View To A Kill (score recorded and possibly stored at MGM in Los Angeles?)

I understand that MGM and EMI are not interesting in re issuing the older scores. However, I would think with the success of the Star Trek film scores being expanded and reissued that EMI and MGM should re consider.

I also think there is major demand for all of the titles on the basis of the Bond fan base alone. Similar again to the Star Trek fan base and again those soundtrack re issues.

I think a company like Intrada, FSM or La La Land Records would love to distribute the scores as well. I would also believe that if the prices were higher on the scores (like the Star Trek scores $19.99 - $24.95) again consumers would buy them.

One other thought is a limited edition run for the scores as well. This has been done again with some of the Star Trek scores.

Anyway. Hopefully there is some movement soon on these scores. I know there are challenges, but feel as a consumer I have to keep asking and letting MGM and EMI know that there is a demand.

Thanks for the posts and your ideas.
 

Constantus

Auditioning
Joined
May 18, 2013
Messages
1
Real Name
Konstantin
I've been trying to get the lyrics and any info the first song in A View to a Kill. It plays while 007 is sliding down the snowy slopes before getting onto the submarine.It's just a few lines but really hard for me to make out.
Could you help me with that, please?
Thank you.
 

Lord Dalek

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2005
Messages
7,090
Real Name
Joel Henderson
Constantus said:
I've been trying to get the lyrics and any info the first song in A View to a Kill. It plays while 007 is sliding down the snowy slopes before getting onto the submarine.It's just a few lines but really hard for me to make out.
Could you help me with that, please?
Thank you.
Its a cover of The Beach Boys' "California Girls".
 

brioni

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Nov 16, 2006
Messages
182
Real Name
Brian
Some good idea’s there Osato. I was originally going to say that it would need to take the current Catalogue Marketing director at EMI to get passionate about wanting to re-release some expanded Bond scores, or perhaps film scores in general? But perusing Mr Kendall’s 2003 article, it looks like MGM have control of Octopussy so it would also require some enthusiasm on their part as well.

The article also cited budgetary constraints of fully releasing the scores that needed 2 CD’s like TB & OHMSS. Now with the popularity of iTunes that might not be such a concern if they went the same route they did with Casino Royale. As you say, the best way to get these out there might be to licence them to someone like La La Land…someone that’s actually passionate about film scores. Incidentally they did a very nice 3 disc set on “The Golden Child” so there’s a market there, especially for John Barry music. This route seemed to be taken with Ryko, just a shame their Octopussy release didn’t conjure up any more new music.

I haven’t come across any further details on when a “new” home video mix for Moonraker occurred. We know Barry was savage with his comments about the theatrical mix and I’d love to hear the original to compare what he is talking about as the film sounds on par with the other two Bonds either side of it. Mr Burlingame’s book has given new hope to the existence of the tapes as he clearly states they were ferried to London by Dan Wallin for mixing and dubbing so it would seem unlikely they were ferried back again. Hopefully that’s the case as it seemed many original tapes were destroyed by Davout Studios and Barry did not have a duplicate himself.
If a remix was done in the 80’s then presumably they would have needed the tapes or some other dups to create it? If it was done in the States then perhaps that is where some of the material is.

It is strange that AVTAK is not at Abbey Road along with the other EMI owned scores. Unfortunately time is running out even for the ones that do exist. We know from Mr Kendall that the 2 track 1/4” Thunderball dups had suffered a lot of degradation between 1992 and 2002 so the 30th anniversary LP master was used instead. God knows what they are like now.

The 50th Anniversary was certainly a missed opportunity as the 30th and 40th presented us with new music, a bizarre 2 CD compilation was all that transpired. When Richard Moore was compiling a remaster for Matt Monro’s singles in 2010, he struck upon a problem:
“The original session tapes I wanted to use have been sent back to United Artists films in 2006. This leads to two months of fevered searching. United Artists is owned by MGM and they search everywhere they can think of – The James Bond archives, the MGM archives in the UK and USA and various sub archives – they can find nothing and what's more there is no record of anything being returned to them in the past three years.
So unfortunately these tapes have disappeared down some form of black hole – so I am left with Mono mixes of these tracks for this compilation.”


With mess-ups happening even as recently as this, it doesn’t bode well for future releases although I’d love to see an inventory of those archives!
 

Osato

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2001
Messages
8,167
Real Name
Tim
brioni said:
Some good idea’s there Osato. I was originally going to say that it would need to take the current Catalogue Marketing director at EMI to get passionate about wanting to re-release some expanded Bond scores, or perhaps film scores in general? But perusing Mr Kendall’s 2003 article, it looks like MGM have control of Octopussy so it would also require some enthusiasm on their part as well.

The article also cited budgetary constraints of fully releasing the scores that needed 2 CD’s like TB & OHMSS. Now with the popularity of iTunes that might not be such a concern if they went the same route they did with Casino Royale. As you say, the best way to get these out there might be to licence them to someone like La La Land…someone that’s actually passionate about film scores. Incidentally they did a very nice 3 disc set on “The Golden Child” so there’s a market there, especially for John Barry music. This route seemed to be taken with Ryko, just a shame their Octopussy release didn’t conjure up any more new music.

I haven’t come across any further details on when a “new” home video mix for Moonraker occurred. We know Barry was savage with his comments about the theatrical mix and I’d love to hear the original to compare what he is talking about as the film sounds on par with the other two Bonds either side of it. Mr Burlingame’s book has given new hope to the existence of the tapes as he clearly states they were ferried to London by Dan Wallin for mixing and dubbing so it would seem unlikely they were ferried back again. Hopefully that’s the case as it seemed many original tapes were destroyed by Davout Studios and Barry did not have a duplicate himself.
If a remix was done in the 80’s then presumably they would have needed the tapes or some other dups to create it? If it was done in the States then perhaps that is where some of the material is.

It is strange that AVTAK is not at Abbey Road along with the other EMI owned scores. Unfortunately time is running out even for the ones that do exist. We know from Mr Kendall that the 2 track 1/4” Thunderball dups had suffered a lot of degradation between 1992 and 2002 so the 30th anniversary LP master was used instead. God knows what they are like now.

The 50th Anniversary was certainly a missed opportunity as the 30th and 40th presented us with new music, a bizarre 2 CD compilation was all that transpired. When Richard Moore was compiling a remaster for Matt Monro’s singles in 2010, he struck upon a problem:
“The original session tapes I wanted to use have been sent back to United Artists films in 2006. This leads to two months of fevered searching. United Artists is owned by MGM and they search everywhere they can think of – The James Bond archives, the MGM archives in the UK and USA and various sub archives – they can find nothing and what's more there is no record of anything being returned to them in the past three years.
So unfortunately these tapes have disappeared down some form of black hole – so I am left with Mono mixes of these tracks for this compilation.”


With mess-ups happening even as recently as this, it doesn’t bode well for future releases although I’d love to see an inventory of those archives!

I agree that someone needs to be passionate about the project. From what I gather based on conversations is that there is an unwillingness by the 007 team to allow the soundtracks to happen and also the feeling by the 007 team is that there is no interest in the soundtracks.

The whole thing is quite strange, IMO.

Especially when there are many 007 fans and soundtrack collectors would be interested in expanded editions of these scores.

Hopefully a change of heart happens soon and an agreement can be made to allow the soundtracks to be properly expanded.

Some great information about the 007 project and also LK talks about the remaining scores that are unexpanded here as well.
http://www.shatterhand007.com/QuestionRoom/Kendall.html

DS: Why wasn't Dr. No, From Russia with Love, The Man with the Golden Gun, Moonraker, and A View to a Kill released with extras?

LK: This is the real question... It's a combination of not having master tapes available (Dr. No and From Russia with Love are going on 40 years old, and Moonraker was recorded in Paris), and not having the time and money to do the remixes. EMI had limited resources -- these albums are midline releases to them -- and I advised them to do what I consider the classic Barry/Bond scores for which they did have the original masters: Thunderball through Diamonds Are Forever. Live and Let Die sort of happened as a bonus.
In addition to being the best scores, these were only done as a 3-track, 4-track or 8-track recordings and were not nearly as time consuming to remix as scores like The Man With the Golden Gun (16 track) and The Spy Who Loved Me (24 track) would have been. I don't know the whereabouts or condition of the A View to a Kill tapes.

In an ideal world, we would have scoured the earth for all of the masters and spent as much time and money needed to present them all in complete form. But it was not an option.

DS: The Thunderball CD is 79 minutes long and yet there is still some music cues missing such as Bond's wild car ride with Fiona. Were these not available?

LK: Thunderball is a very long score and EMI did not have the budget to release a 2CD set. With 40 minutes on the original LP (43 if you count the fact that the mono LP had an alternate version of "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang") plus 20 minutes in the 30th Anniversary suite -- and an obligation to include everything that had been released before, save the vocals of "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" for artist clearance reasons -- there was not much room for previously unreleased music. I picked what I thought were the most important cues -- like the "Street Chase" -- but sadly some other things had to be left off including the music cue of Bond's wild car ride with Fiona.
 

Lord Dalek

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2005
Messages
7,090
Real Name
Joel Henderson
Well I guess that confirms the music tapes for Moonraker are missing after all (there was some debate here about that...). IIRC, A View to A Kill was recorded digitally so its not likely to have suffered as much deterioration as some other Bond scores.
 

Osato

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2001
Messages
8,167
Real Name
Tim
Lord Dalek said:
Well I guess that confirms the music tapes for Moonraker are missing after all (there was some debate here about that...). IIRC, A View to A Kill was recorded digitally so its not likely to have suffered as much deterioration as some other Bond scores.
The tapes are out there. There just has to be an effort to locate them. MGM and EMI did not put any effort into the location of the tapes in 2002. Rather they sent what they had.

Audio mixes have been done for DVD and blu ray as well.
 

andySu

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2006
Messages
2,858
They should have put isolated scores in Dolby 5.1 on the DVD and bluray so we can least listen to the score isolated in discrete.

Still one of the best Bond of the 70's. "All those feathers and he still can't fly" :rolling-smiley:

 

Osato

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2001
Messages
8,167
Real Name
Tim
andySu said:
They should have put isolated scores in Dolby 5.1 on the DVD and bluray so we can least listen to the score isolated in discrete. Still one of the best Bond of the 70's. "All those feathers and he still can't fly" :rolling-smiley:
Agreed. Hopefully the remaining scores are in the works.
 

andySu

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2006
Messages
2,858
All the fancy things for DVD and bluray have been ignored for years. When was the last time you bought something that had isolated score? I have very few titles, but when playing ether one its pleasing to watch the film with score isolated and discrete all-around.

Doesn't Fox packet distribute the Bond films now? I haven't touched any of the bluray as I'm not keen on seeing scope shrinkage at the start of The Spy Who Loved Me opening titles. The shrinkage is visually distracting. The same issue happened with STAR TREK III bluray.

 

Osato

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2001
Messages
8,167
Real Name
Tim
andySu said:
All the fancy things for DVD and bluray have been ignored for years. When was the last time you bought something that had isolated score? I have very few titles, but when playing ether one its pleasing to watch the film with score isolated and discrete all-around. Doesn't Fox packet distribute the Bond films now? I haven't touched any of the bluray as I'm not keen on seeing scope shrinkage at the start of The Spy Who Loved Me opening titles. The shrinkage is visually distracting. The same issue happened with STAR TREK III bluray.
Several 007 blu ray titles are $4.99 on amazon right now. Goldeneye, casino royale, spy who loved me, diamonds, ohmss and a view to a kill. They are worth picking up IMO. I'm sure another dip is coming in 2015 with bond 24.Perhaps extras will be updated then.
 

andySu

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2006
Messages
2,858
I'll only run the region 2 DVD. Only time I'll get the bluray is if it was free, not spending money on someone's amateur transfer. I won't see this distracting on 35mm. I'm wondering what their excuses are for this? I think the end credits also shrinks as well. It was so distracting on large THX screen at Empire 1, 2007. Its like when it shrinks, am, I seeing more scope width and when zoomed back in am I seeing less. It does my head in.
 

Osato

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2001
Messages
8,167
Real Name
Tim
Osato said:
Several 007 blu ray titles are $4.99 on amazon right now. Goldeneye, casino royale, spy who loved me, diamonds, ohmss and a view to a kill. They are worth picking up IMO.I'm sure another dip is coming in 2015 with bond 24.Perhaps extras will be updated then.

The Best Buy sale has ended, but Amazon U.S. still has several of the titles at $4.99.

Octopussy
The Spy Who Loved Me
OHMSS
Goldeneye
Casino Royale 67
Casino Royale 06
Diamonds Are Forever
A View To A Kill
 

Osato

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2001
Messages
8,167
Real Name
Tim
Listening to my 007 80's playlist today... I really wish Octopussy and A View To A Kill were expanded releases!
 

Nelson Au

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 16, 1999
Messages
19,027
Great thread Osato!

While I know this thread is focusing on the Roger Moore film scores, I've been listening to several of the John Barry/Connery scores recently. And a few of the Moore scores. It is such a shame that the earlier scores have so much additional materials that the Moore scores lack.

This might be a bit off topic, but one of the things that spoiled me about the new Star Trek scores is that each track are in the proper sequences as they appear in the films. This bugged me about all the Bond scores. So since several of the Bond scores, mostly the early ones, I have ripped into iTunes, I decided to re-sequence them as they appear in the films. This was made much easier when I found a Bond site with a page that has each album listed and the correct sequence for each album with the current CD's that are available.

There's also a breakdown of the tracks that contain multiple tracks so you can edit out the tracks and make them new individual tracks. I have resequenced a few of the albums and they are so much more enjoyable to listen to. I am now experimenting with iTunes to re-edit the tracks to separate the tracks that are within the longer track. They suggest using Audacity to edit the longer tracks to individual tracks, but the iTunes method is kinda working now. I just need to get the timing right.

I've re-sequenced Goldfinger, From Russia with love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Thunderball and The Living Daylights. They are so much more enjoyable now! Just need to edit out the longer tracks to shorter individual ones.

Just listening to For Your Eyes Only and The Spy Who Loved Me are really bad and I'll re-sequence those this weekend, but the missing tracks will be missed.

If anyone is interested or are not aware of this page with the track listing, here it is:

http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/555/sequencing-the-james-bond-soundtracks

By the way, Osato, I had collected all of the expanded remastered CD albums a couple of years ago plus I already had a few of the Brosnan films and I have one Craig film. So there's a few holes to fill. But the soundtrack for License to Kill never matched the other albums. I mean that album on Amazon at the time didn't look like a real EMI release. So I never got that one. Was there ever a proper release of that one?
 

Osato

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2001
Messages
8,167
Real Name
Tim
Nelson Au said:
Great thread Osato!While I know this thread is focusing on the Roger Moore film scores, I've been listening to several of the John Barry/Connery scores recently. And a few of the Moore scores. It is such a shame that the earlier scores have so much additional materials that the Moore scores lack. This might be a bit off topic, but one of the things that spoiled me about the new Star Trek scores is that each track are in the proper sequences as they appear in the films. This bugged me about all the Bond scores. So since several of the Bond scores, mostly the early ones, I have ripped into iTunes, I decided to re-sequence them as they appear in the films. This was made much easier when I found a Bond site with a page that has each album listed and the correct sequence for each album with the current CD's that are available. There's also a breakdown of the tracks that contain multiple tracks so you can edit out the tracks and make them new individual tracks. I have resequenced a few of the albums and they are so much more enjoyable to listen to. I am now experimenting with iTunes to re-edit the tracks to separate the tracks that are within the longer track. They suggest using Audacity to edit the longer tracks to individual tracks, but the iTunes method is kinda working now. I just need to get the timing right. I've re-sequenced Goldfinger, From Russia with love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Thunderball and The Living Daylights. They are so much more enjoyable now! Just need to edit out the longer tracks to shorter individual ones.Just listening to For Your Eyes Only and The Spy Who Loved Me are really bad and I'll re-sequence those this weekend, but the missing tracks will be missed. If anyone is interested or are not aware of this page with the track listing, here it is:http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/555/sequencing-the-james-bond-soundtracksBy the way, Osato, I had collected all of the expanded remastered CD albums a couple of years ago plus I already had a few of the Brosnan films and I have one Craig film. So there's a few holes to fill. But the soundtrack for License to Kill never matched the other albums. I mean that album on Amazon at the time didn't look like a real EMI release. So I never got that one. Was there ever a proper release of that one?
Very cool! Hopefully something happens with the Moore scores!I agree it was annoying to not have the soundtracks in order. It was a licensing issue if I recall. I was just so happy to have the expanded scores, plus they sound amazing.License to kill was issued on cd in 1989 as well as lp in 1989. It has never been reissued. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000002O65/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1409353966&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40There is hardly a week that goes by that I don't listen to a bond soundtrack. I'm glad you are discovering them.I think Barry's run of thunderball to diamonds are forever is amazing. I think all of those scores are fantastic and they get better in succession too. Even though the score is a bit uneven I really dig the man with the golden gun score as well. Hip's Trip is a great track as are some of the slower track that use the theme. Lulus title song is ok but it works better as an instrumental in the score.As far as the pierce films tomorrow never dies is my favorite. There was 2 releases of the score. The original release and then an expanded one that contained additional cues.Quantum of solace and sky fall are my 2 favorites of the Craig era. Casino royale has so e good cues but I liked the later 2 scores more.Any way it would be a dream come true to have the expanded Moore scores along with ltk. Kind of like that unexpected 3 disc release of Star Trek the motion picture!!
 

Nelson Au

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 16, 1999
Messages
19,027
Thanks for the info on License to Kill. That cover art looks so out of place amongst the others I questioned its authenticity! Okay I'll grab that one. Yes, I've never gotten around to collect all the Bond scores until 3 years ago. I did have the best of albums. I've been so focused on listening to the John Barry scores that I haven't listened to all the Moore scores. I do have what I think is the first issue of TND. I'll check to see if that's the case. While I'm not a big Daniel Craig fan, I did want to get the Skyfall album.
 

Osato

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2001
Messages
8,167
Real Name
Tim
Nelson Au said:
Thanks for the info on License to Kill. That cover art looks so out of place amongst the others I questioned its authenticity! Okay I'll grab that one. Yes, I've never gotten around to collect all the Bond scores until 3 years ago. I did have the best of albums. I've been so focused on listening to the John Barry scores that I haven't listened to all the Moore scores. I do have what I think is the first issue of TND. I'll check to see if that's the case. While I'm not a big Daniel Craig fan, I did want to get the Skyfall album.
Barry scored golden gun. Moonraker, octopussy and a view to a kill which are very good Moore bond scores. The living daylights was his last one and I enjoy that one As well.http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow_Never_Dies_(soundtrack)Chapter III did the TNd expanded release. I think it's out of print now
 

Nelson Au

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 16, 1999
Messages
19,027
Oh yeah, I've listened to Moonraker quite a few times and Octopussy a few times too, though Octopussy feels really shortchanged. I really like the way Barry has such a sense of grandness with his scores and how well he will use a theme for many of the tracks that's a rearrangement of the title track. I have not listened to Golden Gun yet and I will this weekend. And the track I appreciate the most from The Living Daylights is the alternate end track. That quickly became a favorite track from that soundtrack. The better Barry scores that Connery didn't star in was Majesty's and TLD, at least to me for now. I'll see how I feel after Golden Gun.Shoot, now I will have to chase down a copy of that expanded TND.
 

Osato

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2001
Messages
8,167
Real Name
Tim
Nelson Au said:
Oh yeah, I've listened to Moonraker quite a few times and Octopussy a few times too, though Octopussy feels really shortchanged. I really like the way Barry has such a sense of grandness with his scores and how well he will use a theme for many of the tracks that's a rearrangement of the title track. I have not listened to Golden Gun yet and I will this weekend. And the track I appreciate the most from The Living Daylights is the alternate end track. That quickly became a favorite track from that soundtrack. The better Barry scores that Connery didn't star in was Majesty's and TLD, at least to me for now. I'll see how I feel after Golden Gun.Shoot, now I will have to chase down a copy of that expanded TND.
Golden gun is a bit uneven in comparison to Barry's others. He stated he was rushed and that he just didn't have it with that one. Even still there is some good tracks on it.Agreed on octopussy. I wish there was the complete score on cd. I'm sure the small labels are very interested. It's getting the bond people to have the same interest to play ball. I paused my post to listen to moonraker this morning.I think it's an underrated bond score. The title theme is low key but it's so great. It's not as big as some of the other themes. Lots of great music on the score as well. Again one of my favorites.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,710
Messages
5,121,135
Members
144,146
Latest member
SaladinNagasawa
Recent bookmarks
0
Top