<span style="font-size:120%;">Composer John Barry, famous for his work on Born Free, Out of Africa and the James Bond films, has died in New York of a heart attack aged 77.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...12321610</span>

Edited January 31, 201114 yr by Sylph

Was just gonna post. I always associate his score for Out of Africa as meaning that my parents were hostin a dinner party Undoubtedly a great loss to the film, theatre (he has a few underated musicals under his belt) and music worlds.

Edited January 31, 201114 yr by EricMontreal22

No big shock to this list of the Telegraph's 10 faves, or argument from me though I have a few smaller personal faves like his work on They Might Be Giants.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/8293467/Top-10-John-Barry-scores.html

He really was unique, and I know that even said like that it sounds like a cliché. He defined the Bond sound, d'oh, and it will never stop being the sound that is expected from a Bond movie. Unless some other genius comes along, which is doubtful at this stage. I think he said it was a 'pleasant annoyance' to be known primarily for that.

Why Out of Africa as the music of your parents' dinner party?

wow, I can't believe they initially wanted to take "Goldfinger" out of the film. It is the James Bond theme that towers over all the others.

(Another composer died a day or two ago: Milton Babbitt. No, he is not a film composer, but Lady Gaga & the crew should be thankful – because of his work on synthesizers and electronic music.)

wow, I can't believe they initially wanted to take "Goldfinger" out of the film. It is the James Bond theme that towers over all the others.

It certainly does. But then, all 3 of Shirley Bassey's Bond themes are real standouts. And God help me, Rita Coolidge's "All Time High" from Octopussy is also one of my top favorites. I think the ones done by Gladys Knight, Sheryl Crow, and A-ha are the bottom of the barrel.

Madonna is among the worst (though Colombier's strings are top notch).

It certainly does. But then, all 3 of Shirley Bassey's Bond themes are real standouts.

I've never understood why Shirley doesn't really care for Moonraker. I think it's sumptuous. A perfect song to be awoken to in lieu of an alarm clock buzzer.

(Another composer died a day or two ago: Milton Babbitt. No, he is not a film composer, but Lady Gaga & the crew should be thankful – because of his work on synthesizers and electronic music.)

And he was Stephen Sondheim's mentor and main music teacher--Sondheim has talked a lot about their work together and all he learned from him (each day they'd spend several hours with a classical piece and then several hours with a popular piece--and Sondheim got his love for minimalism from him).

Good piece on him http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/arts/music/30babbitt.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB

Edited February 4, 201114 yr by EricMontreal22

wow, I can't believe they initially wanted to take "Goldfinger" out of the film. It is the James Bond theme that towers over all the others.

To be fair it was the first one that started the bombastic theme tune over naked lady silhouette opening credit thing--Dr No never had one, and From Russia With Love's lovely title theme wasn't used for the openign credits--so maybe they weren't sure about it yet?

John Barry's film work reminds me a lot of his contemporary Michel Legrand's film work, especially since getting a box set of his stuff--I guess it was fitting Legrand did the non MGM "official" Bond film Never Say Never Again (though it's not one of his better scores).

(SFK I love moonraker's theme too--almost makes up for them making such a crap movi)

And I think that NYT article is right that the best overall Barry Bond soundtrack (not simply title song) was You Only Live Twice. As a kid I loved some of the lesser score pieces from it like Capsule in Space