RIP John Barry

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Yellow Fang

Legendary Member
Location
Reading
Yes, he was the king of film scores and theme tunes. His music played a huge part in the success of the films he wrote for.
 

Gerry Attrick

Lincolnshire Mountain Rescue Consultant
Indeed. A great loss to music. How could one man write so many beautiful themes?

A good many tenor horn players in brass bands have cause to remember well the theme from "Born Free". The opening bars involve a soaring top Bb which, particularly when played from relatively cold early in a concert always sorted the top ranks from the also-rans.
 

Yellow Fang

Legendary Member
Location
Reading
No one seems to write film themes like that any more. There used to be lots of great TV and film themes in the 60s, often using whole orchestras. John Barry was brilliant at evoking moods consistent with the film. If it was about the cold war, he'd use a balalika. If it was about a cowboy, he'd use a harmonica. He rarely seemed to waste his talent on duff films either. I wonder how that happened. The only instance I can think of to the contrary was The Persuaders, which was a TV series that should have been good, but was a bit average. It had a brilliant theme tune though.
 

Melvil

Guest
I've got a couple of 'best of's of John Barry's work and particularly love the 'march in space' and 'the spy who loved me' from James Bond and the theme to Dances with Wolves - beautiful and quite a tear jerker (for me, anyway) - he was such a talented and precocious, as well as hard working man and it's a big loss to the movie (and the music) world.
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
The Midnight Cowboy theme tune is incredible, and a bit of a one-off.
 
OP
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CharlieB

CharlieB

Junior Walker and the Allstars
I did a couple of tunes by way of tribute on my radio show last night, but went for a couple of weird obsurities that I thought would resonate with people of a certain age:

The theme from 60s pop show 'Juke Box Jury', called Hit And Miss', and 'The Stripper' from the first movie soundtrack he composed in 1960 for 'Beat Girl'. In itself, it's a film worth seeking out as a vivid depiction of teen attitudes at the turn of the 1950s/60s.
 
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