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A tricky question because there's a balance between how good the piece and the measure of appreciation.
Deadfall is a great score, and of course it's underappreciated, but because of the long guitar piece it does get a lot of love. I would say that the rest of the Deadfall score doesn't get the attention it deserves. "The Last Deadfall" is prime Barry at his bleakest.
I think The Dove is underappreciated, and that's a shame because it's one of the few JB scores that has a more upbeat adventurous flair.
The Day of the Locust: the variety of styles alone makes it worthwhile: nostalgic flavors, slapstick comedy cues AND a long avant-garde hellish finale.
Boom! It's hard to get much appreciation for a score that was never released in the states, has never received an official CD issue, and is for a movie that is considered a colossal failure. And yet Boom! is a joy from start to finish. For Boom! Barry does not dip his toes in geographical instrumentation as he usually does but jumps deep into the Mediterranean waters. In some ways, Boom! shares some space with Goldsmith's Justine from the same era.
The Cotton Club. Barry's score blends with the source music, which he supervised, and Barry composed some of the dance pieces. This really deserves a 2 CD set (Geffen was originally going to put out a 2 LP set) for all of Barry's music plus the spot-on recreations of Duke Ellington's famouse jungle band of the twenties.
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Lots of good mentions here already. I’ll add Walkabout and Robin and Marian. And though it’s perhaps a bit more appreciated, I’ll also add my own favorite The Last Valley.
Yavar
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Lots of good mentions here already. I’ll add Walkabout and Robin and Marian. And though it’s perhaps a bit more appreciated, I’ll also add my own favorite The Last Valley.
Yavar
Let me put it this way: The Last Valley gets a lot of appreciation from just about everybody who hears it; even Barry-hating Page Cook wrote a largely positive review of it. The problem is that more people need to hear it. Consider this: in an era (1971) where prominent movie themes by name composers were the fodder of cover orchestras, I don't think TLV received a single cover version at the time of its release.
And Barry never recorded any of the score's many themes for his compilation albums. The 'valley" theme would have been a perfect fit for The Concert John Barry or Moviola.
Plus, damn it, this music should have been played at the Barry Memorial Concert at the Albert Hall.
Sure, Raine/Silva recorded the score years later, and George Winston recorded a solo piano version of one the acapella pieces, but what else?
In short, the music does not seem to have much of a life beyond that handful of us who know the score from the soundtrack or the movie.
It's a shame.
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Swept from the sea
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I'm not a Barry expert by any means, but aren't practically ALL the titles mentioned here (except maybe THE GOLDEN SEAL, which I haven't heard about) deeply appreciated, especially in our film music circles? At least I see them discussed and lauded all the time.
That would be my impression as well.
So far, I really like all the John Barry scores mentioned here.
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A few John Barry scores I listen to a lot that get very little mention are:
High Road To China (the flying music is as good as Goldsmith, Williams and Horner)
The Golden Seal (scored with Dana Kaproff)
The Specialist (top tier Barry - can’t understand why it doesn’t get the love)
Also very fond of The Golden Child and Howard the Duck (but do have to whittle it down and add Levay’s cues in)
I agree about The Specialist. Barry delivers tension, choral, scherzo (very Bondian) and that very sensual slow sax theme.
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Posted: |
Jan 5, 2025 - 9:03 AM
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By: |
MusicMad
(Member)
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As one of the forum members who considers John Barry's music better than all others (where better means more enjoyable with/without visuals and invariably right for whatever film, etc.), I can't think of any of his works (including non-film compositions/performances) which I dislike.
Notwithstanding my library holds more music than I can reasonably listen to in my remaining years, I hope that everything with the name John Barry attached gets at least one more play ... hopefully several.
I've written more than once that, for me, The Specialist (1994) is my favourite score of the 1990s. I don't think of it as a JB007 score, it's nothing like one other than having some low-key action music.
But there have to be some scores which are less than top-notch ... they can't all be better than the average within his output.
So, a few titles which appear - to me - to be less appreciated by virtue of them not being discussed so often:
-Four in the Morning (1965) ... very low-key and overshadowed my his mega-hits of that era it's very effective in painting a picture of loneliness, despair and sadness. Written for a small orchestra I consider it to be chamber-like.
-Mike's Murder (1984) ... the score suffered as the film was butchered; not his most dissonant score (that would probably be The White Buffalo (1977)) but the main theme isn't quite as melodic as you expect and it leaves you on edge.
-Mercury Rising (1998) ... okay, this one has been discussed but I can't recall anyone other than me claiming it's very good. As usual, Barry looks beyond the on-screen antics and writes for the characters.
and a couple which - for me - are lower than the average:
-The Golden Child (1986) ... if it wasn't for the superb The Living Daylights which utilises some of the earlier film's rejected music I'd enjoy it more.
-Ruby Cairo (1993) ... despite its fabulous, powerful main theme I find this to be a problem: the theme dominates too much.
I don't play John Barry music every day but if I had to replace my music library his works would be first on my shopping list.
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