S4E04A - Licence to Bang

Are you ready for our TWO PART James Bond Theme Special? You’d better be! Part One of The Cacophony Sessions Season 4 Episode 4 is here and features Dan Whitell with Alex, Dan B, Tom and Martyn as they chronologically rate each of the main themes from every James Bond movie. This part begins with the original 007 film Dr No from 1962 and takes us up to the end of the seventies, ending with 1979’s Moonraker.

Part Two of this episode will be coming shortly containing the remaining movies. The only way to cover it comprehensively was to record two full-length episodes so consider that a bonus!

If you think this means we are going to rush through without our usual brand of subjective butt-hurt ranting, we’re glad to disappoint as in this part we take some time to respond to YouTube comments, bang on about Run-DMC for a bit, contemplate becoming Den with ven and use the Factchecker 3000’s blindspots to spout questionable facts about football. As always, the language is very sweary and this time, Dan has a wonky green screen which will undoubtedly ruin his bid to be the next Bond.

Thanks for listening, and if you weren’t aware a large taster of every episode is uploaded in video format to our YouTube channel. We also post other videos, such as CAC News, where we give you a rundown of the latest goings on in music every couple of months, and Dan’s recent interview with Bristol hip-hop trio The Scribes! Become a Cacophant by joining our Patreon for just £5 a month to gain access to the video link to each episode in full. You can hurl abuse at us over on Twitter or Facebook and now, you can follow us on TikTok and Instagram where we’ll be posting various shorts from the episodes and other music-related pictures and videos. This is all detailed over at our hub of operations - the Cacophony Sessions Blog.

Oh, and we encourage you to all have a go at our cardigans or other opinions. Leave us a review if you like. Cardigan or content, either is helpful.

Transcript

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 0:00

I can't wait to talk about James Bond cuz he's so cool and sexy and he just reminds me of Martin. But 10 years older.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 0:08

What Martin's

audioDanB31856375031: 0:08

one is 10 years older?

audiomartynley51856375031: 0:10

I.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 0:11

Daniel Craig looks like a fucking Ballsack

audioDanB31856375031: 0:13

I wish my ball sack looked that good.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 0:17

had

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 0:18

Yeah.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 0:19

That's what he looks like.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 0:20

You'd have some good looking poles especially if they come out of the water in those Speedos.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 0:25

you can be as ripped as you want, but you can't get rid of that. Just Irish pasty a bit Freckly skin. That's the same I've got, you can't get rid of that in a gym can you? And he never

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 0:33

Well, it's what South Park refers to as a a

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 0:36

a superior bond.

audioDanB31856375031: 0:38

Oh, fair to start that shit.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 0:41

I've only seen two James Bond movies. I've seen Casino Royale and I've

audioDanB31856375031: 0:45

The best one

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 0:46

The Man with the Golden Gun. Yeah.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 0:47

You haven't seen any Piercen ones

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 0:50

I tried to watch World is not Enough and Is that the one with the Speedboat

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 0:54

Oh, I love the stealth speed. That's my

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 0:56

Oh

audioDanB31856375031: 0:57

is that The Eden Project one.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 0:59

woman

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 0:59

I didn't get that far. I turned it off after about 20 minutes. It was rubbish. The name's Pump Golden Epu, also known as Dan Whittle. And this is season four, episode four of the Cacophony Sessions podcast. I've been expecting you. Today we are ranking the themes from all 25 James Bond movies. So grab a dry martini as we separate the rump shakers from the rump stairs for your ears only. Which songs leave us thinking nobody does it better and which ones leave us supplying for a license to kill. we'll be scoring them all outta 10 to find out we don't have all the time in the world. So let's meet the rest of tonight's cast. Joining me for this one. Tom.

audioTom11856375031: 1:52

I'm just a normal functioning member of the human race, and there's no way anyone can prove otherwise.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:57

Actually's. Probably the best one you've done actually sums you up better as well,

audioTom11856375031: 2:03

I know. I thought that was quite good. All right. I thought that and I was like, yep, that will do.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 2:08

Alex,

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 2:09

right? I'm here. Where were your other two? ROEs

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 2:12

you've used that one before.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 2:14

I thought actually. Yeah.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 2:15

Yeah. You've

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 2:16

It's a classic. I'm, It's a cool back, it's a comedy thing. It's cool on purpose.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 2:21

Dan B

audioDanB31856375031: 2:22

Pub quiz didn't go well. The Quizmaster asked me Name a bond villain. He just wouldn't take no for an answer.

audiomartynley51856375031: 2:28

Oh God.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 2:30

I enjoyed that.

audioDanB31856375031: 2:30

Thank you. Yeah, that's a bond related joke.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 2:33

That was so good.

audioDanB31856375031: 2:35

You gotta theme these things.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 2:39

and returning it is Martin.

audiomartynley51856375031: 2:42

Hi, I'm Martin and my favorite band is to Beastie Boys cuz I'm licensed to Ill. See what I did there. Bond license to kill Ill, oh fuck

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 2:51

I think, wasn't that the point in their joke in the first place?

audiomartynley51856375031: 2:54

Maybe. I

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 2:55

cringe and Dan's, but I wasn't sure it was on purpose.

audiomartynley51856375031: 2:58

I put work into that one man.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 3:01

Maybe you should go back to the approach of not putting any effort in.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 3:05

We should send him away for another podcast or two. He isn't right yet.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 3:10

It sounds like we need a bit of a warmup. So as usual, we're gonna kick things off with a game that takes a song off the top of someone's head and asks, does it slap? who's up?

audiomartynley51856375031: 3:27

Oh, I'll go then. Cuz no one else is I've been listening to a lot of gold frat lately because she's got a new solo album coming out and Ride White Horse by Gold Frap is a undeniable banger.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 3:38

yeah.

audioTom11856375031: 3:38

Yeah.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 3:39

Yeah.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 3:40

Which one's that one? How's that one go?

audiomartynley51856375031: 3:42

This their disco beat with a sexy woman singing on it. That's all you need to know.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 3:45

Is that the one that goes? Yeah. Now I, it was Silver Something Machine.

audiomartynley51856375031: 3:49

Strict

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 3:50

that's strip machine,

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 3:51

the only song by golf wrap. I know.

audiomartynley51856375031: 3:53

that could have been a, that could

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 3:54

that's a, that's also a bang

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 3:56

No. Fuck. I don't, I hate that song.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 3:58

Oh, if you don't like that, you're probably not gonna like ride a white horse. It doesn't sound like it's an undeniable banger by Alan Dan standards.

audiomartynley51856375031: 4:08

Alright. I'll choose another one. Smoke code by the chats that's going

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 4:12

Oh,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 4:12

Yeah. Yeah.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 4:13

that's easy.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 4:14

A hundred percent.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 4:16

paste. Both albums

audiomartynley51856375031: 4:17

Yes. Yeah.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 4:19

I'm on Smoke Ho Libby alone.

audiomartynley51856375031: 4:23

I fucking love that song so much. Yeah. I love that band. They're a great band.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 4:27

Yeah. Fantastic band.

audioDanB31856375031: 4:28

I'm enjoying ride a white horse, if that helps.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 4:31

Have just listened to it and I personally think it's a bit bad, but I don't like gold. Fra, I'm kind, doing what Tom did with I have Tiger. If you don't like it, don't.

audioTom11856375031: 4:39

Yeah.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 4:39

So it's a no on that one then.

audioTom11856375031: 4:41

But I think Smoke Ho by the chats did make it in

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 4:44

that, that should

audioTom11856375031: 4:46

and that should probably have been in there already.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 4:52

by the way I watched a Run DMC documentary last night. It's on YouTube. I feel like we should put Run DMC song on the Bang a can't remember the song. I like what it's called now song actually ruining. it's like that. No, not like that. That's not them.

audioDanB31856375031: 5:06

and that's the way it is.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 5:07

Imagine Know It is.

audiomartynley51856375031: 5:09

I prefer hard times off. The first album is

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 5:12

hard times is good. It's tricky.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 5:15

Oh, that's a good one.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 5:17

I think

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 5:18

I,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 5:18

likes, it's

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 5:19

like that song.

audiomartynley51856375031: 5:20

tougher than leather. The track off of Tougher than Leather.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 5:23

I think Tricky is the one that most people would've heard

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 5:24

What about Walk This Way with There Smith?

audiomartynley51856375031: 5:27

There you go.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 5:28

I

audioDanB31856375031: 5:28

I love that song. But it's an Aerosmith song, isn't it?

audiomartynley51856375031: 5:30

It is an Aerosmith song. They brought it back into the public consciousness.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 5:35

versions

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 5:35

we should put that cuz that essentially I'm not sure what people are happy with it or not. Nowadays it seems everyone seems to be happy with it, but that kind of created new metal. So

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 5:44

It's the first rap

audiomartynley51856375031: 5:45

Yeah.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 5:46

yeah. How's Not Me? This Rat Metal song. Really?

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 5:49

Yeah, I think, we'll, I think we, we will have walked this way. It's tricky as

audioTom11856375031: 5:53

Yeah.

audiomartynley51856375031: 5:54

Yeah. It is tricky. I'll go for that.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 5:55

but it's tricky. It's pretty weak. I mean it's like that. It's my favorite, but

audioTom11856375031: 5:59

weirdly, I'd go, it's tricky. Or it's like that over a

audioDanB31856375031: 6:03

I think it's like that. Yeah.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 6:04

We've done the we've discussed

audioDanB31856375031: 6:06

Time is a flat circle or something.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 6:08

I did see Todd in the Shadows, did a video the other day actually,

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 6:11

what I watched. Yeah that's exactly what I watched. yeah,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 6:13

his review of their train record, which is Crown Loyal, which came out in 2001. And that was the end of their career Darryl didn't do anything on the album,

audiomartynley51856375031: 6:22

It was really sad to see the demise of D M C, he was powerful, but it was due to his ill health

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 6:28

it was also the fact that he didn't wanna record crossover stuff like, Steven Jenkins from Third Eye Blind was the

audiomartynley51856375031: 6:35

I know, right?

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 6:36

Not great. I like

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 6:37

Blind seems like one of those that Martin would like

audiomartynley51856375031: 6:39

fuck off. No, I would not like them. Why would I

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 6:42

no, but no, I'm not saying like we'd think you'd like those band that you'd weirdly love and we would have to then just tell you off in the next six months.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 6:49

Semi Child Life is an undeniable banger. I'm just putting out

audiomartynley51856375031: 6:53

No. Third eye blind for me.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 6:55

anyway, Let's find out briefly what everyone's been up to since we last recorded. Martin, let's start with you.

audiomartynley51856375031: 7:00

We're released our ep foreign Voices. Yeah. We're a indie rock band from the Southwest. Check us out. We're on Spotify, YouTube, music, and Apple Music. We're on all across the platforms. Check us out. Yeah.

audioTom11856375031: 7:12

so much better than this, than I was.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 7:15

is this count as a paid ad.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 7:16

sounded so weird coming from someone on the podcast. That's not me. half expecting you to say like, and subscribe as well.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 7:23

I do that as well. yeah,

audiomartynley51856375031: 7:24

So,

audioDanB31856375031: 7:24

about cardigans.

audiomartynley51856375031: 7:26

that's what's been going on with me. I had a bit of a battle with myself thinking, am I being a narcissist by listening to it constantly? And I'm like no, I'm fucking proud of it. It's fucking amazing. And I don't just listen to my guitar parts, which are excellent, but I listen to the whole thing,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 7:41

I imagine you've got your EQ set up so that you take all the bait out all the drums and it's just your guitar.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 7:47

Yeah. But you are at the starting phase, even if it's like a rehearsal video just on your play, not video, but on your phone, and you go, oh, this sounds wicked. Everyone in the band over listens to it, to the point they think the song shit. You haven't got the point where you think stuff's shit yet, but you will get there.

audiomartynley51856375031: 8:03

No, we won't. We won't. I'll tell you why. Because our stuff is not shit. It's fucking brilliant

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 8:07

Yeah. I guarantee you at some point after your hundredth, you'll think goes

audiomartynley51856375031: 8:13

Yeah,

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 8:14

all you,

audiomartynley51856375031: 8:15

mate. I'm already there. I listened to it I hear a little bit and I'm like, oh, I could have done that different, oh, I missed a note.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 8:22

On one of my last band's eps, one of my drumsticks hit the rim slightly on a fill and that's all I can hear is the fucking rim shot on that mid fill and it just ugh,

audioDanB31856375031: 8:34

How are you not still in prison?

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 8:36

Drives me nuts.

audioTom11856375031: 8:37

fortunately we're back in the studio again the first week in August. We'll have some new stuff to listen to then we won't get too bored with this one.

audiomartynley51856375031: 8:46

We finally found our feet with the writing process. I won't go into it, but it just works for us. And it's very challenging as well especially for me because it's usually Tom and Ian, they do the groundwork and then I have to come in and fit stuff over it. And then I've even Ian standing over my shoulder going, oh, maybe you should try that different me. yeah,

audioTom11856375031: 9:07

sound like that. He's from Blackpool

audiomartynley51856375031: 9:09

Yeah, no. The weird thing is that Radiohead have always been one of my favorite bands of all time when I got into them. And I found myself not intentionally being like a mix between Ed O'Brien and Johnny Greenwood whenever I pick up the guitar now. And, which is really nice because I've just felt recently my playing has just transcended what I ever thought I could ever do. I'm looking forward to going back in the studio again and making some new music.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 9:36

Sounds

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 9:37

Oh,

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 9:37

Annoyingly, I've listened to more music this month than I ever have, and I feel the light of me cannot remember one album, album I bloody listened to because this happened to me. One thing I do remember listening to is the New Drain album, you remember it was one of my, it was my favorite album of my last trip of the year before.

audioTom11856375031: 9:54

Yeah. And you and I are the only ones who liked it.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 9:56

oh God. Yeah. But they got a new album out. They've had it recorded since like January. But cuz they've signed to eta, they're doing it properly. So they're waiting to, for a good release window or something. But they finally released it. And I've been listening to Phil. I've only got, it was what I was doing before this, after the research we were doing, not research, listened to themes.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 10:15

is research.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 10:16

it is research. Yeah. But yeah, I'm only about six songs deep into it, but so far it sounded pretty wicked. And it'll probably be in my other year list cuz. Yeah. Bad. they're a Swedish punk band. I've listened to the newest album and it's wicked. I basically I went on a YouTube journey and it basically lined up all the bands and like for all of them gave you like a 32nd slice of each band. And it was one band that really stuck out to me cause it was pop punk with a bit of s squeakiness into it. It was really good. And I listened to the album recently sort thing. I should have looked up before, but yes, check out the band. They're very good.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 10:55

Did you have a chance to listen to the new Enter Sari album yet?

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 10:59

no I haven't because Andy, what I like about in Shakara was that they were a bit emo in Sri with a lot of the electronics and they've gone into kind of weird

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 11:09

They've got good, basically

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 11:10

yeah, they've got full. Yeah. No, yeah. Fair enough. I'll give you that. They have got good and people, they've gone to the point where people like them now. I don't like their newer stuff, so I do listen. I've seen them live like four times.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 11:22

I thought you might say that

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 11:23

cuz they just, they play lot so I've just seen them a lot.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 11:26

never liked them, but I really liked the new album. I thought it was quite good.

audioTom11856375031: 11:29

I like a couple of tracks on it, but I, the couple of tracks I like are the ones that sound like they're older stuff, whereas they're probably the two tracks that Dan's like, nah,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 11:39

Yeah. I haven't got my notes on that to hand, but this, I'm pretty sure that's exactly what it says.

audioTom11856375031: 11:44

think it's like track two and three the two that I was like, yeah, I'm into this. And they're

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 11:48

Yeah. I remember liking the first track and then going, oh, no, I think they're falling into the same traps. And then I was like, oh, nope. No. Okay. They've recovered.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 11:56

so sorry. The band was the good, the bad, and the Ugly Research destroy fucking awesome album. Really recommend giving it a go. You interrupt your line of thought there, but I also listened to to New Velo, is it Villa Velo of him? Marger loved him.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 12:09

yeah.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 12:10

Viva, I said, Yeah. I listened to his solo album actually I've been listening to it in the car on the way working that and that's quite good as well. I've never been a massive hymn fan, but I've never disliked him either. So I, but when I saw he had a solo album, I thought I'd give him a go, cuz yeah, I'm really recording anything like 10 years or whatever and yeah, it's quite good. Have you like, chilled out himm style rock music and which is quite inoffensive? It's, yeah, it's quite good. I quite enjoyed it. I've fought, I soon see the Hoosier at a festival recently and I end up not doing it cause it was pissing and down we went home, so I listened to their music and I actually quite enjoyed their unpopular albums. And oh actually no bands news for me actually. We found a singer that's cool. we now have a final lineup. We've got about five songs musically written. We need lyrics and we do it this weekend and look forward to it. So we'll see how it goes. We'll see.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 12:59

Done.

audioDanB31856375031: 13:00

I've not been doing a lot as always cuz you know, that's my life. but I am wearing my aral jumper, which is cuz today the season finished and

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 13:08

it took you this long to mention them.

audioDanB31856375031: 13:10

Come on. We're just such a good team. I don't need to bring it up all the time. Uh, Plymouth Aga won the league.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 13:15

itself.

audioDanB31856375031: 13:17

We we won the league again for the first time in 19 years. 101 points. First team in history to ever win more than a hundred points. Twice. That could be true. It could not be,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 13:27

a, a fact checker doesn't check football so

audioDanB31856375031: 13:29

Oh good. I can say anything. I want them. They're the greatest team in the world. They were out drinking on the barbecue with all the fans and apparently the police shut it down at 10 o'clock cuz the police are annoying. got to take my son to the game. Fuck the police. Exactly.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 13:41

should

audioDanB31856375031: 13:42

the Jana song should go on there. If anybody hasn't heard the Janna song or how, what a song that

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 13:47

I, don't think I could do that and n

audioDanB31856375031: 13:49

by the Barnett Brothers. I think it needs to go on the description below, it's just beautiful. It's about the loveliest city in the world, Plymouth and the fine folk that live here. Yeah I've also really cleverly sadly, whatever you wanna call it, terribly getting old. I've started making sourdough.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 14:08

Oh, you

audioDanB31856375031: 14:09

I am that person now. I've start I've got a starter. I've named it, I've been feeding it. I've made at

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 14:16

you've got to the bread making phase of your life.

audioDanB31856375031: 14:19

It's such good bread.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 14:20

God, that's so horrific. I feel sad for you.

audioDanB31856375031: 14:23

Yeah, I feel good. the gluten is no good for you, Dan, but it's delicious. I apologize in

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 14:30

why don't me laugh so much, dad in this stupid gluten intolerant body. Why are you a pussy? Fuck it.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 14:37

Hey. I prefer the term gluten freak. Okay.

audioDanB31856375031: 14:41

Okay. Yes.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 14:43

It's a disability. Actually, sometimes I have a pass off shit myself for three days.

audioDanB31856375031: 14:50

Call that a treat.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 14:53

Tom.

audioDanB31856375031: 14:54

Move on quickly.

audioTom11856375031: 14:56

I haven't been listening to much new release stuff. Because obviously our band EP came out on Friday and we did an interview on Jan Radio Friday evening. The show's called, where are we Going? It wasn't recorded, but I think we might be going back on at some point. Jan Radio, owned by Omnium Radio, which is a community interest project in Plymouth. That's definitely worth checking out. But I also bought possibly the most Dan Whittle bass guitar that anyone has ever seen.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 15:25

That is hideous. Why'd you own that?

audioDanB31856375031: 15:28

I quite like it.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 15:30

like it.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 15:31

You've

audioTom11856375031: 15:31

so

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 15:32

diagonal threats.

audioTom11856375031: 15:33

yeah, diagonal threats. It's

audioDanB31856375031: 15:35

Oh yeah. Oh, weird.

audioTom11856375031: 15:36

It's a Strandberg Bowen Original. It's limited 10th anniversary, one of only five made in this particular finish. The reason I wanted it is because the fan threats give you perfect intonation, which is really useful when you're playing low end. And also if I turn it over the neck has a really weird pro. You won't see it cause it's too dark. But the neck has a really weird profile that encourages better thumb position, which is gonna be better for technical playing. Also, it weighs nothing and cuz it has no headstock, it fits in the boot of a car, which, if you are a bass player, you will realize that is one of life's constant problems is that your bloody bass guitar will not fit in the boot of a car. You have to put the backseats down or across the backseat. Not

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 16:21

the pickups not in line. That upsets me.

audioTom11856375031: 16:24

they're in line with the bridge.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 16:26

I don't like your bass, Tom. Sorry.

audioTom11856375031: 16:28

I knew you wouldn't, but I knew Dan would love it. I bet. Dan's like, that's a cool bass guitar.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 16:33

It, It's a cool bass guitar. it's way more in line with the Bootsy Collins space base that kind of look to an instrument, which I'm down with. I do like silly instruments as well, like princess symbol guitar and just outrageous personal icons being the instruments themselves. As much as I don't like Brian May the guitar that he's made himself and added to over years is cool. Yeah. It's a cool bass.

audioTom11856375031: 16:56

The other thing actually is that I decided to sell my record collection which I've been building up over a 30 year period. Cause I just came to this conclusion that I was sat looking at on a shelf. And you go through and you realize that you've got stuff that people would probably kill to listen to. So for example a friend of mine's listing it off for me on eBay because I am technologically incompetent. For example, I have the original 1989 light into dark Chicago compilation LP on vinyl in mint condition. That's the first time Smashing Pumpkins wherever on re released on record. I have their very first seven inch single, I have churches very first 10 inch single, and all of it is going to be being listed on eBay. so yeah, go and check that out. We'll put the link in the description below. But yes, please help me buy a van so my band can go to recording studios and gigs please. Thank you. My plan was I want to buy a van for gigging, but I work for theater companies playing piano. But cause I'm self-employed another job and I have income protection and things like that, I can't take any money from that. So I support some other charities. Because I can't get paid for playing the piano for theater companies because it would invalidate my income protection from my other job. all the money I receive from that goes to charity. So once I've sold my record collection, I will buy a van. I'll probably buy a base six and anything that's left because an Eastwood TB 64, cuz everyone needs one. Peter Hook had one, everyone needs one. Once I've done that, anything that's left over that I don't need will probably go to Cry, which is a charity called Cardiovascular Risk in the Young, cuz all my income from playing piano goes to that. And they're a charity that go into schools to do ECGs, to look for like undiagnosed heart problems. So they can be caught early which is a really good thing to do. Anything left over will probably go to them, if I'm honest, because they're a good charity, they're worth supporting. please give me money to buy a van. Once I support a van, give me money to give to charity.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 18:52

Tom, you're gonna be a man with a van. Hang on a second, Dan. If we buy that, if we buy Ven, does that make us den with Ven? maybe, Maybe not. By the sounds of it, we'll have lots of links below for various causes. One of which, is the Patreon. You can give five pound a month and you get full episodes of this in their video. Glory The audio from every episode is still gonna be uploaded as usual on all podcast platforms, and you can still find the opening segments of each one on the YouTube channel. cacophony Sessions tv. We've had 13,000 people watch the Beatles episode recently. So thanks for everybody who has supported us on YouTube. subscribe, comment, share it around, and give us a review on a channel which allows you to do so. for instance, apple Music. Give us a review on that. Couple of things from me in terms of news. We wa we are gonna do a cat news again. We'll be rolling that out every six weeks or so to give you a more in-depth flow down on new releases. I absolutely love Jesse Wears new album. That feels good. I think by far and away I can't see anything being released that's gonna come even close to that. I've scored it like a 9.6, it's an incredible record.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 20:03

good.

audiomartynley51856375031: 20:04

It's a beauty. It's a beauty. I loved it. did, I slate Jesse Ware Tom said, I hated on Jesse Ware in one of our previous

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 20:12

To be fair, you hate on most new music in every episode. I feel like you have a, I can't be bothered to do research mode and then you just hate,

audiomartynley51856375031: 20:20

Of course I do.

audioTom11856375031: 20:21

Jesse where was nominated on the album of the year? Two years ago. Three years ago. 2020. So yeah. Two, two and a half years ago. And I think most people hated on it. Did it even make the top 10? I think it. scraped. Yeah,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 20:35

yeah, I think it was number 10

audioTom11856375031: 20:37

I think it scraped in at 10 cuz everyone stated it and Dan scored it really high. Martin was round here, was round at mine the other night for writing. And you post about Jesse Ware and he was like, oh, I really excited. I really liked Jesse Ware. And I was like, do you, cuz you didn't come out like you did two years ago. You weren't very kind about that album. Mine.

audiomartynley51856375031: 20:58

I was down on it. But man, like the new album's amazing. It's got that whole modern disco.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 21:04

a

audiomartynley51856375031: 21:04

Female vocals thing. Yeah, it's fucking beautiful. I like it. I think it's about when you listen to something, sometimes something hits and sometimes it misses and I think at the time it missed, but now I'm in a better place. It, It fits better.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 21:17

Couple of people to mention that have died in the music industry recently Harry Belafonte who is a Calypso legend, everybody knows Jump in the line from Beetlejuice and deo the Banana Boat song. Some absolute classics. And also Gordon Lightfoot as well, Canadian singer songwriter who's a very influential folk musician as well. We're also doing an interview with the scribes who are playing Cosmic Kitchen in Plymouth on the 26th of May. Are we backstage with them doing an interview about their appearance at Glastonbury as well, so there's that to look forward to.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 21:50

By the way, I'm sure the venue's very good, but I've been there to eat, cosmic Kitchen, you should never charge. 12 pound For a fucking wrap. Continue on. Continue. It was very important to.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 22:03

Yep, they do. And what is that you need to know? I hear you ask. It's all our social details. Follow us. So on Facebook at the cacophony sessions on Facebook, we're at C Sessions pod on Twitter. You can follow us on all the podcast podcast platforms, YouTube, patch on you name it, we're on it. Make sure that you're supporting us going forwards because then we can keep producing content like this. Speaking of which, it's time to rank the I would say the top 25 bond themes, but they're only 25 bond themes. So it's all the bond themes, chronologically discussed and then ranked just for you,

audioDanB31856375031: 22:36

nobody does it better than the Coffy sessions.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 22:41

well, maybe, Tonight we're gonna go through all 25 James Bond movie, starting with 1960 twos, Dr. No through to the most recent movie being No Time to Die. To give you a little bit of context before we start going through the list, I can't say that I'm a James Bond fan at all. This is purely about the songs themselves. I don't have any particular memories of any of the films. I've seen Casino Royale, which I think is an excellent film, and I've seen The Man with the Golden Gun, which I don't think is an excellent film. And that's it. Is anybody else, a particular iono when it comes to James Bond that we we can count on as the expert when it comes to the movies or anything?

audioTom11856375031: 23:28

I saw them all up to Skyfall

audioDanB31856375031: 23:31

I've seen every single one, but other than Casino Royale, which I've seen 50 times, I think I've only seen the others about

audioTom11856375031: 23:38

can we just be clear which casino?

audioDanB31856375031: 23:40

Craig one.

audioTom11856375031: 23:40

All right, cool. Because, because when Dan goes, I've only seen Casino Royal and my instant assumption with it being Dan is that it's not the Daniel Craig.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 23:49

The original casino rail it was based on the book, but it wasn't in it with the series. So it, I

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 23:55

it's not in, the official cannon of James Bond. It's more of a parody.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 23:59

Yeah.

audioDanB31856375031: 24:00

it's non Marvel universe.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 24:01

You guys got me beat because I think everyone's favorite bond is the one they grew up with. So a lot of people were like, Sean Connery or they thought Roger

audioTom11856375031: 24:09

Timothy Dalton for me.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 24:10

But for me it was Pierce Bron. I started with Golden Eye and just loved them all so well, except for that last one he did. That was shit.

audiomartynley51856375031: 24:17

as someone that was born in 1974 my whole childhood was basically Christmas time bond movies always on. And yeah, they were fun and they were okay, but because I was more into sci-fi and I was more into Star Trek and stuff it was always something that would be on, I'd watch it and I'd watch the cool stunts and stuff and then completely forget about absolutely no meaning, no substance whatsoever for me. I'm not a Bond fan, although my favorite James Bond is Roger Moore, which is problematic because he's the most problematic bond, if any of them, actually probably, it's not Sean Connery in it. Sean Connery is the wife beat, isn't he? like the Beatles episode? I always go for the problematic people.

audioTom11856375031: 25:00

just go for the domestic abuse angle every time.

audioDanB31856375031: 25:03

What was the quote about John Lennon last time?

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 25:06

Do you know why I love The Beatles? John Allen was not a nice person. In fact, he was a domestic abuser. I think that's the exact quote. Let's see if we could try and get through these 25 songs without any combinations of domestic abuse. We'll see. in a departure from our usual way of doing this, I don't actually know what people have scored this. We're not doing it in the order in which they've been ranked. I'm gonna go through it in chronological order, and I'll find out everybody's shit opinions at the same time as you, the audience. We'll start with the first one, which is the obvious place to start. In 1962, this is actually a little bit different from the rest of them. It is not a vocal theme. The original Dr No Movie, the theme tune is the James Bond theme which is the famous piece of music by John Barry was actually written by Monty Norman and arranged by John Barry in his orchestra. Norman has actually successfully litigated a couple of times. The Sunday Times in 2001 being one of the cases when newspapers have implied that. It's actually written by John Barry. So let's make that clear. It was written by Monty Norman and arranged by John Barry. It's the James Bond thing. Everybody knows this, right? I scored it a nine. I can't score it a 10, but it's an iconic piece of music.

audioDanB31856375031: 26:22

I have two strong opinions on this. Firstly, it's a 10. Secondly, it probably shouldn't be on the list because it's different to all the others, and it's the theme for the entire series rather than just for this film. It's just the iconic bond music. And I don't think

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 26:39

Yeah, but it sets the benchmark for what we are essentially going to be judging it against. Cause we can all agree that the bond theme's fantastic. And even though when you listen to this version, it's yeah, that is the James Bond theme. That is good. Everyone can recognize it, no one can dislike it.

audioTom11856375031: 26:54

I gave it a seven. And the reasons. That's actually one of my highest scores I gave to be fair. And that's because I needed to set it. There are a lot of things on this list I like more than it, and there are a lot of things I like less than it. So I was like, seven is a good score. It's a good piece of music, but very much of its time. You think that this song with, what John Barry's done with the Brass orchestration is very much in the vein of what people like Henry Mancini was doing with the Pink Panther. There are several James Bond themes. Actually most of them in the early days are encapsulating what's going on in music at the time. That sort of big band sound is, yeah, Henry Mancini is the perfect example, was the big thing. The Pink Panther was recorded in 1963 and this probably influenced it. What's interesting with this particular piece is that the reason why Monty Norman is credited as the writer of the piece is actually from the guitar line because he wrote the guitar line for a musical before based on a book about an Indian family living in Trinidad. So he wrote the original score for the film Dr No, based on Caribbean rhythms. And that's why that guitar line really stands out is because it's built around a sort of a Caribbean meats South Asian rhythm, which is why it sticks in our heads because it wasn't really anything else at the same time. The Brass all comes from John Barry really. And and that brass carries on for. A long time in the films and actually John Barry who did what, 11 of the James Bond films. gradually, if you listen to how that the theme evolves throughout the series, the guitar gets less prominent and the brass start taking over the themes that the

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 28:46

Yeah.

audioTom11856375031: 28:47

being played on the brass later on and less on the guitar. Just out of interest. I was gonna say yes. Fuck you Graham. I did, I know this stuff already. I don't need to do research or look at my notes and learn what a cardigan is.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 29:01

Okay. Should we acknowledge this because we are probably referencing it. Okay. Because we're getting not me. Cause I wasn't on the one that was actually got views. The YouTube video got over 13,000 views as of recording this. And we've had two comments by the same person. Is it Graham, is it described as wearing a bad cardigan and probably listening to

audioTom11856375031: 29:21

I dunno if he was describing me, just firstly, I wasn't wearing a cardigan. Secondly, I don't like

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 29:28

he also couldn't have been describing me because I was wearing a cardigan, but it certainly wasn't a

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 29:32

we, are kind of new to online criticism and Fry has maybe been a bit but hurt by it. So please keep commenting Graham, because you will,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 29:44

about our cardigans.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 29:45

you'll get reported on it.

audioDanB31856375031: 29:47

I don't own a cardigan. This is a jumper

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 29:50

I have noticed that Fry isn't wearing his knot cardigan today, so maybe it works, maybe we're getting better now cuz of Graham,

audioTom11856375031: 29:57

it's warm enough. I don't need to wear a jumper anymore. I don't own a cardigan, so I don't know what one is. A cardigan is a jumper that opens at the front and I don't own a single one.

audiomartynley51856375031: 30:07

I Think it's ironic that the fact that I both own and proudly wear a cardigan. I don't like the Beatles at all. And I also am a massive blur fan, which is that whole comment thing was quite hilarious to me. But, God bless him, and I welcome, I absolutely welcome people commenting on our stuff. And Graham, whoever you are, you know, good bless you, man. I already like the guy, he is, he's a dude. But no as for the theme tune yeah, I like big band music. I like how it's arranged and it's very complex, extremely complex music. And I give it a 10, not because I like it, but because I appreciate how it was made, how it was put together. And also that guitar part is almost like surf guitar. You know, the dick thing. yeah. And if you're a guitar player and you're learning, it's one of the first things you'd learn on the one string thing. I never did myself, but it is something that you do. So yeah, I'll give it a 10 and only because I don't like it. I'll never listen to it. But when it comes on, you know what it is, you know what it's about. And I appreciate more than anything, the whole artistry that went into the whole big band arrangement thing is there's fewer things, more difficult to arrange than big band. There's a lot of noise going on. How do you make so many massive instruments sound totally in tune? Totally in time. Totally fucking the whole dynamics, just, great.

audioTom11856375031: 31:29

Scoring for orchestra is a skill in and of itself, but it is something that is most of the great composers and conductors taught. The guitar line is Vic Flick and he's playing some sort of weird 1939 electroacoustic

audiomartynley51856375031: 31:42

It's this surf rock man. He's probably playing a e s 3 35 that probably costs more than your house. he is doing his thing and it is perfect session musicianship. But for me, it's just it's a theme tune. There's business, there is soul to it, but I, it's, I wouldn't listen to it as a standalone piece.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 31:59

right now we're essentially trying to score it's almost like it's trying to score a national anthem. It's just okay, yeah. It's good because that's how you represent this and

audiomartynley51856375031: 32:08

when you hear it, it's James Bond and it's it is a perfect piece of music in a lot of ways. And if it was something that wasn't associated with a film franchise, you'd listen to it and go, my God, that is good,

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 32:20

it's instantly recognizable and I don't care who the fuck you are. No one doesn't just like,

audiomartynley51856375031: 32:27

Yeah. And also it fits the theme of the franchise as well. The spy who's a little bit damaged and he is going out and doing his thing and killing lots of people and stuff. It fits the whole like, idea of what James Bond was so perfectly. I think it's one of the most perfect theme tunes you could possibly ever create.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 32:46

I, I would agree, but actually, yeah.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 32:48

Yeah, I agree. And I think there's parts of it you listen to and you're like, oh, you can hear where used this to make similar themes. I, one that springs to mind is police squad. can tell that there's certain, almost like leap motifs that are taken from this.

audiomartynley51856375031: 33:02

when you listen to the tune, it's almost like you can hear the narrative of the film. It starts off all like mysterious and then it goes all dramatic, and then it goes into the bit where there's some false peril. And then at the end you get the bit where the older man Seduces, the vulnerable young woman and he grooms her and stuff. You get all that stuff in there as well. And it's just, it's the narrative of a film,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 33:26

I like it a

audiomartynley51856375031: 33:27

Bond film.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 33:27

now that you've said that.

audioDanB31856375031: 33:29

Yeah,

audiomartynley51856375031: 33:30

it's true. That's what happens.

audioTom11856375031: 33:31

my seventh. Looking a lot better now.

audiomartynley51856375031: 33:34

Yeah.

audioDanB31856375031: 33:35

It's great. I still don't know if we should count it because it's the theme for all of the films.

audiomartynley51856375031: 33:40

We have to count it.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 33:42

if that's number one, it doesn't matter because Fair enough. That's the benchmark is the bond theme. How close do we

audioDanB31856375031: 33:48

True. Okay. I'd be fine with it. It's amazing. It's just, different. In the film, if you've seen Dr. No, it's quite good. There's underneath the mango tree playing constantly throughout it, which is another track from the thing. And that is like your classic Calypso kind of song. It's not very good, but I almost feel like if you watch the film that's more the specific Dr. Noe theme, whereas this is just, it's James Bond music. I look, I've given it a

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 34:15

But there was no such James

audioDanB31856375031: 34:16

I sort of have, yeah, I know, but I just feel like it's it almost wins by default. And then we should discuss the others. I dunno.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 34:23

see what comes out of the scores. next up was the film from Russia with Love. The theme to that is Matt Monroe from Russia With Love from 1963. I personally have this Downness Tesco value. Andy Williams sings potentially the most boring bond theme that there is. I'm not a fan of this one.

audiomartynley51856375031: 34:44

I gave it a seven because I just felt like it was really well sung and it was really well made and it was really well put together and it followed the theme of the James Bond thing of that whole grandiose casino the, of that era, wearing sharp suits, doing the whole Ocean's 11th thing. And I like the guy's voice and yeah, it was, the Pound shop, Frank Sinatra, but I scored it high because I really enjoyed listening to it.

audioTom11856375031: 35:10

Let's be clear. Frank Sinatra is my way. Comes out in 69, right? So is early era. I'll be up front right now. I gave this a five. Matt Monroe is known as the Man with the Golden Voice. That was what he was called at the time. His voice is impeccable.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 35:27

It just sounds like Andy Williams to me.

audiomartynley51856375031: 35:29

That's not a bad thing

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 35:31

No, it's not but he's just not quite as good.

audioTom11856375031: 35:33

see, I think he's better, but not got the songs that Andy Williams has got. Every song that he's been given, he's done really well. And this song reflects the fact that sort of bra pack crooner thing was really big at the time. However, my problem with this song is whenever you had like a sixties or seventies sitcom that had something set in a Greek taverna that's what the backing track for this sounds like. And you read the stories about how John Barry went to Turkey to discover Turkish music because they had Caribbean music in Dr. No, and they wanted to use something slightly different. They wanted to go Turkish and it just sounds like Greek tover music from a shit 60 sitcom. And Matt Monroe vocal cannot rescue that no matter how good it is.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 36:18

Yeah, Yeah, I got it. A 5.4, so I actually liked it slightly more than you did, but

audioTom11856375031: 36:24

My scores are a bit as almost my scores are relative so if I give something a five, it's okay.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 36:29

Yeah. It's not the lowest score that I've given something on this list, but we'll get to that later.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 36:34

I personally give this one a nine. Cause I'm very much in the opinion that he's got a great voice and his great song. And I think when I was scoring this, I think it was what I perceive a bond theme should be to whether it's a good song or not. I haven't really scored whether I like it as a song or not. I've scored it whether it's a good bond theme or not. Cuz how else can you is theme music. And look, he managed to get a really catchy lines Z with the, title of the film. The music's great. His voice is just like melting butter. It's incredible.

audiomartynley51856375031: 37:09

It's like Silk Man.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 37:10

It's still, yeah. If we're not talking going, we're not doing that stuff. This is the first, it's got a bit, for me personally, a Bon Film's gonna be a bit sexy sounding, a bit mysterious.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 37:22

Yeah.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 37:22

And just not too full on, but it's gotta sound a bit big Bandy, and I dunno, forgive me, this nails what a bond film should be. It should name the title a lot, but in a catchy, not douchey way. I think this is absolutely perfect like nine. Cuz everything can be improved upon except the original one film. It's great. As a bond theme, that's what we should think about this as and I think this is good when I listen to it, just in general, not really no, but as a bond theme, if I listen to that in when the credits coming up, it'd be perfect. So that's my opinion.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 37:56

yeah. I see your point with that. And I think maybe the reason I don't really like this one, is because I don't think I'd ever actually heard it before. I've definitely not seen the film, it doesn't seem particularly bondy to me.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 38:10

But what would Bondy be?

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 38:12

I don't know. It's very difficult because you've got that melodrama and the brooding horns and all that kind of thing. And a lot of the later themes, and this does have it, it's just, maybe because I haven't heard it before, the melody doesn't seem so iconic, so it just seems maybe a bit forgettable. Maybe if I'd heard it a hundred times.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 38:27

I've never heard of film, but I've, I think we should really put into concrete what we think a bond film should be before we really talk about, I mean, for me it'd be slightly somber, but catchy a lot of horns to crescendos and fucking even gong, it's cinematic. Yeah.

audioDanB31856375031: 38:42

Yep.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 38:43

so that for me that's a bond theme. Even if it's even the newer ones,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 38:47

I wouldn't say that it doesn't sound like a James Bond thing because it certainly is. It's just that lack of familiarity with me means that I'm not ranking it as highly cuz it's not so ingrained in my brain, so it's not as catchy. I'm in the unfortunate position where I've actually been listening to quite a lot of Andy Williams recently, and I just think their voices sound very similar. I just think because Andy Williams has more songs that I know I prefer Andy Williams. I think I've just done Matt Mo some dirty there. And, It's not a bad song. It's just not one that strikes me as particularly memorable.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 39:19

All my scores are based to a event. Is it a good bond theme compared to you? know what I mean?

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 39:25

Has played into my scoring in a lot of songs. There are certain songs which I have given higher scores because I think they fit the brief a little bit better.

audioTom11856375031: 39:34

It depends how you define the brief. So for me the thing with Dr. No in 1962 and this one to a degree, Is that my favorite bond themes are the ones that reflect the music of the time that the bond film is released. Now, the thing is, there are several bond themes that you're gonna see that are come up later, that you will say, they reference the horn sections from the bond theme. They have the big band sound, which I'll mark really low. Cause for me, a bond theme reflects the time that the film was made. Not this ideal that was created with Dr. Noe because what I'm looking for in a film, that's not to say that either one is right or wrong. I'm not suggesting that. So when I look at James Bond, I look at, particularly through the sixties, the sound of the themes, apart from, there's one exception to this in the sixties and seventies, which is gonna come up very soon. The sound of the themes changes through the sixties and seventies. the sound of the bond theme is reflecting the music of the time. Whereas now the music that we are creating for bond themes now is reflecting the music. That was

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 40:47

I disagree to a point because your turn is, are reflective of the, of sound of time, but it's also gotta sound a bit spy. It doesn't matter if it's up and coming music at a time. It sounds cool when everyone likes it. If it doesn't sound like a spy theme. everyone knows in the head what a spy theme should sound like, and is the

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 41:05

the first song

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 41:05

unfortunate Doctor know. Yeah. That's the spy theme. So I don't care what you'll listen to now, anything that's involves, international espionage or anything like that, even it listens to, it sounds a bit spy like, or they just, cave in and just make a house like fem where it's ding ding, just remix a I know remix a, um,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 41:25

Well,

audiomartynley51856375031: 41:25

afex

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 41:26

yeah, exactly. Yeah, just do that. They'll remix some shit, but it's got sound a bit like a spy film and some of these new songs, I just don't think it will, even if it's a new sound, you might go, that's quite a good song. It doesn't sound like a Bond theme.

audioDanB31856375031: 41:39

gave it a 6.5 kind of in the middle of you guys, really, I like his voice. I think it does have bond elements, but it doesn't really go to quite the same heights that a lot of the others do

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 41:49

Yeah, I agree with that completely. So we'll move on to the next 1, 19 60 four's Goldfinger soundtrack. And of course, the song is Goldfinger by Shirley Bassey. It is one of the most famous of the Bond themes. I've not seen the film, but I've heard this a million times, and it's one of the definitive James Bond themes. I've scored it at eight. I don't think it's particularly spectacular and I don't think it's the best Shirley Bassy Bond theme but I think it's a very strong song.

audiomartynley51856375031: 42:19

I scored it in eight because exactly the same reasons that you just said. I think it was fucking fantastic in the sense they carried on the theme of what Al was saying about that whole spy thing. And also it was the first one that had a female vocalist and a very strong female vocalist where. James Bond is not just about the spies, the guns, and the, fucking doing his stunts and stuff. It's also about the femininity. And I think this is where that strong female presence in the theme team, hopefully I would think carried over into the films a little bit. Probably not, but, I think it's the juxtaposition between the very macho Sean Connery I'm a man, I'm fucking doing all this stuff, but with the very and it is sexy. Like it is, her vocals are fucking sexual as hell. But also very powerful and strong and be that being involved in a bond theme was probably a bold move when they first did it. I don't know. But it just, it worked for me. I gave it a strong eight.

audioDanB31856375031: 43:21

I just wanna say ba,

audiomartynley51856375031: 43:25

Yes.

audioDanB31856375031: 43:26

that. Amazing. Like I've gone 8.5, Shirley Bass's voice is really powerful too. But the instrumental parts for me are just like, you hear that and you, it just brings me back to my childhood. And I think I did like this Shirley Bassy out of the trilogy best, but yeah. I like this one a lot.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 43:45

It's one of those ones where it's very iconic and everyone knows it. But I think I remember liking it more than when I actually listened to it it's actually not that good a song. It's all right. The vocals are pretty good. The chorus is good. I, but lyrically it's a bit like, yeah, the spider does this and it's just a bit rubbish. It's a little

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 44:06

I, think you have to get over that with a lot of these songs because they're written about a movie.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 44:11

Yeah, but there are degrees of it. And

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 44:14

Some, of them are nonsense, and

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 44:15

get, I gave this a seven because I do think it's a good bond theme and it's iconic for a reason and all that stuff. But I, as I said, I'm scoring amongst bond films, so I'm not scoring my personal opinions. But it wasn't quite as good as I remember it being. And I was like yeah, I'll give it a seven. Cuz it is a good bond theme. But I prefer the last one, from Russia with Love. I thought it was way better.

audioTom11856375031: 44:38

I preferred the last one as well. The only reason this song is in the film is cuz they presented it to Harry Saltzman, the Producer, too Late to get a Replacement Cuz Harry Salzmann's first response on hearing this Was, that's the worst fucking song I've ever heard in my fucking life.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 44:56

Hmm. he obviously hasn't listened to Insane Clown Posse, but

audioTom11856375031: 44:59

but that, that didn't exist in 19

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 45:01

Pausing. We're pausing your rant for That That is not a flippant comment you can make. Hocus Pocus is a good song. Continue.

audioTom11856375031: 45:09

that is the actual response from the producer of the film. lyrics written by Anthony Newly and Leslie Brickers, who's done far better things. I'm not sure an Anthony newly has, particularly with John Barry. So John Barry's horn parts are in it, which is great, but that's pretty much the only thing that, that I'd like about this song. An Anthony newly recorded the original demo vocals and then refused to allow his vocals to be used in the film because he thought the lyrics for the song were too weird in inverted commerce. So that tells you when Al goes, the lyrics for the song aren't very good. The lyrics for the song, even the guy who wrote them thought they weren't very good. My other problem with this song is that Shirley Bassey made her name in musical theater in the 1950s. And so the way she performs this song already sounded dated when she did it. She does do one of the three her, one of her three Bond film bond themes. I do really like this, isn't it? She just fucking belts it the whole way through,

audioDanB31856375031: 46:14

I did write, actually, this reminds me of a musical.

audioTom11856375031: 46:17

Yeah, but that's how, that's what she's, that's what she's famous for. And there's only one bond theme. She doesn't do that on, and she does it on this one. She made her name doing musicals and yeah, this, she just belts it the whole way through. And the other interesting bit of bit of trivia about this particular song is that Jimmy Page played acoustic guitar on the soundtrack for this particular film, just out of interest, although he doesn't play guitar on this track because the guy who played the lead guitar on the film before or was took precedence. So it is Vic Flick, who was the guy who did the two previous films. Yeah. So I gave it a four.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 46:56

That's pretty rough. That's pretty rough.

audiomartynley51856375031: 46:58

Still the first bond theme that had a female vocalist. It's still the first where it was like, hang on, the female protagonist of the film is important here, and that was what it was alluding to.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 47:08

you're sent out to Tom, but he's pretty much thinking. Yeah. Like it's like I was the first person to The beds not good.

audiomartynley51856375031: 47:16

Okay.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 47:16

Yeah,

audiomartynley51856375031: 47:17

point.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 47:18

Another iconic James Bond theme. At least by measure of the fact that I knew it before. From 1965. It is the title track from Thunderball called Thunderball, and it's by Tom Jones. I think it's brilliant. Say whatever you like about Tom Jones. I think he sounds fantastic here. that last note is so powerful. He actually fainted after recording it. According to his own story. Those opening horns are just, as familiar as the horns from the previous track. I can't quite get the Austin Powers use out of my head though. I always associate the Thunderball opening with Austin Powers because they use a lot of Thunderball music in that film. I think it may be the second one. I scored this 8.3. Again, I think the lyrics are nonsense. Because I don't know the film but to me it sounds good.

audiomartynley51856375031: 48:04

I agree with you. I scored it in eight just because it sounds amazing. And his voice, he is belt in it out and you can't replicate that really. it's just really cool. I thought actually I don't really have much more to say other than, again, the same with all of these tracks in the early stages of James Bond. it's a lot of instrumentation, it's a lot of orchestration. Done really well with an extremely strong vocalist.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 48:31

Yeah.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 48:31

For me it's like the same from Russia with love. When you want a bond film, you want song to sound a bit sexy, a little bit mysterious. And it has spy vibes all the way through the song, doesn't it? We all know what a horror soundtrack sounds like, even if there's about a thousand different artists doing it. It's one of those things. Spy does have his own genre in his zip great vocals. Lyrics are a bit lacking as usual cause it's

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 48:52

Yeah. you haven't seen the film, you're like, what is this about?

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 48:56

yeah. But I, yeah, I think that's really good. I gave this one an eight. Yeah, no, I didn't give an eight. Can I have a look on my phone? It's Nate. I gave this one. as far as bond film themes go. This is top tier. Tom will agree cause he is rubbing his head a lot.

audioTom11856375031: 49:10

Oh, no, I'm gonna sound like such an asshole

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 49:13

Yes, you will. Yes you will. I don't think you know what a bond theme is supposed to sound

audioTom11856375031: 49:18

Oh, hang on. I've seen more bond films than you have.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 49:21

Yeah, but you don't get the tone. Apparently tone is a big deal when it comes to theme.

audioTom11856375031: 49:25

my favorite bond themes come up later. These are not them. This one's not getting any better. In fact, it gets worse.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 49:34

Can we all disagree Tom's wrong for this discussion? And just take and just get rid of his scores

audiomartynley51856375031: 49:39

think he's just missed the memo. These are bomb themes, not songs should write as songs on their own.

audioTom11856375031: 49:44

my problem with this song right, is that this song was originally sung by Dionne Warwick, which would've sounded fantastic. But because her and Shirley Bassey fell out. They sued each other. So neither song got released, and then they called Tom Jones in at the last minute. It's so cobbled together. Originally Leslie Brickers wrote the lyrics to a song that was going to be the theme tune called Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang, which got rejected by the producers. Hardly surprising really, with a title like that. And they parachuted Don Blacken with a couple of days to write the lyrics. and then they threw Tom Jones in with a day to go and. I will never like Tom Jones' vocal. I just won't. It's that sort of semio operatic style. He's not perfect throughout it, but the tone of his voice just turns me off. I much prefer Matt Monroe vocal. this style of music was already dated when this track came out. The Beatles had just released Rubber Soul when this track came out, and the other thing that annoys me is that Johnny Cash submitted a song to be the theme song for this, where the lyrics actually make sense. He sings through the plot of the film, and you can actually hear it on some of his live bootlegs. So I'd much rather have Johnny Cash's song 2.5.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 50:57

All of it doesn't make a difference to whether the song's good or not for a bond film. Does it matter who originally would've sang on it?

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 51:04

I also think, that Tom Jones is more suitable for James bonding than Dion Warwick. She sound walk on by and heartbreaker. and I, she's got a lovely

audioTom11856375031: 51:15

doesn't,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 51:15

it is not as powerful as Tom

audioTom11856375031: 51:17

I did quite a lot of research for this one, having gone through it. Dion Warwick has been in the running for the most Bond themes without ever singing one. Cuz the producers have wanted her on, like all of the films in the sixties, in the early seventies. Dion Warwick's always like the number one they want, who's never done it.

audiomartynley51856375031: 51:33

I'm with Al on this. I've done no research and I'm literally just listened to the songs based on the fact that they are just bond themes. They're not songs that were released to be listened to as a part on their own. They were literally made to be played over the opening credits with the circle and the guy with the gun and the dancing girl silhouettes and stuff. And that's how I listen to them.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 51:58

It'd be like judging Bonjovi that if they did the Simpsons theme, you'd be like, you can't really put it against their other catalogs or who may or may not have been put

audiomartynley51856375031: 52:06

Is

audioTom11856375031: 52:07

Yeah.

audiomartynley51856375031: 52:07

bond theme or is it not?

audioTom11856375031: 52:08

I don't like it I started watching with the eighties bond films, so I didn't start at the beginning. I started with some films that are gonna come up later. And because I started with the films that come up later, the films that come up later for me are better bond themes than this. And I stand by my score.

audiomartynley51856375031: 52:27

Totally respect your score, but I literally have only listened to these songs today. Based on the fact that they are bond themes. I've not listened to them as standalone songs, which may be wrong on my part,

audioDanB31856375031: 52:41

I didn't love it either. I'm not a big fan of Tom Jones' voice which I yeah, I probably knocked it down a little bit for that. I didn't go 2.5, but I,

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 52:50

That was

audioDanB31856375031: 52:51

I, I like I like the horns. I like the bit of the beginning. It's similar to the original soundtrack, isn't it? The original so, but it doesn't quite go there. And like you said, it's like Austin Powers, which, let's be honest, the Austin Powers movies are better than the bond movies. Let's just throw that out there. So everyone hates me. I went 5.5,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 53:09

Okay.

audioDanB31856375031: 53:09

in the middle.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 53:10

Next is the 1967 James Bond movie. You only lived twice. And the theme tuned to that was Frank Sinatra's daughter, Nancy with the song you only lived twice. I'd not heard this before. Yes. The first thing I noted is that Robbie Williams sampled the strings for the Hit Millennium, which is not a song I like, but I actually like this. It's the highest one I've scored other than the James Bond theme I think it's quite a nice slice of sixties pop. It brings in that fuzz guitar tone. And I think it's a good song. It's not my favorite of the whole bunch, but it's the first one that sounds like a contemporary pop song as opposed to a show tunes or a, a major ballad. It's more, like a contemporary song that's fitting in with the sixties. I like it because of that. Again, lyrics, I can't really understand what it's getting at and I haven't seen the film. But Nancy Sinatra seems to do a good job. Yeah, it definitely fits the bill. I've scored it at 8.4.

audiomartynley51856375031: 54:08

Dan I gave it. Simply because of all the things you just said, it went away from that whole big band, classic thirties thing to like contemporary sixties music of the swinging sixties I like Nancy Sinatra anyway, but it was totally that whole like flowery shirt, Mary Quant mini skirt thing going on, the whole like Soho London bullshit or whatever was going on back then, the hipsters of their day maybe, but it was it's totally swinging sixties London sound, and I fucking loved it. It's very retro and, but at the time would've been extremely contemporary. They would've been influenced by the likes of the psychedelia that, the Rolling Stones we're playing around with. And Uni Velvet Underground were

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 54:53

Yeah.

audioTom11856375031: 54:53

It's a little bit more. So the reason why this song exists as it does, is because John Barry, who is still one of the lead writers on it he did all the other scores. There's a really big shift between the last film, this film, and there is one really important film that John Barry did between the last film and this one. And that's that he did the score to Born Free, which is

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 55:18

Oh,

audioTom11856375031: 55:18

he, which is where he moves away.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 55:20

Matt Monroe, I

audioTom11856375031: 55:21

Yeah. It is also sung by Mc Monroe, but he does the whole soundtrack and he moves away from horns being his predominant instrument to strings being the predominant instrument, which is why you see the massive difference in sound

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 55:34

Yeah.

audioTom11856375031: 55:35

the last Thunderball and this film is because

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 55:38

you actually like this one?

audioTom11856375031: 55:40

Yeah. This is my fourth favorite of all of them. I, gave this an age. And what I love about it is Nancy Sinatra's vocal on this is perfect. It's understated compared to the sort of open throated belting we had to deal with Goldfinger. Leslie Briers did the lyrics, having watched the film. The lyrics are really good. Although he had more than one attempt at the lyrics. So the reason why the lyrics are quite good is he wrote the lyrics once and they recorded a version with Judy Rogers, who's the one who did the song of the wedding, and then they scrapped it to make this version instead. And they originally offered it to Frank

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 56:15

Frank Sinatra. Yeah.

audioTom11856375031: 56:16

Yeah, Frank Sinatra Te

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 56:18

Broccoli, a

audioTom11856375031: 56:19

yeah, yeah. yeah. And he, his actual name's Albert, I believe. And he turned it down and said, you should give it to my daughter. And the producers went, oh, we want to get Aretha Franklin to do it. And I'm so glad that they stuck with Nancy Sinatra because she is perfect on this. The string parts, that string rundown is beautiful. The actual, the song I think is the most covered James Bond theme. Overall,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 56:47

it's weird cuz I've never heard it. but,

audioTom11856375031: 56:49

living under a rock?

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 56:50

I've been living under a James Bond free rock.

audioTom11856375031: 56:53

And

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 56:54

I don't know.

audioTom11856375031: 56:55

Yeah,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 56:55

heard Millennium in the sample a

audioTom11856375031: 56:57

yeah, yeah, yeah, It's beautiful and it's really well done. The only really disappointing is Mark Lanigan covered this on his covers album in 2013. And he covers it beautifully cuz his voice suits it perfectly, but he doesn't have the string rundown, so instantly it loses something. He does it on an acoustic guitar. But yeah, I love this eight outta 10.

audioDanB31856375031: 57:18

I didn't go as high, but I really enjoyed it. I pretty much, as a general rule with a lot of these, if it mentions the film's name, I'll bump it up a little bit anyway, cuz I like that it's like the family guy thing where Peter Griffin gets really excited when the actors mentioned the name of the film in the film,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 57:37

Yeah,

audioDanB31856375031: 57:37

I'm always a, you know, I

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 57:39

thing

audioDanB31856375031: 57:40

they said the thing. Exactly. So I went for a seven, which I dunno, might be a bit harsh, but I really enjoyed it. It's a good song without being incredible

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 57:48

I like the violin hook, but other than that it's forgettable six outta 10.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 57:54

Okay.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 57:54

That's kind It really?

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 57:56

that is currently scoring a total of 38.4 points, so that's currently in second position. We'll move on to the next one. The film is on Her Majesty Secret Service from 1969. The song that was released as the vocal theme for it is we have all the time in the world by Louie Armstrong and I love this song. It's one of the only ones that I would listen to, and it works as a non bond theme. I think it's actually quite popular at weddings. And you can hear why it's a bit more subtle than a lot of the other ones.

audioTom11856375031: 58:42

haven't seen the film. have you, Dan? No. Having not seen the film, You shouldn't recommend that people play this at weddings.

audioDanB31856375031: 58:50

Isn't it played at funerals?

audioTom11856375031: 58:51

If you are thinking about playing this at your wedding, Don't watch the film and then realize what it's about and don't, can we give a spoiler for a film that was released? Like,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 59:02

of course. You can give a spoiler.

audioTom11856375031: 59:04

this song plays, he gets married, he's driving down the road, his wife gets caught in crossfire, and then this song plays,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 59:11

Oh have much time then, I guess.

audioTom11856375031: 59:13

no. So it should not be played at weddings.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 59:17

No, but what do you think of the song though?

audioTom11856375031: 59:19

I actually really like it. So I love Louie Armstrong's voice. I love his voice. The thing that really upsets me about this song, there's only one the main thing that marks it down for me is that he, by the time they recorded this song, he was too ill to play the trumpet. So it's not him playing the trumpet on it. And you can tell cuz his trumpet playing's just so much more brash and I wanted that. So this is where John Barry reckons this is his favorite of his bond themes in an inter, And Hal David wrote the lyrics for this, and he's a lot more subtle at lyric writing than Leslie Brickers.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 59:57

Oh, how old? David's one of the greatest lyric writers of all time

audioTom11856375031: 1:00:00

he's had a few misses let's be fair. Yes, he's made some of the greatest lyrics,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:00:05

It usually requires, but backer act to make it complete. But I mean, you can't take anything away from

audioTom11856375031: 1:00:11

he, yeah. He's also one of the most prolific. So there is a bit of a monkeys and typewriter effect, but when he gets it right, he's very right. And so the lyrics are better. I think there are a couple of problems I have for this track. One is obviously sat mo not playing the trumpet two. This song is very much an homage to what a wonderful world that came out two years earlier. And you can hear that they've done that. Three is that john Barry's following on from the orchestral tone that he had in Uon of twice it's following on the same thing. And I don't think he does it quite as well here. I think the orchestra's a little bit more understated in a way that I don't enjoy so much. And the last one is cuz the, my Bloody Valentine cover from 1994 is fantastic.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:00:56

Oh, I've not heard that.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:00:58

that. wasn't really around when it first came out to be fair.

audioTom11856375031: 1:01:01

no no it wasn't. But I, the 1994, my Bloody Valentine cover was on a Guinness advert, which used to be on between films at the only times I ever watched TV at my grandparents' house. So I remember the, my Bloody Valentine version before I remember this cuz I was seven. Yeah, exactly. Sy nostalgia. So I gave this a 7.5, which is still one of the highest scores I gave any of them. So I, I do really like this one still cuz Louie Armstrong could sing the phone book and I'd listen to it. And I think he's probably my second fav, second or third favorite singer on this list. Not necessarily because it's not all about hitting all the notes. It's having a tom bra to your voice that makes me want to listen to it.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:01:39

I gave it a five. The reason I gave it a five was because go either side of the five, there's the fact that everything Tom's just said. Okay. And there's the other five where it's it's just been overplayed. And I can't be asked to be honest with you. I like, I hear it and I'm like, I've heard it before so many times. It has no emotional weight to me whatsoever, anymore because I've just heard it too many times. Wedding disco, it's, oh my God, it this fucking song. I listened to it today and I was like, it's fucking amazing. It's really well made. And the vocals are incredible, but I could not connect in any way because I've just heard it too many times. It is literally the equivalent of creep by Radiohead. For me.

audioDanB31856375031: 1:02:25

Another really good song. Yeah.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:02:26

yeah after hearing it a million times, it's like all of the stuff that was good about it has been stripped away to it being almost like a musical cliche for me. That's why I gave it five,

audioDanB31856375031: 1:02:38

I think his voice is one of the best voices in the world let alone on this list. I absolutely adore Louie Armstrong's voice. I think it's a really beautiful song. I don't know if it's really the most bond theme, but like Tom says, having seen the film, it really does fit what happens in the film. Unlike the other ones on this list though, it's not the title theme. It's not played at the beginning of the film. It's right at the end when something happens and I've called it an eight because I just really enjoy the sound. It just makes me chill and feel things, which not every song on this list does at all, because they're all ridiculous. I didn't realize that it was actually from this film, cuz I've seen this film years and years ago and I forgot it was on here. I also knew it from the Guinness advert like Tom

audioTom11856375031: 1:03:24

It's a weird one cause most of the bond films, the intro track and the sort of outro track are the same. This film is an example where the intro is an instrumental, that's almost a bit like a riff on the early James Bond theme. But John, it proves that John Barry needed Monty Norman's guitar line cuz it's not as good. And. There's a few, there's another one later that's coming up that very famously have, has a different intro and outro track. This is another one where the intro, yeah, the intro's, the orchestral piece. And actually this is, I think my second favorite bond film. This is from, on Her Majesty Secret Service. And I think George Lazenby is my second favorite bond after Timothy Dalton,

audioDanB31856375031: 1:04:09

I think those, that is the most controversial thing you've said is those are the two best bonds, like the two that everybody thinks are the worst. That's fine.

audioTom11856375031: 1:04:17

Timothy Dalton is the best bond by a mile. And he's in the best bond films as

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:04:22

What? Hot? fuzz. Yeah.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:04:24

I like the way you say films plural. He was only one.

audioTom11856375031: 1:04:26

oh, Tim Timothy Dalton

audioDanB31856375031: 1:04:28

Lak

audioTom11856375031: 1:04:28

several. Naby was, yeah. yeah, Timothy Dalton is the best, who was in several. And George Lazenby is my

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:04:35

Nah, Bron's. The best bond. We all know

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:04:39

It's who you grew up with, is whoever you, who, whoever you, identify as Bond is who you genuinely have grown up with. I think that most people were, like, our parents would be more like, have the argument of Roger Moore or Sean Connery. But for us it's just, oh, we have Pierce Pron.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:04:58

I have no favorite bond. have no opinions on that matter. I,

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:05:02

the best.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:05:02

I think he's summed up the sophistication and comedy the best. I dunno, I think. But,

audioTom11856375031: 1:05:07

I like the darkness of Dalton, I think Dalton did darkness better than Craig did, despite what popular opinion dictates.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:05:15

Yeah, I actually, I'm I'm

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:05:17

anyway, can we go back to the song?

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:05:18

I'm going to give this song four. It's, it sounds quite bondy, but it just seems a bit off as a theme tune. It doesn't sound like a theme tune for a film. It sounds just like a song,

audioDanB31856375031: 1:05:32

it wasn't the theme that's the problem. It was the

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:05:34

just, you can tell and yeah.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:05:38

I was scoring this based on how good of a bond theme it was, it wouldn't do very well. But I've scored it in 8.8 because I think it's a brilliant song.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:05:44

a good song. His, yeah, his vocal was incredible, but no.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:05:48

We'll go into the seventies now, so get your flares on. There, I dunno if there were many flares in James Bond movies, actually ne next one is 1970 ones Diamonds of Forever with the song Diamonds Are Forever by Shirley Bassey. Returning to the vocal booth. I love this one. I think it's the best one she did. It shows how great it is when you can take that song 30 years later and Kanye West can make a great single from it. That doesn't sound like it's anything to do with James Bond, but yet uses the chorus of the song. It sounds fantastic. The production is amazing. Her voice is great. She certainly deserves to be the first person to record two Bond themes. it's far less cheesy than Goldfinger in terms of the fact that, it's not called Goldfinger. It is not quite as good as the last one for me. It's an 8.5, but I think it's a strong song.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:06:38

I gave it a six, but I wanna refer back to something you just said about production. If you're gonna record a bond theme, you are gonna have the best production team you could ever possibly have. So every single song on this list is gonna be produced fucking perfect.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:06:56

No, not, No,

audioDanB31856375031: 1:06:57

No, there's one in

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:06:58

one, yeah, there is one that, We'll get

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:07:01

Yeah, we'll get there in a bit, but my point is with this song, yeah, it's great and yeah, production's great and stuff but no, it is, it's fair to middling, isn't it, really? It's just a bond theme.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:07:13

I disagreed. I really like the hook

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:07:15

Yeah,

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:07:15

And like I, I like the

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:07:18

yeah.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:07:18

I get Golding seven, so I'm gonna give this one a cause I think it's better from Shirley. And it's it's just it's cool. It's af when you first start listening to me, it doesn't sound like it should quite be a bond film. But then as soon as it starts and once it kicks in, you go, actually notice this is bond was stuck, which is nice. It's slightly different to the usual, what I would consider a bond theme, but still close enough where I'm pretty happy and it's catchy, man.

audioTom11856375031: 1:07:41

John Barry's really trying really hard to mix it up with this one. So he's throwing in that sort of almost funk breakdown about halfway through. The synth intro actually sounds really ahead of its time, but the problem for me is that the vocal performance is still 1950s musical theater. It is Shirley Bass's second best vocal performance for me. But it's really important to note before I give my score, it's not my lowest by a long way. But Harry Saltzman, the producer, also hated this one cuz once again, John Barry and Don Black submitted it so late that he couldn't change it cuz he also didn't wanna put this one in either. 4.5. I Had to preface the fact that I was giving it a 4.5 it's not bad. Four is not a bad, four is four to six is okay.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:08:28

No. I'm sorry. When you said earlier, five is average. I was borderline not agreeing there. But when you're saying four is okay, four is non Okay. Realm four is in the middling at best, but not that good.

audioTom11856375031: 1:08:41

Yeah. That's what I mean by, it's like just, okay. It's a 4.5 for me. I really hate that fucking belting vocal. I've worked in musical theater for years. I hate it. And Shirley Brassey does it. I just hate it. And it's like she does one vocal performance coming up later where she fucking nails it. And this is not that. This is the Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey. We are Welsh musical theater from the fifties and we're gonna fucking belt it and just, no, I hate it.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:09:12

but I think that has its place in the bond cannon.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:09:14

It does.

audioTom11856375031: 1:09:14

Just hearing, it makes my toes curl.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:09:17

why would you work in musical theater but not like musical theater vocals? That seems ridiculous to

audioTom11856375031: 1:09:22

Modern musical theater has a degree of subtlety. This doesn't

audioDanB31856375031: 1:09:26

I really like this song. It's just funny when you hear people go, oh, this is shit. And then you're thinking, I'm to say I like it.

audioTom11856375031: 1:09:33

Oh, you're

audioDanB31856375031: 1:09:34

I, I, I was, no, I know. I was listening to it at the beginning and going, do you know what I prefer the Kanye song. And I do, I think I do prefer the Kanye song, which is not something that I, normally would say of anything. But the ka song's a fucking great tune. But,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:09:48

is a great, it's a, it

audioDanB31856375031: 1:09:49

but I still really like this. The ending to it also was phenomenal. It ends in a really exciting way. I think I agree a bit with Tom on the vocals. I, that's not the strength of the song for me. I really enjoy the instrumental stuff, though it's iconic. It's just like you hear it and you go to good places and I went for an 8.5.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:10:10

Nice.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:10:11

strong man.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:10:12

So that scores it a total of 35.5. This one is good old Cacophony session's. Favorite Paul McCartney with his 1973 Single which is the theme song from the movie, Live and Let Die. And this one is for me, it's a classic. I actually scored it higher than the actual James Bond theme itself. Because I think it's just a fraction better because it actually has lyrics

audioDanB31856375031: 1:10:40

That's words and stuff.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:10:42

their lyrics are not, I think the song gets a bad rap because a lot of people think that the line is in this ever-changing world in which we live in, which obviously is a grammatical nightmare, but the lyrics are actually if this ever-changing world in which we are living, which is actually grammatically correct. So all the people that are saying, oh no, I don't like that bit because it doesn't make any sense, fuck you, the grammar's fine. It's the first theme with no involvement from John Barry. And bomb producer Harry Salzman, who Tom's made reference to a few times. He actually wanted Thelma Houston. But George Martin who produced the song he backed his boy Paul

audioTom11856375031: 1:11:22

Well, yeah. Yeah. Paul McCartney only signed on to write it if he could be the one to sing it.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:11:28

Yeah.

audioTom11856375031: 1:11:28

That was in the small print of his contract.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:11:30

It wouldn't have sounded better with Thelma Houston. We, and we've said many times on this podcast that sometimes Paul McCartney can be hit or miss with his vocal performances, but not on this one.

audioTom11856375031: 1:11:39

No. I'm with you. one of the problems I have with this song is I first heard this song through the Guns and Roses version in the 1990s. and

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:11:47

me.

audioTom11856375031: 1:11:48

yeah. Not

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:11:49

Well, the was fo when this came out

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:11:52

exactly.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:11:55

and roses were just a twinkle in their mum's eye.

audioTom11856375031: 1:11:57

On the Beatles episode, I talked about how Paul McCartney, when he wrote songs post the Beatles, it's almost as if he wrote three different songs and mashed them all together. But because with this song, he's back in the studio with George Martin. Again, this is the one time where more than anything else, I think this is his best post Beatles song by a long way. It goes between this sort of piano ballad to this orchestral interlude where they're taking on, where George Martin is Aing John Barry. But I think George Martin is actually as accomplished an orchestrator as John Farian is able to make it quite interesting. And then he is going back again. Yeah, for me I think this is my fifth highest score. Again, it's 7.5 for me, which is a good, which is good. I including that is good. Incidentally, okay the tuning that they use for this recording while I was listening to it, a car alarm on a Range Rover went off outside and this song is in the key of Range Rover car alarm.

audioDanB31856375031: 1:13:00

There

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:13:00

absolutely,

audioTom11856375031: 1:13:01

is.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:13:02

I got blown away when someone said to me, if you ever want to tune a guitar, a D is the first note of the Star Wars fame.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:13:09

Yeah I absolutely agree with that. I tune my guitar to D all the time, every time. If I'm tuning by ear what that is I always get the D right first anyway. That, that aside thi this for me is a 10, how a 10, simply because it's the first bond theme where it is a standalone song where you can listen to it without it being attached to a bond film and

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:13:34

that way about Louie Armstrong, but yeah.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:13:36

good.

audioTom11856375031: 1:13:36

the one before that as well, to be

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:13:38

Man I love this song and I listened to I, when I was a little kid, I listened to it so much because it had so many, it was like a suite. It was like before I knew what a suite was, lots of different parts in a musical performance. I was like, this is fucking cool. It's it, you go got this heavy riff and then you've got this like your slow section, and then you've got this. I loved every second of it. So it is a 10 outta 10 because it's just a great song on its own terms. And I wasn't, I didn't even know who Paul McCartney was. When I have first heard this, I had no musical knowledge whatsoever. I'm no Tom Fried, right? But I just heard it and was like, this is amazing. This blew my mind. I like, this is what music sounds like to me. But I didn't know it was part of a bond theme. I didn't know it was attached to a film. I heard it isolated and it was on one of those, now what you call music tapes that I had in the Wartman, and I'm like listening to it over and over again and rewinding it. Yeah. It was, this is a fucking great song on its own right. It's brilliant. It's better than anything the Beatles have ever done.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:14:45

Oh, no, I don't think so. But not

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:14:47

I dunno, I dunno. It

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:14:48

joking,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:14:49

we're done. with that.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:14:51

I gave this one a 6.5. I actually do really like this song and I do think it's generally. Pretty sweet. Da, that is iconic. That if it was just, if it was as I, as we said at the start how I'm scoring these if it was just me as a guy listening to it, I'd probably give you an eight as a bond theme. I'll give you a 6.5. Cuz it is pretty cool. It's pretty upbeat. It's a good tune, but it's not very spy. Like for me it doesn't seem, doesn't

audioDanB31856375031: 1:15:18

I see. I, I think the doo do doo bit makes it I can imagine somebody pouncing pouncing around.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:15:23

Yeah, but it's just a little bit too uptempo for me. And I'm not as a bond theme. It doesn't, it's not sexy enough for me. It's gotta sound a bit sexy.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:15:31

I think you're right. It loses some of the sultry mystery. There's no mystery to it. Is there is this straight in your face we're doing the action bit now and, oh, now I'm gonna smooch you girl, and now I'm gonna do an action bit again.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:15:45

for me it, loses most bond themes say within it, you know what you're gonna get no bond f a bond film. But for this one, I feel like you are like we could all for good or for worse. A big part of James's bond's womanizing, isn't it? We all agree. Seduction. Seductions a big part of his, a big part of James's Bond character

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:16:04

that's totally lost in

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:16:05

there's there's no subduction in this song. It's got like an upbeat, like shit's getting real theme, like spy theme tune. But, and yeah, it's, it is good and I do like it and I would give it a higher score, but as a bond theme for me it's a 6.5 cuz it's a little too missing

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:16:22

I can understand. It is not always associated with Bond because you've got the Guns and Roses cover as well.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:16:27

it's a great song. There's no way around it. It's a brilliant song.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:16:30

the Guns N Roses version is better.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:16:32

Maybe, I'll give extra points for having a reggae breakdown and Paul McCartney avoiding the temptation to do a called reggae accent. So I think he, he deserves it, like a point at least for resisting that temptation.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:16:45

fair, he's not above doing it, is He

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:16:47

it all the time. So to not do it in this song is that you actually go, okay, Paul you didn't come up as complete cringe on that record, so can actually have a point.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:16:56

everyone who's listening douche chills. He's not above it. He can do it. he he's not above white guy rapping, he's that guy.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:17:05

Done.

audioDanB31856375031: 1:17:07

I professed my love for Paul McCartney on the last episode as my favorite Beatle. Not the coolest Beatle, but my favorite Beatle. And I love this as well because I find his lyrics incredible. I, as we've already talked about the way this song goes, it goes places. It's not just, here's a bit of music. It's, it takes you on a journey. And that sounds really Ponty, but I don't care. That's how I feel with it. It's just cool. It listen, you listen to it and you go, fuck Yeah. As a song. And I think as a bond theme too, I disagree. I think that part makes it sound quite mysterious. The doo do doo do. But I went 10 out 10 Can't get

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:17:45

Mm, okay. Yeah.

audioDanB31856375031: 1:17:47

Sorry.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:17:47

No. Sorry. I see why, I totally see why you give 10. as I said, I love the song, but there's no seduction. Where's the seduction?

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:17:56

it a

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:17:57

It can't be on a bond theme if you can't put it on a sex mix.

audioDanB31856375031: 1:18:00

Oh,

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:18:00

on a sex mix. This couldn't be on a sex mix. It might be the the crescendo maybe, but that's about it.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:18:05

You can't have sex to this song. I'm sorry.

audioDanB31856375031: 1:18:08

strokes.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:18:08

don't wanna be thinking about Al's crescendos, man.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:18:11

Or Poor McCartney or James Bond or Wings. No. That 10 outta 10 takes it to 43.1, which puts it second on the list only to the initial James Bond theme. The next song from 1974. And is another song with the name of the film in the title the song is The Man With a Golden Gun and it's Lulu. I think this one's a massive step down, I think. Tom, you've mentioned several times that you think that some of these are like show tunes. And I think that this one sounds like show tunes, but she doesn't have the voice for it. I think she's by far, the weakest singer that we've had. I think the song is by far and away the weakest song. I've seen this film I thought the film was one of the cheapest action movies I've ever seen. I thought it was a terrible film with a terrible song. It should have been the theme tune to not Miss World, but like Miss World's Ripoff or something like that. like the company that run like a knockoff version of Miss World doing a knockoff bond theme with a knockoff. I just think this is absolutely terrible. I scored it a 3.8.

audioTom11856375031: 1:19:21

Ah, you and I are very close on this. So John Barry, the composer, says this, the score for this entire film is his least favorite score that he did.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:19:31

I'm not listening to the whole score, so I can't comment on

audioTom11856375031: 1:19:34

But having seen the film the thing with this one is the mu musically, it's a, it almost sounds like a really lazy attempt to update the formula of his sixties scores into the seventies. And you'd think after having a break, after having a break with Li Vanette die, he'd come back and be like up for it. But I think the reason he didn't come back to the UK to film live that day is cuz he was gonna get done for tax evasion if he came back. So he skipped a film and he came back again and he's just cashed this one in. It's basically the gold finger score with added cheesy, distorted guitar. And Lulu's doing her best Shirley Bassett impression, she's doesn't have the voice to carry it, but Don Black's lyrics do not really give her a lot to work with. When we go through the list up to this point, I think this is the last Don Black lyric on this list. He might have won a lot later, but like this is one of the last ones. And it's, yeah, and it's not really surprising that this is the last one he does for a while because the innuendos he throws in, in this are not well done or subtle. They're pretty badly done that lyrically he doesn't give her a lot to work with Orchestrally I don't think Lulu's a dreadful singer but but what they gave her to work with here, she does her best, but she is not the sexy version of Shirley Bassey, which is what they essentially wanted to hire to do this track. Yeah it's. It's the third worst on this list and it's a 3.5.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:21:03

For me personally, this is the first song of our list where I've actively disliked.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:21:08

Yeah.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:21:08

I think it's shit I gave it a free because there's still redeeming factors even in shit songs sometimes. her vocals are okay in it, but quite frankly, like the lyrics are terrible. It's, I dunno how do you describe shit? It's just a rubbish.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:21:25

Smelly usually brown.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:21:28

It misses the tone. That's why I think it misses the tone of what a bond thing should, it's a crap song anyway. Everyone, we can all agree it's a shit song, we can all deal with a crap song of it matches the tone of a bond film and it completely misses the tone of a bond film. There's no mystery. It's just, and there's a weird middle bit, which is weirdly Ah, yes. It's just, this is rubbish.

audioDanB31856375031: 1:21:51

I'll give it a bit more than you guys, Bernie. Cuz I think I'm generally being a bit more kind. Probably. I didn't hate this. I it doesn't have a lot going for it, but there's a bit. It's a bit it's a little more, it's at least a little bit more fun than a lot of the stuff that comes a lot later than this. Some of the other things are a bit depressing and a bit boring at least. This is and upbeat. I,

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:22:09

you don't want that

audioDanB31856375031: 1:22:09

for it for me. the man with a God gun. It's like bond. He's Cooley. He's against the man with a god gun that he's the baddy. But it's I don't know. I gave it a six because it's me. Fine. Whatever. I didn't like it, but I'm meet, I'm nicer than you guys

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:22:26

Fair enough?

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:22:28

You're just wanting to avoid having people call you out in the comments.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:22:31

Fuck it. Yeah being too nice. Let's smash him. that's a wonderful, this is rubbish. No mystery, no sex appeal. There's no,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:22:37

Plastic bond, isn't it?

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:22:39

I give it a six as well because a bit like what's been alluded to, it's all about the surface level of sixties counterculture kind of thing going on. It is very swinging sixties stuff,

audioTom11856375031: 1:22:52

In the mid in the

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:22:53

1974.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:22:54

There we go. They're going from

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:22:55

No, you're right. It is very sweet. Sixties

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:22:58

Swing 60 has got nothing to do with bond bonder. No point ever has been swinging sixties in tone. Never. He like if everyone was think of Bond, there's no way you'd think he was like a liberal. You'd think he's a Tori.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:23:10

he'd probably be Yuki,

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:23:11

it's just out of time. it's way too retro. Like the way that Dandy Warhols did retro was really great. They looked back and they were like, this was a cool time. And they fucking did their music in a sense. It was like, look back in the past and look at all the cool stuff that was going on, and that's what this song is doing. It's look at all the cool stuff that was going on with James Bond, but without any of the mystery, without any of the fucking deeper, darker, meaningness that, whatever that means. I'll give it a six because it was energetic and it was upbeat and everything, but yeah. man it is meaningless at the end of the day. it? doesn't exactly, it's very shallow, but it's still fun. I still enjoyed listening to it above some of the stuff that came earlier which is a bit more deep and dark. I just thought it was a good laugh,

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:24:04

Everything you've just said isn't what a bond theme should be. Maybe I'm too, I'm too much vests, stickler for this.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:24:10

saying. that's exactly what I'm

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:24:12

there needs to be the light in the dark. this song is all about the light. It's all about the, like James Bond walk walking into a casino with a suit on having a good time and all stuff. And there was none of the like tortured spy

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:24:25

I mean, we've said, I said what I said. We, I said this before. Spy theme is as strong as a music tone as you go to horror theme. There are certain scales, there are certain tones, there are a certain heart that it is that, like bigger genre in FE when it comes to theme music that you could tell instantly it is or isn't, and it's

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:24:45

Yeah.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:24:46

the spy theme

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:24:47

No, This is basically, I'm a spy. I've got unlimited amount of, like disposable cash to spend that the government had given me and enjoying life.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:24:56

just be closer to a comedy spy film.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:24:58

there's,

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:24:58

a bit kooky. It's almost Austin

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:25:00

yeah. Yeah, it is actually dead on. It is very Austin Powers. It's the Austin Powers of the Bond themes. It

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:25:07

I I don't think it's clever enough to be an Austin Powers theme. I,

audioTom11856375031: 1:25:12

lyrics are shy.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:25:13

yeah. It's ju it is. The way I would describe this is clunky.

audioTom11856375031: 1:25:17

it makes princes innuendos look really clever.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:25:21

oh, thanks Tom.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:25:22

To be fed out. I delete that from my notes. Actually. It sounds like Prince wrote it. IG fought that, but it song

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:25:29

you've clearly never heard a Prince song.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:25:31

I couldn't, I didn't wanna discuss it. Cause an argument,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:25:35

So that, that song scored in total then 22.3 making it the lowest scoring so far by at least 10 points. yeah, that's the definitively the worst bond theme so far. we'll move on. According to us. Yeah. But we are the,

audioDanB31856375031: 1:25:50

I believe it's the only one that never tried in the US or UK as well.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:25:55

So we're right. We're right then. We're right. No one else liked to either.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:25:58

though I've seen the film, I didn't remember the song and I've listened to it, what, maybe five times in the last week for for this show. And I can barely remember it now. It's fading. It's not a good song. But we'll move on to the next song is from 1977. And it's from The Spy Who Loved Me soundtrack. One that doesn't feature the name of the film in the title, but it is, nobody Does It Better by Kylie Simon. Clang Clang Lang Lang Clang Lang. Nobody does it better. Makes me feel sad for the rest.

audioDanB31856375031: 1:26:39

Didn't know. We'd been tuning into radio

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:26:41

Fast Good As You that's one of my favorite Alan Partridge moments in any of the series or movies or. Podcast or whatever it is that he's done. and that's how I know this song. That's how I was introduced to Nobody Does It Better. However, I love this song. I think it's brilliant. I think that Carly Simon the way she sings it, she's not like the other vocalist in that she doesn't have a belting voice. So you could put her in the same category as maybe Nancy Sinatra or Lulu before her. But what I would say is that she has this earnestness to her voice and the way that she writes her songs is the only person on this list to take a bond, woman and make her sound like a main character of the film. The main character of this song is not James Bond. It's the person he has jilted. And I love that because it's a very big departure from what the other songs have tried to be about. And at the same time, it still feels like a bond thing because it, it is got that kind of romance to it. it's mysterious

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:27:45

I feel like if a female was to sing from Russia of Love, that's what it got for me.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:27:49

it's a way better song than that for me. But

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:27:52

no, but the tone wise,

audioTom11856375031: 1:27:53

Uh,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:27:53

tone wise, you're right. You're, yeah, you're right on that. Yeah.

audioTom11856375031: 1:27:55

this song is fantastic, but you would expect it to be, when you look at who the two writers are. You've got Marvin Hamish, who is one of only two composers in history to win a Pego, which is a Pulitzer, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:28:10

Wow.

audioTom11856375031: 1:28:10

He's won all of those, and he wrote it. He wrote the music with his, then girlfriend wrote the lyrics. Who was Carol Sager? Who was then Mrs. Burt Baac. You've got some like pretty big chops there, right? In that music. And then apparently they got Kylie Simon in to sing it. And this is one of the few occasions where James Bond team gets their first choice vocalist in and they got their first choice vocalist in, cuz Carol Seger listens to your So vain, which is an absolute banger, by the way.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:28:44

yeah. Undeniable banger. Yeah. You are so vain.

audioTom11856375031: 1:28:48

Yeah. That's got

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:28:49

I hate that

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:28:50

on. cuz you are so vain. That's cuz you

audioTom11856375031: 1:28:52

your,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:28:53

is about you.

audioTom11856375031: 1:28:54

yeah, it's a banger. But

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:28:56

about me?

audioTom11856375031: 1:28:57

But anyway, the a f I voted it like 67th greatest film song of all time. It's fantastic. Kylie Simon's vocal delivery is perfect. She doesn't, she tud belt it, but doesn't, it's one of the best vocal deliveries on here. The melody of the song's nicer. Marvin Hamish references James Barry without being overt about it. Like some of the other composers on this particularly who are gonna come up a lot later, they overdo the reference, whereas this time he references it just enough. So it still sounds like a James Bond theme, but yeah, 8.5, second best on this list.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:29:32

gave this one on nine. it is very hard to still be within James Bond theme for me, but still be different. And I think this did just enough to stay in the James Bond for me. I

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:29:44

Yeah.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:29:45

the piano. when it goes up, it is not bond, but when it goes back down the scale, that's when it sounds somber and it sounds a bit more, that's when, for me it sounds bondy and the vocal performance is incredible and it's just so good. It's a great song driven emotion with emotion, but also just as enough to be new, but still stay

audioTom11856375031: 1:30:04

yeah.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:30:04

of what a bond theme should be.

audioTom11856375031: 1:30:06

What Lulu didn't do, and I'd say it's not Lulu's fault in that the bond themes that I've liked You will notice that I've liked because they're reflecting the music that was popular at the time and doing a good pop song of what was popular at the time. So this song from the year it was released sounded current. It must have done, it stayed in the chart for fucking months.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:30:31

Yeah, it was

audioTom11856375031: 1:30:31

Um, it was a big hit. And so it stayed in the chart for months because it sounded current and it was a pop song that worked really well with the modern music at the time,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:30:44

This finished the year end charts. It was the 49th biggest selling single in the uk. And it finished 83rd on US billboard Hot 100 for the year, but number one on the adult contemporary chart for the year.

audioTom11856375031: 1:30:55

Yeah.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:30:56

So it's, it did big numbers

audioTom11856375031: 1:30:58

Yeah.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:30:58

It's the first one for me since Nancy Sinatra. That sounds like it's just a song that sounds like a contemporary song from the time that happens to be a bond theme. And it's also very good. So yeah, I, I love the, I've scored it. What do I score it? I've scored an 8.9,

audioDanB31856375031: 1:31:13

I can't improve on that. I've gone 7.5. I like it. I think it's a really good song. It's a love song in a way, like a jilted love song. Like a hate, like a love to hate I've been Broken Love song.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:31:24

yeah.

audioDanB31856375031: 1:31:25

I It's just slightly off the line of being bondy for me, which is why I knocked it a little bit. It's a good song, but 7.5, that's what said Yeah.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:31:37

feel like you should have swore at the end about like 7.5 bitch.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:31:41

It's a difficult song for me to write because like I cannot get past the misogyny of James Bond. I cannot get past it. It will not leave me alone and I cannot get past it. And this song encapsulates everything. I think about the misogyny of James Bond, where he is a groomer basically. And he,

audioTom11856375031: 1:32:02

song's written from the female perspective.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:32:04

Yeah, that's why I like it because it's actually the only time I think in the whole of the like law of James Bond music. This is the only time I think we hear from the perspective of the woman that he's fucked over. I think so. I'm not a hundred percent sure. But I think it's the only theme told from that perspective. It certainly feels like it, and that's why I love it.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:32:23

That's my problem with it. It's like it's, it seemed from the perspective of a woman who's been groomed by James Bond, who's gonna fuck her over and then fuck off, and I tried get past that, he's gone seduced her and everything, and then I'm off doing my spy thing and she's left bereft and heartbroken and stuff and I just can't get over it. That's why I gave it a five because like song wise it's beautiful. It's amazing. But like lyrically, it's like there's a heartbroken woman totally heartbroken. She's fallen in love with this guy who's basically charmed her in his like weird life or whatever. And now he's just gone and she's left picking up the broken pieces and I don't like it. I really don't. This is a woman who has been totally Andrew.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:33:12

Oh, come on, this is like your fucking theme. I bet you better than many of misses in your time. This is a lay theme. There are girls who stricken around Cornwall who have been laid down with lay seed

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:33:24

I love the fact you use the Stricken, they're all stricken.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:33:28

been stricken. They have been stricken down with your mighty fallas.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:33:31

thinks that he is better than James Bond, and therefore the title is incorrect.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:33:35

The whole song is about nobody does it better and everything, and then he just disappears. He's just gone off from his spy world and she's left to pick up the pieces and get on with her life somehow.

audioTom11856375031: 1:33:45

You realize you've marked that down by victim shaming. You're basically going, I'm marking this down cuz I'm victim shaming this woman.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:33:53

Not at all. Survivors. we don't call them victims. We call'em survivors, man. It's one of the most toxic songs I've ever heard

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:34:00

I don't

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:34:01

that point would stand if it was sung by somebody else. I think if you had just a, either one of the show tunes, bellowy voices that isn't really personalized on it, it would be like that. But because it's Carly Simon and she's not very happy. She's cynical of the whole thing. And she doesn't just take it lying down. I think when she says nobody does it better, she is basically saying, James Bond, you're a fucking asshole. Uh, and I, that's how I read this song. Maybe it's because it's coming from Carly Simon and she did, you are so vain and songs like that. But I think the way she sings it is so deliberate that she's being sarcastic and she's calling out James Bond. And that's why I love this song cuz it's the only song that calls James Bond out for being an asshole in the most wonderfully sarcastic way without it being a girl power feminist anthem or anything like that. This is years before any of that. It's what they could get away with in, in those days. She didn't write the song, but the way she delivers it, it's not coming from a genuine place. I don't think Carly Simon is meant to be singing this saying, James Bond. Nobody does it better. I think she's saying, James Bond, what a fucking hero. What? Nobody does it better than James Bond. What a wonderful man. The spy who loved me That's how I read that song. and that's why I score it so highly. Whereas I think you're taking it at face value.

audioDanB31856375031: 1:35:21

in the film they end up together at the end. So I dunno,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:35:25

Okay. I haven't seen the film, so may, maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm wrong.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:35:28

The film was a script, but I think Dan has made me look at it a little bit differently, actually. Yeah, thank you for that. But I still find it just a misogynist I can't do any better. This man is better than me. Look at how great he is thing. And I, it sits really badly with me, and I don't like it. Especially in the con in the context of Bond films, where it is literally like, bond is an older man who grooms young women. That's what happens in Bond

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:35:56

Yeah.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:35:57

not that much older. you're talking like, it's like Sean coloring his seventies to getting a 14 year old. No, it's year old, a 24 year

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:36:03

an age because he is multiple people. So

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:36:05

yeah, that is true. no, no.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:36:07

your point, Martin.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:36:08

this song sits really uncomfortably with me.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:36:11

which

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:36:11

it really does.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:36:12

observation. if it does, you can't score past that, can you?

audioDanB31856375031: 1:36:16

Roger Moore was 50 when this came out out out of interest. and the lady was,

audioTom11856375031: 1:36:20

is now married to Ringo Star.

audioDanB31856375031: 1:36:22

was 30, so it's,

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:36:24

exactly.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:36:40

We're going to move on to the last song of the seventies and the last song for part one of this evening's podcast. And we're more appropriate to end up on than another Shirley Bassi track. The third one making her the only person to have done three James Bond themes. And also unusually, this one was recorded in Paris. it is moon maker from Moon maker. And I think this one is a 6.5, I think it's nonsense with a more subtle performance from Shirley Bassey. But that's not what I want from Shirley

audioTom11856375031: 1:37:14

I, I'm sorry,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:37:17

go

audioTom11856375031: 1:37:17

I'm just laughing at the fact you said the first person to do three. She's also like the only one to do two.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:37:22

Yeah, but it goes without saying. She's expanded on her on a legend by doing three. And nobody else's, no, nobody does it better than Shirley Bassey maybe, but yeah, it, this one's average. It's not really a very good I think for me, the reason why I don't like this song is cuz I haven't seen Moon Maker and. The idea of somebody raking the moon does not seem like a James Bond film. To me, that sounds more like a Wallace and Grommet film. all I can picture is Shirley Bassey being told don't sing it like the other ones. it's not about the same things. This one is about a guy who goes to the moon and makes like pretty shapes on it and therefore the song's a little bit more boring and nonsense lacking in direction. And I just don't think it's very good. It's a

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:38:07

I I gave this one a six purely because this is a good example of something that ticks all the boxes, but it's just too generic to be good. It does everything you want from a Bond film. It's opposite of a lot of the other points I've been making, but it does everything right, but not as good as before or no, nothing makes us good. It's very derivative. It's just, it's all right. It's not bad, it's just, I'd be bummed out if I watch Start of a Bond film and just came on.

audioDanB31856375031: 1:38:37

The film is a good one. It's a really good film,

audioTom11856375031: 1:38:40

is a good film.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:38:41

If you asked me to sing it now, I would say it goes Moon and it doesn't

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:38:46

Yeah, exactly.

audioDanB31856375031: 1:38:47

no,

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:38:47

That's exactly what I'd think. Yeah, I

audioDanB31856375031: 1:38:49

Tom's gonna say it's the best, Shirley Bassy one, and he's completely

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:38:53

I know. He is been, he's been building to it all episode as soon as he said there, there's one that's a lot better. I'm like, he's gonna say moon maker, and I'm like, what?

audioDanB31856375031: 1:39:01

Yeah.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:39:01

Oh, come on. It's so derivative of every other bond theme. you give me a backstory. It's got nothing to do with the sound of the actual song.

audioDanB31856375031: 1:39:08

the writer is X or Y,

audioTom11856375031: 1:39:10

no. no.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:39:11

if you tell me the songwriter wants to rewrote happy birthday for something I'm, I

audioTom11856375031: 1:39:15

No Sh Shirley Bass's vocal performance on this is better than her vocal performance on either Diamonds of Forever or on, on Goldfinger.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:39:25

from a subtlety perspective.

audioTom11856375031: 1:39:27

from a technical perspective. Not even subtlety from a technical perspective. Absolutely. I work in musical theater with singers. She's using multiple facets of her voice. She's very in between chest and head voice. She's manipulating the point of which she's breaking. She's not just belting the fuck out of it, she rescues this song. So this song was a shit song. Paul Williams wrote the lyrics. They all hated, they brought Hal David in instead. John Barry's given up the brass heavy sound because he's to decided to go into his eighties phase where, which he used in somewhere in Time, which is really somewhere in time. The soundtrack's really good.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:40:05

about the 80 Era.

audioTom11856375031: 1:40:06

Yeah. John Barry ruins this song, not Shirley Bassey, John Barry's decided he's not gonna do brass heavy stuff anymore. But he's not really learnt how to orchestrate anything else. The change bond theme, it's all about the brass section, right? You listen to Goldfinger, the best bits of it as a brass section. So he's still got John Barry doing it, and he's decided that after having done the Man with a Golden Gun where, which the, was absolute shit. He's not gonna do brass anymore. It is basically the orchestra equivalent of cutting off his nose despite your face. Admittedly, when he goes on to do films in the eighties, like somewhere in time, he doesn't have the brass section. It works perfectly well. And he did really born free, came out pretty well. The thing that I, the thing that upsets me about this is that they tried to get Kate Bush to sing it, and I would've loved to have had Kate Bush do this.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:41:00

That's a weird one because that's not a name I expected you to say. But this is one that I did earmark I think if they had got somebody else to sing it, I could have been more on board with it, because it's more an r and Someone like a Marvin Gay or something like that would've done a better job. It could, if they had gone in with this like sensuality vibe to it, it would've been good, but it's just not,

audioTom11856375031: 1:41:21

Shirley Bassey was like fourth choice. There were a few other people, but Kate Bush was in the running. Shirley Bass's vocal on this, the way she controls it is the most impressive. So for me, this is a six

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:41:34

about the control. Yeah.

audioTom11856375031: 1:41:35

Yeah. This is a 6.5 for me as well. What's funny is it her in interviews when she talks about it, she's like, I don't feel like this is my James Bond theme, and she's barely performed it when she performed the other two loads.

audioDanB31856375031: 1:41:48

Because they're better

audioTom11856375031: 1:41:50

I like this song better than either of the other two that she did. I think lyrically how David came in and has managed to make a decent song with the title Moonraker, the lyrics in this are better than the lyrics in Goldfinger.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:42:05

Can somebody explain to me what a moon maker is

audioDanB31856375031: 1:42:07

It's a big ship, isn't it?

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:42:09

Right. Okay. So it's not a man whose plan was to write fuck you on the moon with a rake, that would've been great. I've certainly got an idea for a script. Guys.

audioTom11856375031: 1:42:19

okay. So it, it means, so,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:42:21

It's on the moon.

audioTom11856375031: 1:42:23

A moon raker is a moon sail.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:42:25

Oh, okay. I know nothing about sailing either.

audioTom11856375031: 1:42:28

There you go. I could, I can Google really quick while still looking at the camera.

audioDanB31856375031: 1:42:33

For me, it's the worst of the Shirley Bassy songs. I get what you're saying about her vocal performance being alright, and Yeah, I, that's probably true, but weren't the strength of the other songs anyway. They were just really good pieces of music, really good songs.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:42:47

it was about the melodrama, I think.

audioDanB31856375031: 1:42:50

it was, this one to me is bland. It's boring. It doesn't really do anything

audioTom11856375031: 1:42:54

The fact it's got some dynamic range, even if it's not as stronger song, if they put some dynamic range in the other songs, I'll probably like them more.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:43:02

As a sci-fi kid, like I, I love sci-fi and it's probably one of my favorite James Bond films as a kid, because it had space in it didn't it, had like rock rocket ships and stuff, you know?

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:43:15

It was Nice for you because they thought the world was flat up until that point, then they looked up and there's a big fucking James Bond weapon in the sky's. Like, how'd they, how'd that get there?

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:43:24

It was James Bond that proved the world was round, know? Um, but no I was into sci-fi, so this was my favorite, like of all the Bond films, this was my favorite because it had spaceships and it had jaws in it as well know, the

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:43:38

this the one with yours in it?

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:43:39

Yes. It was fucking crazy. Back in the eighties that we lived in back in those days. But as far as yeah, the theme tune. Absolutely forgettable

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:43:50

Yeah.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:43:51

Yeah.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:43:52

Moon raker wider than a moon. We're crossing the moon in style.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:44:00

Dan's right every time in my head, I think what's

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:44:05

Yeah.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:44:06

The music had no bearing on any part of the film. For me, it was all about space shuttles going to space and stuff, and space shuttles were new back then, yeah, just a forgettable theme gene. But a fucking absolutely memorable period of James Bond. It was Roger Moore, doing his thing,

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:44:25

I'm just hearing that that Roger Moore has pulled in to the service station but he won't be here for another hour or two. So we're gonna have to do a part two to this video before he gets here. Cuz that was the surprise is that Mo Roger Moore is coming despite having been dead for a few years I couldn't get any of the bonds to appear. And we don't have all the time in the world. So we are gonna have to end this one at for part one only. But this gives me the, my favorite opportunity, cuz now I get to use the words to be continued at the bottom and there's a sequel coming. Jay's Bond movies don't get sequels, really. They technically, they are all sequels. They, yeah. But they don't actually,

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:45:02

No, it's a little bit like Zelda. It starts from day dot every film, doesn't it

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:45:07

This is gonna be a direct continuity sequel. So part two will be the eighties and onwards. In the lead by 46 points is Dr. No with the James Bond theme. And then after that is Paul McCartney and Wings' Liver Let Die with 43.1.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:45:24

Wins anything.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:45:25

We have Jack White. We have Chris Cornell coming up Adele and Sam Smith. Quite a lot to discuss in the next episode. This will be a two-parter but it won't be long until part two is out so look forward to that in your ears. In the meantime, make sure you follow us on Twitter at Access Pod on the pat on, pay five pound a month or listen for free on any given platform that, that you want any one of them? some. It's not, but

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:45:50

I'm certainly opinion just pronounced Patreon. But continue

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:45:52

I was listening to a podcast the other day and I found a 50% of them say Paton and 50% say Patreon. And I was

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:45:58

It's like, the difference between people who sit down to wipe and stand up to wipe it's staggeringly equal.

audioDanB31856375031: 1:46:03

Wait. People stand up to white.

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:46:05

I'm saying this now because most people who have heard that for the first time get blown away. Like you just have Dan, I guarantee you go to work and ask. It's weirdly about half. Yeah.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:46:16

49% are women. And 51% are men all the other way round. So

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:46:20

ask at work.

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:46:22

are we talking about the male population or the general

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:46:25

with nails cuz I

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:46:26

Oh, I was gonna say, cuz it's probably about a 50 50 split if you're just talking men and women.

audiomartynley51856375031: 1:46:31

Just make sure you wip in front to back,

audioAlexEvens21856375031: 1:46:33

now I go back to back all the time. I live life dangerously

audioDanielWhitell41856375031: 1:46:38

And on that bombshell Stay wipey.

audioDanB31856375031: 1:46:40

They clean.