Barry........John Barry

The first time I heard John Barry's music, I found myself overwhelmed by the wonderful atmosphere that Barry managed to capture for John Guillermin's KING KONG (no, not Peter Jackson's version, this was the Dino de Laurentiis production of the seventies). The rich, warm sound that this score had, was present also one year later in The Deep, an underwater thriller with for the time rather daring song lyrics. The year after that, Barry returned to familiar grounds (for him) with MOONRAKER.

From this point on, I also began to look for Mr. Barry's older material and found many gems in his repertoire, ranging from From Russia With Love (which sort of set a phenomenal example for the early Bond films with a dynamic, vibrant score), Seance on a Wet Afternoon, (a chilling kidnapping thriller with a subtle, yet menacing score) King Rat (a fine example of a musical anti-war statement), Goldfinger (the best example in the early Bond films, musically very rich and powerful), and several others.

Born Free also was a phenomenal success in the 1960s: based on a true story of a couple working in Africa and befriending a lyoness. This proved a very fertile ground for Barry's music as Born Free was his first Academy Award win. Two years later, The Lion in Winter presented him again with an Academy Award. For this medieval drama Barry concocted a chilling orchestral theme, backed by a mixed chorus, resulting in a dramatic cantata. He would use this method again for The Last Valley.



Barry developed his warm orchestral sound in the 1980s with films like Body Heat, Frances, Out of Africa and Dances With Wolves, but also found occasion to experiment with synthesizers on JAGGED EDGE. Out of Africa and Dances With Wolves both again brought him Academy Awards but due to health problems, his productivity decreased during the last years of the 80s and the early 90s. Although Barry did make a successful comeback with Chaplin, Cry, the Beloved Country, The Scarlet Letter and The Specialist, he ceased his work after having scored Enigma in the early 2000s. Mr. Barry is now enjoying his retirement but of course, still has many fans.

His unprecedented 11 James Bond film scores (From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever, The Man With The Golden Gun, Moonraker, Octopussy, View To A Kill, and finally The Living Daylights) give him the honor of being the major musical contributor to the successful James Bond franchise, but his talents have reached far beyond this genre.

The wonderful John Barry sound is a unique sound in the history of cinema and though we wish Mr. Barry a happy retirement, we do hope that one of these days he may just show up to do some work again for as one Bond song stated: Nobody Does It Better.