I was shocked earlier this week to hear about the loss of John Barry. John Barry, who has been mentioned on this blog before, was the first composer for film music that made me want to collect just that kind of music.
Sure I listened to pop songs on the radio when I was a kid but nothing spoke to me as much as film music did and John Barry was the first composer to lure me in. It was his fantastic score for Dino De Laurentiis' 1976 KING KONG, that made me a film music fan.
In finding out more about this composer, I soon learned to recognize his warm, melodious scores from his films of the 1960s (The Knack, King Rat, Lion in Winter, Born Free) to the films in the 1980s, (Body Heat, Out of Africa, Dances With Wolves and later Chaplin). But John Barry will of course always be remembered for having almost singlehandedly creating the musical landscape of the James Bond films. He scored 11 Bondfilms from 1963 till 1987.
And even if you don't want to hear that right now, he composed music that was of a much more personal, intimate nature during his whole career. Hanover Street, a romantic jewel, that was long unavailable for his fans as well as The Beyondness of Things, one of his later albums not related to any particular film.
John Barry was one of the greatest talents in the music of the cinema.
I will miss him dearly.
