Bond, James Bond

Post 5 of 90.

I was up late working on a vocal-based song with three NST guitars as backing. A long way to go with this one. The vocal has to take center stage, so the guitars have to be relatively simple in comparison. Plenty of patterned picking going on, but it's more to provide a textural backing. Once I have the vocal melodies all in place, I can think about inserting little wrinkles into the guitar parts in the gaps and transitions to make it more interesting.

Watched a lot of old James Bond movies today (it was the "007 in '07" festival on satellite TV). Were Diamonds Are Forever and Goldfinger always that ridiculous? I read an essay once talking about how a lot of the Bond movies intentionally engage in ultra-ironic comedy, and that only a few movies showcase the ruthless Bond of the Fleming novels (I think Daniel Craig's Bond definitely qualifies as the ruthless variety... until I eventually notice incongruities in the new movies, too). In any case, I found myself laughing hysterically at a lot of things in these two. And Felix Leiter seemed weirdly obsessed with Bond's ability to bed women during this era. But then, someone has to lead the Beta dog cheering section, I guess, and Bond will always be the Alpha.

The Spy Who Loved Me was my hands down favorite for many years, even though I don't buy Roger Moore as Bond these days. He was the Bond I grew up with, so his version has sentimental value to me.

I hear the soundtrack music much differently than I used to, in that I notice how sounds have dated along with intervals and particular lines jumping out at me. The Spy Who Loved Me was hilariously disco-fied.

Now down to the studio for some practice.