No Time to Die **Spoilers from post #1449 onward**

Skylinehead

You Know My Name is anything but mediocre.

fitz

Skylinehead wrote: »

You Know My Name is anything but mediocre.

Cornell's voice was perfect for a Bond song, and it was the best Bond theme in years. Goldeneye aside, the songs for Brosnan's movies were completely forgettable, and the songs since You Know My Name have been weak.

Drumpot

Skylinehead wrote: »

You Know My Name is anything but mediocre.

Agreed, I also think Casino Royale is Craig’s best Bond movie.

MisterAnarchy

pixelburp wrote: »

Yeah, imagine a Bond movie hiring a popular music artist to write a theme tune! As if eh??!!!

Plenty of other popular artists they could choose ,ones whose major demographic is not hormonal teenage girls .

The only decent Bond theme of recent years is Skyfall. The other Craig themes have been mediocre and Brosnan's were at best forgettable and the case of Madonna, unlistenable.

The World is Not Enough is a great song ,Goldeneye is a fine song too, written by our own Bono and The Edge.

Spectre was a poor song ,QOS is the worst Bond theme by a distance though.
Skyfall and You Know My Name are excellent.

David Arnold was an excellent composer.

The original song for Tomorrow Never Dies wasnt bad either ,KD Lang

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zIbOL8SSCY

Shirley Bassey had this alternative song for Quantum of Solace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE497uouhZc

bnt

fitz wrote: »

I think she's a breath of fresh air in pop music, and a terrific choice. Her brother's production is top notch. Genuinely excited to hear this.

If past experience is any guide, the artists don't just produce a song in their usual style: it gets more of a Bond treatment. For example, Garbage was started by a top producer, Butch Vig, best known for Nirvana's Nevermind. When they did the title song for The World Is Not Enough, however, composer David Arnold co-wrote and co-produced it. (The result is in my top 3 Bond themes.)

fitz

bnt wrote: »

If past experience is any guide, the artists don't just produce a song in their usual style: it gets more of a Bond treatment. For example, Garbage was started by a top producer, Butch Vig, best known for Nirvana's Nevermind. When they did the title song for The World Is Not Enough, however, composer David Arnold co-wrote and co-produced it. (The result is in my top 3 Bond themes.)

Pretty sure Arnold's input was just around the orchestral arrangements, but yeah, there's always the risk of getting lost in that part of the production.
Loved the first couple of Garbage albums, but didn't think much of TWINE, I think it was them trying to hard to write a classic Bond theme and they left too much of their style out of the songwriting. Not really surprising when they're a band of 3 individual producers who write and collaborate remotely.

I think Billie Eilish + orchestra could be something really special tbh.

The last three Bond songs have been godawful. The Jack White/Alicia Keys song would have been fine with one or other of them, but her parts sounded out of her range, and their harmonies and vocal timing were sloppy as all hell... Like they threw it together and said "ah, close enough"... Had the sound of two people who never actually met and just did their parts separately... No feel or groove between them.
Skyfall is a terrible song. It's dull as dishwater, and you can hear that Adele was still recovering from vocal cord nodules... Vocal is weak and pitchy.
As for Spectre... A vocal like a strangled cat. F*cking terrible. The Radiohead song would have been an infinitely better choice.

Wedwood

A bit of Bond song trivia - Highest Chart position by Bond actor:

Sean Connery - 1963, James Bond Theme, #13
George Lazenby - 1969, We have all the time in the World, #3
Roger Moore - 1985, A view to a kill , #2
Timothy Dalton - 1987, The living daylights, #5
Pierce Brosnan - 2002, Die another day, #3
Daniel Craig - 2015, The writings on the wall, # 1

And the best Bond songs?
Goldfinger - #21
Live and let die - #9
Nobody does it better - #7

Worst?
The man with the golden gun - didn’t chart !

loyatemu

Skylinehead wrote: »

You Know My Name is anything but mediocre.

Can't remember anything about it tbh.

I liked the Jack White one at the time, but heard it again recently and it's not great.

I'd like to have heard Arctic Monkeys have a go at it, I think Alex Turner could have come up with something interesting. But they're probably too "old" for it now, they've gone for more chart-y artists for the last few movies.

Corben Dallas

Billie Eilish is a v poor choice to get this. It smacks of 'whats flavour of the month in music... lets get that'.

Could be a disaster... just cant get anything from her music other than Lo-Fi Slacker... how she's successful is anyone's guess.

Artic Monkeys or Mark Ronson would be much better choices.

(I know Mark Ronson was supposed to do a Bond Theme with Amy Winehouse, but did'nt come off... now that WOULD have been a good one.)

MisterAnarchy

fitz wrote: »

Pretty sure Arnold's input was just around the orchestral arrangements, but yeah, there's always the risk of getting lost in that part of the production.
Loved the first couple of Garbage albums, but didn't think much of TWINE, I think it was them trying to hard to write a classic Bond theme and they left too much of their style out of the songwriting. Not really surprising when they're a band of 3 individual producers who write and collaborate remotely.

Arnold wrote the song with Don Black ,Garbage only performed it.

From wikipedia

Arnold collaborated with lyricist Don Black on the song.[1] Black, with 30 years of experience writing Bond themes, wrote the lyrics to Tom Jones's "Thunderball", Shirley Bassey's "Diamonds Are Forever", Lulu's "The Man with the Golden Gun" and k.d. lang's closing credits theme, "Surrender", from Tomorrow Never Dies.[5] Arnold and Black met several times to discuss lyrics for "The World Is Not Enough", also collaborating by phone, fax and email.[1] According to Arnold, he "strung some la-las together, and all of a sudden the [song] came to life". By the end of 1998 he and Black finished the music and lyrics, except for the bridge (a contrasting section of about eight bars).[1]

ricero

You only live twice by Nancy Sinatra and Live and let die are my favourite Bond tunes.

Shocked to hear Elish got the gig. Hopefully it's a good tune.

loyatemu

OHMSS probably has the 2 best Bond tunes - Nat King Coles Louis Armstrong's classic "We have all the time in the world" over the closing credits and John Barry's majestic title theme, memorably covered by the Propellerheads with latterday Bond composer David Arnold:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O1_0hikl-A

Goodshape

In my mid-30s and I feel like Billie Eilish is my generation's "ah ****e, I must be old now" moment.

Have listened to a few songs, even tried the album. It's grand I guess? But mostly nah. Don't really get it and, more than that, don't really care.

But it is at least an interesting choice for a Bond theme song.

Cork Boy 53

Showing my age here but when I first saw this news my reaction was Billie who?

Anyway for me the best Bond theme song is Goldfinger followed by Nobody Does It Better and Live And Let Die.

pixelburp

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

Plenty of other popular artists they could choose ,ones whose major demographic is not hormonal teenage girls .

Like who? I'd be the last person anyone should look to for contemporary musicians but I'm just curious who would scratch the popular itch without dipping into the wrong demographic.

Had a listen to Ellish's music and it's fine. Nothing I'd listen to, but it seems competently put together and creative. Didn't find it particularly "hormonal" either

DrumSteve

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

Arnold wrote the song with Don Black ,Garbage only performed it.

From wikipedia

I'm presuming that Arnold and Don Black wrote it almost directly after listening to Superstar by The Carpenters.

ricero

Licence to kill by Gladys Knight is an underrated Bond song

B.A._Baracus

ricero wrote: »

Licence to kill by Gladys Knight is an underrated Bond song

I'd say it's up there with the best. It's just so epic.
Honestly, i'd put it top 3 easy thinking about it now. James and Felix parachute down for felix's wedding after capturing sanchez then the big "dunnnnnnnnnnn DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNN.... gotta hold onto your love... do do do do DUNNNNN DUNNNNNN" :pac:

Sleepy

Honestly couldn't care less about the theme song, haven't for years. I think the last one I actually liked was The Living Daylights!

Drumpot

ricero wrote: »

Licence to kill by Gladys Knight is an underrated Bond song

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

I'd say it's up there with the best. It's just so epic.
Honestly, i'd put it top 3 easy thinking about it now. James and Felix parachute down for felix's wedding after capturing sanchez then the big "dunnnnnnnnnnn DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNN.... gotta hold onto your love... do do do do DUNNNNN DUNNNNNN" :pac:

I think that was the first bond I saw in the cinema with my dad. Always have a soft spot for the Dalton movies.

CastorTroy

Just remember if you want to sound like you know what you're talking about with the young ones that it's pronounced "Billie Aye-lish" and not like the Irish "Élish"

Cork Boy 53

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

I'd say it's up there with the best. It's just so epic.
Honestly, i'd put it top 3 easy thinking about it now. James and Felix parachute down for felix's wedding after capturing sanchez then the big "dunnnnnnnnnnn DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNN.... gotta hold onto your love... do do do do DUNNNNN DUNNNNNN" :pac:

Also the song that played over the closing credits of LTK, If You Asked Me To by Patti Labelle, is often forgotten about but I think it is very good.

MisterAnarchy

Cork Boy 53 wrote: »

Also the song that played over the closing credits of LTK, If You Asked Me To by Patti Labelle, is often forgotten about but I think it is very good.

That's the beauty and the genius of the Bond theme songs ,most of them are timeless .

Shelga

Listening to You Only Live Twice by Nancy Sinatra too, pretty great song!

Except now I think of Mad Men, not Bond, when I hear it...

seenitall

loyatemu wrote: »

Nat King Coles classic "We have all the time in the world" over the closing credits

I don't know about that Nat King Cole connection, but it was Louis Armstrong who sang that song for the movie - it's really unforgettable!

One of my favourite songs ever.

ETA: Another lesser known one that I like is 'If There Was a Man' by The Pretenders, from TLD.

Hector Savage

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51133194

Bond will remain male ...

"I believe we should be creating new characters for women - strong female characters."

"I'm not particularly interested in taking a male character and having a woman play it. I think women are far more interesting than that."

Spot on indeed!!

ManOfMystery

Probably get slated for this, but I'd love Muse to have a crack at a Bond song. "You know my name" is my favourite one to date because it's a rock song and suited the (new at the time) 'gritty' Bond - they have a knack for combining piano and rock and so on and could make something equally epic.

Someone DIY'd it already on Youtube

pixelburp

Hector Savage wrote: »

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51133194

Bond will remain male ...

Spot on indeed!!

Absolutely nobody outside Twitter & clickbait outlets ever seriously contemplated making Bond a woman. Talk about a contrived outrage loop.

Dades

Maybe nobody with any power contemplated it, but it was annoying to hear people like Brosnan and Cillian Murphy casually throwing it out there and stirring up a non-idea.

pixelburp

Dades wrote: »

Maybe nobody with any power contemplated it, but it was annoying to hear people like Brosnan and Cillian Murphy casually throwing it out there and stirring up a non-idea.

Perhaps, but their answers only ever struck as half-hearted "yeah, sure, great idea!", the kind the uninvolved might give - or indeed the trolling. These actors have to do tedious press junkets, being asked the most asinine or plain stupid questions, so I can sorta forgive throwing out answers you know the interviewer wants to hear. As you say though, nobody in power - or with an ounce of respectability - ever took the idea seriously. But, to mangle a quote from Dune, The Outrage Must Flow.

It must take the patience of a saint to sit there, patiently fielding blather; I always recall that infamous question asked of The Corrs during one of these puff pieces, "so when did you guys first meet?".