This Week In Bond (July 12th, 2022)
Rustling in the mangroves
The last surviving male architect of the cinematic James Bond died yesterday. Monty Norman passed at the age of 94. He out-lived 007 himself Sean Connery, producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, director Terence Young, production designer Sir Ken Adam, writer Richard Maibaum, editor Peter Hunt, and cinematographer Ted Moore. Of the creative team that brought ‘Dr. No’ to the big screen, only screenwriter Johanna Harwood remains with us.
He also outlived composer John Barry, who many fans took to social media to crown the ‘real creator’ of The James Bond Theme upon news of Norman’s passing. Known for litigation, Norman’s passing was a green light for this controversial topic to do the rounds again as in UK law you cannot defame a dead person.
Monty Norman on location in Jamaica for Dr. No
Which ever side of the debate you subscribe to, even the defence’s expert witness at the High Court trial that Norman instigated against The Sunday Times in 2001 agreed that two bars of Norman’s Indian-themed song ‘Bad Sign, Good Sign’ from his abandoned musical ‘A House For Mr. Biswas’ were a key component to the final piece. By all accounts, Barry was parachuted in by producers in June 1962 to fix the theme at short notice after Norman’s other suggestions of ‘Dr. No’s Fantasy’ and ‘Underneath The Mango Tree’ were rejected for the main titles. Norman, who couldn’t write music to a composer’s level, handed in his notes. It did not even state a tempo for the melody.
Barry’s work was significant and transformative. Many interviews with Barry over the years pushed him on the topic and he eventually relented. This angered Norman, so much so, that in the 1970s he instructed his solicitor to demand that Barry apologize in public for claiming he wrote it.
Barry called his bluff. Barry said that he would gladly apologize in Billboard magazine. On the right side of the page he would put his manuscript for the ‘James Bond Theme’ and on the left he would put the manuscript from Norman that he was given by the Head of Music Publishing for United Artists Music. Underneath he would write: I APOLOGIZE. I DID NOT WRITE THE ‘JAMES BOND THEME.’
He never heard from the solicitor again.
Monty Norman outside the High Court in 2001. A lot of news coverage of his passing used court appearance photos.
What the issue really boiled down to was that Saltzman paid Barry a flat fee to take the idea from Norman and create a fully fledged title theme. When seeing ‘Dr. No’ for the first time, Barry was taken aback to hear so much of his title theme used throughout the score of the film when it was only supposed to be for the title credits. A heated discussion ensued with Saltzman, who being the shrewd businessman, convinced Barry to take a bath on this one (letting Norman keep the composer credit) on the promise that Barry would score ‘From Russia With Love’ and subsequent Bond films. Keen to break in the film scoring work, Barry took the deal.
It probably cost Barry millions in royalties for ‘The James Bond Theme’ over the years, but he went on to score over 100 films and won 5 Oscars and is one of the most beloved motion picture composers of all time. Whereas, Norman proved that in life you only have to be lucky once, and that effort is no coefficient to invention. He regularly collected 6-figure royalty checks for that one piece of music up until the 1990s when they turned in to 7-figure checks thanks to the additional use of the music in James Bond video games. He never scored another major motion picture.
A chapter or two could yet be added to the history of The James Bond Theme. With Norman’s passing, his rights to the music move to his estate. Well-funded organizations are buying up musician’s rights catalogues for hundreds of millions with a long term investment strategy. $5b was spent last year, a chunk of which went on the catalogues of David Bowie and John Legend. Owning the rights to The James Bond Theme would be very attractive to these buyers as they could license it for commercial use and easily earn their money back several times over in the decades to come. Danjaq and/or Amazon may have to dig deep into their pockets to maintain control of the intellectual property, much like when they bought all the Bond rights from Kevin McClory’s estate to avoid any prospect of another rogue film.
Listen
Octopussy is back in UK cinemas this week! The James Bond & Friends weekly debrief series takes on Roger Moore’s all-time-high with panelists Calvin Dyson, Joe Darlington, and Bill Koenig.
Watch
If you can listen to The Beatles without earmuffs, you may still struggle with this one. Here is Monty Norman’s original song “Bad Sign, Good Sign'“ that he recycled as the core of what would become “The James Bond Theme”
MI6 Archives
Whilst collecting materials for our Peter Lamont special publication on ‘Octopussy’ a couple of years ago, we catalogued all the poster designs for the films. This concept by artist Dan Goozee really stands out and was one of several proposed for the campaign.
Exit Through The Gift Shop
If you missed MI6 Confidential magazine last year, you can buy all 5 issues as a bundle and enjoy a discount! Across the issues we dipped in to the use of famous art in the films, celebrated the 50th anniversary of ‘Diamonds Are Forever,’ exhaustively covered the release and reception to ‘No Time To Die,’ and shone the spotlight on the key events of the franchise through the 1980s.
More Bond
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Although Monty Norman composed the James Bond Theme, credit should have also been given to John Barry for injecting life into the piece as arranger!
No matter who we credit for the "James Bond Theme" it's an iconic and great piece of music. I'd love to have more artists produce different variations. I have several and love the different nuances of interpretation.