A THEME TO A KILL: JOHN BARRY ...AND JAMES BOND

http://www.steynonline.com/content/view/4199/28/

with Mark and his guests David Arnold, Don Black and Tim Rice

Steyn on People
Saturday, 25 June 2011

For the first of our summer audio specials, we celebrate the work of James 
Bond's music man and the composer who defined the sound of spy music. John 
Barry died earlier this year, and we had so much response to Mark's 007 
double-bill Song of the Week that he decided it would be nice to hear a 
bit more of the music, and also some of the stories behind it from John's 
friends and colleagues. So to discuss the Barry style Mark rounded up two 
Oscar-winning lyricists and a composer. All three were part of the big 
memorial concert last Monday night at the Royal Albert Hall in London, so, 
if you couldn't get tickets, we hope you'll dial up our podcast as the 
next best thing:

Tim Rice and Don Black were guests on our Christmas Show two years ago, 
when they touched briefly on their Bond songs. Tim is best-known as the 
lyricist of Evita, Aladdin and The Lion King, but he also collaborated 
with John Barry on the theme song for Octopussy. And Don has written more 
James Bond lyrics than anybody else, from Thunderball to The Man With The 
Golden Gun, Diamonds Are Forever to The World Is Not Enough.

Joining Tim and Don is David Arnold, the composer of Independence Day, 
Godzilla, the remake of Shaft, Hot Fuzz, Voyage Of The Dawn Treader and 
the TV series Little Britain. But he's also John Barry's successor in the 
James Bond music chair. He's composed every Bond picture of the last 15 
years, from Tomorrow Never Dies to A Quantum Of Solace, and is about the