The next John Barry soundtrack we’re going to talk about in #Johnuary is The Man With the Golden Gun.
Now we’re talking. This is a personal favourite of mine. And not just because Lulu’s Scottish. This is a song I sometimes listen to when I just want a pick me up! It’s straight in there with the big brass, no holding back, and then following it up with funky, distorted 70s guitar. And then it follows that up with Lulu’s incredible raspy voice. Hard to beat. I like how it has a slowdown in the middle and then picks up the pace again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqnRhYZRpX4
Interestingly John Barry wasn’t very impressed with it himself. He rates the song and score as one of the weakest of all his Bond works. “It’s the one I hate most… it just never happened for me.” It was also the only Bond movie title track to not chart as a single in the UK or US. I’m personally surprised as I think it’s a great song.
The Man With The Golden Gun was also the first Bond film to change the ‘dum-di-di-dum-dum’ bit of the James Bond Theme in the gun barrel opening from guitar to strings and trumpet.
There’s an interesting claim by Alice Cooper that his song “Man With The Golden Gun” was going to be used until the producers dropped it and went with Lulu’s song instead. I’m not sure how that would have happened as I assume John Barry was always writing the theme song along with the score. Cooper’s song is on his album Muscle of Love, if anyone wants to listen to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R500VKA9-Zo
Interestingly, from the rest of the movie score a part of the track ‘Hip’s Trip’ was sampled by The Prodigy in the song Mindfields.
There’s also a great fun jazzy instrumental version of The Man With The Golden Gun on the soundtrack too which is well worth a listen.