James Bond's Spycraft Sound

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music, Music Interviews, Music History, Music Commentary

4.6 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 19 October 2021

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The latest installment of the James Bond franchise, No Time To Die, closes the book on the Daniel Craig era of the international superspy. The film’s theme song, “No Time to Die,” by Billie Eilish, Finneas, and Hans Zimmer, also marks the conclusion of one of the great musical sagas in recent cinema. Monty Norman’s and John Barry’s now-iconic “James Bond Theme,” written for 1962’s Dr. No, has remained a constant across six decades of espionage and one-liners. But every new Bond theme has also developed subtle variations on the original that reflect the character’s changes over time. On this episode of Switched On Pop, we uncover what inspired the theme, how it’s changed, and why it almost never happened. FURTHER JAMES BOND THEME READING The James Bond Songs: Pop Anthems of Late Capitalism by Adrian Daub and Charles Kronengold The Music of James Bond - Jon Burlingame Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, exciting stuff! Switched on pop has been nominated for a signal award for best music podcast,
0:07.1	but we can only win if you vote. Find a link in our show notes or go to vote.signaloward.com
0:13.9	and please vote for Switched on pop in the music category. Your support means everything to us.
0:31.0	Welcome to Switched on pop. I'm songwriter Charlie Harding and I'm musicologist Sloan.
0:35.7	Nate Sloan. You've already ruined my bit, but what do you think of when I play this chord?
0:45.7	I think I've screened slowly being covered with blood as we witness the intro to a James Bond movie.
0:52.9	Yes, exactly. Recently, the final film in the Daniel Craig James Bond era was released. It's called
1:00.5	No Time to Die after a nearly two-year delay. It continues one of the most iconic musical themes in
1:10.6	pop culture. What I want to do today is understand where does this James Bond sound come from?
1:18.0	How does it inform the creation of the whole idea of the Bond song? You know, those songs
1:24.5	on the opening sequence. Oh, I know, Charles. Done by pop stars. You know what's up? Oh, yeah. And maybe
1:30.3	we can ask what does it all mean? I am so down. I had a cassette tape with the original James Bond theme
1:36.8	when I was in like middle school that I wore out. I love this soundtrack and I want to learn more
1:42.9	about it. Where do we start? Where are we going? Take me on this journey.
1:57.1	The original 1962 release of the James Bond theme from Dr. No, it is completely timeless.
2:13.5	Hmm. I totally agree. And yet, listening to it now, one thing that strikes me is just how
2:19.2	richly orchestrated this theme is. Oh, yeah, absolutely. The song is crafted with the lushness to
2:27.3	reflect the playboy aesthetic that James Bond is and was when he was first created in the 1950s as
2:36.5	a sort of male escapeous fantasy by Ian Fleming, the author and former British Naval Intelligence
2:41.3	Officer. He wrote it at his golden eye estate in Jamaica to distract himself from his pending
2:49.6	wedding to his pregnant fiance. And in so many ways, the music I think does perfectly reflect
2:55.9	the character. Are you saying this is the musical personification of toxic masculinity? Yeah,
	...

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