Customer Reviews

The Living Daylights: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack [Enhanced CD]

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Barry. John Barry.

If you see the film, listen to the soundtrack album, or even read this series of reviews, you'll discover that John Barry's apparent final Bond score is among the very best.

Five out of five stars go to Barry's original music -- and there really isn't a single dud in the lot. Among my personal favourites are the various instrumental incarnations of "Where Has Every Body Gone?," as well as "Ice Chase" (not a creative title, but the fun of the music more than makes up for it), oh hell...the entire score is great.

This is what film music should be. It paints an emotional picture using sounds; and Barry is truly an artist who's in his element when he scores James Bond.

An especially exceptional job was done on the re-issue -- thanks to Lukas Kendall, whose production efforts show that he knows what film soundtracks are all about. The many extra bonus tracks make this release even more pleasurable listening for which we are grateful.

For his final time, the man who has created the music for many of the James Bond films, John Barry gives it all for his last, and one of the best soundtracks in the series! A-ha performs the title song, The Living Daylights and it was well recieved by fans, obviously because of the easy route given to them for the previous rock group, Duran Duran. John Barry then delivers some of his best work for the last time. Ice Chase, Hercules Takes Off and Final Confrontation are favorites because of their exciting upbeat tempo.
Another piece that adds to this glorious soundtrack is the additional songs If There Was A Man and Where Has Everybody Gone performed by The Pretenders. Since this CD was rereleased, there are several bonus tracks on here as well. John Barry makes his cameo (and only) appearance in the film The Living Daylights as the conductor of the symphony at the end of the film. John Barry has given us fabulous title songs by many respected artists and additional music that would make us flip! He is the true man that deserves all the credit for the music and this soundtracks is a perfect way to end his magnificent career! A 5 star soundtrack! Hats off to John Barry!

007 fans were delighted to hear that, indeed, James Bond was back in "The Liviving Daylights" (1988). The series had disappeared with the last Roger Moore entry ("A View to a Kill"), but had bounded back with the first of two films with Timothy Dalton. John Barry also returned with a solid hit song performed by Aa-ha and an impressive score. Barry produced an extensive instrumental score that included a number of secondary themes, "Necros Attacks," "Kara's Theme," and what has become a new tradition, a second vocal, "If There Was a Man," performed by the Pretenders (actually there was a third vocal in the film and on the album, also performed by the Pretenders, "Where Has Everybody Gone?"). The film included another treat for John Barry fans. If you look closely, Barry can be seen conducting a symphony orchestra. The soundtrack was re-released in 1998 by MGM and Rykodisc in a "Deluxe Edition" that included nine bonus tracks and some action footage for PCs. It is an impressive product, and as it turns out, a worthy tribute to John Barry's work on the Bond projects. Overall, Barry's music for "The Living Daylights" ranks among the best of the Bond soundtracks (and with the bonus tracks, this is one of the most complete Bond soundtracks). The title song provided Barry with a flexible theme that appears in several variations and combinations such as "Hercules Takes Off" and "Assassin." And again, there is a knockout piece for the pre-title sequence, but on this recording (bonus track #13, "Exercise At Gibraltar") almost all of the music for the scene is included. However, one of the best selections here, and perhaps in all of Barry's Bond music, is another one of the bonus tracks, "Final Confrontation," a dramatic and fitting climax to the film, and a worthy coda for Barry and Bond. The disc is handsomely produced, and is something of a must for Barry and Bond fans, especially since, to date, "The Living Daylights" was John Barry's final entry in the Bond series. Barry had been approached to do "License to Kill," but was replaced by Michael Kamen. Since that time, Barry has turned to other interests, and David Arnold has appeared in the recording studio. Given the bonus tracks and the overall production, "The Living Daylights" is what Bond and Barry fans would love to see with every soundtrack.

NOT EVERY COMPOSER KNOWS HOW TO PRODUCE A SCORE OF THIS
QUALITY, BARRY SHOWS THE WORLD THAT HE IS THE
MASTER OF THE JAMES BOND MUSIC, WITH CLASSICS SUCH AS
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, GOLDFINGER,YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER,
AND THE BRILLIANT O.H.M.S.S,
THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS IS SURELY THE BEST OF THESE HERE,
A WONDERFUL SCORE THAT DESERVES ALL THE PRAISE HEAPED ON IT,
WONDERFUL THEME SONG CO-WRITTEN WITH A-AH,
THE HIGHLIGHTS ON THIS COLLECTION ARE, EXERCISE AT GIBRATAR,
NECROS ATTACKS, KARA MEETS BOND,MUJAHADIN AND OPIUM, MURDER AT THE FAIR,
ICE CHASE, "ASSASSIN AND DRUGGED, OVERALL THIS IS A BRILLIANT SCORE
FROM BARRY, SO DAVID ARNOLD PLEASE TAKE NOTE THIS IS HOW TO DO IT,
ANYONE DISCOVERING JAMES BOND MUSIC FOR THE FIRST TIME
WILL LOVE THIS ONE, IT,S AGREAT SCORE.

Listening to this CD makes me wish John Barry still composed music for the Bond series. There are bits and pieces of the music dated by the pop-synth rhythms used in some of the tracks, including the enjoyable makeover of the Bond theme heard in the exciting pre-credits sequence that introduced Timothy Dalton in the role of 007.

"Kara Meets Bond" and the "Mujahadin" tracks are awesome. David Arnold has made a fine successor to the Barry Bond Score mantle. But albums like "Living Daylights" prove that, as far as Barry is concerned, nobody does it better.

Yyyyummm! Finally there's a Bond soundtrack that also provides a kind of mysterious, thrilling spy music. When you listen to the soundtracks, you recognise that Barry adapted the music to the new attitude Timothy Dalton tried to give Bond. The CD also features one of the most beautiful and romantic songs of all Bonds. And of course, there's also the Bond theme.

This is one of the best John Barry has ever composed. It is also his last. It is a great soundtrack. The title song is great. It is sung by A-HA. Tracks like 2,4,9,11,13 and 19 are very exciting and are absolutely action-packed. These tracks are really good. Listen to the clips for 2 and 4 and you will hear the same instrumental version of Where Has EveryBody Gone sung by the Pretenders. That song is on track 7. The rest are really great tracks and this CD includes 9 great bonus tracks making this CD a great value, and definitely worth your money. It comes with a foldout booklet that has a large version of the original soundtrack poster. No matter what, this is definitely a soundtrack you should buy.

John Barry was on a roll by 1987, having scored the previous two Bonds, Octopussy and A View To A Kill. All the classic thematic elements are there, with the Bond theme fired into life in 'Ice Chase' and the more classical 'The Sniper was a Woman'. Tracks by a-ha and The Pretenders sit well in the soundtrack and 21 tracks is a great amount of music for one film.

Buy it, if only for the 6 minute 'Exercise at Gibraltar' Bond at its best!!

but for me, it is a matter of pride that this soundtrack has been chosen for this re-release. It's objective was to penitrate the audio instillations of John Barry fans the world over (not just Gibralter), and it didn't let us down. If you understand that first paragraph, you watch too many Bond films. Thank god someone realised that some of the best Bond music never gets put onto the soundtracks. What about that wicked mix of BOND '77 in The Spy Who Loved Me that was re-recorded and slowed down for the soundtrack. Or the amazing lack of music on the Moonraker CD? Why not include the opening gun barrel Bond theme renditions on all the soundtracks; that's music, too, isn't it? No fair. Similarly, for years The Living Daylights' best tracks have been missing. Not any more. Please do the entire series of Bond CD's, Ryko! If you have not bought it and you see it in a store, buy one. Better make that two...

For whatever reason that John Barry departed the James Bond series after scoring this wonderful and exciting entry, he made it the best score of his Bond career (you've only to listen to his haunting score for "Somewhere In Time" and "The John Dunbar Theme" from "Dances With Wolves" to know that he didn't lose his touch with the end of his scoring James Bond movies), and signaled a smashing new entry for James Bond music (which, in my opinion, ended with "Die Another Day," though the main theme song for "Casino Royale" is terrific). My personal favourite tracks are: the title track, "Necros Attacks," "The Sniper Was A Woman," "Ice Chase," "Kara Meets Bond," "Koskov Escapes," "Where Has Everybody Gone?" "Into Vienna," "If There Was A Man" and the bonus tracks "Exercise At Gibraltar," "Alternate End Titles" & "The Living Daylights Suite." That being said, ALL of the music on this CD is wonderful to listen to and it ranks with Michael Kamen's rousing score for the under-rated, equally exciting and intense (both thematically and content-wise) "Licence To Kill" as one of the finest scores and movies ever made. The movie itself ranks as one of the best entries in the James Bond series, with Timothy Dalton (an excellent Rochester in the 1983 version of "Jane Eyre") stepping effortlessly into the role of Bond...James Bond, and making it his own. The performances in the film are aided by the super-wonderful score.