Buy it... if you prefer John Barry's more sentimental and conservative James Bond scores of the 1960's and 70's, for Octopussy is one last return to that more traditional style.

Avoid it... if you believe the formula of the early Bond scores by Barry causes them to overlap too often in theme and action rhythms, in which case the two more experimental scores following Octopussy are better suited for you.

Barry

Octopussy: (John Barry) Fans of the James Bond franchise were well accustomed to the wise-cracking charms of Roger Moore by 1983's Octopussy, the sixth of the actor's seven films as 007. For the first time in its history, the traditional Albert R. Broccoli franchise was facing serious competition from another studio attempting to steal the Bond thunder. To be released later in the same year was Never Say Never Again, Sean Connery's failed return to the role. To ensure that the "official" Bond franchise would remain the dominant adaptation of Ian Fleming's famed British spy, producer Broccoli and director Jon Glen (returning for his second consecutive Bond film at the helm), along with most of the regular crew, were more determined than ever to make Octopussy a trademark Bond venture. They toned back the scope of the technology, followed Fleming's story more closely, and were successful in returning composer John Barry to the franchise. Barry's music for the series in the 1960's and early 1970's was one of the more recognizable elements of the Bond formula, but the composer's move from England to Los Angeles in 1975 caused him to lose the assignments to all the Bond films except Moonraker during the following eight years. He was asked to score Never Say Never Again, but refused out of loyalty to the original franchise and instead returned to London where he could be involved in the next three official Bond films. His return for Octopussy was especially welcomed after a disappointingly "popified" score by Bill Conti for 1981's For Your Eyes Only, which some fans of the series consider to be among the very worst scores for any Bond film. Barry's three Bond scores in the mid-1980's were all quite good, with each effort gaining strength as the composer successfully combined his traditional style with the flair of electronics and rock-based percussion. He would save most of this experimentation for the forthcoming A View to a Kill, but the groundwork for the action rhythms in that score and The Living Daylights would be established briefly in Octopussy.

Up front, the most obvious aspect of Barry's return to the world of 007 is the flowing, romantic ballad serving as the song and primary theme for the film. With the subsequent two films' songs taking the route of straight rock and male vocals (with wild results on the charts), Octopussy offered one last sentimental theme built for an alluring female voice. Rita Coolidge provided the sensual, easy-going tones for the more blatantly sexual title sequence for Octopussy, though lyricist Tim Rice and the producers of the film agreed that this song would be a rare time when the title of the film would not be appropriate as a lyric. The soft rock "All Time High" didn't perform as well as its successors initially, though it remained popular through the years better than many of the franchise's more readily-dated entries. The melody of this song would become the love theme for Bond and the powerful smuggler Octopussy, and outside of the usual song performance and its closing reprise, the two standard instrumental performances of the theme exist in "That's My Little Octopussy" and "Bond Meets Octopussy." A secondary theme for Octopussy and her mysterious lair is introduced by a gorgeous recorder in "Arrival at the Island of Octopussy" and extends to the outset of "Bond Meets Octopussy." Outside of these two new ideas, Barry relies far more heavily on the famous Monty Norman theme for the franchise. This move was party due to the attempt by the entire production to revisit the 1960's formula and partly due to the desire to drive home the fact that Octopussy was a true Bond film and Never Say Never Again was not. The entire pre-credit hangar sequence heard in "Bond Look-Alike" uses this theme in suspense mode while "Gobinda Attacks" and "The Palace Fight" both provide full, jazzy performances of the theme. In these latter two cues, Barry precedes the Bond theme with an updated variant of his stock action rhythms that would be better explored in the two subsequent scores. This material is stock Barry action for the series, with all its usual plusses and minuses. Two outright suspense cues of little note round out the score in "Bond at the Monsoon Palace" and "The Chase - Bomb Theme," the latter really not providing the nuclear weapon with much of a unique identity.

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The history of Octopussy on album has been suboptimum. On top of the LP release, a rare CD on the A&M label was pressed in 1985. This product was known to be among the very first CDs offered on the commercial market, and it achieved a value of $250 in the early 1990's (ranked by veteran collectors and soundtrack specialty stores in 1994 as the sixth most valuable soundtrack CD in the world). In 1995, the "Music Collectors Anonymous" label (likely a bootlegger) combined the records of For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy onto one digital transfer and it circulated around the market for a short time before becoming a collectible itself. In 1997, Rykodisc released both scores (as well as The Living Daylights the next year) on their own albums. The sound quality between the original collectibles and the 1997 pressing of Octopussy is identical, as are the musical contents, and Ryko decided to pad the running time of the product with three tracks of dialogue from the film. Those quotes are, unfortunately, mixed at too low a volume compared to the music surrounding them. The Ryko product is also an enhanced CD with the theatrical trailer, pictures, and expanded liner notes; these are nothing too spectacular, but it will amuse franchise fans for a few minutes. The packaging is generous with its extraordinary notes, but anyone who has trouble folding maps back into their proper arrangement will curse its layout. Unfortunately, even this album went out of print, leaving it (and its two Ryko siblings) absent from the market once again. In early 2003, EMI finally re-released all of the Bond scores through Goldeneye for rock bottom prices (any of them can be bought new for under $10) internationally, and many cases, additional music was offered. The primary reason for Bond score collectors to seek these new albums involved the remastering of the scores from source tapes. Barry's recordings typically sound good no matter how old they are --it's a trademark of his work-- and Octopussy already featured good sound on its previous releases. The greatest benefit to the 2003 album is its removal of the three dialogue tracks from the product, returning the listening experience to its original form. Overall, Octopussy ranks among the better Bond scores, despite its rather conservative approach.   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Music as Written for Film: ****
1985/1995 A&M/MCA Albums: ***
1997 Rykodisc Album: ****
2003 EMI Album: ****
Overall: ****

Bias Check:

For John Barry reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.85 (in 27 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.52 (in 24,822 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.