The title theme is ironically the least-referenced in
Barry's score, fueling some of the speculation about Barry's possible
dissatisfaction with it. Its major, synth and drum loop-backed
performance for snazzy brass layers is heard in "Hercules Takes Off" and
briefly in "Assassin and Drugged" (and a suspenseful organic
interpretation is explored in the latter half of "Murder at the Fair").
Similar synth and loop mixtures are provided for the Necros theme in
"Necros Attacks" and "Inflight Fight." Identical treatment for Norman's
franchise theme is heard at length in "Ice Chase" and "Exercise at
Gibraltar." The mixture between synthetic and orchestral elements in
these cues is the best that Barry ever achieved in the franchise, going
all the way back to the electric guitar and synthesizer in
On Her
Majesty's Secret Service. Their rendering in
The Living
Daylights is more refined than equivalents in
A View to a
Kill, perhaps possibly due to improvements in digital mastering. The
bridge between the electronic and orchestral music in
The Living
Daylights is the love ballad for Kara, and this theme receives the
most frequent performances on album. Some might suggest that it's
treated by Barry as the title theme for the picture. For "Into Vienna,"
a cue absent from the film, Barry uses essentially the backing for the
vocal performance for a pleasant light rock ambience. He recorded an
alternate version of this theme for strictly the orchestra, and if not
for the considerably slower tempo, would be identical to the format of
the electronic version. As per tradition, Barry recorded a solo woodwind
performance of this theme for the actual on-screen meeting of the
characters. The bass flute heard here in "Kara Meets Bond" is far more
seductive than the sweeter and higher tones heard on flute in
A View
to a Kill. While Barry seemed attached to these woodwind
performances of the love theme (or title theme) in the later John
Glen-directed films, the use of the flute in
The Living Daylights
doesn't make much sense considering that the character of Kara is a
cello player. As such, the question is: why not use a cello to
perform the love theme in this case? Or is that too obvious?
Outside of the four major themes, Barry's filler
material is far more interesting than most of the stock stalking and
suspense music that he had carried over through many of the previous
Bond films. The main suspense motif in
The Living Daylights is
more convincing, introduced in "The Sniper Was a Woman" with the same
dramatic weight of the secondary theme for the title character of
Octopussy. The music for the Mujahadin is beautiful in parts and
quite rousing in others. The theme for Afghanistan, heard in full in
"Mujahadin and Opium," eventually merges with the suspense motif for the
film. The tapping percussion late in this cue and "Afghanistan Plan" is
a precursor to
The Scarlet Letter, and the bombastic variation on
the idea late in the latter cue has the epic scope of the title theme to
Zulu. A more simplistic and forceful minor-key alternation joins
one of the usual Bond action motifs from the franchise in "Air Bond." A
singular theme, likely representing the Russians, exists at the outset
of "Airbase Jailbreak," a somewhat fluffy little march that eventually
yields to more traditional, snare-tapping Bond action. The opening
gunbarrel sequence in provided with the usual burst of Norman's theme.
Interestingly, no truly engaging performance of the theme for the
traditional small-band jazz elements exists in
The Living
Daylights. Together, all of the elements of the score merge very
well for a cohesive whole that successfully combines all of the film's
songs and franchise themes into one intelligent work. The score's
greatest weakness is that it doesn't really adapt the themes --outside
of the versatile love ballad-- into various circumstances for different
sections of the ensemble. The synth and drum loop performances of a
theme in one track, for instance, will be completely identical to those
in another. The "Final Confrontation" cue is somewhat anti-climactic,
which is understandable given the conversational nature of the scene,
but its solitary bass string movements aren't that impressive. Barry's
alternate orchestral recording of the end title song, however, is a
lovely tribute (in tone and style) to where he began with
From Russia
With Love.
As for the fate of the songs,
a-h
a has
dated badly, even compared to Duran Duran's more famous 80's sound for
A View to a Kill. Chrissie Hynde's voice, however, endures as a
perfect fit for the Bond franchise. The ballad has aged well and even
the song for Necros has the sassy attitude that franchise coveted
earlier in its run. The deeper tones of Hynde's voice, like k.d. lang
for
Tomorrow Never Dies, are the kind that has been long sought
for the franchise, and fans can only hope that sultry voices like these
make a return to the 007 films' songs at some point in the future. At
any rate, the songs together pushed significant sales volume at the
time;
The Living Daylights debuted at that awkward time when LPs
and CDs were concurrently released. Because of this transition, Warner
Brothers only pressed minimal copies of the album on CD in 1987,
featuring the same 35 minutes as the LP. In 1998, Rykodisc released
three scores from John Glen's Bond films, and
The Living
Daylights was easily the most important. Ryko was contractually
required to provide the original 12 cues (of 35 minutes) in order, but
they then tied every loose end by adding 25 minutes of previously
unreleased material. Unlike the other two albums, this one does not
suffer from dialogue from the film. The additional material does, as
mentioned before, offer some of the more interesting interpolations of
the three major themes, as well as the opening cue and Barry's sadly
nostalgic orchestral recording of the love ballad. Fans of Barry's
1960's dramas will also hear more or the composer's nod to an era past
as well. The album's only flaws were with Ryko's production of it, which
included the lack of proper ordering (which wasn't their fault) and the
damn booklet, which like the other two albums, will frustrate anyone who
can't fold a map correctly once it's been opened. The Ryko album
eventually went out of print, but was still more readily available on
the secondary market than its siblings. In early 2003, EMI re-released
all of the Bond scores through
Goldeneye for rock bottom prices,
using improved sound quality and availability as their selling point.
Unfortunately, in this case, the EMI album continued to suffer from the
same unsequenced ordering and offers no improvement in sound quality.
Overall, in 007 history,
The Living Daylights stands with
Tomorrow Never Dies as the best score of its era.
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