The funky music that Martin employ's in LALD was very fashionable at the time especially in films like "Shaft" "Dirty Harry" "Enter the Dragon". Even though it is a bit of a departure for Bond, Martin's orchestrations manage to display a toughness that is in keeping with the best Barry scores.

WARNING Spoilers if you haven't seen Live and Let Die

1 Gunbarrel/Snakebite
The opening Gunbarrel music has a great rendition of the James Bond theme and wastes no time in segueing into the sacrificial music of the opening scene. Listen to the discordant stab of brass as the snake bites its victim and in one of many wonderful Martinesque string glissandos, the music slithers into...
2 Main Title
Live and let Die is one of the very best Bond songs. Paul McCartney and Wings wrote the song but the power of it is in Martin's orchestrations.
The song, incidentally, forms the genesis of the music for the bulk of the score. The crashing cadential 2 note phrase following the words "Say Live and Let Die" is used in the movie in key moments of danger in the movie..i.e. just before Bond drives the double decker bus into the low bridge. The central instrumental section in G minor also is an important theme that is used throughout the movie, i.e. the death of the gangster driving the motor boat. This central theme also incorporates a secondary motif played on glissando strings which is used throughout the score to eerie effect.

3 Bond To New York
This is the first time we hear the wonderful "Solitaire's theme" and it is played with a frenetic rhythm and wah-wah guitars as Bond's flight takes off and we see Solitaire reading her cards as Bond approaches.

4 Whisper Who Dares
A sombre rendition of "Solitaires theme" starts off and woodwind but there is a sudden change of atmosphere in the funky wah-wah guitar and pounding timps as Bond struggles to steer his car. The piece ends with fantastically dissonant brass and swirling strings which has its origins in the Bond theme.

5 The Oh Cult Voodoo Shop
A groovy little tune here utilising a nice simple punchy chord progression of E minor 7th to A major 6th played on harpsichord with a funky base

6 Uptown With The James Bond Theme
A really nice funky version of the "James Bond theme"

7 Bond Meets Solitaire
Nice rendition of "Solitaire's theme" incorporated with the Bond vamp and it also underscores Roger Moore's first attempt at 'My names Bond...James Bond" which apparently, he was terrified of doing.

8 Baron Samedi's Dance Of Death
An interesting piece in that it is the only time that it's heard in the film and yet it has a strong theme itself. Its a very funky, samba-esque 12/8 groovy tune with lots of great brass and pizzicato guitars. Love that C minor 7th triplet to C minor abrupt ending!!

9 San Monique
Easy listening background music at the hotel. Quite a nice little piece, no better or worse than Barry's easy listening tracks such as "Cafe martinique" from "Thunderball"

10 San Monique (Alternate)

11 Snakes Alive
You can almost hear the snake hissing in Martin's trademark slithering glissando strings. This piece just oozes atmosphere and culminates, after a brief quote from Solitaire's theme, in the punchy brass opening of the james Bond theme as Bond burns the snake with his deodorant spray.

12 Bond And Rosie
A funky version of "Live and let Die" that moves into what I called Bond's "Milk Tray" music which is used when he's on his mission dressed in black e.g. "Bond Drops in". The track ends in a wah-wah guitar version of the instrumental section of the song "Live and let Die" as Rosie trys to escape from Bond

13 Bond Drops In
Swirling descending strings are heard as Bond para-glides down to Kananga's retreat. This is a nice little montague of various cues e.g. the Solitaire and Bond theme done in a kind of "James Bond on a mission-style"

14 The Lovers
A nice romantic version of the Live and Let Die theme. At the end we hear Baron Samedi playing his eerie whistle for the first time.

15 If He Finds It, Kill Him
I nice punchy action track incorporating the Bond theme.

16 Low Bridge/New Orleans/Airfield Chase
The 2 note motif from "Live and let Die" is expanded and continues into the central theme from the song.
The Oh Cult Voodoo shop tune is heard again but suddenly the tempo changes into a fast jazzy version as Bond escapes his captors at the Airport. Great stuff!!

17 Fillet Of Soul/Live And Let Die
A Bluesy instrumental followed by another version of the song

18 Just A Closer Walk With Thee
This trad jazz piece accompanies the funeral scene at the beginning of the movie

19 Bond's Watch
A version of "Solitaire's theme"

20 Solitaire Gets Her Cards
Baron Samedi's creepy whistle is heard followed by "Solitaire's theme" as she is interrogated by Kananga and his mob.

21 Trespassers Will Be Eaten
Fantastic track. It starts off with a more dramatic version of the Oh Cult Voodoo shop motif complete with throbbing timps, funky percussion, wah-wah guitar and stabbing brass. Listen to the sliding string motif as the Crocodile's eyes appear out of the water..wonderfully dramatic. This is as good as film music gets. A triumphant version of the brassy James Bond motif is heard as he jumps over the crocodiles. The track continues into a dramatic version of "Solitaire's theme" on electric guitar as the track builds up to a frenzied crescendo. A definite highlight of the score.

22 Boat Chase
After a brief rhythmic bass opening we hear a great version of the "Solitaire theme". Listen out for "Here comes the Bride" as Bond's speedboat wrecks a Wedding. The central G minor section of "Live and let Die" is heard as the gangster's speed boat crashes into the hull of the docked ship.

23 Sacrifice
Atmospheric sacrificial music complete with sacrificial percussion, and a plethora of dissonances on strings, brass, woodwind, xylophone etc. The connection with "The Beatles" is on this track. Listen to the discordant stretching chromatic harmonies near the end which finishes with a stabbing brass exclamation. This is a trademark George Martin sound and is also heard in the orchestrations of "A Day in the Life of a Fool" just before the words "Woke up..."

24 Underground Lair/Kananga Blows
The Oh Cult Voodoo shop music starts quietly and then cuts into the G minor central theme of "Live and Let Die" but replete with wah-wah guitars in the background. It is a conflict between the music of Bond and Kananga and ends with the punchy brass triumphalism first heard in "Whisper who Dare" as Bond deposes of Kananga.

25 Live And Let Die (End Title Reprise)

The reprise of what is ,in my opinion, a great James Bond song and wonderful score by George Martin. As a replacement for John Barry, George Martin created a totally different and yet totally effective score that suited this film and the era that it appeared in. It contains many memorable themes and wonderful film music moments. On hearing the complete score it is amazing how much of the key moments of the score were actually left out of the original in favour of a couple of songs. Finally we get to hear the whole score and the recording quality is one of the best of all the re-issues next to "Diamonds are Forever"

Gae
NP Live and Let Die

P.S. I'm knackered now. I wont be doing this again for a while!!

I played the LP to death, and managed to annoy our neighbours with my incessant playing of "Snakes Alive" and "Whisper Who Dares" at max vol. Then, a few months later, we moved house, and I introduced a new set of neighbours to the delights of LALD!

Impossible to hear this score without evoking lots of memories. Martin's other scores for "Pulp" and "The Family Way" are great, but this is his finest hour.

LALD was the first Bond movie I ever saw and I loved it. I can't remember how old I was when I saw it. It wasn't at a theater though (I would've only been 3 when it came out). No, the first time I saw it was on network TV and it was still great fun to watch. I loved the music, the theme song by Wings (still my favorite of all the Bond songs), I loved the boat chase, Tee Hee with his metal claw, the lovely Jane Seymour, and what I thought, at the time, was the coolest thing I ever saw...James Bond running across a line of crocodiles. I became a Bond fan because of this movie and, appropriately, it was the first remastered score I bought. And, I'm playing the heck out of it. I still have to get the rest, but I knew that the first one I was getting would be this one. I don't care what others may think about it, I love it.

The musical elements that you mentioned Martin used seem all the way thrilling.
It surely made an effect on you since you listened to it for the first time, great! I remember how I feel in love with Alan Menken’s score for the Little Mermaid. Wow, since that moment I really became attached to film music although I didn’t use to know anything about the composers (Actually when I first time saw the little mermaid I didn’t even know that the music was composed by a person. He, I used to wonder if Sebastian the crab composed the music for the movie ) Alan’s score is not as complex as any of the Bond’s scores (well, I’d have to take a closer listen to some Bond’s scores) but it is filled with sentimentalism, specially if you watch the movie paying special attention to the score, you really enjoy it. It is a very melodic score, very cantabile (Ariel’s voice is an important element of the story) It has ethnic elements, excellent orchestrations, etc. I really enjoy it, and every time I listen to the score again I remember the magical, great and fantastic feeling it used to cause on me and it is like living my childhood again. But this has few or nothing to do with Martin’s score for Live and let die, I’ll listen to it, or I’ll watch the movie if possible and then I hope I can give a more specified comment.
Listening to a score that had such a powerful effect on someone is definitely worth.

Bradley, you just GOTTA get those other expanded releases...and make OHMSS top of that list!

Gae

Concerning The Spy Who Loved Me, i recently watched this movie again, and the music fits the movie like a glove, I'm with Timmer on this, and would really love to have the music as heard in the movie, great stuff !!!

I actually grabbed that CD about a week ago and it must have had about ten spins in the player between then and today. I agree with Timmer and am happy to admit to finding LALD my favourite of the non Barry scores.

I do love the remastered CDs, they've had the majority of film score playtime in my house for a number of weeks now.

quote:

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Originally posted by Timmer:
Bradley, you just GOTTA get those other expanded releases...and make OHMSS top of that list!

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