Skip to main content

John Barry Has Died

Sad news.  My favourite film composer (along with Bernard Hermann), John Barry, has died at the age of 77.  Barry was the genius behind the best of the James Bond scores, as well as Born Free, Dances with Wolves, Midnight Cowboy, and many others.  His lush and romantic harmonies and melodies helped to establish the unique soundscape of the 60s and 70s.  His sound style will live forever.
Labels:

Comments

Roger said…
"His sound style will love forever"
Really?
Mon Jan 31, 02:57:00 pm 2011
EYEWEAR said…
Yes, Roger, some of Barry's music will be forever popular, if only because the Bond music is the pinnacle of a certain kind of 60s cool, and will always retain interest for that.
Mon Jan 31, 05:59:00 pm 2011
Roger said…
"Yes, Roger, some of Barry's music will be forever popular"
I'm not disputing that. However, it will surely LIVE, not love, forever in that case.
Mon Jan 31, 06:35:00 pm 2011
EYEWEAR said…
uhm - why didn't you just say there was a typo?
Mon Jan 31, 09:22:00 pm 2011
Roger said…
More fun to hint. I thought it was a pretty broad hint, actually.
Might as well remove these posts now.
Mon Jan 31, 09:49:00 pm 2011
Garry said…
He was the king!! May he rest in peace.....
Tue Feb 01, 10:51:00 am 2011
Roger said…
I should also have said that it was a wonderfully apt typo. It just might not have been one.
A fine musician, but personally I prefer Morricone,
Tue Feb 01, 01:45:00 pm 2011
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A  poem for my mother, July 15 When she was dying And I was in a different country I dreamt I was there with her Flying over the ocean very quickly, And arriving in the room like a dream And I was a dream, but the meaning was more Than a dream has – it was a moving over time And land, over water, to get love across Fast enough, to be there, before she died, To lean over the small, huddled figure, In the dark, and without bothering her Even with apologies, and be a kiss in the air, A dream of a kiss, or even less, the thought of one, And when I woke, none of this had happened, She was still far distant, and we had not spoken.
Post a Comment
Read more

Poetry vs. Literature

Poetry is, of course, a part of literature. But, increasingly, over the 20th century, it has become marginalised - and, famously, has less of an audience than "before". I think that, when one considers the sort of criticism levelled against Seamus Heaney and "mainstream poetry", by poet-critics like Jeffrey Side , one ought to see the wider context for poetry in the "Anglo-Saxon" world. This phrase was used by one of the UK's leading literary cultural figures, in a private conversation recently, when they spoke eloquently about the supremacy of "Anglo-Saxon novels" and their impressive command of narrative. My heart sank as I listened, for what became clear to me, in a flash, is that nothing has changed since Victorian England (for some in the literary establishment). Britain (now allied to America) and the English language with its marvellous fiction machine, still rule the waves. I personally find this an uncomfortable position - but when ...
15 comments
Read more

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart?  A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional.  Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were.  For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ?  Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets.  But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ?  How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular.  John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....
3 comments
Read more