#john barry

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Saturn 3 (1980)

[sowhatifiliveinfukuoka]

John Barry & His Orchestra

Dr. No (1962)

[ultimate-007]

Soundtrack LPs by John Barry, 1963 - 71

[davidhudson]

John Barry, November 3, 1933 – January 30, 2011.

1964 photo by Gered Mankowitz.

[all-action-all-picture]

I'd never heard this before. An early demo of the Moonraker theme tune, composed by John Barry, only with lyrics and vocals by Paul Williams. It's obviously not as polished as the version we did get (vocals by Shirley Bassey and lyrics by Hal David) but it's interesting to hear.

[m-00-ndingochan]

Grantby:Timber

[billboard-hotties-tourney]

REMINDER: Vote for the ALBUM COVER that is HOTTER, not the hotter artist or the better cover/album

Propaganda for Ramones: "Look at those bad boys"

Propaganda for You Only Live Twice: none

[doloresdisparue]

In some of your recent posts, you mentioned a Lolita musical? I didn't know there was a musical! Is there a place to listen to it/watch it??

- Someone who finds the book interesting, and deeply loves music

HELLO YOU HAVE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE. If the Lolita musical has a million fans, then I am one of them. If the Lolita musical has ten fans, then I am one of them. If the Lolita musical has only one fan then that is me. If the Lolita musical has no fans, then that means I am no longer on earth. If the world is against the Lolita musical, then I am against the world etc etc. Here's my tag in case my elaboration makes you curious

It's called "Lolita, My Love" written by Alan Jay Lerner with music by John Barry. It premiered in 1971 and promptly flopped so hard that they canned it during tryouts before it even had a Broadway premiere though it has been critically praised since.

(Not since Carrie: forty years of Broadway musical flops by Ken Mandelbaum)

Lerner rewrote the script six times with significant changes in the different versions and you can look at most of them only through the LIbrary of Congress where his papers are preserved. In essence there are three versions. Philadelphia (very little information available), Boston (this version has a soundboard recording of the audio for the entire show on youtube from a preview show) and post-closing (this is where he cracked the code). The post-closing version was obviously never staged by Lerner BUT it was the main basis for the 2019 revival showing put on by the York Theatre and directed by Emily Maltby (one of the few women to direct an adaptation and while I don't think that is at all necessary for a good one she did a phenomenal job). It was a special event that only ran for a week and had no costume, no stage design and everyone with scripts in hand but it's the closest to a real production that has ever been done. Unlike the original 71 production it also did not cast any children and did not require them (or anyone) to be semi-nude. Dolores was played by an actress in her early 20s (Caitlin Cohn) who proved you could put on the show without endangering kids perfectly well.

The significant change between the Boston script and the Revival version (which takes small things from all scripts but is largely based on his final draft) is the (re-)addition of Dr. Ray as a framing device. To adapt the novel format to the stage Humbert is continuously telling his story to Dr. Ray who is interviewing him for his case. She (they cast a female black actress for the role in the revival) questions, interjects and overall holds the audiences hand a little when it comes to working out just how unreliable Humbert is. I like the Boston version where he talks directly to the audience but I fear we as a society have proven that we need a Lolita adaptation that holds peoples hands at least a little. Another delightful aspect is that, just like in the book, Humbert is actively using his medium against the reader/audience. Dr. Ray is always on stage as Humbert essentially directs the rest of the show to present his version of the story to her. At certain points light and music cues tell the audience that he is clearly making things up, Dolly starts moving like a marionette and talking as if she is hypnotised. Meanwhile he switches seamlessly between the interview and participating in the action, directing the ensemble, setting the scene so to speak

but sometimes the action freezes or the lights abruptly come on when she interrupts him, immediately jarring the audience to attention in case they got a little too carried away in his catchy songs.

It's also a production that has a profound love for Dolly and, to my knowledge, the only adaptation that made the conscious choice to let her survive. Erik Haagensen, who put together the script, talked about how her death was never in any of Lerner's drafts and he wouldnt have included it if it was because it was so important to him to spotlight that she was a survivor and she still had a life after her abuse and honor the pehmomenal strength it would have taken her to get to that place at all because she is NOT broken and her life ISN'T over and that was important to him. I do understand and respect Nabokov's choice to go full tragedy but it's another reason the musical is close to my heart. I also cannot talk about this show without noting its distinction of featuring perhaps the worst line in musical history ever sung by a human being (saying this affectionately since it does its job of making you scream):

I could talk forever about other choices and the individual songs but this has gotten long enough I think. But feel free to hit me up (and this goes for anyone else too) if you want to talk more about it!

TL;DR: There is currently no way to watch "Lolita, My Love" as there is only an audio recording of a preview for the 1971 show, not a video and the archive recording of the revival (which exists!) is not publicly available (presumably for legal reasons). At least 2 songs are on Spotify re-recorded by commercial artists (Going, going, gone and In The Broken Promise Land of 15) as well as a purely instrumental version of the title theme (Lolita by John Barry) which i adore. The scripts are in the Library of Congress and potentially buried in other places but I have not found them anywhere online, though you can look at all the lyrics and small summaries of the action of each song in "The complete lyrics of Alan Jay Lerner" by Dominic McHugh and Amy Asch, which is widely available.

[vertigoartgore]

Robert McGinnis poster for the movie Somewhere in Time (1980).

[male1971]

Soundtrack album cover to Thunderball (1965) painted by Frank McCarthy.

Sean Connery as James Bond 007

(Perhaps the best album cover of all the James Bond soundtracks?)

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Farrah Fawcett - Saturn 3 (1980)

[ultimate-007]

ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE 1969

Japanese 7-inch single

[bitter69uk]

SEE wild parties in back street “SIN CELLARS!”

SEE uninhibited striptease! “… Melt! Melt! Melt!”

SEE chicken on the rails. “Here comes the train – let’s play!”

SEE drag race – “Go man – go like a racetrack – Voom!”

Yes! Find out what happens when youthful rebels go bad when the FREE monthly Lobotomy Room cinema club presents irresistible ultra-kitsch British juvenile delinquent flick Beat Girl (1960)! Thursday 15 August at Fontaine’s bar in Dalston. Pictured: the moody and atmospheric album cover for the awesome John Barry soundtrack. That’s Dodo (Shirley-Anne Field) pouting in front of the jukebox, Dave (dreamy young Adam Faith) in a black leather jacket brooding over a cappuccino and insolent Jennifer (sex kitten Gillian Hills painstakingly styled to look exactly like Brigitte Bardot), hanging out at their beatnik coffee house haunt The Off-Beat in Soho. When Jennifer’s father scolds “Where do you get your kicks from? Sitting around in cafes listening to gramophone records. Jiving in underground cellars and caves!” perhaps understandably, she sneers “You are a real square, aren’t you?” The sullen trio spends a LOT of time griping about how “squares” are cramping their style. But what they deem “square” is often surprising: drinking alcohol, fighting (“I’m not fighting. Fighting’s for squares!”). C'mon - let's live for kicks! Join us on the fifteenth, daddio! Be there – or be square!

[rastronomicals]

John Barry

[all-action-all-picture]

Infinity No. 73, 2024. Special feature on The Man with the Golden Gun.