Needed a John Barry score

I like The Spy Who Loved Me but never loved it - as many Bond fans seem to.

The biggest reason is the score - that disco funk stuff really dates it and doesn’t fit, harming the sequences it covers. The love scene music which riffs on the title song is really nice, with some cool electric guitar, but the action stuff is weak.

A John Barry score has a certain texture - an epic feel, like a landscape, and gets really absorbing as the films move into their third acts. Even a weaker film like A View To A Kill becomes somehow profound thanks to Barry’s enveloping orchestral leitmotifs.

Moonraker’s another example. One reason I adore that film is, for all its silliness, Barry’s score turns it into something transcendent and epic. ‘Flight into space’ is one of the best pieces of music in any movie ever.

I really wish he’d lent his talents to TSWLM.