FEATURE:
Stirred, Not Shaken
IN THIS PHOTO: Billie Eilish at the 2019 Pukkelpop Music Festival/PHOTO CREDIT: Lars Crommelinck Photography
Billie Eilish and the Evolution of the James Bond Theme
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I have used those three particular words…
IN THIS PHOTO: Daniel Craig as James Bond in a still of the latest film in the franchise, No Time to Die, which is released in cinema on 2nd April
at the top of the article because, not only is it a rewording of James Bond’s martini request, it also sort of represents how the James Bond theme has changed through the years. A lot of people are not into the James Bond films but, in my view, the themes take on a life of their own and outlive the films. I can remember the opening theme to Goldeneye and Tomorrow Never Dies but not the film I watched – the title track/theme becomes its own beast and can stand alone! It was announced earlier in the week that Billie Eilish would be performing the latest Bond theme:
“Billie Eilish will write and sing the theme song to No Time to Die, the 25th film in the James Bond franchise. At 18 years old, she is the youngest musician ever to provide the soundtrack to a Bond film.
Eilish said in a statement: “It feels crazy to be a part of this in every way. To be able to score the theme song to a film that is part of such a legendary series is a huge honour. James Bond is the coolest film franchise ever to exist. I’m still in shock.”
As with her debut album, 2019’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, Eilish wrote the titular song alongside her older brother and co-producer Finneas. He said that the siblings had always dreamed of writing the theme to a Bond film. “There is no more iconic pairing of music and cinema than the likes of Goldfinger and Live and Let Die. We feel so so lucky to play a small role in such a legendary franchise, long live 007.”
Film producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli said that Eilish’s song had been “impeccably crafted to work within the emotional story of the film”. Director Cary Joji Fukunaga described himself as a huge fan of Eilish and her brother: “Their creative integrity and talent are second to none and I cannot wait for audiences to hear what they’ve brought – a fresh new perspective whose vocals will echo for generations to come.”
Eilish is the latest sign of the Bond franchise’s modernisation. Phoebe Waller-Bridge was hired to liven up the script at the request of star Daniel Craig. Industry publication Variety described the hiring of Fukunaga, known for directing the films Sin Nombre and Beasts of No Nation, and TV’s True Detective, as a “stunning and risky move”.
Hans Zimmer was recently drafted in as a last-minute replacement to score No Time to Die. He replaced Dan Romer, who departed due to creative differences with the film’s production company Eon Productions.
No Time to Die is released in the UK on 2 April”.
Even though Writing's on the Wall by Sam Smith won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, I did not like his Spectre theme. I can appreciate he did not go for the bombastic and overblown because, as I will explore, Bond themes have changed in tone. I think Radiohead’s song, Spectre, would have been a more popular choice – Smith’s song divided people -, and it was suitably emotional and tender.
It is the sort of song that stirred the senses rather than shook the bones. American songwriter Eilish is the youngest person to perform the Bond theme – she is eighteen – and her 2019 album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, was one of the best of the year. I think Eilish will have a busy year ahead and will definitely be asked to play Glastonbury again – having produced such a classy and powerful set last year. She is one of the most promising artists around, and I look forward to hearing her Bond effort. I am not sure when it is going to be released, but one suspects it will be close to the film’s release date. There is a consensus that themes like Paul McCartney & Wings’ Live and Let Die, Carly Simon’s Nobody Does It Better and Shirley Bassey’s Goldfinger are the best Bond themes. Articles such as this and this rank the best to the worst. I think a sense of rush and the theatrical is largely favoured when it comes to Bond themes of the past. I guess it is only right. James Bond is a spy who is all about fast cars, women and danger, so critics and fans want something that is daring and grand – that might not be the case anymore. I think, since 1963’s Dr. No with Sean Connery as James Bond, the franchise has evolved. Sure, the foundations and main ingredients have remained the same – Martini, lots of women falling under Bond’s spell and fast cars (although the Aston Martin is not necessarily the only car for Bond!) -, but there have been changes.
I think Daniel Craig’s Bond is a moodier and more serious alternative to that of, say, Roger Moore or even Pierce Brosnan and, with No Time to Die upcoming, I think we need a theme that reflects all that. Phoebe Waller-Bridge has been drafted in – on the request of Daniel Craig – to liven up the Bond script, so there might be more humour this time around. I think James Bond has had the reputation as being a bit stale, cliché and old-timey. Look at more modern heroes like Jason Bourne, and Bond’s tuxedos, cheesy line and sports cars seem a little tame. I think the series has improved and has become a lot cooler and edgier over the past few years – whilst retaining the geekiness and keeping the espionage element true. From the orchestral swells, the belted choruses and frantic rush, James Bond themes have sort of gone through a change. Granted, Jack White and Alicia Keys’ Another Way to Die for 2008’s Quantum of Solace was a ragged and energetic song, but many critics and fans were left cold and felt it was far beyond the very best. I feel Bond themes now are synonymous with an emotional undercurrent and a tenderness. I wonder whether Eilish will carry on from where Sam Smith left off or maybe summon the rawness of Chris Cornell’s You Know My Name from Casino Royale. Adele’s title track for Skyfall in 2015, again, had an element of Shirley Bassey but it relied more on sending shivers down the spine rather than getting the blood pumping like themes of old.
This article asks whether a trendy artist like Billie Eilish is too cool to sing a Bond theme:
“What’s especially exciting about this news is that, compared with the last couple of insipid – though admittedly Oscar-winning – efforts, Billie Eilish is refreshing. She’s young. She’s authentic. She has a signature sound that doesn’t automatically align with the overwrought warbling of, say, Sam Smith. The history of the James Bond franchise contains a smattering of fantastic outliers – Live and Let Die, A View to a Kill, We Have All the Time in the World – that have flourished precisely because they haven’t hewed to the ossified blueprint of what constitutes a Bond theme. If this song is as good as the director and producer are promising, then we could really have something special on our hands.
Better yet, a title like No Time to Die is a songwriter’s dream, in that lots of things rhyme with the word “die”. Daniel Craig’s Bond tenure has been littered with some truly abysmal titles that were no use to the musical art whatsoever. No wonder so many of them had their performers squirming around loopholes. Nothing rhymes with “Casino Royale”, so Chris Cornell sang a song called You Know My Name. Sam Smith, knowing that any song entitled Spectre would have had to at some point use the word “hectare”, chickened out and sang Writing’s on the Wall instead. Faced with the abomination that was Quantum of Solace, Jack White just made up his own Bond title with Another Way to Die. Only Adele took on the mantle of writing a song named after the actual film, and even she screwed it up by rhyming “sky fall” with “crumble”. So this is a golden opportunity for Eilish. No Time to Die is an open goal of a title, and she has the chops to really make it work.
However, let’s not get carried away here. This is James Bond we’re talking about, so we should never underestimate the franchise’s tendency to bungle a sitter. Because, yes, Billie Eilish is authentic and unique and unwilling to turn in a traditional theme. But that doesn’t automatically mean it’ll be any good. Remember when they got Madonna in to jazz up the Bond theme as a genre? Remember how horrible that was? Remember how Die Another Day sounded like a bad song being fed through a worse Bluetooth connection? Or remember how bad Another Way to Die was, with White almost rapping his verses and then Alicia Keys using the chorus to make a noise like she’d just found a dead snake in her bed? Remember Sheryl Crow? Of course you don’t”.
There have been a lot of changes since the ‘60s that has modernised Bond and, whilst there is still a whiff of the tired and predictable, I think Bond has changed enough with the times. The theme is not the most important part of the film, but the music does need to evolve and move with Bond. Although I didn’t like Smith’s theme, Adele’s Skyfall hit the right notes and I think Eilish has the potential to produce something unique and memorable. No Time to Die is Daniel Craig’s last outing so, as we will get a new Bond, it is intriguing to think where the theme will go and whether it will shift directions once more. I am excited to hear what Eilish comes up with and whether he matches the very best Bond themes…
WE have ever heard.