Quantum of Winehouse
By Craig Kennedy - April 28th, 2008; 3:43 pm
According to The Envelope’s Todd Martens, Amy Winehouse is working on a theme song for the upcoming James Bond film, Quantum of Solace with producer Mark Ronson. Ronson told the BBC “The demo sounds like a James Bond theme, hopefully. But I don’t know if it’ll get used.”
Artists have been asked to record songs for James Bond movies before only to have them shelved. Blondie for example recorded a theme for For Your Eyes Only, but it was discarded in favor of the one by Sheena Easton.
Filed under: Rumors
I’m a huge fan of Amy’s. The word that I am in possession of is that she is NOT working on a JB song. That apparently is just a rumour.
But I’d be very happy to have that disproved.
Winehouse certainly has the right vocal stylings for a Bond theme tune.
Been a long time since there was a decent Bond theme song. Wasn’t Carly Simon’s No One Does It Better from The Spy Who Loved Me, which was early 80’s? That’s the last one I really liked (although I admit a small soft spot for Duran Duran’s View To A Kill).
Ms. Winehouse is one of the finest musicians of her generation, sartre. She reminds me a lot of Barbra Streisand in terms of her individuality.
And I don’t hesitate to say that Amy is truly BEAUTIFUL. Unfortunately, she takes an astoundingly bad picture. I have a music DVD of hers (I TOLD YOU I WAS TROUBLE) that has a mix of live performance – grand and excellent – and interviews. She has the most perfect skin, gorgeous, delicate features and incredible green eyes. She’s much too skinny now but she has an awesome physique as well.
When she started out, she didn’t have the beehive. She was just a fresh faced kid. She is extremely good looking. Has a ton of charisma.The whole damn package.
I almost saw her live but she cancelled that tour. As soon as she lands stateside, I’M GOING.
I though You Know My Name worked for what they were going for with Casino Royale, even if it’s only so-so.
Then again, I liked much of what Soundgarden did.
But yeah, Joel, you’re right, for the most part the themes have really become quite forgettable in the last couple of decades, at least. (For some reason License to Kill sticks in my head for a while after I hear it while watching the film, though. And… that’s it…)
does it really need a theme song ????
and wow that pic looks nothing like any crackhouse.someone really earned their money…..
There is a prerequisite stylistic straightjacket that makes Bond theme songs sound a little the same.
I always liked Soundgarden too.
“I always liked Soundgarden too.”
but the big question was if chris, looked better with long or short hair ???
QOS needs a real JAMES BOND THEME SONG. Winehouse is perfect. I’ve been asking for this in conversations with others about the title song. They’re part of the 007 mythos and when done right, the songs elevate the whole film as in GOLDFINGER or OHMSS. If Barry and Winehouse collaborated you could have a fantastic torch theme. The films have been lacking in this since THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, which had a better title theme in The Pretender’s song. My genius youtube pal LuiEcuomo has reconstructed this at my desperate request:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hw17IGXI2ak
As long as she is not actually in the movie, I think a Winehouse song would work well. Of course I don’t really know the plot and/or theme of Quantum (nor do I want to), but I hope her bouncy, sultry jazz is the right choice.
Thanks for the clip Christian. Glim, I don’t have any preference with regards his hair, but I think his SG stuff is superior to solo and Audioslave work.
sartre… is it weird that chris has had such a high media profile post soundgarden and that kim.. uh hasn’t ???
i’m not metal enough to keep up with things metal (hell or anythig happening with any sort od music really..)
but i did rum across that kim played on the sort of recent sunn/boris ‘alter’ cd thing. which is way down in the metal underground. you can call it underground. ;)
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:wcfpxqedldse~T1
anyway sartre it was a trick question. i t didn’t matter if chris’s hair was long or short/what mattered was if he took his shirt off…..
“They’re part of the 007 mythos and when done right, the songs elevate the whole film.” Agreed Christian. A good theme is more important than the car or the babe or all the other things that get so much attention. Thanks for that Pretenders link. I wouldn’t have known about the Blondie song if not for you.
I know this is heresy, but Goldfinger isn’t my favorite title theme. I’m partial to You Only Live Twice. One of my favorite Bond scores all around.
Please excuse this aside.
Thanks for the link Glim. I’m no metal head. Although I like some music from most genres, the exceptions being Broadway show musicals and Nashville country, I most consistently favor indie/alternative rock and jazz.
I’m still hoping Hooverphonic does a Bond theme tune someday. After all, their “Mad About You” sounded like one already.
But I can see Amy Winehouse doing a good one. I’m not a big fan, but I can see her get the style right.
Christian, that ROCKS…
I saw The Pretenders live in my home town last summer. All I can say is, Chrissie’s voice in person is as strong and mesmerizing as I’m sure it was in the 80s. She still looks great, too. When they launched into Message Of Love (which is the background to an awesome car chase scene in the American version of Breathless) I screamed for a good two minutes. It was incredible…
Speaking of JB movie themes, I’ve always been rather partial to A View To A Kill. I love Duran Duran endlessly. But the film (aside from Christopher Walken’s coolly flamboyant villain) is pretty much a washout.
And I’m on record as saying A VIEW TO A KILL was the last great Bond theme. Of course, I’m an unapologetic Duran Fan, but you might not know that one of the first names DD came up with for the band was a character in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. They “get” Bond and with Barry they came up with a great song. “Dance into the fire…”
Yeah, I LOVE Amy “Wino” Winehouse’s music, she is one of my favourite artists, too bad I don’t care much for these new Bond’s.
Me likey the Pretenders. Thanks for the link!
Christian, I agree that View to a Kill is a decent song, I just can’t stand that movie one bit so in my mind, the movie is detracting from the song.
I like just barely enough of View to a Kill to see it again once or twice a decade. I mean, much of it takes place in the Bay Area, so there’s a big point in its favor and while the script doesn’t give him much to do, Christopher Walken is always a treat as a villain, and the song by Duran song is pretty cool; its lyrics almost promise a dark romantic Bond (perhaps like the ‘06 Casino Royale), though, which I would like…
That said, Roger Moore looks like Tanya Roberts’ father.
joel, to answer your question way up at the top: yes, Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does it Better” is from The Spy Who Loved Me.
One of my favorite Bond theme songs was “You Only Live Twice” from the film of the same title. Sung by: Nancy Sinatra.
We are on the same page Alison…as you’ll see in Comment #14. Good taste cannot be denied!
Christian. Which FRWL character?
It was an obscure name like Rosotrov or something. I’ll have to watch SING BLUE SILVER again and find the quote from Nick Rhodes.
But YOLT is definitely in the top three Bond songs.
Strike the second “song” from my last post here, aha.
“You Only Live Twice” is an excellent song and I should have said that earlier. Definitely one of the very best.
“Nobody Does it Better” is very good as well.
Aha, I missed it before, Craig. :-)
Though I do love “Goldfinger” too. Shirley Bassey could really belt out those tunes.
This is some kid of blasphemy, but even though I love the overall score for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service…I’m really sick and f’ing tired of We Have All The Time in the World. It’s not the fault of the song or the movie…I blame Barry Levinson actually for using it in the execrable Good Morning Vietnam and re-popularizing it.
On the same soundtrack is the 2nd worst pop christmas song ever (after Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmas Time) called Do You Know How Christmas Trees are Grown. Makes my ears bleed.
Well, speaking of Paul McCartney, I’d also like to cast my vote for “Live and Let Die”. Overplayed and overused as it is, it’s still a terrific Bond theme.
I’m a fan of Live and Let Die.
I also like the opening instrumental theme for From Russian WIth Love…not the version with Matt Munro singing.
Ditto with the opening instrumental theme for OHMSS.
And do I even need to add the Dr. No instrumental?
Ditto everything Craig just wrote.
I don’t care if the Winehouse rumor is true or not (well actually I hope it pans out), I’m just happy to have had an excuse to talk about Bond music.
Craig, you’re confusing We Have All The Time with What A Wonderful World…
And I guess I’m the only who cranks up Do You Know How Christmas Trees are Grown every December…
For the Best Bond Theme record:
1. GOLDFINGER
2. OHMSS
3. YOLT
4. Thunderball
5. Live and Let Die
6. A View To A Kill
7. Where Has Everybody Gone
Speaking of Christmas Tree songs I like Joni Mitchell’s “It’s Christmas Time and They’re Cutting Down Trees” – but I digress.
Glad Craig mentions the Dr. No instrumental. I’d also just like to add for the record that Sean Connery was gorgeous in that movie, as was Ursula Andress of course.
“Speaking of Christmas Tree songs I like Joni Mitchell’s “It’s Christmas Time and They’re Cutting Down Trees” ”
I like Sufjan Stevens’ Silent Night.
Damnit Christian. You’re right. I was so pleased to have found a reason to club Good Morning Vietnam over the head too…
That’s ok, being wrong is my second favorite thing, right behind wearing boxers made of porcupines.
GMV was insufferable. There’s plenty of reasons to club it.
My high school journalism teacher thought Good Morning Vietnam was the greatest movie ever made. Needless to say, she and I didn’t get along. Damn, I should have dropped that class.
Sometimes the song is the best part of the movie (Live and Let Die).
This thread is starting to make me dizzy with anticipation thinking about Q of S. Perhaps a Bond summer marathon is in order…
Daniel, I’ve been thinking of such a thing. Would you be interested getting together and doing a few reviews and co-blogging? Maybe in tandem with a few other Bond fan bloggers or commenters?
Um, yes? Like absolutely yes…
Sign me along for the mission, please.
That sounds like an awesome project.
I, for one, would love to see you guys take on Bond like that.
Cool. I’ll email you both what I have in mind as soon as I finish formulating it, we can discuss and then we can recruit some other willing participants.
And then we will take over the world.
Obviously anyone reading this who’d like to play along can email me or make it known in this space.
I’d hope you’d be a contributor Alexander. Purely optional, naturally. I’m just saying.
Somewhat totally off topic, but Alexander, I know you live in the bay area, so you (and others there) MUST go to the Berkeley screening of Craig Baldwin’s new film, MOCK-UP ON MU. If you don’t know who Baldwin is, you should. He makes these fantastic political sci-fi conspiracy narratives out of found footage from science ephemera to Godzilla and weaves it into a cohesive whole. His work is like a more radical version of Joe Dante’s THE MOVIE ORGY. IMHO, he’s the best underground filmmaker out there.
He was also one of my profs at UCB and I held my first SKIDOO screening at his Other Cinema series, for which I’ll be doing something truly awesome in the OC fall season. Anyway, go Alexander! It’s at the PFA. Tell him Christian sent you!
http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=6214&catid=110
Wow, Craig and Christian, you both have drafted me in two righteous causes.
In each case, I accept.
Craig, thank you very much for wanting me to get involved in the Bondathon. I’m honored.
And thank you very much for the strong recommendation and the link, Christian. I must be honest, I had never heard of Craig Baldwin before but after reading the article from your link, I’m highly interested! I’ll tell him you sent me.
Sounds great, Craig.
Not to take this further away, but following up on Christian’s link and through it learning that the SF IntFilmFest is in motion, I wonder if our envy from yesterday has not officially switched, Alexander. Are you going? Looks like a great lineup – some that are leaving the festival here, and a lot that we didn’t get (I really wanted to see Ballast). I demand a report, and I urge you to see Mutum, S.O.P., Still Life, Up the Yangtze and American Teen.
And I demand your participation in the Bond series. There, back on topic.
Ah, didn’t see you’d already replied. Glad you’re in.
Yeah, Daniel, I’m looking at that… And I couldn’t help but think of you with all the films you just saw and wanted to but couldn’t.
Thanks for those recommendations!
What’s the cliche? I’m humbled you good gentlemen want my participation in the 007 shindig.