You can hear it, can't you?: chris_walsh

You can hear it, can't you?

Fifty years of James Bond films. James Bond is a special kind of entertainment machine, and this screams to be acknowledged. So the makers of this year's Bond film, Skyfall, want it to be something special. Sam Mendes directing Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes and the professionally scary Javier Bardem, with Roger Deakins as director of photography -- yes, the Shawshank Redemption/O Brother Where Art Thou? make-it-look-pretty-person -- with Thomas Newman, one of America's best film composers, doing the music...I'm liking the sound of this.

How can the something special extend to the opening song?

Now, I've heard the idea from Cort and Bobby that maybe it's time to drop the opening Bond song, but I don't see the filmmakers doing that. They also can't allow another "Die Another Day"-style debacle, where Madonna apparently just went nuts, wrote whatever (actual lyric: "Sigmund Freud, analyze this, analyze this..."; another actual word from the song: "Uh"), and sang it flat. A Bond song needs to be felt. It has to have hooks like brambles that just dig into your subconscious.

While no singer for the song's been announced yet, there's been a lot of suggesting, even by Tom Jones, that Adele sing it. I can hear that. But here's what I hear, here's my idea:

A Bond song duet by Adele and Shirley Bassey.

BOOM. Acknowledge the history of Bond with the amazing, brassy singer who sang three of the theme songs, including the first truly famous one, "Goldfinger." Give a showcase to an up-and-coming, and truly amazing, young singer. There's already been a Bond duet, the jagged (in a way I kind of like) Jack White/Alicia Keys "Another Way To Die" for Quantum of Solace, so it can be done. And Bassey's still around and kicking musical ass (as I blogged about back in 2010)

Can this happen? Can this be supremely cool?

You can hear it, can't you?

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