This blog post is about music. So, fair warning: if you don’t listen to the music as you read through, then you have not read the blog. It’s that simple.

Today’s musical item in the news was the obit of Vic Flick. Who, you ask? Well, Vic Flick was the British studio guitarist who recorded the original James Bond theme: duh duh-duh-duh duh, duhm dum dum dum … etc. He was 87 and died in a nursing home of complications from Alzheimer’s. Flick played in many, many recording sessions in the 60s and 70s.

For example, he played with Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and the Beatles. He played the guitar part for ‘Ringo’s Theme (This Boy) for the movie soundtrack of A Hard Day’s Night on his Fender Strat while Ringo was walking along the river (remember that bit?), played the guitar riff in Silhouettes by Herman’s Hermits, added some 12-string color to Peter and Gordon’s A World Without Love, and backed Tom Jones, Dusty Springfield, Shirley Bassey, and on and on. I have added YouTube links to these songs at the end of this post.

I played the Dr. No opening sequence this morning, the original, on Youtube and it is just as good now as it was then. Here is a link to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba5R_p8r5Os.

I love the animated colored circles. What do they mean, exactly? I think they suggest nuclear technology and mystery. Then it segues into silhouettes of young people dancing (with their clothes on), also in Jamaican-style colors, and an adaptation of “Three Blind Mice” that makes you tap your feet. You mysteriously wonder what the three blind men are up to in the opening credits. I won’t give it away.

I was 12 years old when Dr. No premiered, and this snappy tune was my ‘go to’ show-off guitar riff. Hold that image in your head for a minute.

Because Flick’s usual instrument, a Fender Stratocaster, had recently been stolen he brought a Clifford Essex Paragon acoustic to the studio for the recording, with a DeArmond pickup that he pushed up closer to the strings with a crushed cigarette pack. You can buy one of these Paragons now for upwards of $6,000; evidently they are considered to be works of art. The actual Paragon that Flick used in the Dr. No recording is on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. He plugged the Paragon into a Vox AC15 amp, and used a hard pick. The AC15 is a small15-watt tube amp that weighed 50 lbs, and used EL84 vacuum pentode tubes. These tubes were designed for inexpensive applications like small radios where you avoided the cost of a separate pre-amp. Vox amps with EL84 tubes were a favorite of the British Invasion bands, like the Yardbirds. Here is one of their typical rigs from the era where Eric Clapton was one of the Yardbirds:

Note that the amp is a Vox AC-30, the big brother to the 15-watt version used for the Bond theme studio recording.

The version of Mr. Flick’s obituary published by the BBC, which you think would be authoritative, said that he played the theme on a Fender Vibrolux amp, which would have had more power. However, as far as I can tell, the Vibrolux was introduced into the market by Fender in 1963 which would have been the year after the Dr. No theme was recorded. So the BBC is wrong about this.

Here is a picture of Mr. Flick playing the Bond theme at the 2012 Oscars, on the same Clifford Essex Paragon:

If you want to hear this performance in its entirety: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeuhXwvb3V8.

I recommend it! My two favorite parts are the flinching with the initial horn entrances (had he developed some sort of medical problem?), and the reserved but noticeable smile after the last chord (played with an upward strum to emphasize the uncertainty of the world of spycraft).

Also, note the Fender Deluxe Reverb amp, one of the most popular guitar amps of the time. Which is course is not the Vox AC-15 nor the Fender Vibrolux.

I so feel like I am 12 again. Isn’t it great? I became so excited that I got out my Guild acoustic guitar which I bought in 1972 and played this same timeless riff using only my iPhone with the ‘ultimate-guitar-tabs’ app as a substitute for the orchestra:

Oh, no! Since that was the best I could do, I guess that means that 62 years have washed under the bridge since I was 12 years old. I was quite good back then. You just have to trust me.

Before we let go of talking about famous guitar riffs, we need to touch on the theme from the TV show Peter Gunn. Here is a link to the YouTube rendition of it, from the opening of the show:

Henry Mancini won a Grammy for this one when it came out in 1959, and I can see why. Starting with cymbals, you get a sense of both movement and tension; when the gritty guitar comes in, you become alert; when the ‘bom-bom’ of the bass enters, you startle; and when the horns join the chorus with the long achy notes, you get up out of your seat to dance. Finally, the knock, knock of the wood block takes you somewhere else. Wait for it! Believe it or not, John Williams was the guitarist. Yes, the same John Williams who later did the music for the Star Wars movies. And Indiana Jones. And more.

And now for a recap of musical selections mentioned above.

Herman’s Hermits “Silouettes (on the shade)“. While the Hermits were perfectly capable of playing this song themselves, for the released single, the producer did not want to spend a lot of time in the recording studio so he brought in professional musicians. These included Vic Flick, Jimmy Page (who went on the found Led Zeppelin), and John Paul Jones (who went on to play bass for Led Zeppelin). There is a YouTube video of the Hermits performing this song on what looks like a TV show with silouettes of dancers behind them; I did not link to it because I could not figure out what show it was. If you recognize it, please let me know.

The Beatles’ Ringo’s Theme (This Boy), from A Hard Day’s Night. This is an instrumental version of the song recorded with guitar work prominently featuring Vic Flick. Mr. Flick plays the song’s melody throughout. The original was the B-side of the single released in England of I Want to Hold Your Hand, which put the group on the map. Ringo’s theme, as you see from the video below, is a more mellow background to a scene where Ringo wanders around London taking pictures, running from young fan girls, and randomly talking to Dickensian street boys. While the movie itself is full of fun and music, this part of it is inexplicably bizarre.

Peter and Gordon’s A World Without Love. The film below shows them singing the song while each playing a guitar. I could not tell where this performance took place; the song was recorded by them and released in 1964. If you listen to the guitar part (especially at the end), it becomes very clear that neither of them is playing the guitar notes that you hear. Thank you, Vic Flick! This song sounds like something the Beatles would have written, probably because Paul McCartney wrote it – at age 16! Due to the contract the Fab Two executed with their music producer, writing credit is given to both Lennon and McCartney.

Vic Flick, we will miss you.

If you have gotten this far, it’s a miracle. But I thoroughly enjoyed listening to these songs from when I was young. I hope you had a good time.