Pop: Lyric Sheets

John Barry, composer of the James Bond film scores and many other Sixties soundtracks, is the subject of a new biography published this month.

You're padding round the

kitchen

To cymbals played with

brushes

A bass is walking slowly up the

hall

An alto flute jabs at you

A harpsichord comes in

A muted trumpet pins you to

the wall

But meanwhile, in the

bedroom

Two cellos swirling round

Have left a Sixties starlet on

the bed

The dark piano bass notes

The organ sneaking in

And strident brass confirm

that she is dead

Escaping from a window

You throw the trumpets off

A tremolo guitar comes to the

fore

You know that you're in

trouble

To hear the mandolins

By then you're trussed up

tightly in 3/4.

The strange and spooky

waltzes

The silk-seductive strings

Can all conspire to make you

feel sad

For spies who never loved you

And places never seen

Nostalgia for the times you

never had.

And then the film is over

And all the frosty strings

Have faded down and left you

with the truth

It never really happened

And nothing's been disturbed

The only thing that's missing

is your youth.