Vic Flick, the renowned British session artist that picked the renowned jangly guitar theme on the James Bond signature tune, has actually passed away aged 87.
The artist’s kid, Kevin Flick announced his father died on 14 November, after having actually been identified with Alzheimer’s condition.
Born in Surrey in 1937, Flick had actually formerly carried out with the author John Barry in the John Barry Seven, when Barry was generated to reposition Monty Norman’s motif for Dr No, the very first James Bond movie.
The signature tune was videotaped in 1962; Flick played the renowned riff on a 1939 English Clifford Essex Paragon Deluxe guitar linked into a Fender Vibrolux amplifier, which includeda “heavy sound” He was paid a one-off cost of ₤ 6.
“It had an edge to it, sort of a dynamic sound,” Flick informed Jon Burlingame for his 2012 publication The Music ofJames Bond “I overplayed it – leaned into those thick low strings with the very hard plectrum, played it slightly ahead of the beat, and it came out exciting, almost ‘attacking’, which fit the James Bond image.”
In a 2021 interview with Guitar Player publication, Flick stated he attributed the “mysterious, powerful sound” of the guitar in the Bond motif to the “plectrum I used and the guitar’s strings. I placed the DeArmond pickup near the bridge. I put a crushed cigarette packet underneath it to get it nearer the strings. That helped to get that round sound … it was a sound we created, to a certain extent, and it had a bite that they loved.”
Flick would certainly carry out on the soundtrack of a number of 007 movies, consisting of Shirley Bassey’s motif for the 1964 Bond movie Goldfinger.
He also played on hundreds of recordings, consisting of hits like Peter and Gordon’s A World Without Love, Petula Clark’s Downtown, Tom Jones’ It’s Not Unusual and What’s New Pussycat?, Bee Gees’ Spicks and Specks, and Ringo’s Theme (This Boy) for the Beatles’ 1964 movie A Hard Day’sNight Over the years he collaborated with the similarity Jimmy Page, George Martin, Cliff Richard, Eric Clapton, Nancy Sinatra and Dusty Springfield.
“He was a musician’s musician,” Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues created in the foreword to Flick’s 2008 narrative Vic Flick, Guitarman: From James Bond to The Beatles andBeyond “He always stood up to play! Yes, I know it sounds obvious – but you couldn’t play ‘our’ music sitting down. The real guitar heroes always stood.”
In 2013, Flick obtained a life time accomplishment honor from the National Guitar Museum.
