On Her Majesty's Secret Service DVD inspires pop song
While the extra content of James Bond special edition DVDs has provided hours of entertainment to millions of fans around the world, the documentary material on the On Her Majesty’s Secret Service DVD went a step further and provided the inspiration for a new song, written by Norwegian indie rocker Sondre Lerche, who is best known for his work on the soundtrack “Dan in Real Life”.
“Like Lazenby”, a track from Lerche’s recently released 5th studio album “Heartbeat Radio”, was written after the musician watched the supplemental materials on the On Her Majesty’s Secret Service DVD, according to an interview with National Public Radio:
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Mr. LERCHE: I got the idea after watching On Her Majesty’s Secret Service again.
NPR: Which is a very respectable Bond film.
Mr. LERCHE: Absolutely. I think it’s terrific. And I guess the one thing that people say is that it’s a shame about the guy playing James Bond. You know, they give him a hard time, but he was not an actor. He was a model.
And a lot of these actors in the film are sort of Shakespearian, British actors, you know? And I saw these interviews in the bonus material that came with the DVD, and I thought it was so interesting to see interviews with both the young George Lazenby at the time of shooting the film and also the contemporary version, you know, him looking back. And there is the sense that he sort of messed up his opportunity, you know, because he got very cocky, I guess, and he admits to this himself. He got very cocky.
So the song isn’t directly about him, but the protagonist identifies very much with the dynamics of George Lazenby’s career that didn’t really happen the way he was maybe hoping or that it was just looking for a while.
Mr. LERCHE: (Singing) Like a fairy tale with blood on every page. My failures brought about some blessing. Someone must be watching over me. Even though I wonder why I did some of my doings, I’d do it all again if I had the chance, just like Lazenby.
Click here to listen to the interview, with a clip from the song (the Lazenby portion begins at 5:01 into the interview).
Click here to read the entire interview transcript.
You too can get inspired:
- Order On Her Majesty’s Secret Service from Amazon.co.uk
- Order On Her Majesty’s Secret Service from Amazon.com
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