In ‘The Price of History’, the famous television reality show that takes place in the pawn shop run by the Harrison family, one day a guy appeared who wanted to sell a white 1961 Fender Stratocaster guitar. The owners of the business stayed stupefied to see her and see who he was: Vic Flickone of the most legendary session musicians in British history. With that guitar he had recorded countless hits from the sixties and seventies such as ‘It’s Not Unusual’ and ‘What’s New Pussycat?’ by Tom Jones, ‘Downtown’ by Petula Clark, ‘Spicks and Specks’ by the Bee Gees, ‘Silhouettes’ by the Herman Hermits, ‘A World Without Love’ by Peter & Gordon or even ‘Ringo’s Theme (This Boy)’ by the Beatles, which played in the movie ‘A Hard Day’s Night’. The deal was closed at no less than $55,000.
Flick, also a collaborator with six-string legends such as Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, was also the one who He recorded one of the most famous music in the history of cinema: that of the James Bond saga.. He did it with another guitar, a 1939 English Clifford Essex Paragon Deluxe, connected to a Fender Vibrolux amplifier that gave it that characteristic sound. “I played it very hard, I leaned on the thick bass strings with the plectrum held very tightly,” the musician explained in the book ‘The Music of James Bond’. “I played it slightly ahead of the beat, and it came out exciting, almost ‘on the attack’, which fit the James Bond image.”
In another 2021 interview with Guitar Player magazine, Flick attributed the “mysterious, powerful sound” of the guitar in the Bond theme to the “pick I used and the guitar strings. I placed the DeArmond pickup near the bridge. I put a crushed cigarette pack underneath it to get it closer to the ropes. That helped get that round sound… it was a sound we created, to a certain extent, and it had a bite to it that they loved. The way the guitar was recorded was also important. The orchestra’s microphones captured it and gave it a mysterious and powerful sound.
Flick charged a paltry 6 pounds for that recording, but his performance remained among the best-known melodies in the world. That is what the Surrey guitarist, who died on November 14 due to Alzheimer’s disease, takes to the grave, as reported by his family this Wednesday.
Flick was working with composer John Barry on the John Barry Seven, when he was hired to arrange Monty Norman’s theme for ‘Dr No’, the first James Bond film, in 1962. “Peter Hunt, the films’ music editor of Bond, told the producers that Monty Norman’s original theme didn’t represent the film,” Flick explained. «Peter had seen a 1960 Adam Faith film, Beat Girl, whose music was composed and performed by John Barry, and in which my guitar featured a lot. Based on that, Peter recommended Barry. The piece of music we recorded, which Barry arranged, was something Norman had first recorded in Jamaica, and he had bongos on it. I didn’t have any rhythm. He took her off his piano stool. Barry played it for me and asked, “What do you think?” I told him, “Take it down an octave. Make her dirtier, like Beat Girl. Make it sound like that.” “That and the brass section brought the Bond films to success.”
From there, Flick would participate in the soundtrack of several 007 films until the end of the 1980s, including Shirley Bassey’s fabulous theme for ‘Goldfinger’ in 1964 or Eric Clapton’s for ‘License to Kill’. in 1989, and also participated in the album ‘Bond Back in Action’ (1999) or in the video game ‘From Russia with Love’ (2005).
George Martin, Cliff Richard, Nancy Sinatra, Dusty Springfield, Paul McCartney, Engelbert Humperdinck, Lulu, Burt Bacharach, Sandie Shaw, Crispian St. Peters, Hank Marvin, John Williams, Mark Wirtz, John Schroeder, Don Partridge, Typically Tropical and Don Lusher were other artists for whom he played his guitars.
In 2013, Flick received the National Guitar Museum’s lifetime achievement award, and in 2014 he published his autobiography, ‘Vic Flick Guitarman: From James Bond to The Beatles and Beyond’. “He was the musician’s musician,” wrote Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues in the book’s foreword. «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 were always standing.”
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