Date/Time
Date(s) - 02/16/2016
7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Location
Kepler's Books & Magazines
Category(ies)
Add This Event to Your Calendar
You know the name. You know the number. And, strangely enough, you recognize the songs: “Live and Let Die,” “Skyfall,” “Nobody Does It Better,” and of course, “Goldfinger.” Since 1964, every James Bond film has followed the same ritual, and so has its audience: after an exciting action sequence, the screen goes black and the viewer absorbs abstract opening credits and a haunting song featuring puzzling lyrics about diamonds, girls, and guns.
In The James Bond Songs, Adrian Daub and Charles Kronengold unpack these Bond songs, using them to trace a changing cultural landscape. They also ask how Bond and his music reflected and influenced our feelings about masculinity, race, money, and aging.
Come see the Bond songs in a new light – as a story about getting older and about the costs of staying the same, about nostalgia and the promises of capitalism, and about what it means to do a job, be it as a pop singer, a session musician, or a superspy killer, Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
Adrian Daub is Associate Professor of German Studies at Stanford University and author of three books about music and culture.
Charles Kronengold is Assistant Professor of Music at Stanford University and author of a forthcoming book on musical genres of the 1970s.