Vic Flick, a British guitarist whose driving riff in the theme for the James Bond movies captured the spy’s suave confidence and tacit danger, died on November 14 in Los Angeles. He was 87.
His death, in a nursing facility, was announced on social media by his son, Kevin, who said the cause was Alzheimer’s disease.
The Bond films produced signature catchphrases (“shaken, not stirred”, “Bond, James Bond”) that have been endlessly recited and parodied since Dr. No, the first in the series, was released in Britain in 1962. But it was the sound of Flick’s guitar in the opening credits that helped make the spy thrillers instantly recognisable.
During the title credits of Dr. No, when moviegoers were introduced to or reacquainted with the works of author Ian Fleming, who wrote the James Bond books, Flick’s thrumming guitar sounded out through a brass-and-string orchestra.
“The selection of strings available in the late ’50s and early ’60s was abysmal compared to today,” he wrote in his 2008 autobiography, Vic Flick, Guitarman: From James Bond to The Beatles and Beyond.
“To get that ‘overplayed sound’, I simply overplayed the guitar, leaning into those thick low strings,” he continued. He also placed a pack of Senior Service cigarettes under the bridge of the guitar to help round out the sound.
“He was a musician’s musician,” Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues wrote in the foreword to Vic Flick: Guitarman. “He played for all the greats, and on so many treasured records. He was in demand, and he delivered.”
Victor Harold Flick was born on May 14, 1937, in Surrey, England, to Harold Flick, a music teacher, and Mabel (Curry) Flick, a singer. His childhood was marked by the frequent need to find safe havens from bombs that German planes were dropping over the area during World War II.
Once the war ended — and, as Flick wrote in his book, “a hesitant normality reigned” — his father and brother joined a band to perform at local churches. When Vic was 14, he saw an ad for a Gibson Kalamazoo, a small acoustic guitar.
“A deal was struck,” he wrote in Guitarman, adding: “I practiced the instrument until the tips of my fingers bled. I had to catch up to the others who were, compared to me, accomplished musicians.”
In 1953, Vic left school to work in a bank. He later worked as a heating and ventilation technician before pursuing music in earnest. He formed a band with his brother in 1958, and later joined a band led by Bob Cort, a folk musician.
While the group was on tour with Paul Anka, Flick met John Barry, who would go on to arrange the James Bond theme and later compose the scores for 11 Bond films. (Barry told The Sunday Times of London in 1997 that he had composed the theme; this was disputed by Monty Norman, the original composer for Dr. No, who then successfully sued the newspaper for libel.)
When the original theme was written for Dr. No, the music editor told the producers that it didn’t represent the film, Flick said in a 2021 interview with Guitar Player magazine. “I said, ‘Take it down an octave, make it grungy,’” he said. “That and the brass punched the Bond films to success.”
The result has been imprinted into the annals of cinema, and Flick would go on to work on the theme music for several more Bond films, including Goldfinger (1964).
He became a successful session musician, playing on tracks for Tom Jones, Dusty Springfield and others and on Peter and Gordon’s album A World Without Love.
New York Times News Service
