Vic Flick, who played Bond-themed guitar riff, dies at 87

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One of the most famous guitar riffs of all time; The strummed open E string riff on the James Bond theme. And the person who played him was Vic Flick.

Vic passed away on November 14 and is remembered as the “musician’s musician.”

It was his connection with composer John Barry that led to his casting in the Bond theme. Vic had performed in The John Barry Seven and in 1962, when Barry was hired to work on the score for the first Bond film, Dr. No, the guitarist he turned to was Vic.

The theme song was written by Monty Norman and remixed by Barry with the guitar riff front and center. Vic recorded it on his 1939 British Clifford Essex Paragon Deluxe guitar plugged into a Fender Vibrolux amplifier.

Vic would later recall: “He had an advantage, he had a sort of dynamic voice. I played too much; “I leaned on those thick, low strings with a very hard plectrum, played it a little ahead of the beat, and it came out in an exciting, almost ‘aggressive’ way, which fit the James Bond image.”

In an interview with Guitar Player magazine, he attributed the “mysterious, powerful sound” to the plectrum and strings he used. “I positioned the DeArmond pickup near the bridge. I put a crushed cigarette pack under it to get it closer to the wires. This helped achieve the round sound. “It was a sound we created to some extent, and there was something about it that they liked.”

Surprisingly, Vic received a modest one-off payment for his services: £6.

He later continued to work on the Bond series. The Mist’s famous song played Goldfinger’s theme song sung by Shirley Bassey.

A highly respected session musician, Vic has performed on Tom Jones’ It’s Not Unusual and What’s New Pussycat? He played in a number of hit songs such as. and Petula Clark’s Town Center. He was also featured on the song Ringo’s Theme (This Boy) from The Beatles’ 1964 film A Hard Day’s Night. Among the artists he worked with were Eric Clapton, Dusty Springfield, Cliff Richard and Jimmy Page.