The Plot Thickens

By MI6 Staff

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The 'Holy Grail' of lost James Bond music appeared out of nowhere last month, and since the supposed lost Eric Clapton track for 'Licence To Kill' was made available, 007 and Clapton fans alike have been split regarding its authenticity.

Nobody has done more digging into the legitimacy of the track than Benjamin Rogers, who tracked down the leaker of the tape and guitarist Vic Flick. The motivation for the leak last month was a Clapton super-fan who had seen some of his private recordings and rare material monetized in Japan with a bootleg LP. Subsequent uploads of the track to online platforms have seen manual copyright strikes issued by the estate of Michael Kamen, for which they have to state that they own the copyright (indicating it is not a fake). He presents his findings so far in this short video essay:

Since the publication of the video, the Music Editor on 'Licence To Kill', Andy Glen (son of director John Glen), has come forward via Twitter and vouched for the track: "It is better than I remember! But not much :-) It got a very limited airing back at Pinewood and was then quickly forgotten. iirc Michael Kamen had mentioned inviting several other guitarist mates including Dave Gilmour & Jeff Beck but only EC and Vic Flick showed. Michael was very charismatic, energetic, and popular in the business. I have no doubt he could have gathered quite a team. But it was all very last minute and rather shambolic. iirc the producers were not impressed."

Despite all the evidence pointing to this track being authentic, some hardened Clapton fans are still convinced it is an elaborate fake. Perhaps it is just too difficult to accept, that after all these years of waiting, the track is ultimately a disappointment.

UPDATE: