Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email


2026 May 04 • Monday

The 907th Soundtrack of the Week is the score for Jaguar Lives! by Robert O. Ragland.

The main title is very post-Bond "spy music", with swinging horns and strings and a majestic adventure feel to it. The melody is somewhere in between "Thunderball" and "Green Dolphin Street".

The filmmakers were working a Bond connection with the cast, too: Christopher Lee, Donald Pleasance, Barbara Bach, Joseph Wiseman and John Huston were all in Bond movies. Capucine from The Pink Panther is also in there.

"Sunset in Istanbul" is a short and low-key variation on the main theme while "Never Die Jaguar" starts with an reiteration of the theme before moving into action music, accompanied here by the FX and speech tracks from the movie.

Solo acoustic guitar and someone either stamping their foot or using their hand percussively on the guitar bring us to "Spanish Town", a nice, typically Spanish guitar-sounding piece.

Another short adventure/suspense cue, "Secret Galley", comes next, followed by "Jonathan Cross", the name of the main character, whose music starts out angular and staccato before swinging into the main theme again.

Of course there has to be a love theme and "Wiles of Love" is a very pretty solo piano piece.

Ominous low tones from the horn section combine with acoustic guitar and flutes to give us "Murder Trap" and then we get the main theme again, slower and with wah-wah guitar, in "Beyond the Border".

"Terry" is another tender, pretty, wistful tune, this time for the full orchestra.

Then it's time for two minutes of military drums for "General Villanova" and then another tense action/suspense cue for "Getting Away".

This continues in "Battle at the Castle", the longest track here, a mini-suite of mostly action music but with sweeter more melodic bits thrown in.

The end credits reprise the main theme again. Not having a vocal version is one way they avoided imitating Bond movies, I guess, though this particular piece doesn't seem like it would lend itself well to lyrics.