John Barry Seven
Listen – The John Barry Seven – Monkey Feathers – MP3
Greetings all.
The end of the week is upon us, and I have a special treat for you all.
One of the great bones of contention between my lovely wife and I is the movie ‘Zulu!’, the 1964 epic retelling of the Battle of Rorke’s Drift in South Africa. It’s one of the great war/action movies, Michael Caine’s first starring role, and as much as I love it, the wife hates it.
Some years back, my man Mr. Luther passed on a tape with a couple of tracks from the soundtrack, one of which I bring you today.
For some reason, I used to think that the John Barry leading the John Barry Seven was not the hugely successful soundtrack composer who wrote many of the most famous James Bond related themes, as well as the theme to ‘Midnight Cowboy’ (the famous instrumental, not Fred Neil’s ‘Everybody’s Talkin’).
As it turns out they are in fact the same guy. Barry got his start as a jazz arranger, moving on to composing for British teen idol Adam Faith, composing the soundtrack to the cult film ‘Beat Girl’.
He went on to work on the Bond films, and then on to ‘Zulu’.
While the theme to the movie – the a-side of this very 45 – is a cool Shadows-esque tune, ‘Monkey Feathers’ takes the whole reverb thing and runs with it, adding a surf-like feel over a martial beat.
Very cool.
Have a great weekend and I’ll be back on Monday with the Iron Leg Year In Review mix.
Peace
Larry
PS Head over to Funky16Corners for a surprisingly slamming soul 45
NICE! An Aussie pressing nonetheless, wiggy. My friend Tom just spun my former UK copy in Philly on Saturday night.
I too shared the assumption that the two John Barrys must be different people. The difference is that it was only this post that corrected me! Thanks.
Man this guy just keeps popping up all over the gaff. Big fan of Dances With Wolves so really dig this guy. Can’t believe its the same bloke.
John “Same-Same” Williams can’t shit on the same toilet bowl as John Barry. Hum me a John Williams tune without finding you’re not drifting off into 50 other theme tunes he’s composed.
Thanks for the upload.
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