Great Instrumentals#2: John Barry/"Beat Girl"

This one is from a 1960 British youth exploitation film about the pernicious effects that American rockabilly music, "Beat Generation" degeneracy and, gasp!, modern jazz had on poor impressionable "kids" in the UK.

Thanks to Pat and Elizabeth at the "pokeintheeye" website for this link.

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The music here is a rock/jazz synthesis by John Barry, a man who would go on to write scores for most of the early James Bond films, as well as historical films like "The Lion in Winter" (1968), contemporary films like "The Chase" (1966) and the ultra-gritty "Midnight Cowboy" (1969). He also composed two of the most famous Africa-themed movies "Born Free" and Oscar winning score for "Out of Africa" (1985). p>Many times Barry scores were much better than the rest of the film he was assigned to compose for, and from the clips provided by You Tube "Beat Girl" was no exception. Here's a chance to catch a bit of his early work.

The young fellow in the plaid shirt dancing with Gillian Hills--and where might you be now, Ms. Hills?--is none other than Oliver Reed, who would go on to make slightly better films in the years ahead.

Crazy, cats, crazy!