Born Free (song)
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"Born Free" is a song with music by John Barry, and lyrics by Don Black. It was written for the 1966 film of the same name. The song was used to honor Elsa the Lioness, who was one of the most famous animals in history. The song won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Matt Monro performed the song for the film score, his version reaching the easy listening survey. Both Roger Williams and Andy Williams recorded cover versions. While the Andy Williams version is enduringly popular, it was not a single and did not qualify for chart status except as a track in an LP. The Roger Williams reached #7 pop, #1 easy listening. A version also appears on the Vic Reeves album I Will Cure You.
[edit] History of the Song
The story of "Born Free" involved a woman, her husband and a lioness. For many years the woman Joy Adamson lived in the northern frontier district of Kenya, East Africa where her husband George Adamson [1] was the senior game warden. In the course of his duties as game warden, George shot and killed a lioness as she charged him and another man. It was not realized at that moment but the lioness was protecting her cubs and nearby were found the lioness' three cubs, which he took home to raise. The cubs did not eat for two days, but soon they were thriving. Early on, George attended to their physical needs, while Joy Adamson and her pet Pati, a rock hyrax, raised them. Joy was completely devoted to the cubs from the beginning and gave them each names, due to their characteristics. The largest was named Big One, because of her strength and size, the second-largest was named Lustica which means "Jolly One" in Swahili, because of her habit of whacking her milk bottle, and the smallest was Elsa(Elsa the lioness}. She got her name, because she reminded Joy of a friend of hers at school. She was the smallest of the class, and wasn't very good at games, but Joy liked her a lot. The young lioness had a very similar personality. When the cubs got older, George and Joy realized that they couldn't keep the cubs much longer. The two larger cubs, Lustica and the Big One, were sent to a zoo in Rotterdam, but the third, Elsa, the Adamsons kept and eventually released to live wild.
Realeasing a lion to the wild had never successfully been done before, but Joy knew that Elsa was born free and felt she had a right to live free. So they began, but after various attempts, it became pretty clear that Elsa couldn't survive out in the wild. She was low on health, and Joy and George were worried she would die... But she didn't. Elsa recovered, and seemed somehow different when she did. Elsa then went wild, but Joy and George saw her and her new cubs many times afterwards, born free and living free, but to them she was always their friend, Elsa. There always remained a mutual affection and friendship between Elsa and the Adamsons.
In 1964, a film adaption was made of the story, and featured Virginia McKenna as Joy, and Bill Travers as George. John Barry was asked to compose the film's score, and he did. One of his pieces was lyricized by Don Black, into the song.
In 1977, a reverse composition of the song's hook was used in the well-known theme to the movie Star Wars. Composer John Williams has widely maintained that he used the Born Free title song as a "subliminal hook" to capture his audience. Indeed, George Lucas maintains much of the Star Wars trilogy's success relies not on advanced visual effects, but on the simple, direct emotional appeal of its plot, characters and, importantly, music. Williams won the Academy Award for Best musical score the year Star Wars was released.
| Preceded by "The Shadow of Your Smile" from The Sandpiper |
Academy Award for Best Original Song 1966 |
Succeeded by "Talk to the Animals" from Doctor Dolittle |
