It's curious how Lester brought Barry in again considering the director had not really liked Barry's work for The Knack and Petulia. Lester is known for saying he did not share Barry's approach to scoring films, although the director was quick to acknowledge the effectiveness of Barry's music. Did Lester choose effectiveness over his own taste?
Alex
And of course in television advertising Barry and Lester worked together a few times, too.
I don't know this for sure, of course, but I suspect Lester's disdain for Barry was really with Robin and Marian, which he then retrospectively transposed onto the earlier scores.
We do have a tendency to 're-write' our story in light of information that comes later. Psychologists call it Hindsight Bias and is basically one of several reasons that we are often the worst witnesses to our own story.
I mean, if he really didn't like Barry's music for The Knack at the time (as opposed to later), why on Earth would he invite him onto Petulia and Boom?
Cheers
Stephen, I strongly suspect that you are correct in your assessment of Lester's take on Barry's music. How funny that you should bring up 'hindsight bias'. This was a topic of discussion between my partner (a psychologist) and I just this weekend. You hit the nail on the head in your analysis.
