I wanna be like you, ooh, ooh, Motherf*#!@r! Baloo was my muse, says Quentin Tarantino

Film director known as the master of violence and foul language, makes surprise confession

Paul Bignell
Saturday 04 May 2013 21:25 BST
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Tarantino said his inspiration was The Jungle Book
Tarantino said his inspiration was The Jungle Book

Film director Quentin Tarantino is hailed as the master of the badass soundtrack. Fans claim even controversial scenes of graphic violence in films such as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction are made even more chilling by striking, unusual choices of background music. So, to what does the US director owe this uncanny knack of wedding sound to vision? He says his original inspiration was the Disney children's classic The Jungle Book.

And the creator of some of Hollywood's most profane films, says it was "The Bear Necessities" track, in particular, which proved to be his musical muse.

Tarantino reveals in a BBC 6 Music interview broadcast today that The Jungle Book was "the first movie I saw where the song ['The Bear Necessities'] was a big, important part... I thought it was just fantastic."

He adds: "I had the whole album and knew the song and used to sing along to it. I remember my dad telling me: 'Remember, Quentin, when we go to the movie you can't sing along to "The Bear Necessities" because we'll be in the cinema.' So, we got to it and as soon as the song came on, everybody else started singing along with it."

The director, sharing his personal jukebox in The First Time With … series, is celebrated for soundtracks where genres as varied as bubble-gum pop, surf rock, soul, and country stand out as much as the film itself.

The box-office success of such movies as Jackie Brown, Inglourious Basterds and Kill Bill have frequently revived the fortunes of the records featured. Such is Tarantino's reputation that even acclaimed artists such as the composer Ennio Morricone offer songs unsolicited.

"I first heard him [Morricone] when I was a little boy... three of the first movies I ever saw at the theatres – other than the Disney movies – was the Dollars trilogy, because my mum had a crush on Clint Eastwood," Tarantino said.

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