The Music of the Night: A Brief History of Goblin
When one discusses masters of film horror, the list often gets filled first with writers or actors. The first names to come up are usually the likes of James Whale, Bella Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Bruce Campbell, or Wes Craven (who we sadly lost this year).
In terms of musical contributors, the list would be much shorter, and were we to look for rock bands, there would be only one act: Goblin. The house band of 1970s horror film, this Italian prog rock band found themselves in demand for the soundtrack of some of the more memorable and disturbing films that came out during the high point of the Italian giallo movement, the films that would help inspire the American slasher films from the 1980s onward.
Note that for this article, the name “Goblin” will be used for the group through the period covered, though the members of the band had been credited during the high watermark in their films as “Goblin,” “the Goblins,” under the name of each individual member in a list, and for the production Percy is Killed as “Il Reale Impero Britannico” (“The Royal British Empire”). Goblin, the name associated with most of their films, is used in the piece for the sake of convenience.
The name, however, was not the one the founding members of the group started with. Keyboardist Claudio Simonetti, guitarist Massimo Morante, bassist Fabio Pignatelli, and drummer Walter Martino were under the name “Oliver” when they came together in 1972 and produced demos that caught the attention of English producer Eddy Offord, who produced albums for both Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, among others. Offord informed the band that he wanted to work with them, but nothing came of the conversation or any other efforts the band made to get a recording contract with a London-based label, and the musicians who would become Goblin decamped from England in 1975 to return to their native Italy.
On returning home, the band replaced Martino with Agostino Marangolo as the Italian label Cinevox Records signed them and released their first album, Cherry Five. As they didn’t include the name of the group on the record, the band was renamed Cherry Five de facto without protest from the musicians. The fact that Cinevox didn’t care much about their name demonstrates that their album itself may have been an afterthought, as the label has been and still is dedicated more to film soundtracks. This focus may not have been ideal for a group that wanted to be the next prog rock sensation, but it did steer them towards their eventual destiny as masters of horror soundtracks.
The band’s connection with Cinevox enabled them to come to the attention of director Dario Argento, who was in production of his film Profondo Russo (Deep Red) and not entirely happy with the contributions to the soundtrack being made by jazz artist Giorgio Gaslini. Wanting something more current, possibly something suggesting Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells which got used to great effect in The Exorcist, Argento tried to contact Pink Floyd, hoping they could do for him what they did for Michelangelo Antonioni; when that didn’t pan out, he gave Simonetti a chance to compose music for the film, which premiered in 1975.
The results ended up in the film: the tale of the hunt for a brutal murderer told in gory, close-up detail, which started a fruitful collaboration with the director and produced a bestselling soundtrack in Italy under the band’s new name, “Goblin.” For this film, Martino was back on drums, but was replaced by Marangolo for subsequent soundtracks, the start of a revolving door of additional session people joining the combo for the rest of their most productive period.
Indeed, for their next major film work, Goblin brought in an additional keyboardist, Maurizio Guarini, as they provided music for the tale of an American student coming to a ballet school in Europe that’s overseen by a coven, Argento’s 1977 masterpiece Suspiria.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJUaCAIxSk4
The film established Argento’s reputation as a master director worldwide and brought Goblin to the attention of a wider audience. With the film a worldwide success, Argento was able to bring his clout to bear on other projects, including George A. Romero’s follow-up to his 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. Argento was made aware of Romero’s effort to do a follow-up film (which could not find American backers), and soon provided the funds to produce Romero’s zombie apocalypse masterwork and stinging critique of American consumerism, 1978-1979’s Dawn of the Dead (known in Italy under the title Zombi).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC3jGCUJsVM
Interestingly, the film has differing soundtracks depending on the territory. The film’s American release controlled by Romero featured only three tracks from Goblin, including the main theme, with the rest of the soundtrack provided through needle drops licensed from De Wolfe Music. The international cut controlled by Argento, on the other hand, had more robust use of Goblin’s compositions.
The practice of redoing film soundtracks for different international territories, in fact, gave Goblin an opportunity to provide music for an Australian film when it came to Europe: 1978’s Patrick, about a telekinetic who would not let being in a comatose state keep him from doing grave damage to everyone around him.
The work Goblin did on their version of the soundtrack was more dynamic than the work done by original composer Brian May. (Not to be confused with the guitarist from Queen/physicist.) Interestingly, none of May’s subsequent scores get cast aside so easily, and his music stays on the film for such releases as Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, Freddie’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, and Dr. Giggles.
Speaking of replacements, by this time Goblin itself was revving up its revolving lineup. For Patrick, Simonetti was replaced by Maurizio Guarini, who would also be in the lineup for the last few films Goblin would record the soundtrack for before the band broke up from infighting and disagreement. By the time they recorded the soundtrack for Contamination in 1980, they and the world’s fascination with Italian horror films from the last decade were falling away; this tale of alien eggs trying to take over the earth did nothing for either the group or the films from Italy they were part of.
While Goblin was dissolving like a vampire in sunlight in the last reel of a horror film, the band’s influence would not be so easily dispelled. Elements of their style found in soundtracks they recorded can be heard in the compositions John Carpenter wrote for his films, such as Halloween, The Fog and Escape from New York. The thematic elements Carpenter embraces from Goblin find their way into other scores written for lower budgeted genre films of the 1980s and 1990s, making Goblin the great-founding-grandfathers of modern horror film music.
As for the band itself, differing claims to the name with various lineups have come and gone. As of this writing, one version featuring Morante, Guarini, Pignatelli, and Marangolo is currently active. Another version touring under the name “Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin” featuring only the original keyboardist, is also out there. Like the undead from a classic horror film, both are claiming a legacy built on their earlier work from the 1970s.
Which, all said, is appropriate, as much like many of the subjects of the films they all scored, death can never really stop the truly driven…
