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| Nobody with hair this great should look this miserable. |
Produced by the great Arif Mardin, who didn't squander his rep on just anybody, the album is lush, crafted, beautifully composed and produced, and emotionally affecting. The other guiding light on the album, Greg Kreutz, disappeared from the music business (he was also responsible for the crap painting on the cover). Three years later, Giovanni turns up in the U.K. scoring the cult original version (not the Nic Cage comedy remake) of The Wicker Man, and the music has only tenuous links with the pop-rock of Side Show. Featuring traditional songs alongside Giovanni originals played by a group called Magnet, it has also gained a cult rep. There's a weirdness to it entirely appropriate to the mood of the movie that takes a few spins to establish itself. Unlike many soundtracks, it's a standalone album that works without the visuals.
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| New design from original poster |
https://workupload.com/file/R9TZpz2NMmN
ReplyDeleteThanks for the share.
ReplyDeleteDude!
DeleteSorry - was all out of witty retorts this morning.
DeleteWitty, schmitty - as long as you love the music!
DeleteIn case anyone is interested, here is the artwork (including booklet and posters) from the 2002 Silva Screen Records release: https://we.tl/t-quLK0vYYxX
ReplyDeleteThanks! I think the download is the Silva Screen version.
DeleteThe notes are essential reading. Thanks again.
DeleteNOT the Silva Acreen version...shit version of Landlords Daughter without the pub crowd backing vocals. I should rename you the Nicholas Cage of blogging for this crime!
DeleteOr should i say It's not the Trunk version which is the best version,with afore mentioned Landlords Daughter track in place as heard on the film.
DeleteWhat you should have said, Jonny, after a moment of reflection before pounding the keyboard, is - "here's a link to the Trunk version".
DeleteJohnny would it be possible to get the other version? Please?
DeleteI liked The Wicker Man that I saw(Christopher Lee). It's pretty spooky to know there are isolated populations that are on auto-legislation since there are too many to keep track of. Especially on islands. But, I'm going to check out the Side Show album first! Thank you, farq!
ReplyDeleteIndeed, best Wicker Man flick ever.
DeleteThanks! I've never heard the Paul Giovanni album, so I'm
ReplyDeletecurious to give a listen.
On the other hand, I do have quite a soft spot for The
Wicker Man (1973) emphatically including the music. It's
true that my tastes lean toward the idiosyncratic. On the
OTHER other hand, everything connected with the original
version of The Wicker Man leans toward the idiosyncratic,
emphatically including the music. So there's that.
I'm familiar with both the Trunk and Silva Screen versions
of the soundtrack. I even have over here a supplementary
[cash-in -- ED] collection called Willows Songs. It purports
to be "The 12 Traditional Folk Songs That Inspired The
Soundtrack To The Greatest British Horror Movie Of Our
Generation" [i.e., The Wicker Man -- ED]. If push came to
shove, I personally would describe that collection as
idiosyncratic. Among the reasons for which it's interesting,
if you're me, is that it contains an instrumental version,
previously unavailable, of "Willows Song" as recorded by
Lodestone, in other words, by what Magnet used to be.
If there were ever an aesthetic plague, a culturovirus,
such that all the artistic productions of the world fell at
risk of flickering out, then I would hasten to quarantine,
for safety's sake, that particular piece of The Wicker Man
which, in the Silva Screen edition, is hidden away under the
title "The Opening Music."
It's an abbreviated variant -- just a couple of verses, the
lyrics idiosyncratically tampered with by Paul Giovanni -- of
Robert Burns' "The Highland Widow's Lament." The song
commemorates one or maybe two among the various massacres
of Scots Jacobites by British government troops. The recording,
less than two minutes in duration, starts with seabird noises
and then gives way to harmonizing female vocals and Northumbrian
pipes layered over seaplane sounds.
The main singer (who may or may not, through overdubbing, be the
harmonizing vocalist, too) is one Leslie Mackie, who also appears
as Daisy in the film's "beetle" scene. Sometime in the middle of
the production process, she, along with other of the bit
players, had happened by a pub. There it transpired, reportedly
during her "guttural" rendition of a song from Edith Piaf,
that Leslie Mackie was good for even more than acting. And so
she was asked by the director, Robin Hardy, to sing the
idiosyncratic variant of "The Highland Widow's Lament."
(That, to me, is how absolutely precarious everything is.)
She was paid £50 for her week's filming, £20 for singing
"The Highland Widow's Lament," and £30 for tutoring Britt
Ekland in what everyone decided ought to pass for the
requisite Scots dialect.
I very much like that recording -- the guttural vocals, the
archaic lyrics, the archaic hornpipes, the guttural seaplane
sounds. As a little package, it's a mechanical-biological
kernel, and the rest of the film grows out from it. It seems
to tell the whole story all in the one place, this being a
tale of atavism's revenge upon modernity. Then again, though,
that could just be me.
Erratum: It's "Lesley," not "Leslie."
DeleteOnce again we get a comment that outshines the piece. Thank you, Mr. Devil.
Deleteso any chance of the Trunk version?
ReplyDeleteYou'll have to ask Jonny. It's not on his blog, so I guess we'll just have to live without the pub singers. We can always watch the movie with our eyes shut.
DeleteThe Trunk version is still available at this fantastic blog: http://hollandtunneldive.blogspot.com/.
DeleteJust don't tell you-know-who!
no link on there unless it's very well hidden!
DeleteHere's a crash course in the protocol. Click on the green
Delete"Download" button near the top of the main page. Enter
a search term such as "Magnet" or "Paul" or "Wicker," and
then you'll be presented with the link.
Cheers!
DeleteOr, try this shortycutting:
Deletehttps://www94.zippyshare.com/v/j2ujlmnw/file.html
(FOR):
magnet & paul giovanni - the wicker man (trunk records edition) (320kb).zip
Just don't tell jillem I said so...
Oh, and...No PW.