|
Forum - General Questions |
|
Question
|
Goblin and John Carpenter
A couple of weeks ago there was a forum discussion about how the music of Goblin and John Carpenter sound similar. I wanted to respond to this, but I never got the time. Anyway, I wrote a mini-essay on how the two are very different. Since soundtracks belong to the humanities I wrote the paper in good ol' MLA style. By the way, I'll admit that I'm biased toward Goblin since I am a huge fan of Italian prog. There might be some factual inadequacies regarding Goblin's meeting with Dario Argento during the "Profondo Rosso" sessions--I don't exactly trust the bad English biography in the Cinevox editions, and I'm not sure Barotto is correct either. The only people that really know the truth are Goblin and Dario Argento.
Anyway, Enjoy:
Jeremy M. Pilarski
Personal Enjoyment
Soundtrack Collector
30 June 2007
Goblin vs. John Carpenter
Both Goblin and John Carpenter have had success in adding terror to the mayhem befalling the usual cast of victims, and this is a fact that often confuses people in assuming they sound similar or that they influence each other, however, a deeper look into the background reveals an explanation of their artistic uniqueness: For instance, John Carpenter is a filmmaker, while Goblin is a progressive rock band. John Carpenter composes soundtracks only; he has never written or recorded an entire album outside the soundtrack genre. In contrast, Goblin and its members have several recordings that are not soundtrack-related�some of these titles include, Cherry Five (the name chosen by the band before Goblin), �Roller,� �Il Fantastico Viaggo Del Bagarozzo Mark� and �Volo.� Despite the tutelage of Dario Argento, Goblin has always maintained a progressive rock identity. Unlike Goblin, Carpenter has always maintained the styling of a genre composer. Furthermore, these musical identifies further illustrate the difference between Carpenter and Goblin.
�The members of Goblin form their first band, Il Ritratto Di Dorian Gray, in 1970�the founding musicians are Massimo Morante (guitars), Claudio Simonetti (keyboards), and Massimo Giorgi (bass),� (Barotto 130). It takes four years before these musicians reach the recording studio. Progressive rock reaches the height of its popularity in the mid-70s and the founding members are big fans of such bands like ELP, Yes, and Genesis. Even in Italy, many of the band�s fellow countrymen are emulating the prog style with much success; a few bands like Banco and PFM have reasonable success in English-speaking markets with new recordings of their previous albums. Thus following the current music trend, the founding members try releasing an all-English-symphonic-prog album under the name Cherry Five.
John Carpenter, on the other hand, finds his calling not from music, but film. In a book called �Dark Conversations,� author Stanley Wiater interviews John Carpenter on the subject of inspiration. John Carpenter admits that at an early age he fell in love with sci-fi comic book stories from �Weird Science� and �Weird Fantasy� (Wiater 21). At the same time the young Carpenter discovers his true calling while going to movies. In response to Wiater�s question regarding the young horror maestro�s career premonition, Carpenter replies: �I knew it because when I went to the movies, it was a magic land that gave me a great deal of happiness. It was a fantastic illusion, and I wanted to be the maestro behind the scenes, creating the illusion� (21). Sure enough Carpenter fulfills his cinematic destiny: he attends film school at USC, drops out, shoots a sci-fi comedy entitled �Dark Star,� then after the feature�s failure he devotes his time to writing pot-boiler scripts (21). Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the skilled musicians about to be known to horror movie world as Goblin prepare their debut.
Despite the great music written and performed by Simonetti and Morante, the Cherry Five album is a commercial failure. Still, all is not lost as both Simonetti and Morante have respectable r�sum�s as session men for Cinevox (Barotto 130), and it just so happens that Italian horror director Dario Argento is looking for a modern rock sound to complement his latest giallo, Profondo Rosso. Although Giorgio Gasalini is a very capable composer, his light-symphonic-jazz style does not quite deliver the sonic punch Argento needs for the more gruesome segments in the film. After hearing a few cuts from Cherry Five�s album, Argento is impressed and hires the future members of Goblin to score additional music for Profondo Rosso. The remaining members of Cherry Five decide to change the name of the group to Goblin in order to distance themselves from the Yes-inspired debut album, and not confuse the record-buying public with two different-sounding albums from the same band. It is probably a reliable assumption that the founding members wanted to continue down the progressive rock path with more albums under the Cherry Five name, or perhaps under the originally conceived name, Oliver. This never happens though, because the �Profondo Rosso� album is a success, and the band formerly called Cherry Five becomes Goblin.
Not dismayed by the cold public reception of his film �Dark Star,� Carpenter moves on, directing the cult-action movie �Assault on Precinct 13.� Once again, Carpenter writes, directs, and scores the film. For his soundtrack, Carpenter composes a simple synthesizer motif that plays throughout the movie. Of course his score does not match the virtuoso playing done by Goblin�s keyboard player Claudio Simonetti, nevertheless, Carpenter�s electronic music gets the job done. Unfortunately, �Assault on Precinct 13� does not fare too well with movie-going public in the United States; however, the film grosses moderately well in the international markets, giving Carpenter deserved recognition as film-making talent, and all the hard work is about to pay off: In just a few short years, John Carpenter is about to deliver one of the world�s most memorable psychos, Michael Myers.
By this time, Goblin achieves good success scoring soundtracks and the band�s name becomes synonymous with Italian horror movies. Yet, the founding members of Goblin seem like they want to return to the album-oriented themes presented on their debut album. After �Profondo Rosso� they record the all-instrumental album �Roller.� Joined by a second keyboardist Maurizio Guarini and drummer Agostino Marangolo, the second Goblin album is moody, but less jagged than Profondo Rosso, displaying their preference for a more listenable sound. All of the musicians contributing on this album are in top form, but the one who stands out is keyboardist Claudio Simonetti. His distinct synthesizer techniques with the Mellotron and mini-moog are arguably an integral part of the band�s sound. Following the release of �Roller,� Goblin�s musicians once again find themselves doing soundtrack duties for Dario Argento.
A year after the release of �Suspiria� John Carpenter completes �Halloween.� It becomes a major horror hit, securing Carpenter�s career as a feature director, but what about Carpenter�s career as a musician? Truth be known, Michael Myers is not nearly as scary without the unsettling �Halloween� theme, just as Madame Marcus is not nearly as omnipresent without the jingly �Suspiria� theme. The answer to this question is that John Carpenter is a filmmaker, not a musician. As a matter of fact, Carpenter describes his music as �utilitarian� in Wiater�s interview: ��By that I mean they are of setting a mood for something that already exists� (25). So Carpenter is basically saying that he scores not for aesthetic satisfaction, instead, he scores music that satisfies the action on the screen. Carpenter does not merge different musical styles in one soundtrack as Goblin does, and his keyboard playing is not nearly as virtuosic as Claudio Simonetti. Still, they have one thing in common and that is the horror film genre.
Thus, Goblin and John Carpenter only sound similar because many of their scoring duties share the horror movie genre. Their artistic backgrounds and career aspirations are completely independent of one another. Even their musical approaches reflect their different artistic personalities: Carpenter uses his music with a utilitarian approach; he stays away from elaborate musical styling to satisfy the images on the screen. Goblin scores music with more of an aesthetic mindset, using form and technique to not only fit the action on screen but to challenge themselves as musicians. Despite their compositional differences both are effective in delivering the auditory eeriness needed to give audiences that uneasy feeling associated with a good scare. Also, the fiendish, blood-thirsty antagonists owe these two creative minds thanks, because their musical themes are just as memorable as the places they haunt and the victims they stalk.
Works Cited
Barotto, Paolo. �The Return of Italian Pop.� 2nd English Edition.
Milano: Vinyl Magic Books, 1998.
Wiater, Stanley. �Dark Visions, Conversations with the Masters of
Horror Film.� New York: Avon Books.
Jmicpilars, July 1, 2007; 1:32 AM
|
Answers
|
Great essay! Thank You !!!!
delerue, July 2, 2007; 11:14 AM

Yep, very insightful. Thanks!
coma, July 2, 2007; 12:47 PM

|
Contribute an answer
|
|
|