Goblin were the greatest rock soundtrack band that ever existed. Forget Pink Floyd's tossed-off efforts for Barbet Schroeder. Goblin were the Bernard Herrmann of European thrillers and horror throughout the 70s and 80s, the Nino Rota of eye gouges, beheadings and sex slashings. They also did the very memorable international score for George A. Romero's Dawn of The Dead (known in Europe as Zombi.)
Led by keyboardist Claudio Simonetti, Goblin wrote pulsating rock scores for over 2-dozen films and television programs, mostly, but not exclusively, in Italy. Their soundtracks incorporated symphonic prog rock, electronic minimalism, eerie soundscapes, disco, exotic ethnic instrumentation, strange whisperings - whatever worked best while Stefania Casini was falling into a room full of barbed-wire coils in Suspiria, or a young Jennifer Connolly communicated telepathically with insect swarms in Phenomena (aka Creepers.)
Of course, Goblin are best known for their work with director Dario Argento (for you kids, that's Asia's Dad; Asia's Mom is writer/actress/philologist Daria Nicolodi), and it's undeniable that they did their best work for the suspense/gore auteur. The soundtrack for Suspiria (1977) is probably their finest work, and taken as a complete musical vision it blows most of their catalog away. Deep Red (1975), as the premier Giallo film soundtrack, was genre-defining. Thrillers in general for the next 15 years would carry trappings of the Goblin sound (or Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, lest we forget) in their scores. Many composers tried to copy the Goblin vibe, like one Fabio Frizzi, who scored several of Lucio Fulci's 70s–80s gorefests (most notably The Beyond and Zombie2.)
Other great Goblin records include their soundtrack for Joe D'Amato's Buio Omega (aka Beyond the Darkness); who else could have provided a viable sonic backdrop for one of the sickest films ever made, including cannibalism, human taxidermy, bizarre cross-generational sex and graphic bathtub dismemberments? Hey, work is work, right? Also essential are the aforementioned Zombi and Phenomena scores, as well as Goblin's two non-soundtrack albums, Roller (1976) and Il Fantastico Viaggio Del Bagarozzo Mark (1978).
"Essential" is all in the ear of the beholder, I suppose, but I couldn't live without this music; I need to be transported immediately back to the gloom of 1977 fairly often, and I'm not always in the mood for Bowie's Low album. To demonstrate the strength of my commitment, I recently had a variation on the Goblin logo committed to the flesh of my right arm by Lester of Zebra Tattoo in Berkeley, California (see above.)
Here's a link to the official Goblin web home: http://www.goblin.org/
Claudio Simonetti official site: http://www.simonetti.org/
Addendum: Lest I forget (or before someone else jumps all over me), Ennio Morricone scored three of Dario Argento’s pre-Deep Red films, including the wonderful score for The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, with its subtle instrumentation and eerie female vocalizations. All 3 scores are available on a single CD, which FMU has been playing steadily since its release. For the record, though, fans and critics largely consider Deep Red (aka Profondo Rosso) to be the archetypal giallo film.
Posted by: WmMBerger | July 21, 2005 at 07:13 AM
of course i encourage everyone to go out and buy Goblin's albums, BUT....
if yous financial boat has crashed on the rocky shores of hard times and all your money goes to a high speed internet connection, then you might want to head over to Emusic.com because they have many Gobln albums for dwnload.
they offer 50 free dwnloads to people trying out the site and then you can cancel for nothing, OR keep the membership. the important things is they have a lot of Goblin albums...
Posted by: hornsofthedevil | July 21, 2005 at 11:44 AM
i should also mention that certain members of Goblin still keep active today. Carlo Penisi recently guested on an album by International Deejay Gigilos' Crossover, entitled "Cryptic and Dire Sallow-Faced Hoods Blast Off Into Oblivion," that just came out in April.
Posted by: impboy | July 21, 2005 at 02:31 PM
Hey, that tattoo goes well with your caroliner rainbow shirt...
that IS a caroliner shirt, no?
I'd like to see them do a soundtrack to a movie,perhaps the film version of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Merdian which has been in development for years now...
Posted by: squinchy | July 21, 2005 at 04:17 PM
Good eye! Yes that is indeed a Caroliner v-neck tee, custom Grux design sold to me outside a CBGB show by Mr. Brandan Kearney. Caroliner's shirts are/were always silkscreened onto some old "found" shirt - never a shiny new Beefy-T or some first-gen crap like that. This one used to fit me like a night dress, sadly I've been gradually filling it out over the years...
Posted by: WmMBerger | July 21, 2005 at 06:45 PM
He's back! He's bad! He's Berger! Hey Bill, it's been so long! How you doing? The Brann Man never forgets. Hey, I couldn't help but notice you posted this message at 3:33 AM... proof that TKF still breathes within us all...
Posted by: Ray Brazen | July 21, 2005 at 06:53 PM
Nice post Mr. Berger, Goblin is defintely dope. Also Claudio Simonetti was behind many banging italo disco rekkids in the early 80's.
$¢
Posted by: $mall ¢hange | July 23, 2005 at 04:18 PM