Paul Giovanni - The Wicker Man

Released - December 1973

Genre - Folk

Producer - Paul Giovanni

Selected Personnel - Paul Giovanni (Vocals/Guitar); Peter Brewis (Recorder/Harmonica/Bass); Andrew Tompkins (Guitar); Michael Cole (Bassoon/Concertina); Ian Cutler (Violin); Bernard Murray (Percussionist); Gary Carpenter (Piano/Recorder/Fife/Lyre); Annie Ross (Vocals); Lesley Mackie (Vocals); Christopher Lee (Vocals)

Standout Track - Gently Johnny

I set a vague rule when I first started on this blog that soundtrack albums weren't allowed. As I've already demonstrated, and will continue to periodically demonstrate as time goes by, periodically that's a rule I'll break. The same goes for my "no live albums" rule. Essentially, if a soundtrack or live album is of genuinely great cultural or personal significance, then I'm happy to break my own arbitrary rules. Paul Giovanni's soundtrack to Robin Hardy's immortal The Wicker Man is both - as a teen, I became obsessed with cinema long before I became obsessed with music to the extent I am now, and The Wicker Man was a film I sought out at a young age because everything about it fascinated me. I was a weirdly serious-minded teenager with a head full of fantasy and the macabre and a penchant for high drama, this being long before I realised I had the most fun being stupid rather than portentous and discovered comedy. Everything about The Wicker Man, then - its paganistic imagery and dramatic flair - appealed, and I quickly sought it out. Years and years after I first saw it, what's stuck with me most is its incredible soundtrack. And it feels of cultural significance due to the fact that, despite being recorded years after the genre's decline, it feels effectively like the pinnacle of the psychedelic folk movement as pioneered by the likes of Donovan and the Incredible String Band.

The soundtrack is unconventional in a sense, in that it involves very little incidental music or orchestral score (there are a couple of instrumental numbers that underscore the action), but largely of fully-fledged folk songs that are incorporated into the action itself as an integral part of the film's plot. Hardy's film attempts to really plunge the viewer into the paganistic and ritualistic world of Summerisle, and acutely understands that a key part of such a world is its sense of festival, of live performance and music. As such, folk singer-songwriter Paul Giovanni was drafted in to compose a number of ancient-sounding acoustic folk songs to become integral parts of the film, to be recorded by Giovanni himself and a folk band assembled specifically for the recording of the soundtrack, named Magnet. Giovanni manages to achieve a similar effect in his music to that of Vashti Bunyan in her endlessly lovely 1970 album Just Another Diamond Day, in that he's able to compose original tunes that sound like they've existed for hundreds of years. Only a few of the album's tracks, like "Procession" and "Chop Chop" are actual traditional folk tunes arranged by Giovanni, the majority are original pieces composed very much within the musical traditions of ancient folk music, so that everything here sounds very much like a part of an ancient tradition built on the land and the seasons and the natural world.

The instrumentation is kept deliberately simple and largely focusing on traditional instruments rather than modern ones, from fiddle and drum to recorder and lyre. The music, despite all existing within this traditional, earthy realm, manages to span a wide range of moods and tones as well, from the sunny mellow feel of opener "Corn Rigs" to the dark, moody menace of "Gently Johnny" or the apocalyptic horror of "Summer Is A-Cumen In" that accompanies the film's iconic final scene as Sgt. Howie is burned alive in the titular wicker man. The sequencing of the soundtrack album leaves a lot to be desired, sadly - most of the fully-fledged songs are lined up in the first half, with the slightly less compelling instrumental or incidental numbers making up the second half, meaning it becomes progressively less musically interesting as it goes on. One can't help but feel that the sequence should have just been left as the order of appearance within the film, but it's a small complaint to make in the grand scheme of things.

"Corn Rigs" makes for the perfect opener, effortlessly setting the scene within this traditional, pre-Christian world of folk music via a breezy melody and carefree atmosphere, and the ensuing "The Landlord's Daughter" is a raucous number to set the scene within the community of Summerisle itself, relying on fiddle and rowdy choral singing to establish the mood. "Gently Johnny" is one of the two real showstoppers on the album, and one of the very finest folk songs ever composed. It accompanies a scene bewilderingly cut from the theatrical version of the film, in which Christopher Lee's Lord Summerisle quotes Walt Whitman's "I think I could turn and live with the animals" while Edward Woodward's Sgt. Howie prays in his room and the townsfolk sing of seduction downstairs. It has all the smoky and bleary-eyed darkness of late-night rumination, and is a peerlessly brilliant folk song. "Maypole" and "Fire Leap" are directly concerned with island rituals, the first for a Maypole dance by the village's children, the second for a ritual in which the community's young girls dance naked around a fire, conveying innocence and playfulness in the first and unnerving menace in the second. "The Tinker Of Rye" is a more straightforward song in which Lee demonstrates a genuinely good (albeit characteristically stentorian) singing voice.

Then there's the album's other true high-point, and the song that's perhaps seen the greatest afterlife beyond the soundtrack itself, in the form of the hauntingly beautiful "Willow's Song," which has been covered by a number of other artists. Sung by landlord's daughter Willow as she dances naked around her room in order to torment the puritanical Howie next door, its ghostly melody (sung by Annie Ross, as Swedish actor Brit Ekland found it difficult to sing convincingly without her native accent) soars over the shimmering violin and the cooing of recorders, and easily ensconces itself as one of the most unforgettable psychedelic folk songs you could ever hear. From then on, things get gradually less exciting - there's a series of instrumental pieces that underscore the celebrations and festivals of the islanders (the aforementioned, brass and percussion-centric chorus of "Summer Is A-Cumen In" is frighteningly intense and stands out amongst this sequence of pieces), and "Opening Music" involves a brief but lovely folk melody sung by Lesley Mackie over recorder harmonies to accompany Howie's arrival on the island by plane. Then there follows a number of other incidental pieces, including a frantic chase sequence to accompany Howie's desperate search of the island, all of which are pleasant and interesting but hardly truly essential listening. The album finishes with the brass rendition of the stark, apocalyptic "Sunset" to usher in the film's final moments.

The Wicker Man soundtrack belongs very much to a songwriting tradition that had all but died out by the time of its release. Traditional folk music was becoming ever more pop-oriented, while the psychedelic strains of songs like "Willow's Song" belonged to a movement in folk music that had effectively withered and died in the late 60s. As such, it acts as a kind of timely reminder of just how evocative and powerful such traditional forms of music could be at their height, and is a brilliant example of why it's important for music to look backwards as much as forwards for inspiration - just as people would continue innovating with new technologies and production techniques in the ensuing decades, others would continue to mine traditional folk music in order to create something new out of something ancient, rarely to such brilliant effect as Giovanni. The soundtrack itself would not be released in its own right until 1998, by which point renewed interest in traditional folk music might have driven the need for such an iconic collection of songs to be given a proper release. Giovanni himself, sadly, never went on to do much more than this moment of brilliance. Also a playwright and director, he wrote a play entitled The Crucifer Of Blood that was staged and filmed for TV, but there was no further musical output from him of any note. A shame, as the music he composed for The Wicker Man demonstrates a phenomenal talent, somebody who is able to take minimal ingredients - sparse instrumentation and traditional song forms - and weave something truly magical and powerful out of them. Honestly one of the finest, and most original, film soundtracks of all time.

Track Listing:

All songs written by Paul Giovanni except where noted.

1. Corn Rigs (Robert Burns, arranged by Paul Giovanni)

2. The Landlord's Daughter

3. Gently Johnny

4. Maypole

5. Fire Leap

6. The Tinker Of Rye

7. Willow's Song

8. Procession (Traditional, arranged by Paul Giovanni)

9. Chop Chop (Traditional, arranged by Paul Giovanni)

10. Lullaby

11. Festival/Mirie It Is/Summer Is A-Cumen In (Traditional, arranged by Paul Giovanni)

12. Opening Music/Loving Couples/The Ruined Church (Robert Burns, arranged by Paul Giovanni)

13. The Masks/The Hobby Horse

14. Searching For Rowan

15. Appointment With The Wicker Man

16. Sunset