The Wicker Man [Soundtrack]

Extraordinarily literate and thoroughly compelling, The Wicker Man has often been called the Citizen Kane of horror movies. Writer Anthony Shaffer and director Robin Hardy built their contemporary (1973) English murder mystery/thriller upon gothic Druid underpinnings and wisely gave songwriter/composer Paul Giovanni (whose first and only film score this is) the freedom to create music of a piece. The score remains one of the most unusual in the entire genre: a collection of original, well-researched folk songs and instrumental underscore that evoke a rare, eerily discomfiting sense of displaced time and place; 70s folk-pop informed by ancient forces of nature and superstition. Long a holy grail among soundtrack aficionados, this lavishly packaged/annotated release has been prepared from recently discovered master tapes with a clarity and presence that gives the late Giovanni's haunting music the gratifying showcase it's so long deserved. --Jerry McCulley

Long thought buried somewhere under the M3 along with prints of the full version of the film, this release represents a truly wondrous piece of archaeology. In most cases any film labelled 'cult' tends to use the label as a get-out clause for some wobbly production that had something to do with Russ Meyer. The Wicker Man was always much more than this. From, probably, the last period when British cinema was prepared to show more than gritty portraits of life 'up north' or sappy feelgood nonsense about Hugh Grant living in a ridiculously large apartment in London, The Wicker Man dared to combine a genuinely creepy story line about provincial paganism with a simply stunning collection of songs. Despite its trouble with the distributors the film has now been rightly placed in the pantheon of great celluloid, and its soundtrack deserves the same accolades.

Ironically the saviour of this sonic scariness was the other übermensch of cult movies, Roger Corman. Found within his private collection of film prints, Paul Giovanni's songs reside neatly against a portrait of the idyllic community of Summerisle whose adherence to an older order attracts the unwanted attentions of uptight Presbyterian policeman Edward Woodward. American Giovanni collected a fine bunch of sessioneers under the banner of Magnet and conjured up some surprisingly authentic-sounding folk numbers. The lilting (how come folk is always lilting?) melodies of numbers like ''Corn Rigs'', ''Gently Johnny'' and ''Willow's Song'' are stuffed with a vaguely sinister eroticism, reflecting Woodward's unease as he scratches the tranquil surface of the island community to discover its sinister secret (you know, the usual: child sacrifice, fertility rituals, Britt Ekland rubbing up against a wall etc.).

Christopher Lee (the Laird of Summerisle and, himself, a vocalist on the bawdy ''The Tinker Of Rye'') described this album as:''...quite extraordinary, it is probably the best music I've ever heard in a film''. He's not far short of the truth. Maybe it takes a foreigner to get to the dark heart of much of our indigenous music, but it's a darkness suffused with beauty. Coupled to the original incidental music - complete with snippets of dialogue, including Woodward's terrified shriek as the full weight of realisation hits him ! - this is a vital document of a time when the UK could still produce classic cinema. It's also a really fine album. --Chris Jones

Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window

First ever release of the stereo masters of all the songs from this cult British Horror Film

The original stereo masters that were prepared for a US album release in 1977 were thought lost but have now been discovered.

From the booklet liner notes;

"It is impossible to understate the importance of these historic recordings that up until now, have only been heard by a select few. This truly is the stuff that myths are made of, but then The Wicker Man has always courted mystery and controversy ever since it first saw the light of day in 1973. Once famously credited as the "Citizen Kane of horror movies", the enduring enigma of the film has inspired eminent critics and a worldwide legion of fans to wax lyrical about the movie’s incredible power and engaging intrigue. Even today, nearly thirty years after the film’s release, the ball continues to roll; web-sites, fan clubs, documentaries and books, all pay homage to what is without doubt, one of the most innovative and provocative British films ever produced."

Simon Wells - co-author of British Cult Cinema