Ennio Morricone and Disco Music?
How Morricone’s collaborations with soft-core music generated pioneering disco and electronic tracks.
We know Ennio Morricone for his lush, cinematic film compositions, which span genres such as Spaghetti Western (For a Fistful of Dollars, Once Upon a Time in the West), historical (The Mission), horror (Dario Argento’s Animal Trilogy), and even black comedy (Almodovar’s Atame!). In mainstream Italian Pop, Morricone is mostly known for penning “Se Telefonando,” which he wrote for Mina and “Non Son Degno Di Te” for Gianni Morandi. Notable international tracks by Morricone include “Every Time” by Paul Anka, “I Like The World” by Demis Roussos,“ It Couldn’t Happen Here” for the album Actually by Pet Shop Boys.
However, the maestro has a number of disco tracks that are tied to the soft-core films he worked on, and musically they deserve an examination because they teased a few trends that would take shape throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
Firstly Ennio had a very “primitive” idea of disco music which, let’s remember, was not really called “disco” as a genre at the time, but it was used more as a label for a type of music created for people to move and dance to. In an interview on Italian TV in 1978, Morricone says that disco music was an inevitable evolution of what was already happening (musically) in the 60s. He calls it “new primitivism”, which refers to the expression of “primitive rhythms” using the contemporary sound reproduction machines. According to him, the 4/4 beat is the expression of an obsession; the obsession of the heart, of the body and of our breathing - disco music it’s the ultimate primitive and, at the same time, modern expression of our human nature.
One of Morricone’s most notable disco compositions is included in the single “Disco 78,” which features “Come Maddalena,” with the heart wrenching “Chi Mai,” on the B-side, both originated as tracks he composed for the 1971 movie Maddalena.
Maddalena tells the story of the eponymous protagonist, who attends sex parties while being estranged from her husband who, however, won’t give her a divorce. Throughout the movie, she experiences erotic flashbacks rich in symbolism, which also includes religious themes. The climax of the movie contains a seduction scene between Maddalena and a priest, framed as a means for salvation.
“Come Maddalena” combines a drum-heavy bassline, pipe organs, a disembodied voice, and a choir interspersed here and there. If you are familiar with the music of Michael Cretu and the whole “Pure Moods” current from the 1990s, you will distinctly see how Morricone’s track anticipated many of these tropes in that one track. Just listen to Sadeness
By contrast, “Chi Mai” shares some similarities with “Invito All’Amore,” which he composed for the 1968 movie The Great Silence, starts off as a more standard orchestral piece, with keys and strings in dialogue before the drums kick in. While it might not seem dance-floor-oriented at first, if you have enough familiarity with disco music, you’ll notice that the usage of the strings in “staccato” evokes takes us to orchestra heavy disco hits like “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor or “Sweet Tears” by Roy Hayes.
“Chi Mai” is a commercially successful track in that it has been widely used in commercials, for brands such as Royal Canin and Dunhill, and as the theme music for BBC’s The Life and Times of David Lloyd George, which turned the track into a mainstream success in the UK.
In 1979 Morricone wrote the score for the film Così Come Sei, starring Marcello Mastroianni, Nastassja Kinski and Ania Pieroni. It’s an erotic comedy of errors and mistaken identities, and revolves around the affair between a landscape architect (Mastroianni) and a girl (Kinski) who may or may not be his biological daughter, which hardly matters to the latter since she only considers her adoptive father her real father figure anyway. Two tracks shine bright as true disco gems: “Spazio 1999” a space funk little odyssey (where its evident how the maestro gives in to the newest synth sounds of the times and not to be confused with the namesake track from 1973 ); and “Dance On,” a delightful disco number where Morricone reinterprets that 4/4 with beautiful choral chants, electronic sounds and the orchestra.
His other brush with disco saw the collaboration of porn actress Ilona Staller, professionally known as Cicciolina. In fact, Morricone composed the soundtrack of the 1979 movie Dedicato al Mare Egeo,” (Offering In The Aegean). The film was directed by artist and printmaker Masuo Ikeda and it was based on his novel of the same name, and tells the story of Nikos, a broke art student living in a boarding house owned by the divorcee Elda, and the two promptly start an affair; while at it, though, Nikos also sleeps with two Swedish tourists (played by Staller and Stefania Casini) which causes jealousy and tension in Elda’s establishment.
Staller’s 1979 single “Cavallina a Cavallo” did, in fact, originate as part of Dedicato Al Mare Egeo’s soundtrack, even though the version we hear in the movie had vocals performed by Edda Dell’Orso, a soprano and frequent collaborator of Morricone (she performed in Once Upon A Time in the West, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, and Duck, You Sucker among others). Staller’s version has more of a disco-inspired arrangement despite maintaining a mid-tempo rhythm, and it became a sensation in Japan. Staller is not completely alien to disco music, as her 1979 single “I Was Made For Dancing,” a cover of Leif Garrett’s 1977 song, straddles both the Philly and Italo Disco sounds, while “Lascia L’Ultimo Ballo Per Me,” is a straightforward disco arrangement of the 1960s hit “Save The Last Dance For Me” by The Drifters. But this is another story, and it shall be told in another article.
Also from the same Masuo Ikeda movie soundtrack, a true hidden disco gem shines through the layers of collective forgetfulness, the breathtaking “Dedicato Al Mar Egeo” sung by Ruggero Gatti. The track is a crossroad where all of Morricone’s signature elements meet; the evocative spaghetti western melodies, the suspenseful chord progressions, the grand orchestra virtuosos and the languid vocals all gliding and interweaving with a simple disco beat. This is a sign that Morricone ventured into the obscure territory of disco music, when the plot of the movie he was composing for, included some form of “transgression”. He accompanied the rule-breaking storylines, breaking his own rules of genre and sounds.
In all, these disco tracks by Morricone underline the fertile ground that genre films (horror, western, erotica, and softcore) represented for disco and electronic music between library music and soundtracks. There is a thriving industry of innovation and experimentation that would, eventually, percolate into the mainstream. Morricone has inspired many artists producing music that, only on the surface, may go on an opposite direction. Worthy of notice, is the track “Feel It” by the Funky Four, released in 1983 released by Sugar Hill Records, where Morricone is credited as one of the writers. The track took a sample from “The Mexican” by English band Babe Ruth that took parts of the Morricone’s theme soundtrack to the movie “For A Few Dollars More”. “The Mexican” together with “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” from 1966 seemed to be two favorites in the disco artists community as they were covered countless times.
We leave you with a special gem that composer Walter Rizzati arranged and produced in 1978. His disco version of “L’uomo Dell’Armonica” from the film “Once Upon a Time” in the West is an odyssey of pure disco brilliance that would do incredibly well today also if played at the Berghain in Berlin at sunrise.