[This is a rough-draft excerpt from my forthcoming book concerning the history of modern Pagan and occult music. All work is copyright 2007 Jason Pitzl-Waters, and is posted under a Creative Commons License.]
"When people think about music and modern paganism, they inevitably think in terms of folk or heavy rock. To a certain degree they may also think about "festival music" too or electronic music... However, there is another major genre that is listened to by pagans and occultists, namely the "Industrial" and "post-Industrial" musics, which started at the same time as and shared certain features with Punk. This whole musical arena has been largely shunned by "decent" society, with its explorations of "darker" themes. Much of it has been directly influenced by and has in turn influenced magical themes." - Ed Richardson, "In Memory of Jhonn Balance"
Geff Rushton, a.k.a. John (or Jhonn) Balance, could very well be considered an English counterpart to Gwydion Pendderwen. While the music of Balance, and his primary musical project Coil, in no way resembled the American Pagan folk-singer's output, he, like Pendderwen, was a strongly influential figure on Pagan and occult modern music. Citing famous occult figures like Aleister Crowley, and Austin Osman Spare (in addition to several pre-Christian traditions) as inspirations for his work, instead of a laundry list of well-regarded bands, Balance along with co-collaborator (and former lover) Peter Christopherson created a diverse, beautiful, ugly, inspiring, and challenging body of work that has helped form new genres of music, and provided direct inspiration for dozens of artists both mainstream and underground. Coil, to this day, is heralded as one of the most important "Pagan" bands to emerge from the turbulently creative period of the mid-to-late 1970s.
Unlike other artists who flirted with witchcraft or occult practices in the 1960s and 70s, Balance from an early age was deeply interested in Pagan and occult practices, an interest that alienated him from the adults in his life and led to a stay in a mental institution:
"I have been interested and actively involved in [magick] since I was 10. And have been forcefully and repeatedly discouraged by parents, teachers, doctors etc. to have nothing to do with such things. I was put in a mental home for 2 months and was diagnosed as a schizophrenic because they messed me around and stopped me doing things like that. The breakdown came as a result of their interference and not because of the things I was doing." - John Balance
As a teenager, Balance was a fan of proto-Industrial band Throbbing Gristle, and became friends with member Peter Christopherson. This led Balance to eventually join the post-TG project Psychic TV. Balance collaborated on Psychic TV's second album Dreams Less Sweet and several smaller works. By 1982, both Balance and Christopherson were growing weary of the cultic aspects of PTV. Initially working with John Gosling on a project called Zos Kia (a name taken from Austin Spare's 'Zos Kia Cultus' school of magical practice), by 1983 the duo decided to strike out on their own as Coil, and recorded a ritualistic, sixteen-minute layered soundscape entitled "How to Destroy Angels", a work for the "accumulation of male sexual energy."
From that point forward Coil became a vibrant creative force. Between 1984 and 1991 Coil released three of their best-loved albums, Scatology, Horse Rotorvator, and Love's Secret Domain, which spearheaded the "post-industrial" musical period. The three albums incorporate elements of ambient, industrial, techno, sampled and folk music, along with spoken word elements and subject matter touching on ancient paganism, mysticism, gnosticism, and the ritualistic theories of people like Aleister Crowley. One artistic high-point during this era was their brilliant cover of Gloria Jones' soul song "Tainted Love" (previously popularized by Marc Almond), which was released as a single benefiting the AIDS charity, the Terrence Higgins Trust. Their ground-breaking (and explicit) video for "Tainted Love" is on permanent display at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York.
In addition to the groundbreaking work Balance was doing in Coil, he also participated in several side-projects that made him integral to the formation of the genre now known as "Neofolk" (also called "Apocalyptic Folk" or "Folk Noir"). Specifically, he worked closely with fellow former Psychic TV member David Michael (a.k.a. David Tibet), releasing an early split single with Tibet's band Current 93, and collaborating on several Current 93 releases. Balance, in addition to working with Tibet, also collaborated with most of the major players in the Neofolk genre (to be covered in depth later), and participated in the Neofolk "supergroup" called The Nodding Folk. It would be fair to say that many of the Pagan and occult themes so prevalent within the current Neofolk scene originated with John Balance.
Through the late 1990s and the early part of the twenty-first century, Balance continued to explore new musical territory with Coil, now delving into more ambient and drone-influenced sounds, and collaborating with several artists on a host of side projects. Balance's interest in Pagan themes continued to manifest, including a series of singles released at the equinoxes and solstices of the pre-Christian festival calendar, and two albums in a series entitled "Musick to Play in the Dark" which heralded the "moon music" phase of the band, following their earlier solar-oriented work. Messages etched into the vinyl editions carried lunar-themed sayings such as "Hathor is the cow that jumped over the moon". In an interview with Fortean Times, Balance explained this shift in his creative output:
"The first thing we did, How to Destroy Angels, was a conjuration of Martian energy, male, homosexual energy. In fact people claimed that it was misogynist, and Rough Trade almost wouldn't stock it - a controversy in a tea cup. But now we're in a lunar phase, very moon orientated. Arabic culture uses a lunar calendar, they have moon letters and sun letters, and the pre-Christian Celts also used a lunar calendar. It's so much more natural. I'm on a mission to put the moon back into perspective. So like Sun Ra came from Saturn, we, at the moment are at the moon. Maybe we'll reach Saturn one day."
Sadly, this exciting new phase in Balance's creative life was cut tragically short in November of 2004, when he fell down the stairs of his home while intoxicated (Balance had long struggled with alcoholism). He was rushed to the hospital, where he died soon thereafter. Balance's fans, friends, and collaborators were all struck with grief for his passing. David Tibet of Current 93 posted this on his website:
"With burning sadness and with burning sorrow I remember You as: kindest of men, funniest of men, most intuitive of men, most incisive of men, most generous of men a great artist, a great voice, a great visionary, a great Soul and a great Heart Finally You were overwhelmed by it all: by all the beauty and by all the pain. You perhaps never knew how much You were loved."
Coil partner Peter Christopherson would put a posthumous end to their long-term project, finishing the final works. Artists from all over the world would collaborate on tribute albums to Coil, and 'listening parties' were held in Balance's memory. It is clear that John Balance represented a musical and magickal visionary who influenced popular culture more than anyone could have guessed. Certainly the Industrial and post-Industrial landscape would be very different today without his influence. Today Balance is considered by many to be a ground-breaking occultist in the vein of Aleister Crowley and Austin Spare, for his work in melding the world of modern music to magical theory and practice.
For those interested in Pagan and Pagan-friendly music, Woven Wheat Whispers (a legal folk music downloading service) and Cold Spring Records have recently released a groundbreaking compilation of darker folk music that explores the mythic past of the British Isles entitled "John Barleycorn Reborn".
"We are keen to highlight the authentic, stark aspects of the folk tradition, uncensored by Victorian sensibilities, allowing the harshness of our earlier existence and the rawness of our traditional stories to be expressed. Through this we hope to reveal some of our early history from the pre-Roman era and the archetypes of belief that still resonate today. The existence of the working people in the past was harsh, their toil hard and respite short. Their imaginations were fired by the aural tradition that merged foundation myths, morality tales, historical lore and seasonal celebration. Woven into the pre-Puritan church and the folk celebrations were unexplained traces of primitive British belief that continues today through the folk arts."
While the compilation outright states that it is "totally unrelated" to modern Paganism or occultism, the thematic elements of the songs are right up the alleys of Pagan music connoisseurs.
"...is about evoking the mystery of our ancient past, the strangeness of their beliefs and the remnants of this carrying down the centuries. Folk music is full of seasonal veneration, fertilising sacrifice, symbolic murder, nefarious crime, false accusations of witchcraft, extreme poverty, early death and injustice for the common people. It is interwoven with the myths and iconography of Arthur, Gawain, Beowulf, Druids, Robin Goodfellow, the Green Man, Jack In The Green, animal guising and John Barleycorn."
'Round the Fire: Traveling Pagan Troubadours and Festival Culture
[This is a rough-draft excerpt from my forthcoming book concerning the history of modern Pagan and occult music. All work is copyright 2007 Jason Pitzl-Waters, and is posted under a Creative Commons License.] "Neopagan identity is primarily expressed at festivals through music and dance. Drums and percussion instruments are common at many workshops and chanting often occurs at the beginning and end of workshop sessions." - Sarah M. Pike, Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves: Contemporary Pagans and the Search for Community
By the late 1970s and early 1980s, Pagan and occult music was starting to take on an existence of its own apart from its cultural and musical influences. Perhaps the purest expression of this was within the context of Pagan-run events and festivals. Unlike other musical genres where Pagan and occult-influenced musical strains emerged, there was no doubt here as to the religious allegiance of the performers or for whom they were performing, this was music made by Pagans for Pagans. These bands and songwriters often emerged from communal musical endeavors around campfires and drum circles, a process that continues to this day, and in the process helped form a more cohesive religious culture.
The Rise of the Pagan Festivals in the late seventies and early eighties was a huge motivator and agent of growth for Pagan-created music. The Pagan Spirit Festival in Wisconsin (now held in Ohio) started in 1980, The Starwood Festival in Pennsylvania(now held in New York) started in 1981. and the Rites of Spring Festival started in 1979 in New England among others created a new kind of venue for Pagan music. Here in a supportive and non-judgmental atmosphere a pool of musicians consisting primarily of hobbyists and amateurs emerged as performers for an audience hungry for music geared towards their view of the world and religious affiliation.
"The fact is that within the [Pagan] community, there is a great deal of appreciation for any creative endeavor in a way that is not true in mainstream culture. As a result, performers who would not have what it takes to be successful outside the movement are not only tolerated, but encouraged within it. This is actually one of the things I like about Paganism -- not the mediocre music, of course, but the fact that it's a subculture in which the active art of participating in the performance of folklore is still valued, in a way it is not in mainstream culture." - "Bramble", Pagan Music Questionnaire, 2007
Pagan musician and songwriter Jim Alan (who along with musical partner Selena Fox was part of the emerging Pagan music scene in the late seventies) remarked that the early festival culture, and the music produced within those confines was often informal and familial.
"The first [Starwood] festival was small compared to things nowadays, but that gave everyone a better chance to get acquainted...Early Pagan gatherings were highly communal and informal. At festivals when I was giving a concert, such as with early PSGs, early Starwoods, and the Pan Pagan Festival out of Chicago, people sat on the ground in a wide semicircle in front of the performer, and car headlights were sometimes used as stage lights. Other times, there were Coleman lanterns, flashlights, or electric lights, depending on what was available. Microphones might or might not be used. There was a real sense of intimacy with the audience, because they were only a few feet away, and there was nothing to separate us. I encouraged people to sing along on choruses, which helped bring us together, too."
As the 1980s progressed, the number of festivals grew at an amazing rate. From a handful in the late 1970s to literally hundreds across America, the UK, Australia, and Europe today, and attended by hundreds of thousands of modern Pagans, occultists, and fellow travelers. While the original ad-hoc feeling of musical gatherings still exists, many festivals now have an established stage for musical performances and other related activities. As a result, self-consciously Pagan music has evolved a far more polished cadre of artists (in addition to the hobbyists) who travel to festivals and other concert venues, release professionally recorded CDs, and enjoy a national (and often international) fan-base. This has allowed music primarily created for a Pagans to gain a wider audience with listeners sympathetic to messages contained within (Womyn's Music, Folk, Goth, New Age, and World music scenes have all contributed in part to these "crossover" sales).
Today it is still the festival and convention circuit that acts as the primary venue for most of these Pagan-focused artists. Like all musical movements there have been different "waves" of performers over the thirty-plus years of Pagan music. This has ranged from the early folk-oriented performers to today's vibrant festival culture where artists from several different genres make appearances on stages playing to thousands.
[This is a rough-draft excerpt from my forthcoming book concerning the history of modern Pagan and occult music. All work is copyright 2007 Jason Pitzl-Waters, and is posted under a Creative Commons License.]
Note: This section on early occult music directly follows a section dealing with the musical and cultural influence of Aleister Crowley.
"The formal mutations in the media of the 1960s?in stereo recording, offset printing, FM radio, etc.?created a new and undefined space that called forth the fecund, erotic, and magical powers of the imagination. The rise of the occult, in this view, was simply a response to a formal shift that prioritized right-brain drift, synchronistic associations, image overload, and a sense of virtual transport." - Erik Davis, in an interview with Mark Dery, June 2nd, 2005
In the years directly following Aleister Crowley's cultural rehabilitation, several musical artists started incorporating Crowley's religion, Thelema, into their works. While some, like Led Zeppelin, are less easy to spot, one of the most overt Thelemic musical works came at the dawn of the seventies from influential English musician Graham Bond. Bond was a pioneer of R&B and rock music in England, as well as a longtime fan of Crowley and a practitioner of magick. In 1971, Bond, along with his wife, singer Diane Stewart, released an album under the title of Holy Magick that mixed jazz-fusion styles with ritualistic incantations. While many critics lauded Bond's musicianship on Holy Magick (and later We Put Our Magick On You), they were put off by the Thelemic ritual that made up the bulk of the lyrical content. As one contemporary wrote:
"It's really a great pity that Graham Bond didn't achieve his rightful place in our gallery of fame a long time ago. If he had, he wouldn't be making records like this [Holy Magick ]. Reluctant as we are to pan Graham - who is an excellent and creative musician - this type of album is singularly unimpressive. Graham is, of course, into Magic - of the Right Hand Path variety - and seems to have become involved with Alasteir Crowley's Order Of The Golden Dawn. I make no comment upon his beliefs, but I have my doubts that this boring album will convert many others to the Great Wisdom. Judged as a record, it doesn't make it." - Beat Instrumental, January 1971
Unlike other rock musicians who merely hinted at their allegiance to Thelema or the practice of Magick, Bond created an openly occult work. In that sense he was the occult equivalent to Pagan musician Gwydion Pendderwen. Unfortunately, the critical cold-shoulder he got, along with his ongoing problems with drug addiction and what was most likely an untreated bipolar disorder, sent his career into a downward spiral. Shortly after recording Holy Magick, his marriage dissolved, and his new band, Magus (featuring folksinger Carolanne Pegg) never got off the ground. The musician and singer died tragically in 1974 from an apparent suicide.
While Bond's occult-oriented music never achieved much in the way of a popular audience, he did start to find a small audience among modern Pagans and occultists following his demise. Pagan scholar Chas Clifton has noted that Bond's Holy Magick, on 8-track, was in rotation at his coven-stead in the late 1970s, while the O.T.O. (a Thelemic organization centered around Crowley's teachings) considers Bond "a musician of genius". It's likely that Bond figured heavily into guitarist Jimmy Page's interest in Crowley. Despite this, Bond didn't have much impact on later bands that emerged during and after Punk in the late 70s, even when they referenced Crowley. Bond's occult works were re-released in 1999, however, and he may yet find a new audience for his unique fusion of jazz, funk, and ritual magick.
Beyond Bond, the other major player in British occult-influenced rock was Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page is a well-known follower of Crowley and other ritual magicians of his era, such as Austin Spare. Page reportedly has one of the largest private collections of Crowley memorabilia extant, and owns Crowley's former home on Loch Ness. While Page is most certainly a true believer, the remaining members of Led Zeppelin can't be called anything other than occasional dabblers in occult or Pagan beliefs. However, the occult elements in their works can't be denied, and have had far-reaching effects on the larger culture, especially upon alarmist Christian groups who have been quick to demonize the band. A typical comment from Christian author David J. Stewart, posting on the Internet site "jesus-is-savior.com":
"Led Zeppelin is Satanic to the core. In the song "Houses of the Holy," Robert Plant (lead singer) speaks of Satan's daughter and making her garden grow (a sexual reference). The album cover displays naked women crawling towards the top of the temple. It's sickening in the name of decency. Anyone who denies the occult inspiration of Led Zeppelin's music is woefully deceived."
In the end, Led Zeppelin were never overt enough in their allegiance to occult theories to alienate their huge fan base, of which many undoubtedly count themselves good Christians. Led Zeppelin joins the ranks of other influential superstar bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones who, while peripherally involving themselves in occult or Pagan ideas, never crossed over into becoming self-consciously Pagan or occult acts. But for the curious who want to explore the occult and mythic symbolism of Led Zeppelin, I highly recommend Erik Davis's book Led Zeppelin (33 1/3) which exhaustively pores over the band's fourth album and makes a case for it being "the 70's answer to The Mabinogion," according to one reviewer.
Outside of Bond and Page, occult-influenced pickings in prepunk England become much slimmer. There was the progressive/metal act Black Widow, whose stage show included a mock sacrifice of a naked woman, and who consulted (in)famous Witch Alex Sanders on its ritual structure. Black Widow's 1970 song "Come to the Sabbat", with its painfully earnest invocation of Satan, is unintentionally hilarious to modern ears, though it caused a stir when it was released. Early heavy metal band Black Sabbath caused a much bigger stir, but were somewhat less occult in overall outlook, with the strongest association with the occult found in Ozzy Osbourne's solo song "Mr. Crowley". While occult and Satanic themes in heavy metal music would recur in the 1980s and beyond, in most cases these elements were for show and did not reflect deeper philosophical attachments to occult practices, modern Pagans, or even to Satanism (a topic far outside the scope of this book).
What becomes clear when looking at British occult-influenced music is that it rarely sparked further exploration into occult subjects. Generally, during the marketing process, occult elements are minimized by the bands that did dabble with such symbology (remaining detectable, of course, to those looking to smear them with "Satan worship"). When Industrial and Neo-folk artists with strong occult interests emerged in Britain and Europe in the late 1970s and early 80s, artists like Graham Bond or Jimmy Page would not be mentioned as influences, although all would share a common fascination with the teachings of Aleister Crowley.
While Britain possessed the lion's share of occult-influenced music in the late 60s and early 70s, there were a few similar artists in America worth noting. Jim Morrison, lead singer of the Doors, was involved in modern Pagan, occult, and shamanic practices throughout his short career. He alluded to occult and shamanistic ideas in his song lyrics and poetry, underwent a Pagan handfasting ceremony with author Patricia Kennealy (though the proper paperwork was never filed to make it a legal marriage), and posed with a bust of Aleister Crowley in a picture that appeared on the back of Doors 13. Besides reaching a wide audience with his esoteric (sometimes to the point of indecipherability) lyrics, Morrison's dabbling in Paganism via Patricia Kennealy ended up bringing modern Paganism into the homes of his many fans. As she writes: "I consider that I've made the Craft accessible to people who would never read a book about Witchcraft per se, but who would read a fantasy novel or a memoir of life with a rock star. Its my way of sneaking round to the back door then holding it open for them to come inside." - Patricia Morrison, quoted in Wiccan Wisdom Keepers, p. 112.
Jim Morrison's musical influence is also felt within modern Pagan and Pagan-influenced music. Superstar Wiccan rocker Sully Erna of the band Godsmack lists The Doors as an influence, and American Pagan festivals and conventions today often conduct a ?Dionysian Morrison? ritual that invokes the spirit of Jim Morrison as a manifestation of the Greek god Dionysis, ritually dancing to the music of the Doors. Morrison also provided a template to many within the Goth musical scene that emerged in the early 1980s. Goth music, as we will discuss later in the book, inherited many of occult and Dionysian impulses first pioneered by Morrison (as was recently recognized by a Doors tribute album by Goth artists including Pagan band Rhea's Obsession).
While the Doors were not alone in their interest in the occult, they were one of the few American bands to make it an explicit focus. In America as in Britain, many of the bands that started in the 60s turned their attention to Eastern spiritualities and philosophies in the 70s, although even in those cases references to Western occultism and Pagansim did pop up from time to time, with the stated admiration of Aleister Crowley by psychedelic psychologist Timothy Leary being a prime example.
[This is a rough-draft excerpt from my forthcoming book concerning the history of modern Pagan and occult music. All work is copyright 2007 Jason Pitzl-Waters, and is posted under a Creative Commons License.]
It is hard to over-state the influence the Wicker Man soundtrack had on Pagan and occult-themed music. It not only became a reference point for Pagan artists, but a touchstone for a wide variety of musicians from seemingly disparate genres, entranced by the atmospherics and authenticity of the music. Dozens of covers of the traditional songs featured in the soundtrack can be found, and at least three different musical genres have found inspiration from the soundtrack. The film itself has been referenced by Heavy Metal acts, Brit-Pop artists, Punk icons, and Techno-dance troupes. To avoid listing them all, I'll point to some specific instances where the music touched artists important to the development of Pagan and occult music.
The Neofolk/post-Industrial scene, containing many bands with an emphasis on ancient paganism, the occult, and modern (Nordic) Heathenism, has long embraced the film. The legendary magazine "Compulsion" which has chronicled Neofolk since the 1990s, lists "The Wicker Man" as its favorite film. Current 93 member Michael Cashmore, along with singer Rose McDowall (most famous for her part in the pop-duo Strawberry Switchblade) recorded a version of "Willow's Song," which they renamed "The Wicker Man Song." The original of that same song, performed by Magnet, also appeared on a 4-disc compendium of the history of Neofolk entitled "Looking for Europe". Other tributes include a cover of "Summerisle" (a.k.a. "The Maypole Song") by Italian Neofolk group The Green Man, and an audio clip from the film's climatic finale which was played at the start of Blood Axis's first album.
While The Wicker Man's influence on the Goth and Darkwave genres isn't as explicit as it is in the Neofolk and Post-Industrial realm, there are some notable highlights. A cover of "Summerisle" ("The Maypole song") by the women's choral ensemble The Mediæval Bæbes (led by Katherine Blake from the Darkwave act Miranda Sex Garden), and the cover of "Willow's Song" by the Goth/Darkwave band Faith and The Muse both stand out. One could also make the case that several songs by the legendary Pagan-Goth band Inkubus Sukkubus owe something to the soundtrack's influence.
Finally, the largest impact of The Wicker Man's music must be on the "Wyrd Folk" scene (also called "Freak Folk" or "Psychedelic Folk"), a loose collection of bands and songwriters who take inspiration from British folklore and often incorporate mythic elements into their work. Many artists in this genre seem to consider the Wicker Man soundtrack a musical touchstone of sorts. This is seen on the Internet site "The Unbroken Circle", an advocacy site for Wyrd Folk, where the film is given highest praise:
"I believe the film to be the point where... the perceived realization of folk music as important in the social and magical context was made. It does not matter whether this realization was factual or just a perception, what matters is the transformation it created in the minds of many. Of course similar folk music was made before this film and afterwards without any link to the film. However it has become a kind of fulcrum from which many complementary areas have grown. It acts as the perfect achievement in wyrd-folk as the numerous cover versions and samples attest. In this it has become the reference point and comparison for much other music. By exploring without genre cliche or condemnation we have a relatively objective framework or template that facilitates intelligent consideration and a genuine evocation of the past."
This connection is made even more explicit in a July 2006 article for British newspaper The Guardian, where members of British Wyrd Folk groups Tunng and The Memory Band talk to Robin Hardy, director of The Wicker Man, about the soundtrack's influence:
"You can't avoid it, really. It's a fairly obvious reference point for a lot of the new music being made. Somehow it has become electronica plus folk equals The Wicker Man, and all kinds of disparate things have been joined together by this film. By mentioning The Wicker Man you evoke a traditional influence from a modern perspective. We look with modern eyes at these old traditions; we are observing from the outside. That's what the film does." - Adem (singer-songwriter), The Guardian, July 21, 2006
Perhaps the most telling statement on this soundtrack's ongoing influence on newer folk styles (Wyrd, Psychedelic, Neo) may have been made at the 30th annual Brosella Folk Festival in Brussels, where several members of prominent Flemish folk bands joined with Jacqueline 'Jacqui' McShee and Danny Thompson (from the classic British folk-rock band Pentangle) to form "The Wicker Band" and proceeded to perform songs from the movie before a midnight showing of the film. This moment shows how the soundtrack for an obscure British cult film helped fuse elements from the British folk revival, ancient Pagan traditions, and modern conceptions of each, into a new musical template - one that continues to blossom into the 21st century.
[This is a rough-draft excerpt from my forthcoming book concerning the history of modern Pagan and occult music. All work is copyright 2007 Jason Pitzl-Waters, and is posted under a Creative Commons License.]
"The music to THE WICKER MAN is quite extraordinary. It is probably the best music I've ever heard in a film, because each song is totally different from each other and they all sum up the atmosphere of the scenes perfectly. What Paul Giovanni achieved is quite amazing and absolutely beautiful" - Christopher Lee - July 2002
It is taken for granted today that when a film is released, the score or soundtrack is soon to follow, and sometimes is released before the film even appears in theaters. More often than not, the soundtrack is usually a tepid mix of incidental music with a handful of songs performed by popular pop artists. Rarely does a soundtrack strike a cultural nerve or influence other artists. So the history of this soundtrack's influence is unique. Performed by a folk band that existed only to record the songs, headed up by an American playwright and songwriter channeling the history of Celtic and British traditional folk songs, the popularity of the The Wicker Man's soundtrack is unusual. It first appeared in 1997 as a dub from the film's score that some claim was a bootleg; the professional-quality stereo release didn't hit the shelves until 2002. For a film's soundtrack to become so popular even while it could only be experienced within the film, speaks to how well-executed and integral music was to the movie.
Paul Giovanni, the American songwriter tapped to head up the soundtrack, along with his assistant Gary Carpenter (a graduate of the Royal College of Music), intensively researched the history of British and Celtic folk songs and endeavored to find the most archaic versions of songs possible, to make the island's revived paganism seem realistic and natural. The pair would often dig through archives to find the oldest lyrics to a particular tune; a good example would be "Sumer is A Cumen In", the medieval song welcoming the coming of the sun, sung at the end of the film. The six part canon was written in the 13th century, and is the only known six-part music written before the 15th century:
Sumer is a comin' in Loudly sing cuckoo Grows the seed and blows the mead and springs the wood anew Sing cuckoo!
The lyrics for this particular song were adapted by Peter Shaffer (who was writing the pagan-tinged play "Equus" at the time), the brother of Anthony Shaffer, who wrote the Wicker Man screenplay. Most of the other songs in the film are traditional British folk songs, including "Miri It Is", "The Landlord's Daughter", and "Gently Johnny". In addition, Giovanni borrowed from the 18th century Scottish poet and songwriter Robert Burns for the songs "Corn Rigs" and "Willow's Song". The association of these mostly Christian-penned songs with ancient British paganism can be tied to Cecil Sharp and earlier folklorists, who felt that folk-songs and related practices like Morris and sword dances (also featured in the film) were part of a "cultural inheritance" winding back through the ages to the European pagan pasts.
The soundtrack was performed by a band called Magnet (originally Lodestone, until it was found that another band had already claimed that title), primarily made up of college students and members of the folk-rock band Hocket. This core group of musicians, along with some cast members and friends, recorded the soundtrack in just six weeks, as time and money were in short supply for the making of the film. Giovanni, Carpenter, and some of the other key musicians also traveled to Scotland to assist in the filming. Giovanni himself sang "Gently Johnny," which became one of the most-loved pieces in the film.
When appreciated in context, the music's melancholy, and at times playful, tone elevates the picture to something greater than the sum of its plots. It is not hard to imagine this film being lost to obscurity if it weren't for the depth of its faux-pagan society; the viewer easily believes that these are songs real villagers sing, and that the rituals performed in the film might be as everyday as an Easter or Mayday celebration. This familiar quality turns these pagan "villains" into real people, ordinary people who truly believe that their actions are natural and correct. Thus when Sgt. Howie lands on the island, his repressive Anglican-Catholic worldview doesn't appear to encounter a tawdry occult ritual ready to be overturned by the Law, but instead a healthy and tightly-knit community determined to protect its way of life.
After the filming, Magnet as an entity dissolved, and the band members went their separate ways. Paul Giovanni went back to New York, where he continued his career in theater; he is well known for his play "The Crucifer of Blood" written shortly before his untimely demise in 1990 from an AIDS-related illness. Gary Carpenter went on to compose several operas and musicals, and is now Senior Lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Other band members who went on to musical prominence include fiddle player Ian Cutler, composer Peter Brewis, and musician Michael Cole, who went on to become an actor in several television and movie roles.
In addition to this project (and my other project), I also do a weekly music podcast that focuses on "underground" (define that as you wish) Pagan and occult music. The show is called "A Darker Shade of Pagan", and you can hear it on the Pagan Radio Network, or you can subscribe to it via iTunes or any other number of podcast devices. The show originally started as a yearly special on my old radio program "TheSkysGoneOut", at WEFT 90.1fm. You can listen to or download some of those two-hour specials at archive.org.
After I moved to Milwaukee a year ago, I wasn't sure if I was going to continue DJing at all, but eventually the urge overtook me and I decided to start podcasting. I was lucky in that I already had the necessary equipment from my years of club DJing and recording a podcast of my radio show. The ADSOP podcast premiered in October of 2006 and has been continuing weekly every since. Sadly, due to space and bandwidth considerations I can't archive all of the shows I do, but there is about a month's worth of podcasts available for download at any time.
I generally play "darker" music (it did evolve out of a goth show after all), but I have worked in some classic Pagan artists, and mixed it up by playing interesting international bands and esoteric music from the "freak folk" and "wyrd folk" genres. Plus, just about anyone who covers a song from The Wicker Man Soundtrack will eventually get some airplay. While not every band I play may define themselves as "Pagan" or "occult", I do try to attain a certain feeling and mood with each show that reaches towards something approaching a modern musical aesthetic that would appeal to Pagan and occult practitioners who may be a bit bored by what they have come to believe "Pagan music" was all about. I hope you can tune in (or download) sometime.
To anyone paying attention it becomes clear that there isn't "a" Pagan music any longer (if indeed there ever was a singular "Pagan music"), instead there are several different Pagan musics from many different genres and perspectives that now co-exist. But increasingly, it appears as if the barriers of genre and subculture are starting to break down, at least within the mainstream Summer festival circuit.
"...a previous performer at Paganstock said: 'This is the only place a pagan can be a pagan.' The speaker was Roy Addams of Portland, Maine's metal band 13 Winters, one of this year's headliners ... Most of the music will be hard rock or metal. 'It seems a lot of pagan festivals in the past have had folk music, very mellow, a softer tone to it. ... There are a lot of artists out there that have a heavier or different sound I'd like to showcase,' Pulka said."
Among the Pagan metal bands in attendance are 13 Winters, Urn, With No Remorse, and Burning Sage. This is in stark contrast to larger American festivals like Pagan Spirit Gathering and Starwood, where the lineups are still dominated by singer-songwriters, choral groups, and folk music (as it was since Pagan festivals emerged in the early seventies).
What will be interesting to see is if more organizers start to invite a greater number of youth-oriented musical genres and activities to happen at their Pagan festivals and events (something that seems to happen more often in the UK), or if two types of festivals/conventions will emerge, ones for the older (and still culturally dominant) baby-boom generation and ones for the gen-x, and (the ever-growing) gen-y demographics.
[This is a rough-draft excerpt from my forthcoming book concerning the history of modern Pagan and occult music. All work is copyright 2007 Jason Pitzl-Waters, and is posted under a Creative Commons License.]
"To understand why we chose the name, think of the transformation of inanimacy to animacy..Think of the processes concerning life from death and death into live. So many people missed the inherent symbolism, and assumed that we must be "morbid gothic types," a mistake we deplored and deplore..." - Brendan Perry of the band Dead Can Dance, 1984
While the late seventies and early eighties spawned an predominantly insular Pagan musical scene centered around festivals and conventions, that wasn't the only expression of a modern Pagan or occult music to emerge. Starting in the late seventies several alternative and underground musical subcultures became havens for those who adhered to outsider views of religion and philosophy. Within these permissive (and often rebellious) scenes emerged artists who injected lyrical themes relating to their adherence to outsider faiths and practices into their musical expression. This sometimes resulted in the creation of stylistically unique musical threads within the sub-genre that would inspire future artists and musicians. The best example of this trend can perhaps be found in goth, a unique musical subculture that emerged during the post-punk era in Britain.
Goth presented a romantic, decadent, and inward-looking alternative to the outward anger and nihilism of the UK punk-rock explosion of the late seventies. Byronic excesses and moods largely replaced political posturing (with some notable exceptions), and black was the color of choice. While the goth subculture often outwardly presented Catholic Christian imagery there has never been an expectation of belief in any religious system, and tolerance has been the rule within the culture. Due to this tolerance, many modern Pagans and occult practitioners found themselves a comfortable sanctuary within the goth subculture from a mainstream that often didn't welcome or understand them. Today, according to some recent polling, up to 33% of self-identified goths hold allegiance to some form of Pagan belief system, by far the largest theistic grouping of the bunch. The rest are a scattered assortment of people who practice "their own" religion, or are agnostic/atheist with a few scattered Christian/Catholics.
It isn't surprising given these developments that music would be created that would appeal to modern Pagans and occult practitioners, but by the mid-nineties it became prevalent enough that some would identify a separate "pagan goth" sub-genre within the larger goth musical world. Today a wide variety of goth and darkwave (a related and overlapping musical genre) bands identify themselves in some manner with modern Paganism or the theories of occultists like Aleister Crowley. Goth has, for many, become a musical alternative for modern Pagans dissatisfied with the musical offerings found within actual Pagan or occult communities. A way for a younger generation of modern Pagans and occultists to find their own cultural identity in religious communities that are often still dominated by their parents (or grandparents) generation.
While the goth subculture of today is remarkably friendly to Pagan and occult ideas, it was a slow process from its birth in the late seventies. Rebellion against religiously-based oppression and playful displays of blasphemy were far more common, a romantic (and somewhat nihilistic) decadence permeated much of the early scene. But even then certain themes and subject matters would start to pop up within goth (and in some of the darker post-punk bands). The band Bauhaus, famous for the goth anthem "Bela Lugosi's Dead", would plunge into mythical themes with songs like "Hollow Hills" (a song dealing with faerie mounds in Ireland, later covered by the Pagan-friendly band Faith and the Muse) and "A God in An Alcove" (a meditation on the forgotten bust of a pagan god), meanwhile the post-punk outfit Killing Joke (which enjoyed a large goth following) became quite interested in the works of the notorious occultist Aleister Crowley which culminated in several members moving to Iceland in order to avoid the Apocalypse (the Apocalypse never occurred, but some of them did collaborate with the influential Icelandic new-wave band Theyr, who were deeply interested in occult and pre-Christian themes). But while these early manifestations were rare (and in the case of Bauhaus, hardly a sign of any serious allegiance to pre-Christian belief) it did point to a fertile ground for later expansion and growth, that by the mid-eighties would start to develop into a noticeable disposition towards occult practices and modern Paganism.
How do you review an artist who has a near-legendary status within the community you write for? How do you take in and critique the music in a neutral fashion without letting bits and pieces of the legend creep in? As someone who has done a lot of writing about music created by and for modern Pagans the influence of Gwydion Pendderwen was like a ghost haunting both my acceptance and rebellion against the notion of "Pagan Music". So it is with some trepidation that I begin this review of an artist who's music has in many senses become liturgical in some corners of modern Pagandom.
I talk of influence and hauntings, but until now I had never heard anything more than snippets of Gwydion's music. Long out of print, his music was hard to come by and spread from cassette dubs and word of mouth. Even these re-issues are digital transfers from vinyl, the original masters long since lost. The real power of his music came from the huge influence his two records had on the subsequent Pagan musical underground.
Listening to "Songs For The Old Religion" and "The Faerie Shaman" for the first time is somewhat akin to discovering the Rosetta Stone of Pagan music. The bulk of "Pagan" records I had heard after my personal conversion all owe a huge debt (and perhaps some royalties) to Gwydion. In fact, discovering the well-spring has all but soured me to many of the smaller musical puddles that have emerged since his passing in 1982. But then much of my career as a interviewer and writer on Pagan music has been spent in active rebellion against the enduring influence of his music.
Why did mainstream Pagan music seem stuck in the seventies? A question I often pondered while searching for new and dynamic Pagan musicians. The answer almost seems to be that when Gwydion Pendderwen passed so too did much of the adventurous spirit of Pagan music from that generation. It wasn't until the 90s that the funereal mold started to break and a new generation of bands and musicians were willing to take on the task that Gwydion had set himself anew and free of expectations.
So what about the music itself? The first CD "Songs For The Old Religion" is almost what one would expect to hear when they think Pagan music. Sonically the album is a mix of the 60s folk revival, the folk-rock that followed in the late 60s and 70s, reworked traditional numbers from England and the Celtic Nations, and a generous dollop of Californian Paganism circa 1975. Much of this could be safely played at a modern Renaissance Fairs without anyone blinking an eye. All through it you can hear Gwydion the songwriter swimming against the current of tradition trying to find his own voice. This is the very idea of a Pagan music climbing from the primordial ooze. Your enjoyment of this first CD will very much depend on your affection for the styles and influences contained within.
The second CD "The Faerie Shaman" is far better, and shows an artist emerging into his own style. While the CD ranges all over sonically (everything from Welsh balladry to American country and western) you can see a unique lyrical voice emerging. Songs like "We Won't Wait Any Longer" (a song he famously sung instead of giving a statement after being arrested at a anti-nukes protest) and "A Mother's Love" show a growing confidence with his material, and a deepening of concepts explored on his first CD. While the overall CD is a bit uneven and the flow between tracks a bit jarring "The Faerie Shaman" shows the promise that Pendderwen held as an artist and the great loss fans must have felt at his passing.
If anything these CDs are a map of possibilities for the genre. It is obvious listening to Gwydion's music that there was far more (and better) on the horizon, yet due to his tragic death those possibilities are only to be guessed at. I feel that it is only recently that Pagan musicians have taken the lessons of Gwydion's short musical journey to heart, a lesson best expressed from a traditional chant heard in circles and festivals all over the world. "Everything she touches changes". Gwydion's music in the end didn't try to return you to a mythical past, but to engage the listener in the present and prepare them for the future.
To some the music will seem dated, especially to those used to modern popular music. I feel that despite this, there is much here that makes it a valuable (and enjoyable) listening experience for modern Pagans both young and old. At the very least Serpentine Music and Anne Hill have done the world and our faith communities a great favor for preserving and releasing these lost treasures of our musical heritage.
