Artist: Cherry Five
Label: 57 Records
Release: year
Duration: 43:19
Rating: 4.5/5
If you’ve never heard of Cherry Five, it’ll probably all click once you read that this is basically Goblin (the name they switched to after the Cherry Five debut; before that they went by Oliver). Goblin are an Italian progressive rock outfit best known for their soundtracks to films by the famous director Argento (Profondo Rosso, Suspiria …). The heavy influences of Genesis, King Crimson and ELP are easy to hear in their music, but that’s no bad thing, because Cherry Five, a.k.a. Goblin, could easily have been one of the standard-bearers of Italy’s golden age of prog (the seventies of the last century) had they kept going in that direction.
The album, released way back in 1975, combines elements of the very best of prog rock of that era, according to many experts and hobbyist audiophiles alike. Extremely harmonic vocals (Tony Tartarini sings only in English), Simonetti’s cascading keyboard sounds (Hammond, electric piano, mellotron), Morante’s Canterbury-meets-jazz guitar tone, Pignatelli’s “Squire-style” groove (the imitation of Yes’s bassist is obvious) and Bordini’s truly inventive drumming add up to a real diamond of progressive music, and not just for its time; I’d rank it among the best even today.
“Country Grave-Yard” might be the best track on the album. What energy, what a dance of sonic colors, what emotional charge in the instrumental palette! An eight-minute musical orgasm is definitely the perfect way into the record, and it’s no mere warm-up number. The musicians convince the listener that they’re not messing around on this album, but getting straight to the point and unloading all their musical virtues on you. The track is distinguished by a powerful instrumental intro, which later hands the initiative over to Tartarini, who adds, with incredible singing, a pinch of mystery, so common in the prog rock genre, to the already perfect playing of the instruments.
In the very beginning the band was briefly called “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, and as a nod to those beginnings, that’s the title of the next track. It stands out mainly for its extremely sweet folk intro, while it peaks in the parts where the spotlight falls on the phenomenal Morante, who gives us the feeling that he could easily take over completely and carry the whole song on his guitar alone. As is only proper, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is long too, again eight minutes. Still, no part is superfluous, though it’s true that nothing really stands out, except when Morante gets into his role.
Next comes the two-part “The Swan is a Murderer”, which kicks off with an excellent arrangement of all the instruments, followed by a short pause; after that Bordini shines in all his glory, if only briefly, with some kind of Afro-beat drumming. Then Morante dictates the tempo, in a light, proggy way, while Tartarini’s voice rounds out a very pleasant melody. The lyrics are rather witty for a fairly serious subject; it’s all sung as a story, and the main character is none other than the titular swan. The second part opens the same way the first one ends – building atmosphere out of sort-of random sounds and a mysterious keyboard backdrop. It continues with more punch, in a rhythm we’ve already met – so the swan story rolls on. This part is marked a bit more by Simonetti’s Hammond, which takes the biggest role. Every prog rock connoisseur will spot in this music most of the structures that Yes introduced to the genre, but it’s no kind of plagiarism, quite the opposite – the structures may be similar, but the second part of the swan story sounds completely fresh as far as the music goes.
“Oliver” is another familiar name – as mentioned in the intro, this was the band’s name until the label demanded they change it (to Cherry Five). This time Pignatelli has a bit more work steering things with his bass, which sets an incredible tempo, and Simonetti boldly follows him most of the way. After the rhythm drops there’s a pause, and Morante joins in with extremely pleasant jazzy picking on the guitar. Just as we settle into a Zen-like calm, Bordini ramps up the rhythm with stronger, faster drumming, and we also catch a lighter guitar distortion in the background. The nine-and-a-half-minute track ends in a different light, with Tartarini’s vocals.
At the end of the album we get a somewhat more folk-prog number, “My Little Cloud Land”, where Tartarini’s soft voice and Morante’s acoustic playing bring something different. After that atypical start the guys still drift into more traditional prog waters, but the elements of a kind of folksy charm, created mainly on the keyboards, stay and pop up throughout the whole track. Simonetti doesn’t let up here – a sort of fusion-jazz electric piano sound shows up quite often, which is definitely a further plus, it’s just a shame it appears in such small doses.
The ways of Cherry Five are strange. Even though this debut was paving their way to the top of the music scene of the day, they went for a soundtrack career, which was hugely successful, sure, but we can’t help wondering where the road of “real” music would have taken them. Not that I’m denying it, their film music is unmatched, no doubt, but for fans of music in its “basic format” that’s surely not enough.
Cherry Five (a.k.a. Goblin) still haunt Italy today, since a year ago they got back together for their first live show in 32 years. Morante and Pignatelli are the only two who stayed on as “goblins” since the record was made (the line-up kept changing constantly). The impressions were positive – it seems the two fathers of primal progressive rock in Italy still have plenty to offer.
Line-up
Claudio Simonetti – keyboards
Massimo Morante – guitars
Fabio Pignatelli – bass guitar
Tony Tartarini – vocals
Carlo Bordini – drums
Tracklist
1. Country Grave Yard (8:18)
2. The Picture of Dorian Gray (8:28)
3. The Swan is a Murderer Part 1 (3:53)
4. The Swan is a Murderer Part 2 (5:07)
5. Oliver (9:30)
6. My Little Cloud Land (7:43)
