Oliver Onions - Back to the Future

"It was like having a reunion with friends through our music". Like a party among nostalgics of those genre-film soundtracks that made the history of Italian music, straddling the '70s and '80s. The hosts go by the names Guido and Maurizio De Angelis, known to friends as Oliver Onions. A piece of that history, and not a small one. They're back with "Future Memorabilia", a title that's more fitting than ever given that their gaze has always been fixed forward, in a sort of jukebox collecting some of the duo's most celebrated themes, arranged by Ricky Quagliato, complete with unpredictable guest features: Claudio Baglioni, Elio e Le Storie Tese, Tommaso Paradiso, German star Roland Kaiser, actor David Hasselhoff, and Elhaida Dani, the Esmeralda of Notre-Dame de Paris.

A well-deserved tribute for a duo that many people associate solely with famous theme tunes from cult TV hits like “Orozowei”, “Furia” and “Sandokan”, the music for the endless Bud Spencer and Terence Hill saga, or the odd international hit (“Santamaria”), but who have actually done a great deal more: just think of their funky-psych output in the '70s, put to the service of genre cinema, especially poliziotteschi (from “La polizia incrimina, la legge assolve” to “Il cittadino si ribella”), gems more or less buried by the sands of time (the devilish funk tarantella of “Naples today”, the murky sounds of “I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale”), or the arrangements for landmark albums like Lucio Dalla's “Terra di Gaibola”. With their themes, the two brothers from Rocca di Papa (Rome) shaped the imagination of entire generations, displaying a rare artistic skill, like true master craftsmen of musical material. Feats that are celebrated around the world today: there's a famous anecdote told by Guido in an interview about when he was introduced to Quentin Tarantino at the Venice Film Festival: “Nice to meet you, Guido De Angelis”. And he replied, “De Angelis? Would you believe that in Italy there are two composers with your same surname whose music I know inside out, and I use it often in my films”… We met them to retrace the most significant stages of their remarkable career.

First of all, satisfy our curiosity: how did you come up with the idea of having Claudio Baglioni sing “Sandokan”?

Claudio is a friend of ours, we've known him for many years, since the days of his first single “Favola Blu”, which we arranged. He had already sung “Sandokan” on his covers album “Anime in gioco” (here's a version with Litfiba, ed.), so he said yes right away.

With Paradiso, though, there was perhaps also a debt to repay: you're considered among the godfathers of contemporary it-pop…

Well, that's not for us to say, but Tommaso has certainly always been close to us and sees us as an example to follow: we had fun going back together into the jungle of “Orzowei”, with him belting out the choruses at the top of his lungs.

But that's not all, because Elio e Le Storie Tese also settled their debt, after trying to sell “something by Oliver Onions” to the Bulgarian secret services in one of the legendary lines from “Pippero”.

But did you hear what they did with that track? Incredible… They seemed perfect to perform the Firemen's Chorus from “…altrimenti ci arrabbiamo!”, in this hilarious version, which ventures through the most varied musical styles, as is their tradition. Also, on that track we added our own 2020 vocals on top of the ones recorded on the original backing track, so we're singing over ourselves from 40 years ago! On the more sentimental side, instead, we really loved the performance by Elhaida Dani, the Esmeralda of “Notre-Dame de Paris”, on “We Believe In Love”.

Will you take the opportunity to go back to playing live?

Yes, we'll be doing some concerts in 2022 that we still have to work out in detail. But two dates in April are already confirmed: the 7th in Milan (Teatro degli Arcimboldi) and the 11th in Rome (Teatro Brancaccio). We'll play the songs from the album plus other famous tracks from our repertoire; we recently went back to doing concerts, overcoming some reluctance, but then unfortunately we had to stop everything because of Covid: now we can't wait to start again.

Of course, you'll always end up having to sacrifice something, your repertoire is vast.

Ha, it would take a year to play everything (they laugh). Putting together a concert setlist is always a difficult task for us, because we have to sacrifice a lot of songs we'd love to perform. It seems there's also a standard length to stick to, just under two hours, so we'll have to limit ourselves to the songs from the album plus various others that will bring us up to that two-hour mark, but we'd happily go on for 4 or 5!

In your career you've been arrangers, session musicians, composers, performers, producers, working across films, TV dramas, radio and cartoons… But in the end, which works are you most attached to, the ones where you feel the true essence of your music comes through?

We've had the chance to do many different jobs that allowed us to bring out our ideas in every genre. Each of them reflects something of us, in our approach, in our way of working. And then there was technology, which shook things up a bit, pushing us to look at part of our output from a different perspective too…

In what sense?

With the arrival of the internet, of YouTube, a lot of tracks resurfaced that at the time we considered mere filler within a soundtrack, tracks we'd long since given up for dead. “Not fit for release,” as people used to say back then. Instead, thanks to word of mouth online, they gradually took on a life of their own as standalone tracks, even detached from those soundtracks. A symbolic case is exactly that of the Firemen's Chorus, which was just an anonymous number within the soundtrack of “…altrimenti ci arrabbiamo!” and then became a cult tune covered by everyone. At least, by everyone who feels like spending 4 minutes in a good mood… But it should be said that even in the soundtracks for Bud Spencer and Terence Hill we tried to vary things, it wasn't all just the cheerful, fun register.

Can you give us some examples?

For instance, in the music for “Piedone”, with Bud Spencer as the sole lead, we experimented with more sentimental, intimate, nostalgic music. That's also how a theme came about that the audience grew very fond of.

Actually, you've always experimented. Perhaps especially so with your work in the Seventies, in a funky-psychedelic vein, for the soundtracks of poliziotteschi films. I'm thinking of tracks like “Life Of A Policeman” (from “La polizia incrimina, la legge assolve”), “The Reason Of A Just War” (from “Roma violenta”), “Driving All Around” and “Goodbye My Friend” (from “Il cittadino si ribella”). Isn't it a shame that so many people don't know you for those masterpieces?

It's true! (they exclaim in unison, ed.). We're very fond of those tracks. They too seemed destined to die along with the end of that era, but thanks to the web they've come back to life. For instance, “Goodbye My Friend” was recently used again in the soundtrack of George Tillman Jr.'s “Faster”. They were very varied, wide-ranging themes that let us experiment on pretty much every front.

I'll ask you the same question I already put to Franco Micalizzi, one of the masters of that era: what was the secret of that period, which saw so many important Italian composers rise to prominence, and why did they compete with each other to score those films, some of which were probably not that memorable?

Micalizzi really is a master, as well as a great friend of ours. As for the question, let's start from a basic fact: far more films were being produced back then. And in every genre, from the witty, racy comedy to the more serious, dramatic crime thriller: films like “La polizia incrimina la legge assolve”, “Il cittadino si ribella”, “Milano trema, la polizia vuole giustizia” – those are just the first three that come to mind and that involved us. But I'm also thinking of the talent of genre directors like Sergio Martino, Enzo Castellari, Steno… There was an enormous amount of output, and that created more opportunities to write music.

Maybe also more freedom to write it.

Of course, a composer could give freer rein to imagination and bring all their knowledge into play. Certain genre films – crime thrillers, mysteries, but also horror – offered the chance to push past the threshold of convention, experimenting with harsher, more extreme sounds, with synths, distorted guitars, psychedelia, funk, obsessive rhythms… stuff that would have been jarring in a romantic drama or a TV serial. Poliziotteschi films were a godsend for all of us. But everything seemed destined to spring up, succeed and fade away along with the film: a given theme, say, was seen as purely functional to Commissioner Rizzo's chase after the drug dealer, full stop. Then we discovered that didn't have to be the case, and we're glad to now find so many of our tracks from that era in playlists all over the web. It would be nice to put together dedicated setlists of those pieces, some differentiated concerts, who knows…

Speaking of hidden gems worth rediscovering, I'm particularly fond of another theme of yours that I find brilliant: “Naples today”, for the TV serial “Il Marsigliese”. There you even managed to internationalize the tarantella, a few months ahead of the similar experiment Micalizzi carried out in his famous “Folk and Violence”, the theme from “Napoli violenta”.

Ah, “Naples today”, you brought that back to us! (and they start singing the tune together, ed.). In that soundtrack there was the main theme, which had its own dramatic, sentimental character, while “Naples today” was built on an oxymoron, a kind of sad cheerfulness. A joy of living that, portrayed in such an ambiguous, run-down setting, revealed itself as fake, taking on a completely different connotation and flavor.

Speaking instead of your long collaboration with Bud Spencer and Terence Hill, how did that special bond between you develop?

First and foremost, it was always a great friendship. We worked together, joking around every day on set. We'd play the music for them even before the producers heard it, and they always gave us their opinions, sometimes even contributing to the tracks themselves. For example, in that famous firemen's chorus, the written part was only the “La la la la lalla”, then during filming there was a pause, where another character, the killer, had to be shown, so we asked Bud to improvise something, and he came up with that sound with his lips, that “Ba, ba, ba, baaa”. It was all spontaneous, we had a great time. Now that, sadly, the great Bud has left us, we're still in touch with Terence, he's even come to see us at some of our concerts abroad, and we still meet up whenever we can.

I have to confess that to me you've always been a soundtrack: for instance, “Sandokan” was the track my family used to wake me up with in the morning before school…

Ahahah… so you must hate it, then?

No, quite the opposite, let's say it helped me get through the trauma, gave me a boost. How did that theme come about?

There was a need to capture that call of the wild, with an emphatic track that could really deliver the energy. Then there were the demands of the story: we used strings and sitars to evoke the exotic setting of India and Malaysia. But that soundtrack also had a more romantic side, for instance in the ode to Marianna in "Sweet Lady Blue".

Eh, who didn't fall for Marianna back then? She made everyone fall in love…

Us too. Carole André was frighteningly beautiful!

"Sandokan" was also one of the most famous TV dramas directed by Sergio Sollima. Would you like to work with his son, Stefano, as well?

We're friends with Stefano too, we know him well and think highly of him. But he now works on major international productions and is often abroad. Right now we prefer to stay here and focus on our music, playing concerts. I don't know if the opportunity to work together will ever come up.

Are there any directors or productions you'd like to work with today?

These days, perhaps the most fertile field is TV series and streaming platforms: Netflix, Amazon, Sky. That's where there are the most opportunities for directors, productions and soundtrack composers alike, though probably with techniques and approaches quite different from ours. The landscape has shifted somewhat: there are working teams that operate independently and get excellent results.

Is there any composer working today that you particularly admire?

For instance, we really like Hans Zimmer – even though he's not that young anymore – and the whole circle of composers and musicians who work with him and are credited as additional music. We're also big fans of Dario Marianelli, among Italian composers.

One last curiosity: you've used several names (M&G Orchestra, The G & M, Royal Jelly, Dilly Dilly, Oliver Onions). This last one comes from the British novelist George Oliver Onions (1873-1961) – is it true you chose it simply because the two words are pronounced exactly as they're written?

Back then there was a need to have an English name, since we sang in English and often toured abroad. Yes, we chose him because it reads exactly as it's written, easy to pronounce even for Italians. The suggestion came from the team that helped write our songs, they knew about this writer, and so we played a lot on the idea of coming from who-knows-where: we could have been Scottish, Welsh, Irish… We pretended not to be ourselves, it was a kind of joke. In the end, it was an open secret.

(07/11/2021)

(extended version of an interview published in the newspaper Leggo)

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