Favorite Late-Era Spaghetti Themes?

We talk quite a bit about the early spaghetti themes, especially Morricone, Bacalov, Ferrio, de Masi, Nicolai, etc. But in the latter part of the spaghetti western cycle, the tone and style of the music took a turn toward something more…easy listening? Yacht rock?

It took me awhile to appreciate these themes, I’ll admit, but there are a few to which I’ve warmed. I’m thinking of putting together a mixtape mix CD playlist of some of the best of these to balance my much larger playlist of earlier spaghetti music.

Would you help me out with suggestions? I’ll start with the first three I’ve added:

Oliver Onions / Guido & Maurizio De Angelis - “Trinity Stand Tall” from Trinity is Still My Name (1971), which sort of marks a new start after the first Trinity theme sort of parodied earlier Morricone works.

Luis Bacalov - “Blue Eggs and Ham” from Halleluja to Vera Cruz (1973), which I think has a Paul McCartney feel to it:

Fabio Frizzi, Franco Bixio and Vincenzo Tempera, with vocals by Ken Tobias - “Silver Saddle” from the film of the same name (1978), and much like that film, has trouble landing on a satisfactory tone. But it has sweet guitar, and a striking opening line: “Child of light, now you use a gun very well…”

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When I saw this one song/melody automatically came to mind: Wolf, the main theme of Mannaja aka A Man Called Blade, also by the De Angelis Brothers. The film itself is interesting enough, but the theme just perfectly embodies the character of Blade by Maurizio Merli, a man so pessimistic from tragedy and harshness that little can lift his spirits.

As a bonus, I think Snake also deserves mention as it mixes well the popular Golden Age themes with the latter stuff

Hope this helps give the thread a good start and fits your criteria.

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Jonathan of the Bears

I kinda like Four of the Apocalypse soundtrack too nowadays


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This one from Ben & Charlie is good too

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Ah yes! I meant to include that Ben and Charlie song too. I love the need to include a “Raindrops Keep Falling” type song in a takeoff on Butch & Sundance.

The others are great too – I need to rewatch Mannaja soon!

Oh, forgot one of my favorites, Don’t Lose Control from Man of the East

And since it’s not mentioned yet, Keoma is obvious one

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I’m never sure how we consider these films, even though it’s in the database, but Oliver Onions/the De Angelis brothers did a fantastic song for Tessari’s Zorro (with Alain Delon), and I was reminded of this by hearing it on the soundtrack to Wes Anderson’s Bottle Rocket recently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4PuBWCfdMg&lc=Ugiohr9GW7gQIHgCoAEC

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