Italian #25: (Giovanni) Giorgio Moroder

Today is the final day of Italian Heritage Month. I may not have written about as many as I did for 2011 but I certainly beat out my terrible output for 2012. Just means more to cover next year!

I want to close with a man who has contributed to popular culture for 40 years and is being discovered by a new generation via Daft Punk. Personally, I always thought he was German but Giorgio as he’s known by, hails originally from Italy. He relocated to Munich in the Sixties plus when you hear him speak, he has a northern accent which to most Americans sounds more German-Swiss-Austrian.

Giorgio first came to attention in America through Disco and his successful partnership with Donna Summer in the late Seventies. Meanwhile, he dabbled with other artists/genres on the side: Sparks, Tony Orlando, Janis Ian, metal-band Angel and composed the soundtrack to Midnight Express.

As Disco faded with the dawn of the Eighties, his fortunes thankfully weren’t destroyed by the backlash. He helped Blondie get a major hit through American Gigolo (if you don’t know which song, you’ve been living under a rock), assisted David Bowie’s shift to the mainstream with the title track to Cat People, “Putting Out Fire,” (it was good enough to use again on Let’s Dance) and participated in Eurythmics’ breakthrough album Sweet Dreams.

The mid-Eighties is where my connection to him is strongest. Before he did the ultra-cheesey hit “Take My Breath Away” for Berlin, a song which simultaneously catapulted them to number one and eroded their fan base; Giorgio produced Berlin’s more favorably remembered hit “No More Words” I don’t completely blame his writing, “Danger Zone” didn’t kill Kenny Loggins’ career, time did that. After Berlin, I always loved his musical accompaniment to the first Sci-Fi movie ever made…Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. The soundtrack had a variety of artists: Freddie Mercury, Loverboy, Pat Benatar, Jon Anderson of Yes and Adam Ant. There were other Eighties mainstays he produced, wrote or performed with: Bronski Beat, Japan, Phil Oakey of the Human League, Limahl, DeBarge, Alan Parsons Project and Sigue Sigue Sputnik.

You could usually tell a Moroder production by it’s very distinctive synthesizer sound. A good example is Berlin’s Love Life. There’s a huge contrast in how his two produced-tracks resonate versus the others helmed by Mike Howlett.

Seems he went into semi-retirement in the Nineties, the credits thin out unless you count the compilations/greatest hits collections.

This year he turned 73 so it was awesome to hear Daft Punk use their recent popularity to re-introduce one of Electronica’s forefathers. A genre often dominated by the Germans (Kraftwerk, Propaganda), French (Air) and Brits (early New Order, Depeche Mode, Goldfrapp). Maybe he could team up with Aussie up and comers Cut///Copy.

Until next year…¡Ciao! Let me know if there are other Italians you’d like me to research.

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