Composed by Christopher Young
In the pre-MCU days of superhero films, most Marvel adaptations to the big screen seemed to come from its “Knights” line-up. These were characters that normally wouldn’t be seen around the Avengers, and they were often urban crime-fighters. One of the more unique characters among this grouping is Ghost Rider, a man with a flaming skull who rides a motorcycle. In the movie Johnny Blaze (Nicholas Cage) struck a deal with the Mephisto (aka the Devil played by Peter Fonda) to save his father from a mortal illness (it goes about as well as you would except with such a deal). Years later it’s time for Blaze to fulfill his end of the bargain. As the Ghost Rider he has to stop Mephisto’s errant son Blackheart from acquiring a contract worth thousands of souls.
It’s not a great movie, but it is fun and looks better in light of the overly-derivative superhero fare we’ve been getting over the past few years. One of its surprising strong suits is Christopher Young’s score. But perhaps it should not be a surprise, as Young is an accomplished horror film composer working on a horror-laced superhero film. For the project Young sought to synthesize three genres into one. There would be gothic elements for the supernatural elements, industrial rock for the cool factor of a fiery skull-headed motorcyclist, and western for the geographical setting.
Young pulls this off very well. The rock and gothic elements blend seamlessly. Even while guitars drone and blare, one still feels the epicness given by Young’s dark melodies and choral chants. If one complaint can be leveled at this three-way fusion, it’s that the western element rarely gets to dominate as much. In fact it’s only epic performance comes at the start of “San Venganza” where trumpets out of a Morricone score wail away. Otherwise the western material is almost reserved for the Love theme and some scenes with Sam Elliott’s mysterious character.
There are four themes and motifs for the score. The first is the main theme itself, introduced right at the start of “Ghost Rider.” It’s a dark, powerful melody that just manages to exude heroism in its full performances. Young puts it to liberal use throughout the score (a necessity since none of the secondary motifs have as much prevalence) and puts it through both gothic orchestra and heavy guitar paces. Rarely does it take a quieter stance, such as in “Blood Signature.” Aside from its final appearance on the album (which I’ll cover later) its most awesome playing comes at the start of “More Sinister than Popcorn.” Heavy choirs blasts forth, followed by the theme itself and a heavy rock beat.
The second motif is something of an add-on for the main theme, a guitar-heavy beat that escalates in strength as the Ghost Rider does something awesome, and merges with the character’s primary theme. It first appears at the climax of “Artistry in Death” when Johnny Blaze first turns into Ghost Rider (actually this piece was replaced by another cue in the finished film). Another example comes in “More Sinister in Popcorn.” Notably the starting build of the motif is accompanied by swirling woodwinds as the hero’s flaming chain passes right through an ethereal villain. But once he figures out how to send the creature to hell the beat intensifies. Great scoring.
Third is a simple growling guitar riff that opens “Blackheart Beat” and often has swirling strings around it. I at first identified it as a motif for Ghost Rider’s actual cycling and it does accompany several of those scenes, but it also appears in the first half of “Cemetery Dance” for a couple Blackheart scenes. It may just be a general demonic motif and the closest to a true villain theme. Finally there is the Love theme, the only break from the dark atmosphere. “A Thing for Karen Carpenter” and “Serenade to a Daredevil’s Devil” present it most memorably as a peaceful guitar piece. Careful listening shows that it appears somewhat differently on soft woodwinds towards the end of “No Way to Wisdom” and on darker strings at the start of “The West Was Built on Legends.”
The soundtrack album, containing an hour of music, is all over the place chronologically, in that different parts of a large cue are reassembled with other material. Surprisingly the tracks still flow well even when they contain music from three different scenes within five minutes. For example, “Cemetery Dance” contains material from four different scenes, including a short piece from Ghost Rider’s final confrontation of Blackheart! If there is one drawback, there are a few places where the score is just there and on repeat listens you can find yourself impatiently waiting for the next awesome piece of gothic rock or a more obvious thematic statement. Examples are the aforementioned “Cemetery Dance” which is mostly just dark underscore and “Penance Stare” which compiles some of the more emotional and quiet moments but with little of the themes.
I won’t run down every track, but here are a few notable ones I haven’t already discussed. “Blackheart Beat” introduces the Demonic motif with brief bits of the Ghost Rider theme on choir. After it quiets down there is suddenly a sinister gothic, choir-laden piece (1:24) for when Ghost Rider gets beaten up by the first of Blackheart’s hench-demons. At 2:15 the guitars come on hard, building towards Ghost Rider’s theme. The first half of “Chain Chariot” is eerie, repetitive strings with fragments of the Ghost Rider theme. The second half is grungy with wailing trumpets and strings, a definite highlight for those who prefer the rock elements.
“Nebuchadnezzar Phase” is the final battle cue. It’s not a full-on orchestral onslaught, but does convey that the hero is on his final boss. The track starts off determinedly. The tempo picks up as the fighting begins. At 2:10 the pace is broken by dramatic rising figures. These are in turn cut off by guitar-laden choral music. 3:15 is my favorite part, where trumpets and choir mix together in two-note blasts. The sound Young makes here is pretty unique. Finally there is the climatic “The West Was Built on Legends.” The Love theme plays mournfully on strings. Nearly a minute in a choir appears, slowly building into a dramatic, noble statement of the Ghost Rider theme. At 2:45 Young unleashes a massive, all-out choral piece, with the Ghost Rider theme somehow breaking through on brass. This epic finale was replaced by Spiderbait’s “Ghost Riders in the Sky.” Since it would be a shame to not include this awesome music, it was put onto Johnny Blaze’s first transformation scene, in turn displacing the climax of “Artistry in Death.”
Ghost Rider is a highly underrated superhero score, and might get more attention if it wasn’t attached to what many dismiss as one of the dumber comic book movies. Young could have let the rock elements overshadow his score, but turned them into a co-equal with the gothic elements. It would have been nice for him to get more high-profile work after this score (he did do Spider-Man 3, which infamously has had no official score release). I certainly listen to Ghost Rider fairly often, though perhaps a slightly shorter album would flow better overall.
Final Rating 8/10
Tracklisting
- Ghost Rider (3:16)
- Blackheart Beat (3:06)
- Artistry in Death (4:13)
- A Thing for Karen Carpenter (2:01)
- Cemetery Dance (5:31)
- More Sinister Than Popcorn (5:40)
- No Way to Wisdom (2:15)
- Chain Chariot (6:18)
- Santa Sardonicus (3:36)
- Penance Stare (5:26)
- San Venganza (3:22)
- Blood Signature (2:08)
- Serenade to a Daredevil’s Devil (1:53)
- Nebuchadnezzar Phase (5:52)
- The West Was Built on Legends (3:59)
raymondusrex 