The Golem is a soundtrack written and performed by Black Francis at the 2008 San Francisco International Film Festival for the 1920 film The Golem: How He Came into the World.
The soundtrack was released in 2010 as a 5-disc set. Only 500 copies were made, and was released exclusively for purchase from Blackfrancis.net. The set included 2 CDs containing the studio recordings, 2 CDs containing the original 2008 live performance at San Francisco International Film Festival, a DVD of The Golem: How He Came into the World with the soundtrack synced to the film, and a book containing chord charts by Nick Vincent and lyrics by Black Francis for The Golem. Each of the 500 copies were signed by Black Francis, and each were wrapped in brown paper and sealed with a "Black Francis" marked wax stamp.
A "rock songs" version, according to Francis, was released to the public in 2011. This version contains only the substantial songs, leaving out the reprises and themes that were included with the box set.
Background
In April 2008, Black Francis told the Village Voice, "I'm performing it in a couple of weeks down in San Francisco at this film festival. The requisite there is to show up with some music and perform it in some way along to this movie that they're screening. And so I said, "Well, that sounds fun, but I have to sort of make a record." I have to have some sort of blueprint, you know. So I went down to San Francisco a couple of weeks ago and made a record with Eric Feldman producing. ... It took about a week, including the writing."
Track listing
One-disc edition
Personnel
Musicians
Black Francis – vocals, rhythm guitar
Duane Jarvis – lead guitar
Joseph Pope – bass
Ralph Carney – horns
Eric Drew Feldman – keyboards, synthetics
Jason Carter – drums, percussion
Roy Zimmerman – emcee at live recording
Technical
Eric Drew Feldman – producer
Jason Carter – engineer, mixing, photography
Gabriel Shepard – engineer
Thaddeus Moore – engineer
Bobby Mack – live recording engineer
Mark Chalecki – mastering
Mark Lemhouse – design, layout
Wesley Curtis – photography (album cover and band)