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The choice of Curtis Mayfield to score the blaxploitation film Super Fly was an inspired one. No other artist in popular music knew so well, and expressed through his music so naturally, the shades of gray inherent in contemporary inner-city life. His debut solo album, 1970's Curtis, had shown in vivid colors that the '60s optimist (author of the civil-rights anthems "Keep On Pushing" and "People Get Ready") had added a layer of subtlety to his material; appearing on the same LP as the positive and issue-oriented "Move On Up" was an apocalyptic piece of brimstone funk titled "(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go." For Super Fly, Mayfield wisely avoids celebrating the wheeling-and-dealing themes present in the movie, or exploiting them, instead using each song to focus on a different aspect of what he saw as a plague on America's streets. He also steers away from explicit moralizing; through his songs, Mayfield simply tells it like it is (for the characters in the film as in real life), with any lessons learned the result of his vibrant storytelling and knack of getting inside the heads of the characters. "Freddie's Dead," one of the album's signature pieces, tells the story of one of the film's main casualties, a good-hearted yet weak-willed man caught up in the life of a pusher, and devastatingly portrays the indifference of those who witness or hear about it. "Pusherman" masterfully uses the metaphor of drug dealer as businessman, with the drug game, by extension, just another way to make a living in a tough situation, while the title track equates hustling with gambling ("The game he plays he plays for keeps/hustlin' times and ghetto streets/tryin' ta get over"). Ironically, the sound of Super Fly positively overwhelmed its lyrical finesse. A melange of deep, dark grooves, trademarked wah-wah guitar, and stinging brass, Super Fly ignited an entire genre of music, the blaxploitation soundtrack, and influenced everyone from soul singers to television-music composers for decades to come. It stands alongside Saturday Night Fever and Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols as one of the most vivid touchstones of '70s pop music.
© John Bush /TiVo
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Joseph Scott, Bass Guitar - Curtis Mayfield, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, MainArtist - Morris Jennings, Drums - Master Henry Gibson, Percussion - Roger Anfinsen, Engineer - Irv Stimler, AssistantProducer - Craig McCullen, Guitar - John Pate, Arranger - Harry "Slip" Lepp, Trombone
© 2007 Curtom, a label of Rhino Entertainment Company, a Warner Music Company ℗ 1972 Curtom Records, a label of Rhino Entertainment Company
Joseph Scott, Bass Guitar - Curtis Mayfield, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, MainArtist - Master Henry Gibson, Percussion - Roger Anfinsen, Engineer - Irv Stimler, AssociateProducer - Tyrone McCullen, Drums - Craig McCullen, Guitar - John Pate, Arranger - Harry "Slip" Lepp, Trombone
© 2007 Curtom, a label of Rhino Entertainment Company, a Warner Music Company ℗ 1972 Curtom Records
Joseph Scott, Bass Guitar - Curtis Mayfield, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, MainArtist - Morris Jennings, Drums - Master Henry Gibson, Percussion - Roger Anfinsen, Producer, Engineer - Craig McCullen, Guitar - John Pate, Arranger - Harry "Slip" Lepp, Trombone
© 2007 Curtom, a label of Rhino Entertainment Company, a Warner Music Company ℗ 1972 Curtom Records, under exclusive license to Rhino Entertainment Company
Joseph Scott, Bass Guitar - Curtis Mayfield, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, MainArtist - Morris Jennings, Drums - Master Henry Gibson, Percussion - Roger Anfinsen, Engineer - Irv Stimler, AssociateProducer - Craig McCullen, Guitar - John Pate, Arranger - Harry "Slip" Lepp, Trombone
© 2007 Curtom, a label of Rhino Entertainment Company, a Warner Music Company ℗ 1972 Curtom Records, a label of Rhino Entertainment
Joseph Scott, Bass Guitar - Curtis Mayfield, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, MainArtist - Morris Jennings, Drums - Master Henry Gibson, Percussion - Roger Anfinsen, Engineer - Irv Stimler, AssociateProducer - Craig McCullen, Guitar - John Pate, Arranger - Harry "Slip" Lepp, Trombone
© 2007 Curtom, a label of Rhino Entertainment Company, a Warner Music Company ℗ 1972 Curtom Records, a label of Rhino Entertainment
Joseph Scott, Bass Guitar - Curtis Mayfield, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, MainArtist - Morris Jennings, Drums - Master Henry Gibson, Percussion - Roger Anfinsen, Engineer - Irv Stimler, AssociateProducer - Craig McCullen, Guitar - John Pate, Arranger - Harry "Slip" Lepp, Trombone
© 2007 Curtom, a label of Rhino Entertainment Company, a Warner Music Company ℗ 1972 Curtom Records, a label of Rhino Entertainment
Joseph Scott, Bass Guitar - Curtis Mayfield, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, MainArtist - Morris Jennings, Drums - Master Henry Gibson, Percussion - Roger Anfinsen, Engineer - Irv Stimler, AssociateProducer - Craig McCullen, Guitar - John Pate, Arranger - Harry "Slip" Lepp, Trombone
© 2007 Curtom, a label of Rhino Entertainment Company, a Warner Music Company ℗ 1972 Curtom Records
Joseph Scott, Bass Guitar - Curtis Mayfield, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, MainArtist - Morris Jennings, Drums - Master Henry Gibson, Percussion - Roger Anfinsen, Engineer - Irv Stimler, AssociateProducer - Craig McCullen, Guitar - John Pate, Arranger - Harry "Slip" Lepp, Trombone
© 2007 Curtom, a label of Rhino Entertainment Company, a Warner Music Company ℗ 1972 Curtom Records, a label of Rhino Entertainment
Joseph Scott, Bass Guitar - Curtis Mayfield, Producer, Guitar, Vocals, Writer, MainArtist - Morris Jennings, Drums - Master Henry Gibson, Percussion - Roger Anfinsen, Engineer - Craig McCullen, Guitar - John Pate, Arranger - Harry "Slip" Lepp, Trombone
© 2007 Curtom, a label of Rhino Entertainment Company, a Warner Music Company ℗ 1972 Curtom Records Of Atlanta Inc.
Album review
The choice of Curtis Mayfield to score the blaxploitation film Super Fly was an inspired one. No other artist in popular music knew so well, and expressed through his music so naturally, the shades of gray inherent in contemporary inner-city life. His debut solo album, 1970's Curtis, had shown in vivid colors that the '60s optimist (author of the civil-rights anthems "Keep On Pushing" and "People Get Ready") had added a layer of subtlety to his material; appearing on the same LP as the positive and issue-oriented "Move On Up" was an apocalyptic piece of brimstone funk titled "(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go." For Super Fly, Mayfield wisely avoids celebrating the wheeling-and-dealing themes present in the movie, or exploiting them, instead using each song to focus on a different aspect of what he saw as a plague on America's streets. He also steers away from explicit moralizing; through his songs, Mayfield simply tells it like it is (for the characters in the film as in real life), with any lessons learned the result of his vibrant storytelling and knack of getting inside the heads of the characters. "Freddie's Dead," one of the album's signature pieces, tells the story of one of the film's main casualties, a good-hearted yet weak-willed man caught up in the life of a pusher, and devastatingly portrays the indifference of those who witness or hear about it. "Pusherman" masterfully uses the metaphor of drug dealer as businessman, with the drug game, by extension, just another way to make a living in a tough situation, while the title track equates hustling with gambling ("The game he plays he plays for keeps/hustlin' times and ghetto streets/tryin' ta get over"). Ironically, the sound of Super Fly positively overwhelmed its lyrical finesse. A melange of deep, dark grooves, trademarked wah-wah guitar, and stinging brass, Super Fly ignited an entire genre of music, the blaxploitation soundtrack, and influenced everyone from soul singers to television-music composers for decades to come. It stands alongside Saturday Night Fever and Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols as one of the most vivid touchstones of '70s pop music.
© John Bush /TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 9 track(s)
- Total length: 00:36:53
- Main artists: Curtis Mayfield
- Label: Rhino
- Genre: Soul/Funk/R&B Soul
© 2007 Curtom, a label of Rhino Entertainment Company, a Warner Music Company ℗ 2007 Curtom, a label of Rhino Entertainment Company, a Warner Music Company
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