Super Fly [Original Soundtrack]

by Curtis Mayfield

Overview

The choice of Curtis Mayfield to score the blaxploitation film Superfly 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 Superfly, 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 Superfly positively overwhelmed its lyrical finesse. A melange of deep, dark grooves, trademarked wah-wah guitar, and stinging brass, Superfly 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. [The 1999 Rhino reissue features two bonus tracks.] ~ John Bush

Product Details

Release Date:	07/20/1999
Label:	Rhino
UPC:	0081227580322
Rank:	1569

Tracks

1. Little Child Runnin' Wild
2. Pusherman
3. Freddie's Dead
4. Junkie Chase
5. Give Me Your Love (Love Song)
6. Eddie You Should Know Better
7. No Thing on Me (Cocaine Song)
8. Think
9. Superfly
10. Freddie's Dead
11. Superfly

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Curtis Mayfield   Primary Artist,Guitar,Vocals,Lead Vocals
Joseph Scott   Guitar (Bass),Guitar (Bass)
Master Henry Gibson   Percussion
Harry "Slip" Lepp   Trombone
Craig McCullen   Guitar
Tyrone McCullen   Drums
Johnny Pate   Orchestra
David McLees   Prp
Morris Jennings   Drums
Craig McMullen   Guitar

Technical Credits

Curtis Mayfield   Audio Production,Composer,Lyricist,Producer
Roger Anfinsen   Audio Engineer,Engineer,Producer
Patrick Milligan   Project Supervisor
Steven Chean   Editorial Supervision
Bill Inglot   Reissue Producer
Riley Hampton   Arranger
A. Scott Galloway   Liner Notes
Daniel Goldmark   Editorial Research
Irv Stimler   Associate Producer,Producer,Assistant Producer
Johnny Pate   Arranger,Orchestration
Hugh Brown   Art Direction
David Parks   Photography
Glen Christensen   Art Direction
Milton Sincoff   Packaging
Gary Slabo   Arranger
Daniel Hersch   Remastering