The Vinyl Project - Super Fly (The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Curtis Mayfield (1972)
A Trip Thru Your Grooves - Episode 20
Release Date: 18-July-1972
Genre: R&B/Soul/Soundtracks
Producer: Curtis Mayfield
Label: Curtom Records
Time: 37m 05s
Review Date: 27-January-2019
Format: LP
Side One
A Deep Cut You'll Love: No Thing on Me (Cocaine Song)
Mayfield's life was as tragic as his lyrical themes: Mayfield never matched the commercial high of Super Fly, though 1975's There's No Place Like America Today is an overlooked gem. Tragedy struck the R&B singer in August 1990, when he was paralyzed from the neck down after a lighting rig fell on him. Mayfield passed away nearly a decade later at the very young age of 57.
Release Date: 18-July-1972
Genre: R&B/Soul/Soundtracks
Producer: Curtis Mayfield
Label: Curtom Records
Time: 37m 05s
Review Date: 27-January-2019
Format: LP
Side One
- Little Child Runnin' Wild
- Pusherman
- Freddie's Dead
- Junkie Chase (Instrumental)
- Give Me Your Love (Love Song)
- Eddie You Should Know Better
- No Thing on Me (Cocaine Song)
- Think (Instrumental)
- Superfly
Review: I had largely forgotten how much I love Curtis Mayfield until HBO debuted The Deuce in 2017. As a singer, writer and record producer, Mayfield stands as one of the giants of American popular music, and Super Fly provides his most inspired work. Mayfield paints a street-smart landscape set against the gritty underbelly of 1970's inner-city life: sophisticated and enlightening; sensitive, but still biting.
Bob Donat of Rolling Stone Magazine, describes this album perfectly: "...the greatest quality of any soundtrack is that it can stand alone. Superfly is not only a superior, imaginative soundtrack, but fine funky music as well and the best of Mayfield's four albums made since he left the Impressions. The [production team] dipped into three distinct musical satchels to pull out this lovely and energetic song cycle -- the established Shaft system of dramatic, heaving chords and souped-up, insectine guitar and synthesizer chops by Isaac Hayes; the lyrical power of the song style and orchestration of Marvin Gaye and David Van dePitte; and, certainly not least, the amazing emotive skill of Curtis Mayfield, whose technique is honed and carried to strange extremes."
An interesting note about Mayfield: The Chicago native became a fixture on the U.S. soul scene in 1961 as a member of the Impressions, whose string of hits, including People Get Ready, were gospel inspired anthems that served as inspiration for America's Civil Rights Movement in the mid-to-late '60s. Mayfield embarked on a solo career in 1970, with a signature sound that was both lush and funky, a soul-infused stew of fluid rhythms which often gilded searing commentaries about urban America.
Super Fly is one of a superfecta of albums that call attention to the social injustices of the time, the others being Trouble Man by Marvin Gaye, Shaft by Isaac Hayes, and Innervision by Stevie Wonder, all representations of the country's ever-widening chasm of inequality, fueled by widespread white oppression -- particularly in the south -- and systemic bigotry. Super Fly ignited that hybrid of funky soul and roused lyricism, and remains one of the most vivid touchstones of '70s pop music.
Mayfield's dulcet falsetto drapes the symphonic minor-key Little Child Runnin' Wild as a foreboding vignette of inner city life, with the singer's dramatic crescendos giving way to the following track. Built around a mesmerizing bass line savage congas, Pusherman is a first-person narrative of curb-level reportage that may have actually birthed gangster rap; Ice-T even samples the single on his 1988 song I'm Your Pusher. The lush, Latin-infused No Thing On Me (Cocaine Song) provides a similar anti-drug statement.
However, Mayfield's money shots are the title track and Freddie's Dead -- a pair of poignant, character sketches inherent of contemporary city life at the the time. Both compositions stand out for craft and creativity, benefitting from one of the most piquant soul voices of all time, and coupled with Mayfield's strong production work. The sonics of this recording are truly sublime, a minor flaw being the singer's occasional tendency to let his vocals drift just a bit too far into the mix.
Unfortunately, this long player, a soundtrack to the popular blaxploitation film that perfectly denounced the very things the movie glorified, was Mayfield's only No. 1 album.
Best Songs: Pusherman, Freddie's Dead, Superfly, Little Child Runnin' WildBob Donat of Rolling Stone Magazine, describes this album perfectly: "...the greatest quality of any soundtrack is that it can stand alone. Superfly is not only a superior, imaginative soundtrack, but fine funky music as well and the best of Mayfield's four albums made since he left the Impressions. The [production team] dipped into three distinct musical satchels to pull out this lovely and energetic song cycle -- the established Shaft system of dramatic, heaving chords and souped-up, insectine guitar and synthesizer chops by Isaac Hayes; the lyrical power of the song style and orchestration of Marvin Gaye and David Van dePitte; and, certainly not least, the amazing emotive skill of Curtis Mayfield, whose technique is honed and carried to strange extremes."
An interesting note about Mayfield: The Chicago native became a fixture on the U.S. soul scene in 1961 as a member of the Impressions, whose string of hits, including People Get Ready, were gospel inspired anthems that served as inspiration for America's Civil Rights Movement in the mid-to-late '60s. Mayfield embarked on a solo career in 1970, with a signature sound that was both lush and funky, a soul-infused stew of fluid rhythms which often gilded searing commentaries about urban America.
Super Fly is one of a superfecta of albums that call attention to the social injustices of the time, the others being Trouble Man by Marvin Gaye, Shaft by Isaac Hayes, and Innervision by Stevie Wonder, all representations of the country's ever-widening chasm of inequality, fueled by widespread white oppression -- particularly in the south -- and systemic bigotry. Super Fly ignited that hybrid of funky soul and roused lyricism, and remains one of the most vivid touchstones of '70s pop music.
Mayfield's dulcet falsetto drapes the symphonic minor-key Little Child Runnin' Wild as a foreboding vignette of inner city life, with the singer's dramatic crescendos giving way to the following track. Built around a mesmerizing bass line savage congas, Pusherman is a first-person narrative of curb-level reportage that may have actually birthed gangster rap; Ice-T even samples the single on his 1988 song I'm Your Pusher. The lush, Latin-infused No Thing On Me (Cocaine Song) provides a similar anti-drug statement.
However, Mayfield's money shots are the title track and Freddie's Dead -- a pair of poignant, character sketches inherent of contemporary city life at the the time. Both compositions stand out for craft and creativity, benefitting from one of the most piquant soul voices of all time, and coupled with Mayfield's strong production work. The sonics of this recording are truly sublime, a minor flaw being the singer's occasional tendency to let his vocals drift just a bit too far into the mix.
Unfortunately, this long player, a soundtrack to the popular blaxploitation film that perfectly denounced the very things the movie glorified, was Mayfield's only No. 1 album.
A Deep Cut You'll Love: No Thing on Me (Cocaine Song)
Mayfield's life was as tragic as his lyrical themes: Mayfield never matched the commercial high of Super Fly, though 1975's There's No Place Like America Today is an overlooked gem. Tragedy struck the R&B singer in August 1990, when he was paralyzed from the neck down after a lighting rig fell on him. Mayfield passed away nearly a decade later at the very young age of 57.
- Previous Review: The Best of the Grateful Dead: Skeletons from the Closet by The Grateful Dead (1974)
- Up Next: Magical Mystery Tour (US Release) by The Beatles (1967)
- A link to all my LP reviews
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