Super Fly

Super Fly
seen @ Mid-Manhattan Library, New York NY
6.19.13

Honestly, I wasn't all that thrilled with Super Fly. It wasn't bad, at least not when compared to other blaxploitation films - and I did like the ending. But it's hard to relate to a drug dealer as a protagonist, y'know what I mean? Oh, I understand why Priest, the main character, does what he does, and I don't think the movie glamorizes drug use to the extent other, later movies do. I just prefer something like Shaft instead. So let's talk about the bigger reason this movie is remembered: the music.

In roaming through my father's record collection not long after he died, I was pleased to see, among other things, the Super Fly soundtrack on CD. He also had a Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions greatest hits collection, so I took both of them. They're both double-CD volumes; the Super Fly one (released by Rhino) has both the original soundtrack on one disc and a bunch of extras on the other.

Mayfield's nine songs get lots of play throughout the movie (and OF COURSE he himself appears in one scene, performing a couple of the tunes). Most of them are played with just the music, not the words - which makes sense, because after all, a song with the title "Freddy's Dead" could be construed as a spoiler. It made me really appreciate the musicianship of Mayfield and his band: the percussion in "Pusherman," the horns in "Little Child Runnin' Wild," the guitar in "Give Me Your Love." So much of black popular music these days is electronically based that it's easy to forget that music like this is part of our legacy as well.

"Been told I can't be nuthin' else/Just a hustler in spite of myself
I know I can break it//This life just don't make it"

Mayfield's lyrics capture the spirit of the movie perfectly, but after all, it was simply a reflection of the issues that plagued black America back in the 70s. It always astonishes me, whenever I listen to singers like the Impressions or the Temptations or Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes or Sly and the Family Stone or Marvin and Stevie, how musicians like these could take the pain, the frustration, and the anger of black culture during this tumultuous period in American history and turn it into something beautiful. Something lyrical. Something that rocks! (And yeah, I guess you can say the same thing about hip hop today, to a degree, I suppose, though I'll still take classic soul every time.)

"The game he plays he plays for keeps/Hustlin' times and ghetto streets
Tryin' ta get over"

The liner notes to the Rhino 2-disc version of the Super Fly soundtrack have this to say:

...The genius in Curtis' multilayered dissection of Superfly [sic] is clear when contrasted with most soundtracks of the time. While Isaac Hayes (Shaft), Marvin Gaye (Trouble Man), and others wrote scintillating themes for movies, the remainder of their scores, though usually brilliant, was 90 percent instrumental, offering only a few loosely related songs. For Superfly [sic], Curtis took [screenwriter Phillip] Fenty's script and composed sharp character studies for each primary player, making every song essential, and thus securing his soundtrack as the genre's finest work.

I tend to prefer the way-down-deep voices of guys like Teddy Pendergrass or Levi Stubbs over the falsetto-voiced singers, but listening to the Impressions collection made me appreciate Mayfield's voice more. Within the context of the film, its sweetness is a contrast to the harshness of Priest and the world he occupies. 

"Everybody's misused him/Ripped him off and abused him
Another junkie plan/Pushin' dope for the Man"

One thing about the movie I should mention that I thought was interesting: there's a montage sequence of still photos of Priest selling his drugs, set to the song "Pusherman." It's a unusual storytelling choice for this movie, though I wouldn't necessarily call it artsy. Does it fit with the rest of the film? Eh. It's debatable. But I appreciate that director Gordon Parks Jr. (who took the photos) tried something different.

"I want you so, baby/Can't even get mad at you
What a thing/You really swing"

I saw Super Fly at the Mid-Manhattan Library on Fifth Avenue, across the street from the more popular New York Public Library (the one with the lion sculptures out front). The film's part of a series of New York-based films they're showing this summer. In high school and college, I went to this place all the time, not just for book reports, but mostly for their picture collection on the third floor. You see, kids, back in the prehistoric days before the Internet, whenever an artist needed photo reference, this was the best place to go, because they had folders and folders and folders of practically anything and everything you'd want. My school mates and I would spend hours there, looking through their files for just that right image at just the right angle. So this place has a few nice memories for me.

The screen they set up was in a first-floor room facing Fifth Avenue, but it wasn't big enough to obscure the view out the window completely, and as a result, I'd occasionally be distracted by people - especially hot chicks - walking outside. One guy in front of me actually took out his digital camera and snapped a few pictures during the movie. Go figure.

My Movie Year

My Movie Year Blogathon is an event in which the purpose is to write about a favorite year in movies, hosted by the site Fandango Groovers Movie Blog. For a complete list of participating bloggers, visit the host site.

It's hard to argue any year other than 1939 as the best year for movies: Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Stagecoach, The Women, Ninotchka, The Rules of the Game - and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Fortunately, I'm not here to discuss that particular year.


I've talked before about who I'd want to play me in the movie of my life, but I never talked about what the story would be. Covering the entirety of it would make no sense; I'm not famous, nor have I done anything that has significantly changed the world (yet!). I would choose instead to spotlight one particular year and fashion a narrative out of that. There are several that would do, but the one I keep coming back to is 1986.


It's memorable for a variety of reasons. It's the year the Mets won the World Series, of course, and that was a defining moment in my childhood. It was also the year I entered high school, and that precipitated a number of changes in the way I thought about myself and the world around me.

Okay, so maybe 1986 wasn't that great.

As far as movies go, it was a solid year: Aliens, Platoon, The Fly, Labyrinth, Blue Velvet, She's Gotta Have It, Highlander, Star Trek IV, Three Amigos, Short Circuit, Back to School, Hannah and Her Sisters, Sid and Nancy, Down By Law and Little Shop of Horrors, among others. What I wanna talk about in particular is the movie music from 1986.


In 1986 I listened to a whole lot of Top 40 radio, though by year's end that would change as I slowly started getting into classic rock. I was aware of movie soundtracks, and even if certain songs were from movies I was too young to see, thanks to videos, I could get a fairly good sense of what they were about. The following movies had some of the best songs that I remember well from that year:


- Top Gun. Duh! I still have this soundtrack on vinyl, and it's nothing but hits, "Danger Zone" and "Take My Breath Away" being the biggest. I remember being disappointed that "Danger Zone" didn't make it to number one on the charts - if I recall correctly, I believe it plateaued at number two! I also remember thinking how strange it was that Berlin's Terri Nunn had blonde hair with black tips at the bottom. Dyed hair was still a relatively new concept to me, and between Cyndi Lauper, Boy George, Annie Lennox and dozens of big-hair metal bands, there were plenty of examples of them to be found.


- Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I was a sleepaway camp counselor in 1995 when the Beatles Anthology was released, and all summer long, kids as young as six, seven, eight years old had the Beatles on the brain. So it was with us in 1986 when "Twist and Shout" got a big boost thanks to this film. The Beatles, man, they just never go out of style. I have a friend in her 70s who claims to not like them, but I suspect it's only a mildly passive dislike at worst and not an out-and-out hate.

 - Stand By Me. Oooh, man, I can recall it like it was yesterday, how big Ben E. King's classic hit was amongst us eighth-graders when this movie came out. I had a father who played old-school soul all the time, so I may have been a bit more familiar with this song than my classmates, but still, we all loved this song so much. We liked the movie, of course, but the song just felt special somehow even without the movie. Between this, Ferris, Soul Man and Jumpin' Jack Flash, it was a good year for old songs getting a new lease on life thanks to movies.

- Transformers: The Movie. "You got the TOUCH! YOU GOT THE POWERRRRRRRRR!!!"

Also, Weird Al.

- Pretty in Pink. Yeah, I was in love with Molly Ringwald like the rest of teenage America in 1986, and this film had another killer soundtrack, with "Pretty in Pink" and "If You Leave" being the big highlights. I wouldn't really begin to appreciate new wave music until later on in high school, though.

What was it about that song?

I'm not gonna link to that song. You know what song I'm talking about. In the days since the tragic death of Whitney Houston, chances are you've heard that song somewhere on the radio or TV, repeatedly, by now. You know.

The Bodyguard came out at just the right time for its stars. Kevin Costner was two years removed from Dances With Wolves and couldn't have been any bigger or hotter. Houston was already an established megastar, with a trunkload of Grammys and poised to take Hollywood by storm. Lawrence Kasdan wrote the screenplay (fun fact: it was originally gonna be for Steve McQueen!), and while British director Mick Jackson may not have been a household name, he was just coming off of the delightful Steve Martin comedy LA Story.


The Bodyguard did not fare well with the critics. Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman called it "an outrageous piece of saccharine kitsch" and the New York Times' Janet Maslin called it a "long, sprawling semi-travelogue," but audiences loved it enough to make it the seventh-highest grossing film of 1992. (And good or bad, it deserves props for not making a big deal about the interracial aspect of the romance.)


And then there was that soundtrack. And that song.

Let's run the numbers, shall we: fourteen weeks at number one in the US alone. Number one in sixteen different countries. Quadruple-platinum-certified. Grammy-winner for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female. The third-biggest-selling single OF ALL TIME from the biggest-selling soundtrack OF ALL TIME.

And technically, the song's not even hers.

Though she certainly made it hers.

I'm not gonna get into comparisons between the original version and Houston's version. I'm more interested in how The Song in Question got as big as it did. 

Was it simply a matter of timing? I remember Houston at her late-80's-early-90's peak. I have some of her records; in fact, it was my father who bought me her debut LP. They still hold up. Prior to The Bodyguard, it did not seem as if she could get any bigger or more successful. She was everywhere. She, along with Michael Jackson, made MTV safe for black people. Did I mention the trunkload of Grammys? And then The Song in Question just catapulted her into the stratosphere. No, she already was in the stratosphere; it put her in orbit.


It's difficult to talk about The Song objectively, because we have all heard it too many times to be objective about it anymore. It's just become part of our collective unconscious, like The Brady Bunch and Smurfs and Tang: it's not a matter of liking it or hating it anymore. It simply is. In fact, I'd argue that The Song, and the way Houston sung it - the bombastic, hitting-all-the-high-notes, playing-to-the-crowd vocal calisthenics - helped paved the way for the American Idol era of music. I think Houston recorded better songs, but something about that one just drove people wild the way "My Heart Will Go On" drove people wild only five years later.

Today being Valentine's Day, it's worth pointing out the ultra-romantic appeal of The Song as well as the movie - which is ironic, because if you look at the lyrics, you'll see that it's actually a sad song. Funny how that gets overlooked most of the time, isn't it? But there have been other love songs from romantic movies, sung by equally talented singers. What made this one so very different?

Maybe it really does come down to timing. Who can say for certain why a certain song hits with people when it does, whether it's The Song in Question or "Don't Worry Be Happy" or "Hey Jude" or even "Friday"? That Houston had world-class talent is indisputable, though, and like so many other musicians before her, from Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker, through Karen Carpenter and Janis Joplin, and on into Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse, her struggle with her personal demons consumed her before her time. But the music, as ever, remains.

Soundtrack Saturday: John Williams

Let's be honest: if you're reading this blog, chances are you can hum at least three John Williams tunes, if not more. His scores have transcended the film world and have become part of the mainstream culture at large, and while he's worked with a variety of different filmmakers, in many people's minds he's mostly associated with Steven Spielberg. This is the last Soundtrack Saturday feature. I have something special planned for the next four Saturdays in February (also music related), and then a new regular Saturday feature will begin in March, so what better way to end than with a tribute to the undisputed king of film composers?

 John Williams IMDB page

Amazon link to buy soundtracks featuring his music 

Star Wars: Music By John Williams,

a documentary about the making of the Empire Strikes Back score
with a look at some of his earlier work from the 60s and 70s

Guardian interview from 2002

Soundtrack Saturday: Michael Kamen

Theme from Highlander

"Sam Lowry's 1st Dream" (with Kate Bush) from Brazil

"Gruber's Departure" from Die Hard (my post on the movie)

Soundtrack Saturday: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross

"In Motion" from The Social Network (my post on the movie)

"Hand Covers Bruise" from The Social Network

"People Lie All The Time" from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011) (my post on the movie)

Soundtrack Saturday: James Horner

Main title from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

"The Sinking" from Titanic (1997)

"Jake's First Flight" from Avatar

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Not film-related but it is music-related: my sister sent me a link to the blog of this cartoonist who does comic strip "music video" parodies, mostly of 80's videos. Pretty funny, too. Check it out.

Soundtrack Saturday: Maurice Jarre

Main theme from Lawrence of Arabia

"Lara's Theme" from Dr. Zhivago

Theme from Ghost

Soundtrack Saturday will return January 7. Enjoy your holiday weekend.

Soundtrack Saturday: Max Steiner

So many classic films he's worked on. Difficult to pick just three.

"Skull Island Overture" from King Kong (1933)

"Tara's Theme" from Gone With the Wind

Theme from Casablanca

Soundtrack Saturday: Elmer Bernstein

Theme from The Magnificent Seven

Theme from To Kill a Mockingbird 

"Dana's Theme" from Ghostbusters

Soundtrack Saturday: Henry Mancini

"Moon River" from Breakfast at Tiffany's

"Baby Elephant Walk" from Hatari!

Theme from The Pink Panther

Soundtrack Saturday: Alexandre Desplat

Theme from The King's Speech (my post on the movie)

"Obliviate" from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I

"Julia's Theme" from Julie & Julia

Soundtrack Saturday: Hans Zimmer

Theme from The Dark Knight

"Dream is Collapsing" from Inception

"Now We Are Free" (with Lisa Gerrard) from Gladiator

Soundtrack Saturday: Michael Giacchino

"Married Life/Carl & Ellie" from Up

"Enterprising Young Men" from Star Trek (2009) (my post on the film)

Theme from The Incredibles

Soundtrack Saturday: Howard Shore

Theme from Ed Wood

"The Fellowship" from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Theme from Crash (1996)

Soundtrack Saturday: Danny Elfman

Who better to listen to on Halloween weekend?

"This is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas

Theme from Batman (my post on the film)

"Ice Dance" from Edward Scissorhands

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Also: This isn't directly related to Halloween, but it is music and film related. This past Thursday I saw a live Theremin performance in Brooklyn by professional Thereminist Kip Rosser. The Theremin, of course, is that creepy scientific instrument-turned-musical instrument that makes those human-like ooooOOOOooooo sounds you've heard in lots of old horror and sci-fi movies. Rosser also gave a fun-filled multi-media presentation on the history of the instrument. For more pictures and notes from the show, go to the WSW Facebook page. To hear what a Theremin sounds like, go back to my Bernard Herrmann post and click on the theme to The Day The Earth Stood Still (one of the many songs Rosser performed!).


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Previously in Halloween Week 2011:
The Ghost of Yotsuya 
[REC]
The Gorgon 
Suspiria

Soundtrack Saturday: John Barry

He was more than just the James Bond guy.

Theme from Game of Death (my post on the film)

Theme from Midnight Cowboy

"John Dunbar Theme" from Dances With Wolves

Soundtrack Saturday: Bernard Herrmann

Theme from Psycho

Theme from Taxi Driver

"Prelude/Outer Space/Radar" from The Day the Earth Stood Still

Soundtrack Saturday: Ennio Morricone

"The Ecstasy of Gold" from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

"The Strength of the Righteous" from The Untouchables

Theme from Cinema Paradiso

Soundtrack Saturday: Jerry Goldsmith

And now it's time to spotlight the composers! You knew this was coming. First up: one of my all-time faves.

Main Title from Star Trek: First Contact

Theme from LA Confidential

Main Title/Hyper Sleep from Alien