 |  | Real Fun and some conversation too!! |  |
Put this on with pot of greens some hot corn bread, stir in some dominoe buddies and it's on. Don't forget an ice cold brew! Guaranteed pencil whipping fun. This is Curtis Mayfield in his finest hour. Adults only!!
June 10, 2008| | | One of the two Best Blaxploitation Soundtracks of the '70s., | |
"The dude in the funky plaid coat held his coat tight, you dig? Had some heavy iron in his belt."
Set in Harlem and directed by Gordon Parks, Shaft is a 1971 Academy Award winning noir action film starring Richard Roundtree as black private detective, John Shaft, who confronts the Italian mob in his attempts to find the missing daughter of a black mobster. The movie is considered an example of the blaxploitation film genre, and Isaac Hayes' funky rhythm-and-blues-soul soundtrack was nominated for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score upon the movie's release. In fact, the soundtrack is quintessential '70s music (along with Curtis Mayfield's Superfly) and was the driving force in the film (in my opinion). Track listing includes:
1. Theme From "Shaft" 4:36
2. Bumpy's Lament 1:49
3. Walk From Regio's 2:20
4. Ellie's Love Theme 3:14
5. Shaft's Cab Ride 1:06
6. Cafe Regio's 5:59
7. Early Sunday Morning 3:46
8. Be Yourself 4:27
9. A Friend's Place 3:20
10. Soulsville 3:46
11. No Name Bar 6:08
12. Bumpy's Blues 4:01
13. Shaft Strikes Again 3:02
14. Do Your Thing 19:30 Album Only
15. The End Theme (Shaft) 1:56
G. Merritt
February 29, 2008| | | A Groovy Soundtrack album for a groovy movie!! | |
This Shaft soundtrack album from 1971 is obviously one of the best selling albums ever in the history of American music (and, I believe, one of the best selling albums released by Stax Records back then). This title made Isaac Hayes (aka "Black Moses") a mega superstar upon its release, due to the title theme, which is the first track on this album. It has an unforgettable intro sound, and the song lasts for barely over four and a half minutes, with Isaac's vocals lasting only for about one minute (or slightly more) halfway through the song. He only sang on three of the songs on this album (the title theme, "Soulsville", and "Do Your Thing"), with the remaining twelve songs being instrumental incidental music from the movie. Some of the other songs on this album are quite good. "Bumpy's Lament", "Shaft's Cab Ride" (which only lasts barely over one minute), "Ellie's Love Theme" (with its soft, easy listening sound that sounds like a song to slow dance to), "Soulsville" (this one containing a sax), "Early Sunday Morning", "Shaft Strikes Again", and the funky track, "Do Your Thing" (which is the longest song on the soundtrack album, clocking in at almost 20 minutes) (!!) and "The End Theme", which is almost two minutes long, playing at the closing credits of the movie. This is the album to get. I first heard the "Shaft" theme years ago when I was little (on a 45 that my mother had years before, not on the soundtrack album), and I consider it the first Stax recording that I listened to. I got the movie for my 24th birthday (in April, '04), and really liked it a lot. Before I got the movie for my birthday that year, I had never seen it ever on TV; not even on the Encore channel! I only knew the title theme and some of those other songs that I mentioned before I got the movie. It is really incredible and quite enjoyable. I highly recommend seeing the movie and getting this album, if you have not already done so. Very groovy! Kudos to Isaac Hayes for his wonderful voice and a good job that he did singing on this album!
December 31, 2005| | | But,,I'm talking about Shaft | |
One of the best soundtracks to come out of the 70s, if not the best was Isaac Hayes'Shaft' soundtrack.With the academy award winning 'Theme from Shaft'.I still remember seeing him performing the song at the awards show on tv. Isaac Hayes recorded Shaft during his best creative years.So what makes Shaft so special? Well to answer wy own question.Shaft is a blend of funk,smooth jazz (before it was called smooth jazz) soul and rhythm & blues.And it all comes together to produced the Isaac Hayes sound.Very few artist have manage to bring together both film and sound like Isaac Hayes did with the Shaft soundtrack.You find yourself enjoying the music just as much as the movie.Before Shaft Isaac Hayes was best known for working his magic with other people's material like 'Buy The Time I Get To Phoenix,Our Day Will Come and The Look Of Love etc,etc,etc.But Shaft if I'm not mistaking was Isaac Hayes first whole album of his own original music.And he rose to the challenge.I think Shaft gave Mr.Hayes an opportunity to record songs that weren't a part of his normal routine.And this gave us songs like Ellie's Love Theme,Early Sunday Morning and Shaft Strikes Again.Just to name a few on this great album.So thanks to Shaft we got to hear these gems.Yes Shaft is a fantastic soundtrack it's Isaac Hayes at his best and I highly recomment it.After thirty-five years the music still sounds good.The only downside to the album to me is the length of Do Your Thing.Why so long? I don't know why Isaac Hayes made it so long.Maybe he needed to fill in some space.Well I guess I'll go and watch the movie Shaft on my DVD player now.
November 13, 2004By 1971 Ike was a big name in the R&B world. On his 1969 debut `Hot Buttered Soul' he had changed the game with his genius and innovation. However his two follow up albums had only shown flashes of the brilliance he flaunted so effortlessly on his debut.
Nevertheless much like Curtis Mayfield with `Superfly', being recruited to provide a film score (In this case Richard Roundtrees awesome Shaft) seemed to unlock the door to a hidden world of inspiration inside Ike's mind.
Everybody knows the distinctive and tongue in cheek title theme which these days seems to epitomise everything 70s. The remainder of the album is largely scene-related instrumentals and mood music that never stops being pleasing on the ear. The other two vocal cuts are the jazzy `Soulsville' and the mammoth `Do Your Thing'. In its 3 minute radio edit form `Do Your Thing' is a classic hard fonk number, however, the album version is dragged out to no less than twenty minutes(!), largely by an overly long electric guitar solo. Whereas previous extra length songs by Hayes had justified every second of their playing time, for once Ike seems to be doing it purely for the sake of it. Still it's a good tune and other than that its difficult to find fault with this album, which was a major hit and sealed Ike's name in history forever.
One of those Must Own type records. January 18, 2004
More reviews at Amazon.com ...
