Blaxploitation

If a select few blaxploitation flicks rose to the level of stone-cold classic, literally dozens of the films' soundtracks were all that - and a whole lot more. Isaac Hayes' Oscar®-winning "Theme from 'Shaft'" is a masterpiece of the genre's brooding power, with the guitar's wakka-wakka dueling the hi-hat's tikki-tikki-tikki before the vocal bursts out of its cage. Far more feline than "Shaft," Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man" features his sleek falsetto slinking around the jazzy arrangement the way a cat threads its path down a trash-strewn alley. And Bobby Womack's world-weary rasp spray-paints a harsh picture of ghetto life in "Across 110th Street" (more recently heard in Jackie Brown). Unlike these screen gems, not all blaxploitation films were crime dramas, and not all their soundtracks were soul, as we'll find out in Next Steps.

Beat-downs and shoot-ups captured the largest slice of the blaxploitation pie, but a few tasty slivers lay at the genre's edge. Perhaps the most bizarre was a rare venture into monster goth, Blacula. How the Crystalites' echo-chamber-heavy reggae theme wormed its way into the film is a mystery, but it's just surreal enough to work. Sparkle beat Dreamgirls to the girl-group punch by decades; Aretha Franklin swoops and glides over her backing-vocal trio like a gospel singer testifying to the faithful. And Herbie Hancock's instrumental title track to Watermelon Man splices Pygmy tribal yelps and African flute into a funky jazz riff, adding to the aura of unreality when the movie's white, racist protagonist suddenly wakes up black. In Deep Cuts we'll dig deep into the soul of blaxploitation action films.

With its chattering guitars, conga rhythms, and staccato strings, "Theme of Foxy Brown" rips right into hyperdrive while Willie Hutch's grab-you-by-the-throat tenor waxes poetic about the film's lead, played by Miss Blaxploitation herself, Pam Grier. Over Johnny Pate's splashy, brassy, big band arrangement for the theme to Brother on the Run, Adam Wade's hickory-smoked baritone half-chides, half-warns lead character Brother about the ticking time bomb lurking in his immediate future. And speaking of time, fans of Booker T. & The MG's will instantly recognize "Tank's Lament" from the movie Uptight, because the tune is a slowed down, lounged up version of their Top 10 hit "Time Is Tight." But don't stop here; part of the joy of blaxploitation is discovering that even a regrettable movie may conceal a kernel of musical genius within.

Blaxploitation films rolled off the '70s assembly line like an endless convoy of Cadillac Fleetwoods: Shaft, Superfly, Black Caesar, Coffy, Cleopatra Jones, Foxy Brown, Willie Dynamite. Peacock-plumed and leather-clad men of action and stiletto-heeled, cleavage-revealing women of passion targeted one villain with a Scud missile's ruthless efficiency: the Man — almost without exception a white, obese, cigar-smoking pillar of evil whose three-piece polyester suit fit like a sausage casing. For many of these B-grade cinematic bonbons, the soundtrack far outclassed the film (and in the case of Superfly, even outgrossed the film). And while the movies are frequently dispatched to the guilty pleasure pile, the music that gave them life reaches out like Blacula from the coffin to grab your ears and leave an indelible mark on your musical psyche. We've gathered some of the genre's classics for your enjoyment . . . but you'll have to supply the popcorn.