Curtis Meets Super Fly

Today’s Throwback Thursday relates to one of the greatest soundtracks ever produced - On this day in 1972, the blaxploitation neo-noir crime drama film, Super Fly, was released. The film, directed by Gordon Parks Jr. focuses on Youngblood Priest, a cocaine dealer who is trying to quit the underworld drug business. Parks Jr. (son of the famous photographer Gordon Parks) was a visionary director and he needed a powerful soundtrack to accompany his debut film. In steps Curtis Mayfield.

Super Fly is the third studio album for Mayfield (former member of The Impressions) and is considered one of the pioneering soul concept albums and is an inspirational soul and funk music album.

Unlike the common soundtrack, Super Fly is a conceptual album known for its anti-drug and liberation themes and is very political. Unlike the film, Curtis Mayfield maintains a much more critical stance, with socially aware lyrics about crime, poverty and drug abuse. However, the theme of the lyrics of the album is not far from the film.

The standout tracks for me starts with “Freddie’s Dead” (a song remade, quite well, by Fishbone). The first single off the album, it tells the story of the death of Fat Freddie, a character in the film who is run over by a car. It’s raw, funky and perfectly captures an element of the film.

There’s “Pusherman” a brutal look at what a pusherman is and could be - mama, daddy, doctor, etc. Mayfield’s lyrics were just as much a reflection of his own life, having been raised in Chicago’s notorious Cabrini-Green housing projects, as they were based on the characters in the movie.

The title track, “Superfly” incorporates horns into the already funky tune. It may sound very familiar to you, even if you’ve never heard the original. It’s one of the most sampled song ever - Just listen to Beastie Boys “Egg Man”, The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Ready to Die Intro” and many others.

Super Fly set the standard for not only blaxploitation soundtracks, but soundtracks in general as they became part of the storytelling process. Mayfield was a true icon and pioneer who helped create a music movement and influenced so much of what you listen to today.