I'll have to say Trouble Man (Marvin Gaye) arranged by Robert Ragland, Leo Shuken and Jack Hayes as well as Black Ceasar (James Brown) Up Tight! (Booker T and the MG's) and The Final Comedown (Grant Green).

victoravalentine, January 29, 2007; 1:15 PM

Besides European 60's and 70's explo-sexplo-killer-thriller-horror-scifi soundtracks, I love blaxploitation scores.

It is very hard to only name a few, so i split them into categories.

1. Essential
- Across 110th Street (J.J. Johnson)
- Black Cesar (James Brown)
- Cleopatra Jones (J.J. Johnson)
- Coffy (Roy Ayers)
- Foxy Brown (Willie Hutch)
- Hell Up In Harlem (Edwin Starr)
- Shaft (Isaac Hayes)
- Slaughter's Big Rip-Off (James Brown)
- Superfly (Curtis Mayfield)
- The Mack (Willie Hutch)
- Trouble Man (Marvin Gaye)

2. Get'em
- Bare Knuckles (Vic Ceasar)
- Black Belt Jones (Dennis Coffey & Luchi De Jesus)
- Black Fist (Ed Townsend)
- Black Girl (Ed Bogas)
- Black Mama, White Mama (Harry Betts)
- Black Shampoo (Gerald Lee)
- Blackjack (Jack Ashford)
- Blacula (Gene Page)
- Brother On The Run (Johnny Pate)
- Cool Breeze (Solomon Burke)
- Cornbread, Earl and Me (Donald Byrd)
- Cotton Comes To Harlem (Galt McDermot)
- Dolemite (Rudy Ray Moore)
- Foxy Lady (Doug Riley)
- Friday Foster (Luchi De Jesus)
- Gordon's War (Badder Than Evil)
- Hit 'Em Hard (Bobby Davis)
- Loot (Keith Mansfield)
- Petey Wheatstraw (Nat Dove)
- Pound (Charlie Cuva)
- Savage! (Don Julian)
- Shaft In Africa (Johnny Pate)
- Shaft's Big Score! (Gordon Parks)
- Sheba, Baby (Monk Higgins)
- Shorty The Pimp (Don Julian)
- Solomon King (J. Steiger)
- Superfly T.N.T. (Osibisa)
- Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song (Melvin Van Peebles)
- The Dynamite Brothers (Charles Earland)
- The Hanged Man (Alan Tew aka Bullet)
- The Italian Job (Quincy Jones)
- The Monkey Hustle (Jack Conrad)
- The Soul Of Nigger Charley (Don Costa)
- The Spook Who Sat By The Door (Herbie Hancock)
- The Taking Of Pelham 123 (David Shire)
- They Call Me Mister Tibbs (Quincy Jones)
- Truck Turner (Isaac Hayes)
- Uomini Duri aka Tough Guys (Isaac Hayes)
- Uptight! (Booker T & the MG's)
- Watermelon Man (Melvin Van Peebles)
- Willie Dynamite (J.J. Johnson)

and many others worth listening to...

3. Obscure (black porn soundtracks) but nonetheless wonderful funky (better than alltime classic Deep Throat score by Gerard Damiano)
- Lialeh (Bernard Purdie)
- Tongue (Roger Hamilton Spotts)

Finally, my greatest treasure (my personal alltime fav):
- Bucktown (Johnny Pate)

Greets

mister_gs, January 29, 2007; 2:02 PM

Whatever the definition of "blaxploitation" may be I'd also add Black Girl, Heavy Traffic and Steelyard Blues.


victoravalentine, January 29, 2007; 2:17 PM

Long list, mister_gs, making my mouth water, since most of that stuff is hard (not to say
impossible) to find.

Why are you so fascinated by Bucktown? Is there any other release than the LP containing the
movies cues culled from the DVD?

Since you count The Taking of Pelhalm among the blaxplos, what do you think about
Garvarentz's Diamond Mercenaries?

Christian.Quatremain, January 29, 2007; 3:31 PM

Well yeah, Garvarentz' Diamond Mercenaries is a pretty good score indeed. Like Pelham, here we move a sidestep from the classical blaxplo soundtracks. Worth listening are also a lot of french scores. Let's call them heavily groovy, even if the movies do not belong to the first row of blaxploitation flicks. There are so many more soundtracks of that period belonging more or less to that genre and also deserve to be called groovy or funky scores.

Bucktown. Well, first I like Johnny Pate's music. And second this particular one is special - to me. I just love the movie. There is no explainable reason for it. If you have the chance to watch it maybe you'll afterwards say "OMG, what a crap" or sth like that. But it's full of typical black 70's atmosphere, and the music is awsome funky (if you watch Superfly, then you'll have to state that it's not really a good movie, but the whole set, the fashion, the interior, the accessoires, the cars, the chicks :-) and last but not least Mayfields's score are incredibly good and tasty). You know, this one made me turn to the whole genre. Unfortunately, I don't think there's a score out besides the LP which is indeed hard to find.

mister_gs, January 29, 2007; 8:20 PM

Thanks for the response, guys.

As it seems, there are still some releases out there that are worth being searched for.

As for the movies, they are usually not half as good as the music, but as you said, mister_gs,
it's the whole style that counts, and thus listening to those funky scores makes even more
fun when watching the flicks they belong to.

Does anyone know which music is featured in the radio spot for Hell up in Harlem? It's not
from the available soundtrack, but I bet it's from some blaxplo score.

If you don't know the radio spot, send a request to christian.quatremain@yahoo.fr and I'll
send you a sound clip.

Christian.Quatremain, January 30, 2007; 11:56 AM

Diamond Mercenaries score is too disco for me. I have a copy and have always felt Georges Garvarentz could do a hell of a lot better. Interesting side note; Peter Fonda and O.J. Simpson often smoked marijuana together during filming.

Another I'd like to mention, "The Thing With Two Heads". Has some wild Bongo tracks.

I've never real cared for the term "blaxploitation" in the same as I've never cared for "spaghetti western".

Then again "blaxploitation" does apply to a certain genre (although it is overused).

I have a couple of CBS easy cue recordings from the early 70's with titles such as Big Band Bongo and Son Of Big Band Bongo. I'd like to know the origin of those cues.

victoravalentine, January 30, 2007; 12:39 PM

I know little of the Gravarentz score, but what I heard was pretty good (though you're right,
it's no blaxploitation, strictly speaking). As for The Thing with Two Heads, I have never come
across it.

I would also like to get a grip on Sammy Turner's Black Rodeo, but, alas, the music seems to
be even more obscure than the movie.

But folks, we forgot a classic here: Enter the Dragon by the inimitable Lalo Schifrin.
Five on the Black Hand Side is another suggestion, though it's a border case.

As for your bongo tracks, I'll try to find it out ...

Christian.Quatremain, January 30, 2007; 12:55 PM

Any of you guys ever come across Bebu Silvetti's score for Day of the Assasssins, a less than
medicocre movie starring Chuck Connors, Glenn Ford and Richard Roundtree.

I watched 10 minutes of it about three months ago. The only thing that made me stick to it
that long was the music.

Christian.Quatremain, January 31, 2007; 10:19 AM