God Bless you, Curtis Mayfield.

Okay, so I'm a 41 year old white male, big deal...you think I know nothing about soul...about funk...about groove? Think again. I grew up on this kind of stuff and I still find myself going back to it again and again not out of pure nostalgia, but because to me, it's "real music".

Curtis Mayfield was a genius. It seems like everytime you turn around now somebody who hasn't even paid his/her dues is being called a genius or a diva which is kind of a sad commentary, because those people that they are calling geniuses cannot even hold a candle to Curtis Mayfield. You think Snoop Dog is going to hold up to the test of time? You really think in 30 years you're gonna pull out your Eminem Cds and tell your grandkids, "Oh, yeah...now that was music..." I don't think so...

Mr. Mayfield struck a true chord with this recording. Without being obscene or vulgar he captured the sorrows, the joys, the ups, and the downs of not just people who lived on the city streets, but the everyday ups and downs of just being human and to me, that's a triumph in itself.

I love this CD. You really have to sit and be with it and just allow it to seep into your psyche and know that what affects one affects the whole and what affects the whole affects the one. That's empathy. That's pathos. That's soul. That's life.

God Bless you, Curtis Mayfield...thank you for all you left behind.

In the film, Priest, a coke dealer, is trying to make one last big score and retire. Curtis Mayfield's score is like another charcater, something of a greek chorus. While the movie glorifies the underworld and makes Priest into a hero, Mr. Mayfield's music tells of the trouble that comes from using and dealing drugs and acts as the film's conscience. Songs like "Freddie's Dead", "Eddie You Should Have Known Better", "Pusherman" & "Superfly" deal with particular charcaters from the movie, but they are so good and stand up on their own, you don't have to see the movie to get them. Mr. Mayfield's combination of Funk, Soul, Rock & Latin rhythms have influenced countless musicians from Eric Clapton to Lenny Kravitz and many rappers. He employs his sweet falsetto and innovative guitar work to their fullest on the album. This compliation has a second disk which has mostly instrumental versions of the album's songs, but ends with a lenghty interview with Mr. Mayfield that makes it worth shelling a couple extra dollars for this version of a great, great record.

I guess the only thing to argue is whether Superfly or Shaft was the better album soundtrack from the era of blaxploitation films. Either way, this is a great piece of music. Curtis Mayfield had a musical career which spanned decades, and moved from the gospel roots of the Impressions to the soundtrack of a movie which glorified drug dealing. Social sensibilities aside, it is hard to say anything bad about this music. Curtis' voice was sweet and plaintive in songs like "Eddie, you Should've Known Better", and "Little Child, Running Wild". Of course, he is like a one man Greek Chorus, as his songs tell of the strife which the movie characters face with their life's choices. Songs like "Superfly" and of course Freddie's Dead let us know via the radio what was happening on the screen. This album is still as fresh today as it was 25 years ago.

The movie was forgettable, but that doesn't diminish the contribution Curtis made to soul, R&B, and rock music with this terrific soundtrack. It's a powerful combination of grooves, orchestration, and socially aware lyrics, all held together by Mayfield's convincing vocals and tight guitar work.

The highlight of the album for me is the powerfully funky, yet poignant, "Freddie's Dead," a song filled with sorrow and anger. Curtis was way out front in lyrically denouncing the devastation that drugs wreaked on the community, but the power of this song lies not in any lecture it delivers, but in its ability to tell a convincing story of a life lost.

Curtis could spin out some mean rhyming long before rap took center stage, and you can hear that in "Pusherman." On "Little Child Running Wild," he brings in some strong sax licks to back him, and the instrumental "Junkie Chase" creates excitement through his skillful use of orchestration.

This is a clear example of a soundtrack rising far above the film it was designed to enhance. In fact, forget the film if you haven't seen it, but don't forget Curtis's outstanding demonstration of his superior abilities as a musician, composer, and arranger.

Curtis Mayfield was already something of a well-known figure in the Soul and Rhythm & Blues scene before he made this soundtrack for the 1972 blaxploitation film of the same name. His work as leader of "The Impressions" helped greatly, and more importantly, his incredible solo artist debut album "Curtis" marked him out as a significant talent, with a warm and Passionate vocal talent, coupled with some of the smoothest and exuberant upbeat funk& Psychedelic soul, thanks to his proficiency with the guitar

(both acoustic & Electric).

But in agreeing to soundtrack the Soundtrack for the movie "Superfly", Curtis was far too shrewd to simply just deliver a wonderfully musical soundtrack, and what he did was to, actually take the opportunity to produce a soundtrack with a underlying message. One that highlights the dangers of 'Running the Streets' and a strong 'Anti-Drugs Message', and although Curtis is clever enough to match the music and lyrics closely enough to the line of the film, and make the majority of songs readily identifiable with various key scenes of the film. So whether its the surging powerful horns arrangements that highlight "Little Child Running' Wild", with it's cautionary message of "Little Child Runnin' Wild, Watch a while, You see he never smiles, Broken home, Father gone, Mama tired...So he's all alone", over dramatic stinging brass, and Curtis' soothing vocal tone, moralising the depressing tale. "Pusherman" seemingly takes the perspective of a drug dealer, and details the false friendship, a dealer initiates in order to sell his drugs, the lyric "I'm your Doctor When in need, Want some coke?, Have some weed!!??, You know me, I'm your friend, Thick and thin", over the sparse sounding almost metallic drum rhythm, and a frantic, warbling trombone that cuts into the track and emphasises the decidedly seedy/moody and gritty nature of the track.

"Freddies Dead" is a pivotal track in the narrative of the album, as it retells the tale of a junkie/pusher that gets caught up in the lifestyle and becomes a causality because of it, and peoples indifference to his fatal plight, reflects peoples attitudes to junkies "Everybody's misused him, ripped him up and abused him, Another junkie plan, pushin' dope for the man., A freddies on the corner now, If you wanna be a junkie wow...Remember freddies dead!!", over the slow funk guitar heavy groove, mixed with swaggering trumpets and plaintive strings for a track drenched in psychedelic funk, and remains arguably one of the emotionally piercing tracks on the album. "Junkie Chase" is a brief instrumental that has a urgent intensity, with speedy funk guitars, and dramatic brass sections, with sharp trumpet arrangements all working together the convey the speed of a chase scene via an instrumental funk workout, admittedly I wished this instrumental was several minutes longer. "No Thing on Me (Cocaine Song)" pulls no punches in its damning of the powdered substance, citing it changing people mindsets and taking all comers irrespective of class or race, and yet again Curtis' wordplay shines with: "There's somethin' kinda funny How The Man take your money, He's shrewd as he can be, In such a way you'll never see, It's a terrible thing inside, When your natural high has died...The weaker turn to dope, And put all aside their hope" are accurate in the way that people fall to the drug, yet Curtis resists the temptation to make this a finger pointing exercise and instead highlights the perils, of those that become consumed by the drug. And finishing off the album is the superlative "Superfly" track, with it's Slinky moody deep, dark grooves, trademarked wah-wah guitar, and creates a beautifully 70's style uptown soul, that has a completely lush atmosphere, thanks the impeccable musicianship, of Curtis and his band, and yet the music exudes a confident swagger thanks to Curtis elegant vocal and consice lyrical content: "The game he plays he plays for keeps, hustlin' times and ghetto streets, tryin' ta get over, (that's what he tryin' to do, y'all), taking all that he can take, gambling with the odds of fate, tryin' ta get over...woo, superfly!!!", is simply fantastic, and I defy anyone to at the very least, to not do a little shuffle, when they play this track at a reasonably loud volume.

Considering that this soundtrack is some 30+ years old, its still remains not only one of Curtis' greatest musical achievements, but also still arguably one of the greatest movie soundtrack albums ever made. The musical/instrument side of things is simply astounding, and although it clearly references a period in the 70's, its still has a dynamic creativity and vitality that musical, still stands up against virtually anything the funk/Soul genres have to offer. But the most truly amazing thing is how a social consciousness, crept into the songs and made for powerful climatic stories contained within the songs that at the very least, require listeners to read the lyrics and see how seamlessly intergrated the lyrics run concurrently with the movie, and perfectly reflect pivotal scenes in the film. I'll end by say that, anyone that is in any way at all interested in Curtis Mayfield's music, simply must own this album, (even if you own a "Best of"), as this album's narrative simply needs to be heard in it's intended form, and this is a album that far outshines the movie, it accompanied, and (unlike the film, nowdays), is still an absolutely essential purchase.