Category: 1972

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1971 1972 1973 1974 2008 Film H Isaac Hayes Music Reviews S Soundtracks Soundtracks by Title Television Year

The Shaft Anthology: His Big Score And More!

7 min read

Order this CDReleased in 2008 (to an audience that almost immediately bought out the print run of all 3,000 copies that were pressed), Film Score Monthly’s The Shaft Anthology is a revelation even if you’re already familiar with the existing release of Isaac Hayes’ album of music from the original movie. For one thing, the album released by Hayes alongside the film did not contain the original recordings as heard in the movie, but took the common approach of a more album-friendly re-recording that had better flow as a listening experience. (This frequently happens because film scores tend to contain a lot of discrete cues that might seem to be jarringly short to those not accustomed to listening to scores in their original form, hence the time-honored tradition – upheld by Williams, Goldsmith, and many others – of re-recording “concert” arrangements that sew the better short pieces together with linking material.) As a result, there is much here that was not on Hayes’ hit album – and even where there’s material that the two albums have in common (such as “Theme from Shaft”), the film version is a different recording, sometimes quite noticeably different. FSM’s 3-CD set aimed to deliver the full score from Shaft down to its shortest track, and with Hayes backed by the Bar-Kays or Movement (or some combination thereof) as his backing band, even the briefest track is a treat to hear.

The plan was to bring Hayes back for the sequel, Shaft’s Big Score!, but as the original film and its soundtrack had made him a hot commodity, Hayes simply didn’t have an opening in his schedule to handle scoring duties on the second movie. Tom McIntosh, who had lent orchestration expertise to Hayes on the first film, was still under contract to MGM and present on the studio lot, expecting to assist Hayes again, but instead found himself collaborating with director Gordon Parks, who opted to try his hand at scoring his own picture (paving the way for John Carpenter). (The delicate subject of who did the most actual musical work on Shaft’s Big Score! – and thus who should get the toplining screen credit – remained something of a long-running point of contention between Parks and McIntosh.) Whoever did the work, the Shaft’s Big Score! is better than you might expect. On the one hand, you’re probably not expecting the songcraft to be on Hayes’ level, but it’s certainly not lacking in either effort or orchestration. (Needless to say, everything in this entire box set is expertly played and extraordinarily well-produced – Hayes’ score from the original film is populated by musicians from the Stax Records stable of players, so it seems to be understood that, with that as the starting point, everything else in the Shaft franchise has to be at that level.) It may not be Hayes and his backing band, but the music of Shaft’s Big Score! is also not a letdown. Since the film’s director had direct input into the score, the second movie’s soundtrack is arguably more “soundtrackish” than the first, but still finds time to pause for a song (“Type Thang”, “Don’t Misunderstand”, “Move On In”) or two. The template established by Shaft is hewed to closely.

Though the extensive liner notes booklet acknowledges Shaft In Africa, it also reveals that the rights to that soundtrack – available elsewhere – did not allow it to appear in the box set, which means that almost half of disc two and all of disc three are devoted to the previously-unreleased-in-any-form complete episode scores from CBS’ short-lived Shaft TV series. That such a series happened at all – with Richard Roundtree remaining in the starring role, and on CBS, arguably the stodgiest old-school network on TV at the time – is still one of the most counter-intuitive moves in the history of film and TV, though to no one’s surprise, the television rendering of Shaft was vastly watered down from the far less filtered version of the character from the big screen. The result was a show that heavily compromised the films’ version of John Shaft, and probably made CBS’ older, largely white audience break out in a cold sweat. Still, the music tries to hold up its end of the bargain of connecting to the film franchise: the melody of Hayes’ “Theme From Shaft” is quoted often, and the TV episode scores spend equal time trying to summon the movies’ classic soul vibe, and dwelling in the space where a lot of ’70s TV music dwells (i.e. we can’t afford as large an orchestra as a movie, but we’re going to make the best of it). When there are tracks like “Cars And Bridges” connecting the TV series to the sound of the movies, There’s still a lot to love within the reduced expectations of Shaft: The Series.

4 out of 4Long out of print and much sought after, at least parts of The Shaft Anthology live on in other releases (Shaft’s Big Score! is available separately, and the first disc (minus the last two tracks) containing the complete score from Shaft itself is now part of Craft Records’ more easily attainable 2017 release Shaft: Deluxe Edition. This leaves the television scores as the real “killer app” of The Shaft Anthology, taking up nearly half of the box set. It’s gotten pricey on the secondary market, but the whole set is worth tracking down.

    Disc One: Shaft ((1971)
  1. Title Shaft (Theme From Shaft) (4:34)
  2. Shaft’s First Fight (1:46)
  3. Reel 2 Part 2 / Cat Oughta Be Here (1:43)
  4. Bumpy’s Theme (Bumpy’s Lament) (1:44)
  5. Harlem Montage (Soulsville) (3:32)
  6. Love Scene Ellie (Ellie’s Love Theme) (1:43)
  7. Shaft’s Cab Ride / Shaft Enters Building (1:38)
  8. I Can’t Get Over Losin’ You (2:06)
  9. Reel 4 Part 6 (1:37)
  10. Reel 5 Part 1 (1:35)
  11. Reel 5 Part 2 (A Friend’s Place) (1:44)
  12. Source No. 1—6M1A (Bumpy’s Blues) (3:05)
  13. Source No. 1—6M1B (Bumpy’s Lament) (1:32)
  14. Source No. 1—6M1C (Early Sunday Morning) (3:05)
  15. Source No. 2—7M1A (Do Your Thang) (3:21)
  16. Source No. 2—7M1B (Be Yourself) (1:54)
  17. Source No. 2—7M1C (No Name Bar) (2:28)
  18. Shaft Strikes Again/Return of Shaft (1:36)
  19. Source No. 3 (Caffe Reggio) (4:23)
  20. Shaft’s Walk To Hideout (Walk From Reggio) (2:27)
  21. Shaft’s Pain (3:03)
  22. Rescue / Roll Up (10:44)
  23. Bonus Tracks)
  24. Theme From The Men (4:09)
  25. Type Thang (From Shaft’s Big Score!) (3:53)

    Disc Two: Shaft’s Big Score! (1972)
  1. Blowin’ Your Mind (Main Title) (3:30)
  2. The Other Side (1:49)
  3. Smart Money (2:10)
  4. The Search/Sad Circles (2:31)
  5. Asby-Kelly Man (1:45)
  6. First Meeting (1:56)
  7. Don’t Misunderstand (1:46)
  8. Fight Scene (1:06)
  9. Ike’s Place (4:09)
  10. Move on In (3:38)
  11. 8M1/8M2 (1:25)
  12. Funeral Home (4:02)
  13. Don’t Misunderstand (instrumental) (1:53)
  14. 9M3 (0:44)
  15. Symphony for Shafted Souls (Take-Off / Dance of the Cars / Water Ballet / Call and Response / The Last Amen) (14:06)
  16. End Title (1:16)
  17. Don’t Misunderstand (demo) (2:00)

    Shaft (Television Series, 1973-74)
    The Executioners

  18. Courtroom/Leaving Court (2:36)
  19. Dawson’s Trial (1:58)
  20. Shaft Leaves Barbara / East River / He’s Dead, Barb / Cunningham’s Breakfast (1:58)
  21. Visiting Jane / Act End / Jury Meets (2:02)
  22. Cars and Bridges (2:43)
  23. Leaving Airfield / Shaft Checks Hospital (2:22)
  24. Shaft Gets Shot / Shaft In Car (1:29)
  25. Night Blues (1:02)
  26. Day Blues (1:04)
  27. Pimp Gets Shot (2:59)
  28. Handle It / Follow Cunningham (3:31)
  29. Shaft Escapes / Stalking Menace (2:42)
  30. End Theme (0:30)

    Disc Three: Shaft (Television Series, 1973-74)
    The Killing
  1. Opening (2:33)
  2. Diana In Hospital (2:37)
  3. Window Shop / Leaving Hospital / Ciao (1:28)
  4. Restaurant Scene / Punchin’ Sonny (2:52)
  5. Hotel Room (3:05)
  6. Diana Splits / Booking Shaft (1:31)
  7. Shaft Gets Sprung / Searchin’ (2:09)
  8. Pimps / Lick Her Store / Wettin’ His Hand / Diana Ducks Out (2:12)
  9. Juke Box / Hands In The Box (2:31)
  10. Shaft (2:53)
  11. Iggie’s Tail (2:21)
  12. Kyle Goes Down / Case Dismissed (1:21)

    Hit-Run

  13. Opening (1:57)
  14. He’s The Best / Reenact / Good Day (2:38)
  15. Travel Shaft (0:42)
  16. Coffin Time (1:34)
  17. To the Club (1:22)
  18. Ann Appears / Shaft Gets It (2:14)
  19. Jacquard (2:31)
  20. Dart Board / Kissin’ Time (3:09)
  21. Omelette (1:55)
  22. Cheek Pat / Don’t Shoot / Shaft’s Move (1:05)
  23. Funny Time (0:58)
  24. At the Club (2:12)
  25. Ending (1:49)

    The Kidnapping

  26. Chasin’ Shaft (3:00)
  27. Sleep, Dog, Sleep (1:37)
  28. Here Comes The Fuzz (2:11)
  29. I Said Goodnight / Walkie Talkie (3:46)
  30. Shoot Out (2:34)

    The Cop Killers

  31. Rossi Gets It / Hospital / Who The Hell Are You? (2:06)
  32. Honky Horn (1:22)
  33. Sleeping Pigs (1:35)
  34. Splash Time (1:32)
  35. Shaft Gets It (1:50)
  36. Vacate The Van (1:41)
  37. Fork Lift (2:09)
  38. Shaft Theme (End Credit Version) (0:30)

Released by: Film Score Monthly
Release date: September 10, 2008
Disc one total running time: 1:10:18
Disc two total running time: 1:17:50
Disc three total running time: 1:18:49

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Categories
1968 1972 K Music Reviews N Soundtracks Soundtracks by Title Television Year

Nightwatch / Killer By Night

4 min read

Order this CDAn oddball pairing of two very different scores for two very different TV pilots, by – you guessed it – two very different composers. One of the final titles issued by the much-missed Film Score Monthly label, the obscurity of the scores presented probably kept this release obscure as well, but it’s very much worth a listen.

Still in his “Johnny Williams” days prior to shedding his jazz musician moniker, John Williams turns in a fascinating score to an unsold 1966 series pilot that didn’t get an airing in a TV movie slot until 1968. The main theme from Nightwatch has hallmarks of Williams’ past – there’s a strong rythmic influence from his Lost In Space theme – and his future, namely in an echoing brass motif that would later find use, in a slightly slower form, aboard the Death Star. But put those two elements together and the result is almost, at the risk of committing sacrelige, Goldsmithian. And that’s a description that applies to parts of Williams’ score for the Robert Altman-directed pilot, while just as many parts are unmistakably Williams. It’s a fascinating selection of music from a period when Williams’ playbook wasn’t set firmly in Star Wars/Jaws/Superman/Indiana Jones mode. Not that there’s anything wrong with any of those, but the Nightwatch score is a bit more experimental – and the fact that elements of it show up in his later work speaks to the fact that not only did Williams deem his experiments to be of value, but he also probably never expected this material to resurface again.

Aired in 1972 as another unsold pilot, Killer By Night starred Greg Morris, fresh off of Mission: Impossible, in a gritty crime drama about trying to track down a disease carrier trying to remain at large in a heavily populated area. None other than Quincy Jones scored this project, which, like Nightwatch, vanished into obscurity after its premiere. (I don’t know if it’s amusing or sad that it’s now easier to hear the music from either of these shows than it is to see the shows themselves.) Jones’ score fits somewhat into the expected jazz category for an early ’70s crime noir, but the somewhat scientific element of the storyline gives Jones a good excuse to get spooky with it too, adding some weird synthesizer to the lineup and letting the listener know this isn’t just going to be car chases and gunfire. Some tracks do fit right into the early ’70s TV jazz pigeonhole; the end credit theme gets wonderfully funky, and still other tracks pour on the weird. It’s as different as you can get from Nightwatch, but both are equally welcome.

4 out of 4That either of these scores exist, and can be listened to, at all is a real treat. (The Altman pilot scored by John Williams is so obscure it doesn’t even appear in Altman’s IMDb listing.) There was a time when the boutique soundtrack labels could drop real surprises in our laps like this one and curious soundtrack fans were up for the discovery. These days, out-of-left-field releases like this are more rare – the soundtrack labels have to line up titles that they’re certain will sell, not just titles that will spark mere window-shopping curiosity. That’s a loss for us all. Because this kind of music, dusted off after a long rest in the vault, tended to be the most wonderfully surprising stuff.

    Nightwatch – music by Johnny Williams
  1. Nightwatch Main Title (1:01)
  2. Bertil’s Bomb (0:49)
  3. Lund’s Problem (2:14)
  4. Lund’s Leap (1:59)
  5. The Cradle Might Rock (0:46)
  6. Granstrom’s Headache (1:01)
  7. A Child’s Fear (1:57)
  8. Kathryn Flees (0:36)
  9. The Run (0:50)
  10. By the Fence (1:29)
  11. Stumbling Around (1:01)
  12. Entering the Hospital (0:32)
  13. Inside the Hospital / The Final Dash (3:07)
  14. The Waiting Room (1:04)
  15. End Title (1:20)
  16. Nightwatch End Title (0:51)
  17. Chicago Group (source) (3:12)
  18. Bumper #1 / Bumper #2 (0:19)
  19. Promo (0:40)

    Killer By Night – music by Quincy Jones

  20. Main Title / Opening Hold-Up (4:23)
  21. Dead Dip Bird (1:44)
  22. High Rent District (0:51)
  23. Doctor, Come Home / Girl Died (1:44)
  24. Point One (0:47)
  25. Somethin’ Def (0:43)
  26. Oxygen Tent / 22 Possibles / His Room (1:26)
  27. Sweaty Meeting (0:36)
  28. No Title (2:12)
  29. Doctor, Wife & Supermart (0:49)
  30. 4th Cut to Hood / Wait (1:06)
  31. Microscope / Let’s Get Him (3:11)
  32. Cut To Cops (2:25)
  33. Police (2:00)
  34. Door Up the Ladder (2:01)
  35. End Title (3:32)
  36. Tracey Source (3:13)

Released by: Film Score Monthly
Release date: November 3, 2011
Total running time: 59:20

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Categories
1972 2003 E ELO Non-Soundtrack Music

Electric Light Orchestra – ELO II (Remaster)

Electric Light Orchestra - ELO IIElectric Light Orchestra - ELO IIOriginally devised as a band that would “pick up where the ‘Beatles’ I Am The Walrus’ left off,” the Electric Light Orchestra was well on its way to carving out its own admittedly unconventional niche when the band’s leadership was split down the middle. Stunned by the sudden defection of founding member Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne and company regrouped, brought in a few more players, and kept the band’s original mandate – a rock group with its own live string section – intact. The result, in 1972, was two vinyl sides of beauty running the gamut from heavy metal to near-classical rock to ballads. Now, some 31 years later, the result is two full-length CDs of that same beauty and then some.

The original album – only five songs in all, but some of them epic-length – is a wonder to hear in this newly remastered edition, and the early takes of songs like “Ma-Ma-Ma Belle” and “Dreaming Of 4000” (intended for the group’s third album) are revealing looks at those tunes’ evolution. But the real treat here is a handful of songs we’d never heard before, with the jewel in that particular crown being “Everybody’s Born To Die”, a very surprisingly Dylan-esque number that makes one think that Jeff Lynne listened to “Like A Rolling Stone” for inspiration (both musical and lyrical) and then concocted his own uniquely ELO-ified electric folk song. The quality of the recording is such that it sounds like it could’ve been recorded yesterday, and despite it being a Dylan pastiche, it’s at least a good Dylan pastiche. It’s also a marvel to hear in a raw, un-adorned form; had it progressed far enough to be included on ELO II or On The Third Day, chances are the vocals would’ve been echoed, double-tracked, or otherwise messed with. Here we get to hear the raw power of Jeff Lynne belting this song out with no electronic trickery.

I was less enthralled with the three numbers featuring former Move lead singer Carl Wayne on vocals. With the ELO rhythm section of Lynne, Bev Bevan, Mike de Albuquerque and Richard Tandy backing him, Wayne croons three Lynne originals (including a string-free cover of “Mama”). Conflicting with earlier news that Lynne had attempted to recruit Wayne to replace Roy Wood in ELO, the liner notes explain that manager Don Arden hooked Wayne up with Lynne in an attempt to break Wayne’s “cabaret crooning” image to relaunch his stalled rock career. Even if that’s the case, it wasn’t much of a mold-breaker – it really comes across in the style of early 70s Christian rock more than anything. If Carl Wayne needed a direction, I much preferred the hard-psychedelic-rock re-interpretations of several standards on the latter half of the Move’s Shazam, but it’s still interesting to hear what else the members of ELO (and the Move) were doing on the side.

I also have to admit to enjoying the wealth of material in the two liner notes booklets: we finally have printed lyrics for this album, and the press reviews from the time of the album’s release are insightful and hilarious. John Peel’s review of the “Roll Over Beethoven” single in particular cracks me up for two passages: “The strings, rocking like bitches, play sort of ghost-train evil” and “If it is not a number one, I shall come among you with a whip.” Now that’s a music review! I’ll make sure to use the latter of these two memorable phrases in a future review, and perhaps the first if the opportunity should present itself.

rating: 4 out of 4Sadly, this is probably the last of the ELO remastered albums, due to budget constraints and copyright issues still persisting from the band’s early switches from one label to another, but even so, what a way to go out.

I don’t suppose walking among the Sony Music brass with a whip would help to resurrect the reissues, would it?

Order this CD

    Disc one:
  1. In Old England Town (Boogie No. 2) (6:57)
  2. Momma… (7:00)
  3. Roll Over Beethoven (7:04)
  4. From The Sun To The World (Boogie No. 1) (8:18)
  5. Kuiama (11:21)
  6. Showdown (4:11)
  7. In Old England Town (Instrumental) (2:44)
  8. Baby I Apologise (3:43)
  9. Auntie (Ma Ma Ma Belle, take 1) (1:19)
  10. Auntie (Ma Ma Ma Belle, take 2) (4:03)
  11. Mambo (Dreaming Of 4000, take 1) (3:03)
  12. Everyone’s Born To Die (4:40)
  13. Roll Over Beethoven (take 1) (8:16)
    Disc two:
  1. Brian Matthew introduces ELO (0:22)
  2. From The Sun To The World (Boogie No. 1 – BBC Sessions) (7:26)
  3. Momma (BBC Sessions) (6:57)
  4. Roll Over Beethoven (single version) (4:36)
  5. Showdown (take 1) (4:18)
  6. Your World (with Carl Wayne – take 2) (4:55)
  7. Get A Hold Of Myself (with Carl Wayne – take 2) (4:43)
  8. Mama (with Carl Wayne – take 1) (4:59)
  9. Wilf’s Solo (instrumental) (3:40)
  10. Roll Over Beethoven (BBC Sessions) (7:40)

Released by: EMI/Harvest
Release date: 2003
Disc one total running time: 74:41
Disc two total running time: 49:38

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Categories
1972 E ELO Non-Soundtrack Music

Electric Light Orchestra – Electric Light Orchestra II

Electric Light Orchestra - Electric Light Orchestra IIThis is the album from which “Roll Over Beethoven” sprang, all eight minutes of it, and that’s not even the best reason to pick this one up. The most off-putting thing about ELO’s second album – and the first without co-founder Roy Wood, who walked out of the band after repeated arguments with Jeff Lynne over who was in charge – is the sheer length of every number. At eight minutes, “Roll Over Beethoven” is the third-shortest number on ELO II. “In Old England Town”, the hard-rocking opening piece, clocks in at just under seven minutes, and the longest song, “Kuiama”, runs a little over eleven. All of them are worth a listen, though the band’s studio technique still depended on grungy multiple overdubs of two cellos and a violin to achieve ELO’s titular orchestral 4 out of 4 starsobligations, and overall Lynne rocks harder on the first three albums than he does later in the 70s. Highly recommended for the bittersweet “Mama”, the boisterous “From The Sun To The World”, and the very ambitious musical arrangement – if not the anti-war lyrics – of “Kuiama”.

    Order this CD in the Store
  1. In Old England Town – Boogie #2 (6:54)
  2. Mama (7:03)
  3. Roll Over Beethoven (8:10)
  4. From The Sun To The World – Boogie #1 (8:22)
  5. Kuiama (11:19)

Released by: Jet
Release date: 1972
Total running time: 41:48

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