Super Fly — Curtis May Field Buddah 2318065

reviewed by Gordon Campbell

To many people soul music is not much more than some sweaty invitations to clap your hands, stamp your feet and say yeah real loud. But deep in the ghetto the tom toms are laying down new rhythms, and as in white pop, the innovating artists are the singers/songwriters, people like Bill Withers and Curtis Mayfield. This disc comes from a movie (made by the son of the guy who made "Shaft") about hard drugs in the ghetto, and most of the songs follow the standard anti-drug themes: "If you wanna be a junkie now/remember that Freddie's dead" which isn't much of a recommendation, but don't let the lyrics keep you from the album's real joys, namely Curtis Mayfield's freakish falsetto voice, and the driving arrangements he's worked out for his songs.

As a solo artist, Mayfield has had some trouble finding his feet. This is probably because most of the excitement in soul music is generated by the vocalist working against the limits deliberately set by the rhythm section; the classic example was Len Stubbs of the Four Tops, who in song after song used to thresh and flain in beautifully choreographed frenzy against the assembly line rhythms set down by the bass and tambourines. As for Curtis Mayfield, his supple, high voice worked fine amid the mellow harmonies of the other Impressions, hut this tension was lost in the cluttered arrangements of the first solo LP. Here, its restored Simple, attractive melodies, and clean, pulsating arrangements make a perfect foil for him.

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Inevitably, comparisons are going to be made with Isaac Hayes and the 'Shaft' score. I think this one wins Maylield is a more interesting singer and his songs are better, in fact at least four tracks could be released as singles. I suggested earlier that the lyrics don't work too well as social commentary; for like its white contemporary, black protest music is pretty awful, just liberal tosh like 'Love Child' or 'Abraham, Martin and John' from the upwardly mobile brothers at Mowtown. But one track, 'Pusherman' really works. May field has caught the love and hale and mutual need between dealer and user in lines like:

"I'm your mother, I'm your daddy
I'm that nigger in the alley
I'm your doctor when you need/have some coke, have some weed.
You know me, I'm your friend.
Your main boy, thick and thin
I'm your pusherman, yes, yes, I'm your pusherman"