Motown Treasures

Thanks, Snake.

One blaxploitation movie that features a lot of Motown is Mean Johnny Barrows. I managed to get both a DVD of the film and the soundtrack album. Here are some notes I made about it all:-

Well, I spent 79 cents and bought the DVD of the film MEAN JOHNNY
BARROWS and, I have to say, it was a fair price!

Leaving aside the actual film, I was astounded to see these credits
at the start:

Musical Coordinator: Miss Ray Singleton

Music Score: Paul Riser, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson

THE HERO & SOME OTHER TIME by: Gordon Staples and the Devastating
Affair

The soundtrack is pretty fab, even if we get to hear Gordon Staples
and the Motown Strings' STRUNG OUT a total of 8 times. 4 of those
times, the intrumental track is transformed into a song, THE HERO,
on which the Devastating Affair sound more like Sisters Love!

The B-side to STRUNG OUT, SOUNDS OF THE ZODIAC, I heard once in the
film.

The other Devastating Affair song SOME OTHER TIME, is a lovely mid-
tempo ballad. Whereas the lyrics to THE HERO sounds like they were
composed especially for the film, SOME OTHER TIME is a great song
which stands alone. Both songs are lead by a gritty female vocal.

The film opens with STRUNG OUT and closes with SOME OTHER TIME,
closely followed by the 4th rendition of THE HERO!

I have just sat through a first spin of the MEAN JOHNNY BARROWS
soundtrack. Interestingly, there is less information on the album
and the LP than in the film credits (no mention of Paul Riser,
Coleridge Taylor-Perkinson,Miss Ray Singleton or the Devastating
Affair here) and there are no songwriter or music publisher credits.
The album is on Atlas Records and dates from 1975.

Here's the track-listing:
Side 1
STRUNG OUT - 4:53
TOONIE - 4:40
FROM A HEART THAT'S TRUE TO ONLY YOU - 3:15
HUSTLE - 1:29
LOVE THEME - 1:52
IF YOUR LOVE WERE MINE - 3:11
GET DOWN - 3:39

Side 2
SOUNDS OF THE ZODIAC - 5:54
IT'S GOT TO BE ALRIGHT - 3:21
STRUNG OUT (Reprise) - 5:06
I'M BACK - 2:27
STRUNG OUT (Title Version) - 3:13
WHO KNOWS BETTER - 0:59
DIALOGUE 2 - 0:15
DIALOGUE 3 - 0:19

Some of the tracks are pristine and come from master tapes. Some of
them have been lifted from the film soundtrack, so you hear
footsteps, car noises, that kind of background stuff - and these are
not pristine!

I'M BACK is a shortened version of SOUNDS OF THE ZODIAC. SOTZ has a
great jazzy introduction and ending, not on the Gordon Staples 45
(but it may be on the album - it's been ages since I played it).

All the instrumental tracks are fantastic!

LOVE THEME is none other than the Devastating Affair's SOME OTHER
TIME. Their THE HERO is present as STRUNG OUT (Reprise). Both tracks
are poor quality dubs from the film, unfortunately. THE HERO is the
longest version from the film (hooray!) so it includes that rather
bad edit in the middle (boo!).

On www.blaxploitation.com I found the following, rather interesting,
description:

"Fred Williamson certainly managed to pick some superb music for his
films. Here, parts of an old Motown album (Strung Out by Gordon
Staples) are reused to great effect in Mean Johnny Barrows, a
Williamson classic. The main theme is the 'Strung Out' track on this
45, while the flip side is used as incidental music in several
places in the film. The original Strung Out LP also includes another
track from the movie (a ballad), but it's not the same mix that
appears in the film, so we've highlighted the 45 instead. The music
is excellent: a head-nodding midtempo funky groover with nice
atmospheric choppy wah, tight drums and a killer funky strings line -
quite a rarity, too."
_____

Something for Motown collectors to look out for, methinks.

SWI

Hi Snake,

I have the Detroit 9000 film on a poor quality DVD.

I've been trying to dig back to where I detailed what songs were on it but can't track anything down.

If memory serves me well, it's the Holland brothers who were responsible for the songs. Perhaps I'd be better off digging up that DVD.

SWI

I had no idea the Gordon Staples, Tracks from Strung out were from or used in a Blaxploitation film, though the tracks do have that feel about them, especially Sounds of the Zodiac. All that's missing is the wah- wah guitar in the opening. One of my favorite Motown sound tracks is Hell up in Harlem , produced I think by Freddie Perren. Two nice ballads on the soundtrack are Jennifer and Mama should be here too. Edwin Star was not famous for ballads but he handles them well here.

Indeed Eric, it's a feel good movie