Tag Archives: 70s funk

Gene Page: Blacula Soundtrack Vinyl LP

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Above is the animated open for the horror movie, Blacula. William Mashall stars as an African prince bitten and cursed to be the undead by Dracula many generations ago. In 1972, his coffin ends up in Los Angeles. To the funky music of the city, Blacula looks for the human blood he needs to sustain his life. He meets a woman who looks like his wife, who died long ago. Perhaps, it is his wife, back to save him from loneliness.

The soundtrack is a soulful mix of instrumentals and songs that stand the test of time. Gene Page conducts some beats that are vibrant and smooth. Including this one called (aptly?) Good To The Last Drop.

The Hues Corporation provide vocals to some of the songs on the soundtrack. Including this heart-breaking tune that represents Blacula’s longing his long lost bride, The Main Chance. Like the film, the soundtrack makes you feel for the man Blacula once was. Hear the longing in the lyrics (after the advertisement).

The soundtrack is a Turntabling must have. We put extra copies we find on Discogs – First come, First served. Right now, we have a sealed copy of the vinyl reissue LP for sale. It is spooky and funky at the same time, always a great combination.

Blacula vinyl LP soundtrack for sale Horror movies

Three The Hard Way Soundtrack LP by The Impressions

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Three The Hard Way featured the triple threat of Fred Williamson, Jim Kelly, and Jim Brown…with a lot of excellent music from The Impressions.

The movie is hilarious–the villian is the same guy who played Doctor Shrinker on Saturday morning TV, which makes every one of his scenes 100% more fun to watch. The premise of this movie is basically that a villian named Feather (yes, really) wants to create a virus that will selectively wipe out only one portion of mankind. Guess which portion a crazy white guy with sinister eyebrows wants to get rid of?

Jim Kelly and company bust heads and take out the bad guys, naturally.

My favorite thing about the movie-aside from, well, everything else, is that the soundtrack basically describes the entire plot of the movie. All the lyrics tell you everything you need to know about the movie–awesomeness abounds.

It’s a shame these three guys didn’t do about 100 of these movies together, the chemistry is great and they would have made an excellent series of crazy-ass movies. Sure, this movie has its share of filler, but as an artifact of good old fashioned drive-in movie making, I give it two thumbs way up…and the Three The Hard Way soundtrack is 100% pure gold.

Check out this clip from Three The Hard Way, with Jim Kelly giving a racist cop the business–and groove to that sitar-drenched soundtrack!



Vinyl Blog to Watch: Get On Down with the Stepfather of Soul

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Imagine my surprise to run across this first thing in the AM on a Friday. Get On Down with the Stepfather of Soul is home to not one, but TWO podcasts featuring awesome, off-the-beaten-track soul sounds originally pressed on vinyl, glorious vinyl. Get on Down and Stepfather of Soul are both very worthy podcasts that WILL act as your gateway drug to an obsession with collecting these sounds–possibly even an addiction to 45s. You have been warned.

This blog appeals to someone like me who, while enjoying the idea of the film Cleopatra Jones, was extremely annoyed with it because the soundtrack had the feel of some decidedly non-funky composer trying to mimic (unsuccessfully) the genuine article as you’ll hear in these two podcasts. I know that’s about as nitpicky as it gets, but I was immediately put off by the psuedo-funky sounds in that movie, especially when the real thing is so damn good in similar genre movies including Truck Turner. Hell, even Blacula had a more kickass score than Cleopatra Jones.

But I only babble about that because these podcasts are so inspired…the tracks are top notch. I particularly enjoyed Stepfather of Soul #37, the Soulful Allsorts show. Check it and see what I mean…this is superior podcasting, folks.

–Joe Wallace