Curtis Mayfield tells it like it is. Rather than glorify the violence and wheeling and dealing of ghetto culture as other blaxploitation films of the day, his sound track for Superfly was a commentary on what he saw as a plague on America’s streets. The hard-hitting, socially-aware album accomplished a rare feat when it outsold the movie to which it was set. “Freddie’s Dead” — the film’s unofficial theme song — laments the death of one of its main characters, a good-hearted man (played by Charles McGregor) whose work as a drug dealer ultimately leads to his demise. While hailed as one of the most influential albums in black history, its smooth funk sound, wailing guitar and horns also helped make the album one of the most important musical touchstones of ’70s pop and R&B. “Curtis Mayfield’s productions were a singer’s dream and a musician’s delight,” Aretha Franklin wrote in a brief eulogy for TIME following Mayfield’s death in 2000. “We moved and grooved to his sweet, funky, soul-stirring musical scenarios, and said, ‘Amen, that’s right, go ahead,’ as we related.”
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