VOTD 02/20/2025

Edwin Starr: Hell Up In Harlem OST (Motown)

Purchased new at Vinyl Remains

Once again I find myself listening to a soundtrack for a film I haven't seen. 

I found myself in the Mt. Lebanon yesterday, a wealthy suburb of Pittsburgh. There's a modest little new/used record store there, Vinyl Remains. I usually stop by when I'm in the neighborhood, which isn't often. There was one other shopper, which maybe took off the pressure to buy something, but I was determined to buy something just to support the business. 

Jesus Christ, new vinyl is expensive. Granted, if I was to compare the prices to when I first started buying records (1976-77, based on the purchase of Leftoverture) records would seem to be expensive. But, at the time you could buy a new album for $5+, do the numbers reflect reflect inflation for the same records costing generally $25-35 now?

According to an internet inflation calculator, that $5 in 1976 would now be worth $28.43. We all know how accurate every is online! Nonetheless, now I feel like the curmudgeon complaining about "the price of things nowadays" and yes, even how much better the music was then than now. Maybe I'll tackle that subject one day, but not at a time when I'm listening to and writing about an album released in 1974.

Buying this seemed like the solution to not leaving Vinyl Remains empty-handed. Not too expensive (under the $28.43 quoted above), and an era I unironically love. I'm not an expert or completist for watching so-called Blaxpoitation, but I generally enjoy those films. There's the period, the grimy 70s, which seems so much more interesting now than when I reached adulthood in the early 80s. The films: yes, often problematic by current standards (maybe even by then-standards) but these low budget films aimed at the "urban" (read, Black) audience sometimes featured genuinely superior actors in roles they should have been playing in largely White productions. And I like the role reversal: the Black leading men are smooth, smart, handsome, frequently pushing up again evil but otherwise feckless White men.

There's an old Eddie Murphy routine that goes: "Black Caesar, the blackest movie ever made. Filmed on the streets of Harlem with an all-black cast. You have never seen a black movie like this. Black Caesar: a Larry Cohen film." (The joke killed.)

So too, Hell Up In Harlem. Like that film, starring Fred Williamson, written/produced/directed by Larry Cohen, with an (almost-all) African-American cast. Larry's an interesting story unto himself, a true New York maverick who never applied for permits when he filmed. This included the time he dressed Andy Kaufman as a cop with a rifle, during a public parade for God Told Me To.

I knew one selection from this soundtrack already, "Easin' In", a super-funky medium tempo song that was included on the Soul Jazz collection Can You Dig It? The Music and Politics of Black Action Films 1968-75. That two disc collection counts as the most played CDs in my car. Highly recommended!

What's not to like? I suppose I prefer the harder-edged funky tunes to the mid-70s ballady soul songs, but overall this is a solid contribution to the genre. It's mostly songs with a few instrumentals. Are many of these soundtracks of the time similar? Damned right they are. But they're not all alike, and if you enjoy them in general, what's to complain about? Give me a wah-wah rhythm guitar over a current Autotuned hyper-compressed pop vocal any day.

The back cover of the LP uses a reproduction of the movie poster for an image. It's one of those great 70s montage paintings; anyone reading would instantly recognize the style. Depicted next to a large-sized Fred is a trio of beautiful women. The (as far as I can tell) Asian woman, on careful inspection, is depicted nude. I can find no such women listed in the credits. I guess it doesn't really matter.