Curtis Mayfield “Super Fly”
Today’s Cool Album Of the Day (#326 in the Series) is Curtis Mayfield, Super Fly
This album actually could be officially listed as the soundtrack to the film, Super Fly, but I’m going to list it as a Curtis Mayfield album. I mean, he did compose the whole darn thing!
What a great piece of work he produced. Two albums really set the ground work for the R+B Soul-concept album era, Super Fly and Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On. What’s Going On looked at life in the US from the eyes of a returning Vietnam veteran while Super Fly looked at life of those living on the drug torn streets.
Two singles here made the top ten. “Freddie’s Dead” hit #4 while the title cut reached #8. As an album, it reached #1.
I’m surprised I don’t see any chart listings for “Pusherman.” I think that track with its smooth, slow groove is the best on the disc.
Rolling Stone calls Super Fly the 69th Best Album on its Top 500 of all time listing.
Did you have this in the 70’s? Pull it out and listen to it again. It sounds better now than it did back in the day.
Curtis Mayfield was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.
Track Listing
All songs written and composed by Curtis Mayfield.
Side one
- “Little Child Runnin’ Wild” 5:23
- “Pusherman” 5:04
- “Freddie’s Dead” 5:27
- “Junkie Chase” (instrumental) 1:36
Side two
- “Give Me Your Love (Love Song)” 4:14
- “Eddie You Should Know Better” 2:16
- “No Thing on Me (Cocaine Song)” 4:53
- “Think” (instrumental) 3:43
- “Superfly” 3:55
Personnel
- Curtis Mayfield – composer, vocals, guitar, producer
- Joseph Lucky Scott – bass
- Master Henry Gibson – percussion
- Tyrone McCullen – drums (“Pusherman”)
- Morris Jennings – drums (all tracks except “Pusherman”)
- Craig McMullen – guitar
Links
- Visit the Official Curtis Mayfield Website
- See More Soul/RB albums that we’ve featured
- See More Rock and Roll Hall of Famers that we’ve featured
- Listen to Super Fly via the “Cool Album” MySpace Page
- See More 1972 albums that we’ve featured.
Back to the “Cool Album of the Day” Home Page
It’s probable that I listened to “Super Fly” more times in the first day that I had the album than most other songs.