Records: Curtis Mayfield's Superfly (25th anniversary edition)

It's been almost eight years since the terrible stage accident in Brooklyn that paralyzed Curtis Mayfield from the neck down. Needless to say, he hasn't been able to pick up a guitar since. All we've heard from Curtis since the accident was his comeback album two years ago, New World Order, on which he sang--barely.

There was no sign of the nasty, funky wah-wah guitar on the 1972 album Superfly, his masterpiece. There was none of the sense of street-urgent vitality. There were no punchy horns or delicately-pointed strong arrangements, and none of the chilling lyrical hooks recounting the myriad dangers of the street, delivered in that distinctive tough-but-gentle Curtis falsetto.

All of this makes the re-release of Superfly on its 25th anniversary all the more important. This double CD contains the whole 1972 soundtrack album in remastered glory, along with a second disc of outtakes, alternate mixes, instrumentals, unreleased songs, radio spots, and an interview segment.

The earthy funk of Superfly is undeniable. "Freddie's Dead," "Pusherman," and the title track are classics, and "Little Child Runnin' Wild," "Junkie Chase," and "No Thing On Me (Cocaine Song)" also resonate with that streetwise funky soul. And their sidewalking tales of life in the drug-addled ghetto served as a perfect complement to the blaxploitation movie which depicted a hustler's battle to make one last big score before escaping the ghetto life in New York.

But this music retains its power even if you haven't seen the movie. In fact, Curtis Mayfield's soundtrack is a far more complete and enduring artistic statement than the movie ever was.

The second disc will be of great interest to collectors as a blueprint for the Superfly album. "The Underground," "Check Out Your Mind," and "Militant March" are all engaging, funky vignettes which didn't make the album. The instrumental versions of album tracks are hit-or-miss, with the "Freddie's Dead" instrumental being the standout. While valuable, interesting, and infectious, these extra songs often detract from the original album's focus.

But there is a certain poignancy to the whole affair. Even though a few of the instrumentals and outtakes are utterly incidental or--at their worst--sloppy and lugubrious, they glow with a vibrancy and a love for musicmaking that is gone from '90s funk and R&B. (Curtom)

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