Customer Reviews

Can You Dig It? Music & Politics of Black Action Films: 1968-1975

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Great selection, sequencing and sonics. The book is focused more on the genre within the film industry, not with the music, specifically. The music was the best part of many of these films and it comes shining through, brilliantly.

This is fantastic on one level: if you have never gotten into Blaxploitation music and want to know where to start, this has many of the absolute essentials

Remember, Blaxplotation is a film genre, not a musical one. A lot of these films--making African-Americans into superheros in the early 1970s was a major political statement--had soundtracks that encompassed soul, funk, jazz, and in many cases, experiments and genre cross-breeds that these artists would not try on their proper albums.

Everything here is great and if you just want a run down, this is most of what you need. But if you are serious, you really do want to use this as a guide for the soundtracks you should start hunting for. There is plenty out there and most are solid if not classic albums with tons and tons of interesting detours.

You will not go wrong with these crib notes--just remember, they are not the books.

There are a few collections of great songs from the 70's "blaxploitation" films, but this is the best I've come across. Three simple reasons: (1) There are absolutely no weak songs -- this collection is a pleasure to listen to from start to finish. (2) The sound quality is awesome -- the songs sound better here than they do on the original soundtrack CD's you can buy. (3) The booklet, while not exactly great history or great writing, is much more comprehensive than anything you'd find in a comparatively priced collection.

Another gem from the guys at Soul Jazz in London. Nice comp of rare tracks. A must have for fans of Soul Funk genre.