Various - Can You Dig It? The Music And Politics Of Black Action Films 1969-75

‘Can You Dig It?’ charts the rise and fall of Blaxploitation from 1970-75.

In the early 1970s, Black Action Films exploded into cinema with
three extremely successful films – ‘Shaft’, ‘Super Fly’ and ‘Sweet
Sweetback’s Badasssss Song’. The most profound statement of
these films was their actual existence – black actors and black
directors entering the previously closed Hollywood film industry.

The films also featured the finest funk and soul black music of the
time, as stars such as James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Willie
Hutch and Roy Ayers produced some of their finest work, with film
budgets allowing for the addition of huge orchestral arrangements by
jazz legends such as Quincy Jones, Johnny Pate and JJ
Johnson.

Black Action Films were a representation of politically everything that
had gone before and stylistically of everything that was current. Civil
rights, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Black Power, Black Panthers,
Vietnam sit alongside the criminal worlds of policemen, private
investigators, bail bondsmen and the criminals, drug dealers, pimps
and hustlers.

‘Can You Dig It?’ presents the best of the killer musical
soundtracks to these films alongside analysis of the social and
political conditions that helped create the films. The album booklet
also comes with an in-depth 100-page guide to the films
including many film stills and a set of mini-film poster cards
and stickers. The vinyl edition also comes on two super loud
volumes of double vinyl and includes a free poster.

Tracklisting:

CD1

Roy Ayers ‘Coffy’ (Coffy)
Gene Page ‘Blacula’ (Blacula)
Johnny Pate ‘Shaft in Africa (Addis)’ (Shaft In Africa)
Willie Hutch ‘Brothers Gonna Work It Out’ (The Mack)
Don Costa ‘Soul of Nigger Charley’ (Soul Of Nigger Charley)
Marvin Gaye ‘T Plays it Cool’ (Troubleman)
Bobby Womack ‘Across 110th Street’ (Across 110th Street)
J.J. Johnson ‘Willie’s Chase’ (Willie Dynamite)
James Brown ‘Down and Out In New York City’ (Black Caeser)
Quincy Jones ‘They Call Me Mister Tibbs’ (They Call Me Mister Tibbs)
JJ Johnson ‘Keep on Movin On’ (Willie Dynamite)
Dennis Coffy ‘Black Belt Jones’ (Black Belt Jones)
Curtis Mayfield ‘Freddie's Dead’ (Super Fly)
Blackbyrd's ‘Wilford's Gone’ (Cornbread, Earl And Me)
Willie Hutch ‘Foxy Brown’ (Foxy Brown)
Isaac Hayes ‘Run Fay Run’ (Three Tough Guys)

CD2

Isaac Hayes ‘Shaft’ (Shaft)
Joe Simon ‘Theme from Cleopatra Jones’ (Cleopatra Jones)
Roy Ayers ‘Aragon’ (Coffy)
Gordon Staples ‘All Strung Out’ (Mean Johnny Burrows)
Brer Soul & Earth, Wind & Fire ‘Sweetback's Theme’
(Sweet Sweetback)
Johnny Pate ‘Truck Stop’ (Shaft In Africa)
James Brown ‘Make It Good to Yourself’ (Black Caeser)
Isaac Hayes ‘Pursuit of the Pimpmobile’ (Shaft In Africa)
Edwin Starr ‘Easin’ In’ (Hell Up In Harlem)
Don Julian ‘Lay it On Your Head’ (Savage)
Gene Page ‘The Bus’ (Cool Breeze)
Grant Green ‘Travelling To Get Doc’ (The Final Comedown)
Impressions ‘Make A Resolution’ (Three The Hard Way)
Nat Dove And The Devils ‘Zombie March’ (Petey Wheatstraw)
Booker T And The MGs ‘Time Is Tight’ (Uptight!)

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