The Rarest Herbie Hancok Album Of Them All?

[JSngry]

Herbie Hancock -- Spook Who Sat By The Door -- Original Soundtrack (reissue) . . . LP . . . $13.99 List Price: $17.98

United Artists, 1973 Condition: New Copy

A legendary soundtrack by the great Herbie Hancock -- super-rare, and super-dope, and super-funky! The film itself is a really righteous tale about a disenchanted Vietnam vet who infiltrates the CIA, learns its tricks, and uses them to start the coming revolution -- and Herbie's score for the film is every bit as bold and powerful as the movie itself! The music's got loads and loads of heavy keyboards -- sometimes distorted and noisy, as on some of Herbie's own work of the time -- sometimes smooth and sweet, with a tasty Fender Rhodes sound -- but always tight, jazzy, and funky! The soundtrack does a good job of including background noises, sound effects, and snippets of dialogue from the film -- making for a listening experience that's served up in a number of dimensions -- and titles include "The Big Rip Off", "Revenge", "At The Lounge", "Training Day", "The Stick Up", and "It Begins". (Pressed up with great vinyl, a super-heavy cover, and a bonus photo of a cool scene from the film!)

I've never heard OF the movie, much less the soundtrack album. Anybody ever heard this. I like Herbies Death Wish score.

[Rooster_Ties]

I've got MP3's of three samples from this soundtrack, which used to be on the darkfunk website. I can't upload them to this thread, but if somebody knows how I can upload them somewhere (or if somebody can host them), I'll be glad to share them.

They're about 4, 3, and 7 megs, each, in terms of file-size. (2:00, 1:21, and 3:40 in length, time-wise)

Edit: I just listened to them, and they're BAAAADDDD!!!!!!!!!!! Especially the long track. It's SUPER BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDD!!!!!!! B)

Edited December 4, 2003 by Rooster_Ties

[scottb]

Is that "James Brown" super bad or "The BeeGees with Peter Frampton in Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band" super bad?

[neveronfriday]

[...] "The BeeGees with Peter Frampton in Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band" super bad [...]

[Jim Alfredson]

Is that "James Brown" super bad or "The BeeGees with Peter Frampton in Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band" super bad?

Now THAT's super bad!!!

[Rooster_Ties]

Is that "James Brown" super bad or "The BeeGees with Peter Frampton in Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band" super bad?

Definitely "James Brown" super-baaaaaad!!!!!

Anybody got a way (space) for me to host these for the board to hear???

They be fun to hear.

[Jim Alfredson]

Email them to postmaster@organissimo.org

[Rooster_Ties]

You've got mail!!!

[Jim Alfredson]

Samples of "The Spook Who Sat By The Door" courtesy of Rooster:

Spooky Clip 1

Spooky Clip 2

Spooky Clip 3

Can you dig it?

[Rooster_Ties]

Warning - Clip #1 kinda sucks and doesn't go anywhere (and don't blame me).

But the other two really are pretty BAAAAAAADDDDDD!!!!!!!

[Rooster_Ties]

Here's a review of the movie, from allmovie.com:

This exploitative drama may be too racist for some contemporary viewers. It is based on a novel by Sam Greenlee and chronicles the exploits of a CIA agent, the only black man in the agency. Tired of being treated as a human showcase for affirmative action, he quits and heads for the inner city where he begins forming an army of "freedom fighters" determined to overthrow the government and vanquish the white oppressors. To do so, they steal a bunch of high-tech weapons from the National Guard and bloody mayhem ensues. — Sandra Brennan

And don't forget to check out the sound clips, two posts above this one - you dig!!

[HWright]

The second and third clips sound a lot like a track on Herbie's "Sextant " album, "Hornets," I think. Is it possible that he reused that theme for the soundtrack album?

That remark aside, I would say that anyone who enjoyed these samples and does not already have "Sextant" would be advised to check it out.

[CJ Shearn]

I noticed the similarity to "Hornets" on tracks two and three, did Herbie reassemble Mwandishi just for the recording of the soundtrack? The clips left me a little cold, too much dialogue and movie sound effects drowning out the music.

[Kari S]

The horns theme in clips 2 & 3 is not from Sextant, it's re-used in the tune "Actual Proof" from Thrust (1974). At least parts of it. Although Herbie sure is pounding that Clavinet, I'll have to agree with CJ on this that there's too much sound effects and dialogue cluttering the music. But being the HH completist and enthusiast that I am, I'll probably get this anyway...

The "Death Wish" ost JSngry mentioned is IMO rather poor - besides the title track which is a seriously grooving piece of music.

BTW, here's some more info on the movie.

Edited December 6, 2003 by Kari S

[CJ Shearn]

Kari, since you are a HH completist, how is the "VSOP" live double album with Mwandishi, Freddie/Wayne/Ron/Tony, and his then post Headhunters funk group? I saw it on CD at Virgin on 14th st in NYC a few years back, made the mistake of *not* picking it up. Went back last month to that same location while visiting some friends and it could not be located. Since then I have collected all the other live VSOP albums (including the inferior sounding domestic CD of "The Quintet") on CD, and would like to track that initial endeavor down. As for Sony/Legacy releasing VSOP stuf here, don't you find it dissapointing that they are reissuing "Live Under the Sky"? they should really reissue "Tempest in the Colosseum" instead, which is a far hotter date. "Live Under the Sky" has it's moments, but the fact that everyone's instruments got wet due to a rainstorm going on during the concert really dampens their flow of ideas and ways they wish to communicate them at times. e.g Wayne's soprano on "One of a Kind" and Herbie's long pauses in his solo and uncertainty of phrasing probably due to the wet keys of his piano. I also saw on Herbie's site that they are reissuing "Herbie Hancock Trio" at some point next year. Will this be the Trio '77 date or the '81 album? the Herbie Hancock Trio album from '81 is excellent, I imported it last year. Also, weren't half of the same sessions from the '77 trio date under Ron Carter's name on "Third Plane" for Milestone? kind of odd that half a date would be done for Sony in Japan, then the other half for a U.S. Ron Carter date.

[Kari S]

Whoa! Settle down - so many questions, so little time... The VSOP double-cd gets my thumbs up. To me, every band there plays great. I especially dig the Mwandishi part because they play "Toys" - great tune. The only problem with the concert is that Hancock plays that crappy Yamaha Electric Grand instead of an acoustic one. It sounds so bland. I just can't help but smile everytime they kick off "Hang Up Your Hang Ups", though...

I also think that the Tempest In The Colosseum album is a bit better than L.U.t.S. (!). I especially dig the version of "Red Clay" they play. Furious!

Where did you read that the trio date will be reissued? I have actually heard only a few tunes from those. I haven't yet imported them, so this is great news. In addition to Third Plane, there's also a Carter album called 1+3 featuring also Hancock and Williams. I'd like to hear that as well, it's on Milestone also.

[CJ Shearn]

Kari, the info I found about the Trio reissue was from the "administrator" on Herbie's site. copied directly from the message board, apparently someone was asking if there are plans for a Complete Columbia Recordings box set. Here is what they said:

"We have no info on a Sony boxed set. However, Sony Legacy is working on releasing the following in 2004

VSOP - Live Under The Sky

The Piano

Trio - with Ron Carter & Tony Williams

Flood"

It's great that "Flood" is being released, I have a burn, but I want to go for an existing Japanese copy just b/c I love those black label Mastersound CD's, with the "MASTERSOUND" in gold/bronze :-d Flood IMO smacks both HH's and Thrust, and the pre Manchild "Hang Up Your Hangups" is great!