easternkicks.com » Soundtracks

Black Belt Jones, the great kung fu soundtrack that never was?

Andrew Heskins — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:00:40 +0000

Get your (rare) groove on with Dennis Coffey’s legendary soundtrack to the equally notorious (for all the wrong reasons!) Jim Kelly vehicle…

In 1974 director Robert Close and producer Fred Weintraub had something of a problem. Their Enter The Dragon had been a huge success, exporting the Bruce lee phenomenon to an international audience – only their star tragically died before it was even released! What could they do next? How about giving his co-star Jim Kelly a chance – you know, the one who gets killed off pretty early? Then you’d not only cover kung fu, but blaxplotation too – get that Mr. Weintraub two exploitation genres for the price of one!

Only there was a reason Jim Kelly didn’t make it anywhere near the end credits. Wooden doesn’t go far enough, the man makes the cast of Stingray look like a National Theatre production! And Close’s direction does little better – combined with such a pitiful script – you quickly realise just how much of Dragon was directed by Lee himself. Subsequent efforts on Lee cash-in Game Of Death and early Jackie Chan crossover vehicle Battle Creak Brawl only went to prove that.

Only the inclusion former Bond girl and general Blaxpolitation queen Gloria Hendry goes any way towards regressing the misdemeanour. But Black Belt Jones’ reputation is well deserved, it’s even featured in the 2004 documentary, The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made. (Surely not – I mean however bad, there are a LOT of other bad movies in the world!) But enough of the film itself, we can leave that to a future ‘Guilty Pleasure’ (maybe!) – no, we’re here to talk about the soundtrack!

And what about it? It’s really the classic Blaxplotation soundtrack that never was, with only the Theme From Black Belt ever making it to vinyl. Dennis Coffey was best for his 1971 instrumental (and popular hip hop breakbeat) Scorpio. A member of the legendary Motown Funk Brothers, Coffey had played guitar on dozens of hits for the label long before going solo.

The Main Theme is a rare groove classic the song owes less to Coffey’s guitar playing than the distinctive overlaid scatting that make up the majority of the tune. The effect is not unlike 80s German producer George Kranz’s massive electro classic Trommeltanz aka Din Daa Daa, and it would be nice to think Kranz was influenced by Coffey.

So there’s no doubting how ‘unofficial’ this release is. For one thing, much of the soundtrack seems to be taken straight from the film, complete with dialogue – which at least gives you a chance to enjoy how bad that is! That may go much of the way to explain why this is only available on vinyl, most likely to cover up just how bad some of the recording is.

There are two versions of the main theme, with a second complete with kung fu cries, fantastic or what? There’s also some great additional music, particular the variations on the Love Theme. Elsewhere there are jazzier or just plain dramatic scores.

It would have been nice, however, if this release had a least gone someway to show which parts were Dennis Coffey and which parts were responsible by Luchi De Jesus. It would be easy enough to guess Coffey was just the Main and Love themes, but even that might not be true?

Is it a match for Lalo Schifrin’s Enter The Dragon score? Well, not quite… But one thing is for sure – this is fantastically Kitsch fun!

Kung Fu Super Sounds

Andrew Heskins — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:00:15 +0000

Fancy a bit of kitsch to kick-off the year? Then look no further than this collection of previously unreleased soundtracks to Shaw Brothers movies from the De Wolfe music library…

In the late 70s and early 80s, De Wolfe came to dominate the market for music library companies, supplying what is often referred to as ‘incidental music’ to a host of films and television programmes. In fact, during that time there were very few shows on British TV that weren’t using their music. From The Sweeney to Max Headroom, Minder to Dr. Who, Whodunnit to Spitting Image, even Monty Python’s Flying Circus! Tracks from their libraries have even been become popular theme tunes, including those for Van de Valk and Roobarb and Custard.

So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that one of the other great icons of the time, the Hong Kong movie making machine Shaw Brothers, also used their tracks to score some of their later work… should it?

The collection, complied by Joel Martin and co. at De Wolfe, is a myriad of styles and approaches. There are ornate orchestral works like Waiting For The Man (used in Shaolin Mantis), which sounds like it could have come from an Alexander Korda production or swashbuckling epic from the 30s and 40s; energetic 60s action themes like Counterspy (used as the theme for Dirty Ho), Suppression, which sounds rather like the theme to Sapphire And Steel (Two Champions Of Shaolin); the jazzy, Miles Davis inspired Moonbird (Heaven And Hell); Spaghetti Western themes like For And Against (Return To The 36th Chamber); dynamic stings lasting just a few seconds; funkier, rhythmic tunes like Two Seconds Precisely and Dr. Witch-Wot (Heaven And Hell); and some more bizarre entries like Electro Beat 5 (The Kung-Fu Instructor) and Electro Beat (The Master), which sound like death by Space Invaders (though were undoubtedly innovative at the time).

It’s entertaining to think that due to their inclusion on some of the most infamous kung fu films of the late seventies, these tracks have been sampled by much of the hip-hop community, and easily influenced the Wu-tang Clan’s RZA on soundtracks for Ghost Dog: Way Of The Samurai and Kill Bill.

There’s no doubting the tracks selected by directors and producers at Shaw Brothers from the De Wolfe library were influenced by the music they’d used previously. (Often ‘borrowed’ from other film scores without permission, James Bond was a particular favourite of Hong Kong films way in to the 1980s.) As a result these sound rather dated for the time they were used, it hints at the scale and oversized spectacle expected from Shaw Brothers movies – with lavish sets and costumes their studio system was itself coming to an end, soon to be usurped by smaller studio’s like Golden Harvest able to take risks.

Kung Fu Super Sounds is a quirky, fun and fascinating insight into music only previously heard on the soundtracks themselves. Due to its very nature, it’s difficult to listen to in more than bite-sized chunks. You wouldn’t, for instance, put this album on to relax to, or even as background music. (Which is kind of ironic, isn’t it?) It lacks the consistency of early compilations such as Bite Hard: The Music De Wolfe Studio Sample 1972-80 (Barely Breaking Even Records, 1998) and Shut It! The Music of The Sweeney (Sanctuary Records, 2001), both of which kept to the more accessible, funky end of the spectrum of music used.

However, as the Shaw Bothers films continue to be reappraised thanks to the availability of the Celestial Pictures remasters from distributors around the world, such as IVL in Hong Kong, Dragon Dynasty in the US, and the new, revamped Momentum Pictures offerings in the UK beginning next month, is there a better time to enjoy these tracks in their full glory?

Magic Monkey, the original Monkey TV series soundtrack

Andrew Heskins — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 10:00:24 +0000

As Damon Albarn’s latest collaboration with Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett, the opera of Monkey: Journey To The West, draws to a close at London’s O2 dome, and we await the release of the new Monkey Magic film on DVD, is there a better time to remember the soundtrack to show that started it all. Come on now, you all know the words: ‘Born from a rock on a mountain top…’

Long before Brit Pop supremo Damon Albarn decided to take his Gorillaz creation back to the source, the cult Nippon TV series inspired by Wu Cheng’en’s classic Chinese novel Journey To The West, the show itself Monkey, ruled UK Friday nights back in the late seventies.

From it’s opening disco theme to the hilarious characterisations of Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy (mistakenly attributed to the British redubbing by actors like Miriam Margoyles and Andrew Sachs, better known then for being the waiter in Faulty Towers than for the messages left on his phone by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross) the show captured the hearts of a generation now in their mid-30s: running around the playground, pretending to call clouds to fly on and beating each other up with a magical staff, all the while humming Monkey Magic under our breath.

(Not now, I mean. Back then. Though some of us never really left those days behind, creating websites devoted to all things Asian, ahem…)

Much of the appeal to that series was the soundtrack, provided by Japanese pop band Godiego, formed of Japanese and American musicians Mickie Yoshino, Takami Asano, Steve Fox, Yukihide Takekawa, and Tommy Snyder. They’d already enjoyed some success performing the English language version the the theme of the other great Nippon TV import of the decade, The Water Margin, which even squeaked into the UK top 40. Though singles from Monkey itself, issued by the BBC, surprisingly didn’t fair as well.

Magic Monkey was released in Japan in 1979 (and subsequently as the Monkey soundtrack by the BBC). Fans of the series will recognise most of tracks used as music cues on the soundtrack throughout, though you may be unsettled by the vocals (or to be more exact, the lyrics)…

Aside from Monkey Magic and the closing theme Gandhara, there’s Havoc In Heaven (used for the fight scenes), Thank You, Baby (used for the romantic or contemplative sequences), A Fool (used for for, um, the more idiotic moments) and so on. The pop vocal style is typical of the period, sounding at best like a cut-price Steely Dan, but it’s the lyrics that often leave you squirming, as the guys try desperately to include the themes of the series – in English – often making you wish they’d left the tracks as instrumentals. There’s even a track called Asiatic Fever, for feck’s sake!

Despite this, it’s worth hearing just for the full length version of the theme (even with that dodgy second verse), a fantastically funky little disco tune with great riffs and instrumental breaks.

Strangely, getting hold of a copy outside of Japan – where Godiego are still massively popular having reunited in 1999 – is near impossible. (And if you’re thinking of picking up the BBC release, you are gonna have to search hard!) Those looking to get hold of a copy best head towards Asian online retailers like YesAsia. Considering the enduring popularity of the series, it seems odd no one has licensed the album to reissue it in the UK and Australia.

At the very least it might put an end to the countless cover versions that do little than sully our fond memories.

easternkicks.com » Soundtracks

Black Belt Jones, the great kung fu soundtrack that never was?

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Kung Fu Super Sounds

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Magic Monkey, the original Monkey TV series soundtrack

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