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!
