Cooley High Soundtrack (Too Motown-ish)?
batmon
27,574 Posts
CH is coming out on Bluray this year, and I was at this forum and dude complained:
This is '75 written by a dude from Cabrini-Green recalling the "early to mid 60's"?
What percentage of Chicago Soul would be in a daily teenager's life?
Was local Chicago radio playing half Soul 45's w/ half Motown?
Were Black soda shop jukeboxes filled w/ local Chi- Soul?
Was Chicago that "pro-Local" Soul at the time of Motown?
Was Chicago Soul more "adult" and got played at nightclubs where grown folks were?
Or was this just a simple license situation and getting the most popular Black music trumped "keeping it real"?
"One of the few movies I went to see 2X when it was in theaters. Too bad the soundtrack is all [em]Motown[/em] as the movie takes place on Chicago near North Side in the area where Curtis Mayfield, Jerry Butler and Major Lance to mention a few, lived. [strong]No Chicago Soul music whatsoever.[/strong]"
This is '75 written by a dude from Cabrini-Green recalling the "early to mid 60's"?
What percentage of Chicago Soul would be in a daily teenager's life?
Was local Chicago radio playing half Soul 45's w/ half Motown?
Were Black soda shop jukeboxes filled w/ local Chi- Soul?
Was Chicago that "pro-Local" Soul at the time of Motown?
Was Chicago Soul more "adult" and got played at nightclubs where grown folks were?
Or was this just a simple license situation and getting the most popular Black music trumped "keeping it real"?
Comments
Yeah..I agree.
But even if they just went for the popular Motown sound, does a Chi-Soul complainer have somewhat of a small case?
Were the Impressions not in rotation?
Devil's Advocate.
Like if you were to keep it "accurate" what percentage would really be Chi-Soul?
that reminds me, i need to get rid of this record which i only have for the two freddie perrin tunes. then again, i do love the drawing on the cover. i think one of the mad magazine guys did it.
was the movie any good?
Self- Destruction...you headed for Self-Destruction.....
Chicago Blues artist signed to Motown.
I'm rambling. Character/plot driven movies like this don't need great music.
Who brought Marvin Gaye to Motown
But...
Impression, Jerry Butler, Major Lance, these are not obscure Chicago soul artists.
My guess is that kids hanging out at school, on the streets, listening to the radio, heard lots of Motown, lots of Chicago soul, lots of NYC soul, Lots of Memphis soul, lots of LA soul. But I doubt they thought much about where the music was coming from. It was just music, not Motown music, or ATCO music. They would be more likely to hear the Dells or Syl Johnson than James Carr or Thee Midnighters. But only slightly so, I would guess. I'm guessing that it is much the same for radio programers. If it was a national hit it got played. With a little bit of regional hits thrown in.
As for the movie, if it is a 100% Motown soundtrack that suggests that the studio and Motown worked a deal to make it that way.
The house party turned brawl scene.
I love the movie but they missed the boat on Chicago stuff.
Here's a WVON chart from Feb of 1965. I count at least a dozen Chicago records (vs 3 Motown) in the Top 40
1 Jr. Walker Shotgun 6
2 Temptations My Girl 10
3 Four Tops Ask The Lonely 6
4 Sam Cooke A Change Is Gonna Come 5
5 Impressions People Get Ready 6
6 Dee Dee Warwick Do It With All Your Heart 5
7 Walter Jackson Suddenly I'm All Alone 6
8 Fontella & Bobby Good Thing 9
9 Little Anthony Hurt So Bad 3
10 Willie Tee Teasin' You 7
11 Maxine Brown It's Gonna Be Alright 5
12 Dee Clark T.C.B. 5
13 Eddie & Ernie Time Waits For No One 8
14 Bobby Byrd We Are In Love 5
15 Major Lance Come See 4
16 Jerry Butler Good Times 5
17 Billy Stewart I Do Love You 3
18 Alvin Cash Barracuda 4
19 Howling Wolf Killing Floor 5
20 Supremes Stop In The Name Of Love 3
21 Len Rogers You're The Cream Of The Crop 2
22 Tony Clarke The Entertainer 4
23 Five Du-Tones Woodbine Twine 5
24 Wallace Brothers I'll Step Aside 3
25 Jackie Wilson Danny Boy 3
26 Alvin Robinson How Can I Get Over You 5
27 Ray Charles Cry 2
28 Donny Elbert A Little Piece Of Leather 4
29 Bettye Swann Don't Wait Too Long 6
30 Tommy Hunt I Don't Want To Lose You 2
31 Ike & Tina Turner Tell Her I'm Not Home 4
32 L. C. Cooke Do You Wanna Dance 3
33 Jaynetts Peeping Out The Window 2
34 Johnny Nash Strange Feeling 3
35 Solomon Burke Got To Get You off My Mind 2
36 Cicero Blake Sad Feeling 8
37 Mickey & Sylvia Let's Shake Some More 3
38 Sidney Barnes Shindig 3
39 Joe Tex Baby, You're Right 3
40 Clay Hammond Shotgun Wedding 3
41 Brenda Holloway When I'm Gone 2
42 Kim Weston I'm Still Loving You 3
43 Martha & The Vandellas Nowhere To Run 1
44 Jill Harris You Really Didn't Mean It 3
45 Effie Smith The Blond Wig 2
PH Jimmy McCracklin Every Night, Every Day
those were the days waaaaay b4 i was born
jeeez
And it's also worth mentioning that the sixties were a very regional time. There were quite a few local hits that the teens bought that never made it out of Illinois. If they inserted, say, a lesser-known Five Dutones 45 that only got played on WVON, it wouldn't be record-collector wishful thinking - it would certainly be true to the time and place.
They did if they came from their hometown.
Plenty of older black folk have their stories about playing softball with members of the Five Stairsteps or dating Minnie Riperton.
Indeed. I think Berry Gordy would have been a bit too proud to release a period soundtrack that wasn't dominated by his oldies in some way (witness Big Chill). One Luther Allison cut from 1974, plus a Stevie Wonder song recorded live in Chicago in '63. And that was it.
However, if they HAD to stick to the Motown catalog, they could have used an Amos Milburn song. At least it would have been true to the time. (Motown tried to bring back Milburn in the early sixties, but it didn't work out.)
So is it safe to say the soundtrack isnt all that odd/off considering Motown's proximity and payola relationship?
Or was Monte and/or the studio "BlackWashing" the era?
Well this was still during the Blaxplotation Era, so I think music was an integral selling point.
Even "lesser" Blax flims had memorable soundtracks.
Sparkle, Claudine,Youngblood, and a gang of Blaxploitation werent action films and relied on music.
Shit....Superfly isnt an Action film and that was all music.
Sparkle, Claudine and Youngblood soundtracks all suck.
I get your point and it's pretty good, and I'm not gonna rattle my saber hard on mine. Having said that though, I don't think character driven movies require good soundtracks.
I think we're talking past each other. I'm not saying character driven movies don't require music at all, or even "crucially," but they don't require successful/"good"/critically acclaimed soundtracks. I would even argue that Superfly does a terrible job as a movie handling the great soundtrack given to it by Curtis.
It's not off, but considering that Chicago had a soul scene of it's own, it's kinda like: WTF???
Like a guy I know once said, if this movie were about Detroit teens and the soundtrack was all Chicago artists, then Detroiters would be wondering what the hell was going on. And I'm not even talking about the obscuros, either - I mean, the well-known ones like the Impressions or Jerry Butler.
Reminds me that the only scene I viewed was the cop car vs. forklift (hence the title of the UBB canonized "Two Pigs And A Hog") while flipping channels several years ago. I've seen "American Graffiti" and others of its type, just not this one.
Diana Ross played a fashion designer from Chicago in "Mahogany".
Required or not, that was the style of the era. Shooting it down is just wishful thinking.
I dont understand what u mean by handling Curtis soundtrack?
He recorded it to the film.
Whats terrible about Priest in his apt when Think plays?
Give Me Your Love - slow-mo bubble bath...terrible?
Junkie Chase was a junkie chase.....terrible?
Freddie Dead opening sequence is terrible?
The Pusherman stills sequence is terrible?
Whatever
Cooley High, good or not, required or not, overlooked it own music. Thats my original question.
I was pretty bro'd out about it too first time I saw it.
Well then, it did.