The ruthless and the Toothless: These are among the tracks I've added to AFOS rotation this month

Ennio Morricone, "The Strength of the Righteous" (film version) (from The Untouchables; now playing during "AFOS Prime")

"I had an art director that I was working with and we kept looking at shadows. I got the idea that the shadows should be actually cast by the word. And the art director kept saying, 'It's boring,'" recalled Superman: The Movie title designer Richard Greenberg to Art of the Title about his noirish concept for the Untouchables opening titles. "Finally I just looked at him and said, 'It's supposed to be boring.' I wanted it to take its time."

"Boring"? Really? Because I've seen a few alternate Untouchables opening titles on the Internet that were made by Untouchables fans and are much more busy-looking than Greenberg's titles, and they just don't fit Brian De Palma's operatic crime flick like Greenberg's titles do. It's one of my favorite Greenberg intros, partly because of Greenberg's simple and elegant title design and the way it evokes the shadows of prison bars at the start of the sequence.

(Photo source: Radiator Heaven)

But the main reason why those titles leave such an impact--without it, Greenberg's colleague might have been onto something about the titles being boring--is Ennio Morricone's propulsive "Strength of the Righteous." The main title theme, one of my favorite Morricone main title themes, establishes the steadfastness of Eliot Ness and the Untouchables while introducing another motif. The harmonica was the instrument of choice for Charles Bronson's vengeance-seeking protagonist Harmonica in the Morricone-scored Once Upon a Time in the West, but in The Untouchables, Il Maestro used the harmonica to represent one of the villains, Frank Nitti (Billy Drago, who's more menacing than Robert De Niro in the film and with much less dialogue too), the psychotic chief enforcer for ruthless Al Capone (De Niro).

"The fact that Morricone's main title music showcases Nitti's theme rather than Capone's hints at the fact that Ness can never truly confront Capone (in fact the two never met in real life)," wrote Geek magazine's Jeff Bond in the liner notes for La-La Land Records' 2012 expanded reissue of the Untouchables soundtrack, "and that his only physical satisfaction in taking down the crime lord is in executing Nitti."

La-La Land's 2012 reissue opens with the version of "The Strength of the Righteous" that's heard in the film--the major difference between the film version of "Strength" and the 1987 A&M Records version is that Nitti's harmonica motif begins at a much earlier point in the former--and that film version has finally been added to "AFOS Prime" rotation. The Untouchables may be as historically accurate as a Drunk History sketch (Nitti didn't die right after being thrown off a rooftop by Ness in 1930; he committed suicide in 1943), but elements like "Strength," Sean Connery's Oscar-winning performance and that classic "Odessa Steps"/baby carriage sequence Untouchables screenwriter David Mamet reportedly still despises are why, as ScreenCrush writer Damon Houx nicely puts it, the 1987 film forms with the 1976 Carrie and the 1996 Mission: Impossible "an interesting De Palma trilogy of 'fuck you, I can do mainstream better than anyone.'"

Howard Shore, "Barrels Out of Bond" and "The Forest River (Extended Version)" (from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug; now playing during "AFOS Prime" and "New Cue Revue")

The Hobbit remains the only J.R.R. Tolkien novel I've read. Back when I was a kid who watched the 1977 Rankin-Bass Hobbit repeatedly on VHS and wanted to see what Tolkien's original vision of the story was like in print, I dove into the Ballantine Books softcover edition of The Hobbit (the one with the cover artwork of Gandalf and his cohorts taking shelter in the nest of one of the giant eagles that rescued them), and I have to say: Did this light adventure novel about a treasure hunt really have to be stretched out into three 180-minute movies?

Sure, two movies would have been alright to tell Bilbo's journey on the big screen, but three? Padded out to nearly 180 minutes each? With no intermission (because this is a really annoying era of moviegoing where the studios no longer include intermissions--which were, long before I was born, actually a good idea that helped make some of the studios' most interminable epics less of a grueling experience for moviegoers--and now the fuckwads who creep into theaters these days with their smartphones left on think every single minute of the feature presentation is an intermission)?



Though The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a more enjoyable installment than The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (the Phantom Menace of this franchise), Peter Jackson's Hobbit prequel trilogy has so far paled in comparison to his beloved Lord of the Rings trilogy, which itself wasn't perfect (one of my favorite lines in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is "Don't worry. I saw the last Lord of the Rings. I won't have the movie end 17 times"), but it was a well-made trilogy, even though I'm not much of a sword-and-sorcery genre stan. One of the few additions Jackson has made to The Hobbit that actually works is the newly created character of Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), an elf warrior who defies her dickish king's isolationism to help protect the dwarves and the inhabitants of Laketown from hordes of orcs. I like Lilly and the action heroine she plays in The Desolation of Smaug, even though Jackson and his credited co-screenwriters Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens have placed Tauriel at the center of a love triangle that wasn't in Tolkien's novel either, a blatant attempt to take the novel and Twilight it up for tweens who would most likely become bored with Bilbo's journey and would rather journey through the texts on the phones they've left on inside the theater.

If you're one of those moviegoers who kept checking your phones during The Desolation of Smaug's barrel escape sequence, just kill yourself. Right now. The barrel escape sequence, a moment where Tauriel gets to shine as an action heroine as she and Legolas (Orlando Bloom) take on the dwarves' orc enemies along the riverbanks, is one of the most entertaining action sequences of 2013. The sequence is also easily the biggest highlight of Howard Shore's Desolation of Smaug score. Shore gives the heroic theme he wrote for Tauriel its fullest statement in "The Forest River." ("Its elegance and avidity is balanced by a razor-sharp fierceness," said Lord of the Rings/Hobbit score music expert Doug Adams about Tauriel's theme.)

The elf guards aren't the only characters who get to shine during the sequence. The mute dwarf Bombur (Stephen Hunter), who, up until this sequence, has been a gluttonous buffoon, smashes his arms through the wine barrel he's escaping in and fights off the orcs with his weapons. The image of Bombur rolling around in his barrel has led, of course, to a bunch of artists' recreations on deviantART and Tumblr. 2013 was the year of rotund nobodies pulling a Sammo Hung and revealing themselves to be agile action heroes: Nick Frost's reserved ex-rugby player wiled out on hordes of alien robots in The World's End, and then Bombur finally made himself useful in The Desolation of Smaug.

(Photo source: TheRisingSoul)

(Photo source: Strangely Charismatic)

(Photo source: Just Jingles)

The biggest Shaft of all in the illest retro CD packaging of all

Honey, someone shrunk the Shaft LP.

Because I changed the title of A Fistful of Soundtracks' default block from "Assorted Fistful" to "AFOS Prime" last week, I've had to painstakingly search through the "AFOS Prime" mp3 library for every single track that contains an "Assorted Fistful" sweeper and delete each of them from "AFOS Prime." Then I've had to go back into my CD collection, re-rip many of the tracks I deleted from "AFOS Prime," replace the parts of the tracks that were previously occupied by "Assorted Fistful" sweepers with new intros (most of them are just movie or TV trailer audio clips) and re-upload those tracks to "AFOS Prime."

And I'm having a blast! Seriously, no, I'm not.

So far, the only thing about the above tasks that's been nice is revisiting Hip-O Select/Geffen's now-out-of-print Shaft in Africa soundtrack CD because I dig its retro packaging (Hip-O Select/Geffen packaged their 2004 reissue of the Willie Dynamite soundtrack in the same fashion as well). I had to pull out the Shaft in Africa CD from the cabinets where I store my soundtrack CDs because the tracks that I ripped a few years ago from that disc, including Johnny Pate's "Shaft in Africa (Addis)," which was most memorably sampled by Just Blaze in Jay-Z's "Show Me What You Got," contain now-outdated sweepers.

In 2005, the 1973 LP for the threequel that MGM declared "The biggest Shaft of all in the hottest place of all" made its debut on CD as part of the limited-edition Hip-O Select series of Universal Music Group-owned album reissues that are available only through Hip-O's site. The CD packaging was simple and not-so-flashy but inspired. Instead of sticking the CD in a jewel case, Hip-O recreated the LP packaging--they didn't mess with the Shaft in Africa cover's original typefaces or its ABC Records emblems or its washed-out-looking color scheme and they even brought back the inner sleeve--and shrunk the cardboard sleeve and inner sleeve to CD size. It looks like something I unearthed during a crate-digging session at the used LP section of a CD store, except it somehow wound up in a washer and dryer that were being used incorrectly like in some bad sitcom or an old cartoon, and it shrunk along with all the other clothes.

The "CD-Sized Album Replica" packaging appears to be eco-friendly too. Why don't more labels package their reissues on CD like this?

Vinyl is awesome, but I hate how much space vinyl takes up (my music collection currently consists of only CDs, mp3s or AACs). I'm like an anti-hoarder. I try to make my carbon footprint as small as possible, so I rejoiced when albums became downloadable. I love how music, movie and TV show formats have gotten smaller and smaller so that the content on those formats can be carried around in your pockets now.

I've been thinking lately about venturing into club or lounge DJing. Ever since I got myself my first MacBook last month, I've been adding onto its iTunes so many mixes, including Paul Nice's Do You Pick Your Feet in Poughkeepsie? mixtape and DJ sets from props, SFNY and Sweater Funk. Listening to those mixes nonstop on my MacBook Pro has made me want to someday become a DJ like Nice, props, his SFNY cohorts and the Sweater Funk members. If I end up doing that kind of DJing, I'm so going to enjoy carrying around all those damn records.

AFOS: "Bad Things Come in Threes (Alright, Maybe Not Always)" playlist

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the release of one of my favorite films, Do the Right Thing, so I'm busy putting together something Do the Right Thing-related for the blog. In the meantime, airing tomorrow at 10am and 3pm on the Fistful of Soundtracks channel is the Fistful of Soundtracks: The Series episode "Bad Things Come in Threes (Alright, Maybe Not Always)" (WEB88) from June 18-24, 2007. Every track during WEB88 comes from a threequel like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly or Ocean's Thirteen.

"Il Buono Il Brutto Il Cattivo (titoli)"

1. Hans Zimmer, "Hoist the Colours," Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Walt Disney
2. Ennio Morricone, "Il Buono Il Brutto Il Cattivo (titoli)," Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo, GDM
3. David Holmes, "Not Their Fight," Ocean's Thirteen, Warner Sunset/Warner Bros.
4. David Holmes, "11, 12 & 13," Ocean's Thirteen, Warner Sunset/Warner Bros.
5. Michael Giacchino, "Mission: Impossible Theme," Mission: Impossible III, Varèse Sarabande
6. The Four Tops, "Are You Man Enough?" (from Shaft in Africa), The Best of Shaft, Hip-O
7. Survivor, "Eye of the Tiger" (from Rocky III), Ultimate Survivor, Volcano Heritage
8. Jerry Fielding, "Prologue/Main Title," The Enforcer, Aleph
9. John Williams, "The Pit of Carkoon/Sail Barge Assault," Return of the Jedi, RCA Victor
10. Howard Shore, "The White Tree," The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Reprise/WMG Soundtracks
11. David Holmes, "Snake Eyes," Ocean's Thirteen, Warner Sunset/Warner Bros.
12. John Williams, "Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra," Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Warner Bros.
13. Danny Elfman, "March of the Dead," Army of Darkness, Varèse Sarabande
14. Ennio Morricone, "Il Triello," Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo, GDM
15. Alan Silvestri, "End Titles" (from Back to the Future Part III), Varèse Sarabande: A 25th Anniversary Celebration, Varèse Sarabande

Repeats of A Fistful of Soundtracks: The Series air Wednesdays at 10am and 3pm.

AFOS: "Kids Come Running for the Rich Taste of Samples" playlist

Airing tomorrow at 10am and 3pm Pacific on the Fistful of Soundtracks channel is the Fistful of Soundtracks: The Series episode "Kids Come Running for the Rich Taste of Samples" (WEB87) from February 26-March 4, 2007. The title is a play on the classic MST3K line "Kids come running for the rich taste of Sampo!" In WEB87, I played '70s--and at one particular point, '80s--themes that have been sampled by hip-hop artists and juxtaposed them with the songs that contain those film and TV music samples.

1. Johnny Pate, "Shaft in Africa (Addis)" (from Shaft in Africa), The Best of Shaft, Hip-O
2. Jay-Z, "Show Me What You Got," Kingdom Come, Roc-A-Fella
3. Curtis Mayfield, "Superfly," Superfly: Deluxe 25th Anniversary Edition, Curtom/Rhino
4. Beastie Boys, "Egg Man," Paul's Boutique, Capitol
5. Isaac Hayes, "Hung Up on My Baby" (from Three Tough Guys), Double Feature: Music from the Soundtracks of Three Tough Guys & Truck Turner, Stax
6. Geto Boys, "Mind Playing Tricks on Me," We Can't Be Stopped, Rap-A-Lot
7. Shirley Bassey, "Diamonds Are Forever (Main Title)," Diamonds Are Forever, EMI/Capitol
8. Kanye West featuring Jay-Z, "Diamonds from Sierra Leone (Remix)," Late Registration, Roc-A-Fella
9. Quincy Jones, "The Streetbeater (Sanford & Son Theme)," The Reel Quincy Jones, Hip-O
10. Masta Killa, Ol' Dirty Bastard and RZA, "Old Man," No Said Date, Nature Sounds
11. David Shire, "Main Title," The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Retrograde
12. Mix Master Mike, "Suprize Packidge (Remix)," Suprize Packidge (The Automator Remix), Asphodel
13. Dennis Coffey, "Theme from Black Belt Jones," Do You Pick Your Feet in Poughkeepsie?, Paul Nice Productions
14. Lalo Schifrin, "The Human Fly," Enter the Dragon, Warner Home Video
15. Love Unlimited Orchestra, "Theme from Together Brothers," Funk on Film, Chronicles/PolyGram
16. Stu Phillips, "Knight Rider," NBC: A Soundtrack of Must See TV, TVT

AFOS: "The Wonderful World of Covers" playlist

Airing this week on the Fistful of Soundtracks channel is the 2007 Fistful of Soundtracks: The Series episode "The Wonderful World of Covers" (WEB91), which contains film and TV theme covers from all over the world, including a slammin' cover of Beyonce's Goldmember track "Work It Out" by the U.K. soul band Speedometer. jim.aquino.com is no longer online, as are all the pre-WEB97 playlists I posted on that site, so I'm reposting each playlist as each pre-WEB97 ep reairs.

1. Speedometer, "Work It Out," This Is Speedometer Vol. II, Blow It Hard
2. Los Straitjackets, "My Heart Will Go On," The Velvet Touch of Los Straitjackets, Yep Roc
3. The Lovejoys, "Streets of San Francisco," And You Don't Stop, Langusta Entertainment
4. Barry Adamson, "The Man with the Golden Arm," The Murky World of Barry Adamson, Mute
5. The Civil Tones, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV Theme)," Vodka and Peroxide, Pravda
6. Euroboys, "Enter the Dragon," Jet Age, Sympathy for the Record Industry
7. Laika & the Cosmonauts, "Get Carter," Laika Sex Machine, Yep Roc
8. Green Day, "The Simpsons Theme" (from The Simpsons Movie), Reprise
9. Jimmy Smith, "Walk on the Wild Side," Walk on the Wild Side: Best of the Verve Years, Verve
10. Pressure Cooker, "Space: 1999," I Want to Tell You, Pressure Cooker
11. Triology, "For Love One Can Die," Triology Plays Ennio Morricone, Reverso/BMG Classics/RCA Victor
12. Laika & the Cosmonauts, "Psyko," Laika Sex Machine, Yep Roc
13. The Lovejoys, "Streets of Sao Paulo," And You Don't Stop, Langusta Entertainment
14. Renee Geyer, "Do Your Thing," It's a Man's Man's World, RCA
15. Speedometer, "Work It Out (Beatfanatic remix)," Freestyle Remixed, Freestyle

Repeats of A Fistful of Soundtracks: The Series air Monday night at midnight, Tuesday and Thursday at 4am, 10am, 3pm, 7pm and 11pm, Wednesday night at midnight, and Saturday and Sunday at 7am, 9am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm and 5pm.

Five favorite expanded score albums or box sets of 2008

5. Superman: The Music (Film Score Monthly)
This staggering eight-disc set compiles the scores from all four Christopher Reeve Superman movies and contains a beautifully designed mini-book filled with exhaustive liner notes. The expanded discs of the Ken Thorne scores from Supermans II and III were probably the main reason why Superman completists dove into savings that they otherwise reserve for their mortgage payments for their Luthor-owned condos in order to pay for this pricey set ($120!). I never liked Thorne's scores (the orchestra budget in II and III was clearly slashed, so Thorne's rearrangements of John Williams' music sounded tinny and undernourished). For me, the real previously unreleased gem of the set was the disc containing Ron Jones' energetic and underrated music from Ruby-Spears' decent '80s Superman animated series. Jones' Superman cues sound like the cues he later wrote for Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Best of Both Worlds" two-parter, which TNG showrunner Rick Berman reportedly disliked because he preferred the music on his show to sound boring.


4. They Live: 20th Anniversary Edition (AHI)
Obey. Consume. This expanded release of the bluesy score from John Carpenter's sharpest and cleverest post-Thing flick is your God.


3. Blazing Saddles (La-La Land)
The only previous times any of the music from Blazing Saddles was made available were when Elektra/Asylum included three songs from Saddles on the 1978 High Anxiety soundtrack LP and when "I'm Tired" made its CD debut on Rhino's 1998 Warner Bros.: 75 Years of Film Music box set. The release of the cues from John Morris' short but fantastic score to the Mel Brooks classic--another one of my favorite movies--was long overdue. All the major cues are on there, including the Count Basie Orchestra's performance of "April in Paris," which is to black cowboy music what Jay-Z's "Roc Boys (and the Winner Is)..." is to black superhero music.


2. Shaft Anthology: His Big Score and More! (Film Score Monthly)
FSM's Shaft set marked a couple of milestones: the first-ever release of the film versions of Isaac Hayes and J.J. Johnson's score cues from the first Shaft installment (the 1971 Enterprise/Stax soundtrack album was a re-recording) and the CD debut of Gordon Parks' Shaft's Big Score soundtrack. Though the release was actually sent to the pressing plant for manufacturing three weeks before Hayes' death, it ended up being the illest way to honor his memory.


1. Batman: The Animated Series (La-La Land)
Unlike previous superhero cartoon shows, B:TAS didn't recycle the same four or five score cues or repurpose creaky old library music. Shirley Walker, one of the few female composers in the business, and her B:TAS team composed an original score for every episode. Their use of a full orchestra made other animated action shows look like that pathetic El Mariachi musician character who prefers a synthesizer over bandmates. Sadly, Walker didn't live to see the release of her lovingly crafted music from B:TAS (before her death in 2006, only her score from the Mask of the Phantasm spinoff movie was released). She would have been thrilled about La-La Land's two-disc set, which is dedicated to her and compiles scores from 10 B:TAS eps, including Harley Quinn's debut ep, "Joker's Favor" (pictured above). I've been a fan of B:TAS since its 1992 premiere, so I've waited 16 years for a release like this. I never said thank you, La-La Land. And then La-La Land will probably say the following in that Batrasp that sounds like a cross between a whitened-up Keak da Sneak and a Muppet: "And you'll never have to."

New trailer proves movie version of '70s cartoon show Star Trek doesn't look promising

By special guest blogger Sonny Gautier

One of my favorite TV shows is the Saturday morning cartoon Star Trek, which NBC first broadcast in 1973. It aired right after Hanna-Barbera's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids cartoon and followed the adventures of Captain Kirk and the crew of a "starship" called the U.S.S. Enterprise. Their mission was to explore outer space. Along the way, the crew would butt heads with evil Klingon commanders, Orion pirates and dangerous energy cloud monsters.

The captain was bad. I dug that episode when he fought that turkey from the Orion pirate ship over a shipment of medicine for a sick Mr. Spock, his pointy-eared first officer from the planet Vulcan.

The Vulcan soul brother was an even badder dude than Kirk. He could read minds and he was always calm and cool like another hero of mine, John Shaft. When Spock traveled back in time to his childhood on his homeworld, he took down a wild Vulcan tiger by pinching it in the neck, which was some sort of mystical Vulcan ass-whupping move. That was bad. With moves like that, Spock will never die!

I also dug how the ship had a black crewmember manning the switchboard. I especially liked when Lt. Uhura got to be captain for a whole story because all the men from the Enterprise were captured by an all-female planet. Black folks don't often get such high positions of power on TV like Uhura did in that Star Trek episode.

So because I'm a fan of this forgotten cartoon, I was ecstatic about Paramount Pictures' upcoming major motion picture based on Star Trek.

That is until I saw the preview for it.

The movie doesn't look quite right. It doesn't look like the Star Trek I remember.

First of all, who cares about what Kirk and Spock were like as kids? The cartoon already showed us that Spock had a hard life as a mutt on Vulcan. His mama was human, his dad was Vulcan and the other Vulcan kids wanted to beat his ass. Why do we have to be told again how Spock came up? What else do we need to know, man? Can we just cut to the chase and see what the title says they're supposed to be doing, which is exploring space?

Kirk looks too young to be captain. He looks more like a cadet. And what the hell happened to his Orange Kool-Aid-colored hair?

The new Enterprise is too fast a ship now! In the animated show, the Enterprise was never that fast! This will take some getting used to.

Why is Spock trying to pimp-slap Kirk? He never pimp-slapped anybody in the cartoon.

One thing I dig about the preview is Uhura. She looks outta sight! Uhura was the finest sister on Saturday morning TV since Valerie from Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space. Because Star Trek was a Saturday morning cartoon, I never got to see her in a bra. Now I finally get to. Right on!

Another thing I like is the brief footage of starships at war. The cartoon was never that intense and it never had so many things blow up. Man, I never saw so many ships attack each other like that!

There's not a lot of face-to-face dialogue in the preview. In the cartoon, everyone talked to each other all the time and did it real close to the camera. Real close. And only their eyes and mouths moved.

Where's the orange skinny dude with three arms? Where's the alien cat lady? Where are those forcefield belts that the Enterprise crew wore whenever they walked out into space? It's not Star Trek without them.

Often, a preview isn't really helpful in telling you if the flick is any good or not (that Superfly T.N.T. preview didn't prepare me for how much of a letdown that movie was), so I guess I'll reserve judgment until I see the entire Star Trek movie, which comes out this May. I hope it lives up to the cartoon.

----------

Sonny Gautier is a new Fistful of Soundtracks listener from Bed-Stuy and he offered to review the new Star Trek trailer for my blog. Due to brain damage caused by exposure to too many Sid and Marty Krofft shows, a then-adolescent Sonny lapsed into a coma in 1974 and didn't wake up until last month, which means he missed the 10 Star Trek feature films and four Trek live-action spinoff shows that followed the cartoon. Because Sonny's only taste of Trek was the Saturday morning version before he slipped into his coma, he didn't know Trek originated as a live-action show until I pointed it out to him via e-mail a couple of hours ago. Because he doesn't want to be laughed at for his mistakes, Sonny has demanded that I remove his post. Yeah right, like I'm gonna remove it. This shit's too funny.

"AFOS A-Go-Go" 11/04/08-11/10/08 playlist

1. Neal Hefti, "The Odd Couple," The Odd Couple, Dot
2. Neal Hefti, "Man Chases Man," The Odd Couple, Dot
3. Neal Hefti, "Batman Theme," Batman, Film Score Monthly
4. Royal Scottish National Orchestra, "Batman (T.V. Theme)," The Batman Trilogy, Varèse Sarabande
5. The Four Tops, "Are You Man Enough?," Shaft in Africa, Hip-O Select/Geffen
6. Levi Stubbs and Chorus, "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space," Little Shop of Horrors, Geffen
7. Ben Taylor, "Dolemite," Dolemite: Special Edition, R N P Muzak
8. W.G. Snuffy Walden, "West Wing Main Title," Music by W.G. Snuffy Walden, Windham Hill
9. W.G. Snuffy Walden, "West Wing Suite," Music by W.G. Snuffy Walden, Windham Hill
10. Sean Callery, "Palmer's Theme" (from 24 episode #118), 24, Varèse Sarabande
11. Bear McCreary featuring Raya Yarbrough, "A Distant Sadness" (from the Battlestar Galactica episode "Occupation"), Battlestar Galactica: Season 3, La-La Land
12. Jerry Goldsmith, "Welcome Aboard, Sir," Air Force One, Varèse Sarabande
13. Brian Tyler, "Ready or Not," Finishing the Game, Brian Tyler
14. Bernard Purdie, "Hap'nin," Lialeh, Light in the Attic
15. Stan Ridgway and Stewart Copeland, "Don't Box Me In," Rumble Fish, A&M
16. Jeff Beal, "Riding Off, Appaloosa End Credits," Appaloosa, Lakeshore
17. Jerry Goldsmith, "Lost in the Wild" (from The Edge), Jerry Goldsmith at 20th Century Fox, Varèse Sarabande
18. Neal Hefti, "End Title," The Odd Couple, Dot

"AFOS A-Go-Go" airs every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday in November (except the week of Thanksgiving) on the Fistful of Soundtracks channel.

Levi Stubbs (1936-2008)

Four Tops frontman Levi Stubbs, who possessed a baritone that could knock you on your ass, has died. He was 72.

The Tops' most memorable hits include "Baby I Need Your Loving," "It's the Same Old Song," "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)" and "Bernadette" (WARNING: white people dance to "Bernadette" in this clip from John Larroquette's 1990 slapstick comedy Madhouse, but despite the gratuitous white guy dancing, it's a great scene in an otherwise dumb and forgettable movie and it shows why Larroquette has nabbed the Emmy so many times).

On the film music side, the legendary vocalist and his cohorts performed the catchy theme from Shaft in Africa, "Are You Man Enough?" (which is effectively used in Superbad).

Also, Stubbs lent his booming pipes to Audrey II, the carnivorous alien plant in the star-studded 1986 version of Little Shop of Horrors. Audrey II killed more white people than Candyman.

The Mondo Musicals! blog notes that some critics found Audrey II to be an offensive black caricature (!). Stubbs responded to those criticisms in a 1987 interview and said, "Sure, a lot of black people have big lips, but this is a plant, for crying out loud! That attitude is stupid."

Edward Copeland is right: even though he never appeared onscreen, Stubbs stole Little Shop.

"AFOS A-Go-Go" 09/16/08-09/22/08 playlist

1. Rita Monico with I Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni, "Thrilling" (from Thrilling), Canto Morricone--The Ennio Morricone Songbook, Vol. 1: The '60s, Bear Family
2. John Barry, "The Persuaders Theme," Themeology: The Best of John Barry, Columbia
3. Isaac Hayes, "Reel 5 Part 1" (from Shaft), Shaft Anthology: His Big Score and More!, Film Score Monthly
4. Isaac Hayes, "Source No. 2--7M1A (Do Your Thing)" (from Shaft), Shaft Anthology: His Big Score and More!, Film Score Monthly
5. Neil Patrick Harris, "Brand New Day," Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Mutant Enemy Productions
6. Robert J. Kral, "Gordon/Batman/The Train," Batman: Gotham Knight, La-La Land
7. Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra featuring James D. Atterley, "Caught at Midnight" (from Jerry Cotton: 321 Countdown Hurricane Friday), Futuremusik, Scamp
8. Guido & Maurizio De Angelis, "Life of a Policeman" (from High Crime), Beretta 70: Roaring Themes from Thrilling Italian Policefilms 1971-80, Crippled Dick Hot Wax!
9. Henry Mancini, "Here's Looking at You" (from Return of the Pink Panther), Do You Pick Your Feet in Poughkeepsie?, Paul Nice
10. Andre Previn, "Executive Party" (from Rollerball), Do You Pick Your Feet in Poughkeepsie?, Paul Nice
11. David Holmes, "Kensington Chump," Ocean's Thirteen, Warner Sunset/Warner Bros.
12. George Shaw(*), "The Search" (from J-ok'el), J-ok'el/Marcus, MovieScore Media
13. George Shaw, "J-ok'el," J-ok'el/Marcus, MovieScore Media
14. Nathan Fillion, "Everyone's a Hero," Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Mutant Enemy Productions
15. Neil Patrick Harris, "Slipping," Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Mutant Enemy Productions
16. Danny Elfman, "Main Titles" (from Beetlejuice), Music for a Darkened Theatre: Film and Television Music Volume One, MCA
17. Lalo Schifrin, "Egg Eating Contest," Cool Hand Luke, Aleph
18. Isaac Hayes, "Source No. 2--7M1C (No Name Bar)" (from Shaft), Shaft Anthology: His Big Score and More!, Film Score Monthly
19. Gordon Parks featuring O.C. Smith, "Move on In" (from Shaft's Big Score!), Shaft Anthology: His Big Score and More!, Film Score Monthly

"AFOS A-Go-Go" airs every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday in September on the Fistful of Soundtracks channel.

(*) Shaw was an orchestrator on one of my favorite films, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Earlier this month, one of Shaw's first feature scoring assignments, Asian Stories, hit DVD shelves. The 2006 indie film is a romantic comedy starring James Kyson Lee (Ando from Heroes) and Kathy Uyen (Spirits).

Shaft Anthology CD: "What is it with this black shit?"

It warms my brown heart to see Film Score Monthly's so concerned about us minority folks.

A week that began on a sad note with soul legend Isaac Hayes' death has climaxed with some awesome news about Hayes' most beloved contribution to film music. The folks at FSM have announced that in September, they will release the Shaft Anthology box set, which will mark two milestones: the first-ever release of the film versions of the Hayes/J.J. Johnson cues from the first Shaft installment's instrumental score (the 1971 Enterprise/Stax soundtrack album was a re-recording) and the first CD appearance of Gordon Parks' score from Shaft's Big Score, with additional tracks that were not part of the Shaft's Big Score LP.

As a fan of the music from the first Shaft movie and its two sequels, this limited-edition release excites me even more than FSM's mammoth, instantly out-of-print Superman: The Music box set from earlier this year. The three-CD anthology is also a cool way to honor Hayes' memory. According to FSM, the box set was actually long in the works and "was sent to the pressing plant for manufacturing three weeks prior to his death."

All that's missing from the box set is the soundtrack from the 1973 threequel Shaft in Africa, which was reissued by Hip-O Select a few years ago. FSM will substitute the Shaft in Africa tracks with score cues from the watered-down and wack Shaft TV series, which was best remembered for removing the "sex machine to all the chicks" side of Shaft's character, much like what producer Scott Rudin forced the filmmakers to do to the Samuel L. Jackson version of Shaft 27 years later.

As soon as I receive the Shaft box set, selections from the set will definitely be added to daily playlist rotation on the Fistful of Soundtracks channel.

If you have both a PC and a Netflix account like I do, the entire 1971 Shaft flick can be streamed for free here. If you wanna see Shaft instantly, ask your mama!

Isaac Hayes (1942-2008)

This sucks too.

Now comes word that Issac Hayes has died at the age of 65.

Besides helping put Stax on the R&B map with his experimental albums (Hot Buttered Soul) and songwriting work ("Soul Man" by Sam & Dave), Hayes also sang and wrote the Oscar-winning "Theme from Shaft" (the Shaft score is credited to Hayes, but much of it was actually done by J.J. Johnson and Johnny Allen) and starred in and scored the 1974 blaxploitation flicks Three Tough Guys and Truck Turner. He composed one of my favorite themes written for TV, the forgotten but funky theme from The Men, ABC's answer to The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie in the early '70s.

On the small screen, Hayes had a memorable recurring role on The Rockford Files as Gandy, an ex-con whose signature quirk was to still call Rockford by his prison nickname "Rockfish," and he provided the voice of Chef on South Park, before he quit under mysterious circumstances related to the show's gags about Scientology (Hayes was a member).

But Hayes' greatest piece of work--other than "Chocolate Salty Balls"--remains the "Theme from Shaft." Like the duel of Alessandro Alessandroni's harmonica and fuzztone guitar in Once Upon a Time in the West or the horn stabs during a John Barry (or David Arnold) 007 score, that simple high-hat that opens the Shaft theme never fails to get my adrenaline going.