Curtis Mayfield

Another Tyree Black History Month All Star. Most people will remember him from scoring and producing the soundtrack for the Blaxploitation film Superfly. But he was so much more than that. He put awareness of social problems and conditions in his music similarly to the way Bob Dylan did. With Curtis Mayfield it was about the music and how it could educate as well as entertain.

Curtis Mayfield's most famous work is Superfly. Many critics believe that it's his best work, it is very great, but fuck critics! It seems that critics believe that Superfly was his only work. They don't know shit. Popular opinion sucks balls. Curtis has a long list of classic material check out the albums; Curtis, Sweet Exorcist, and Back to the World. Also peep People Get Ready when he was apart of the legendary Impressions.

He was also an excellent guitarist. A lot of black musicians don't get credit for their skills with the axe but Curtis was one of the greatest of all time when it came to wielding one. Fuck all that Jimmy Page, Elvis Costello, and Eric Clapton talk I'll take Curtis Mayfield, B.B. King, and Bobby Womack any day of the week over those fuckers plus a many more great black guitarists who just don't get credit for being great musicians. I think it has to do with mass appeal. Everyone loves the hits the great Soul and Funk artists produced in the 50's, 60's, and 70's but no one wants to credit the artistry that was in their music. Plus back in those days you couldn't market a Black group to the White masses as they tend to do now. Especially with Rap and Hip-Hop these days. A lot of the Black musicians in those days sold music to groups like the Rolling Stones or had it stolen from them by Elvis Pressly and that's how a lot of them got known. They had a Rolling Stones hit on their resume. In fact the Rolling Stones first UK hit. Not first US hit, their first hit in their own country was written by Bobby Womack. They couldn't get over without Bobby.

Some of my favorite Curtis Mayfield songs are;
-Make Me Believe In You
-I Just Want To Be With You
-Do Do Wop Is Strong In Here
-Trippin' Out
-Hard Times
-(Don't Worry) If There's Hell Below We're All Gonna Go
-Underground (Demo)
-Right On For the Darkness