Released in 2008 (to an audience that almost immediately bought out the print run of all 3,000 copies that were pressed), Film Score Monthly’s The Shaft Anthology is a revelation even if you’re already familiar with the existing release of Isaac Hayes’ album of music from the original movie. For one thing, the album released by Hayes alongside the film did not contain the original recordings as heard in the movie, but took the common approach of a more album-friendly re-recording that had better flow as a listening experience. (This frequently happens because film scores tend to contain a lot of discrete cues that might seem to be jarringly short to those not accustomed to listening to scores in their original form, hence the time-honored tradition – upheld by Williams, Goldsmith, and many others – of re-recording “concert” arrangements that sew the better short pieces together with linking material.) As a result, there is much here that was not on Hayes’ hit album – and even where there’s material that the two albums have in common (such as “Theme from Shaft”), the film version is a different recording, sometimes quite noticeably different. FSM’s 3-CD set aimed to deliver the full score from Shaft down to its shortest track, and with Hayes backed by the Bar-Kays or Movement (or some combination thereof) as his backing band, even the briefest track is a treat to hear.
The plan was to bring Hayes back for the sequel, Shaft’s Big Score!, but as the original film and its soundtrack had made him a hot commodity, Hayes simply didn’t have an opening in his schedule to handle scoring duties on the second movie. Tom McIntosh, who had lent orchestration expertise to Hayes on the first film, was still under contract to MGM and present on the studio lot, expecting to assist Hayes again, but instead found himself collaborating with director Gordon Parks, who opted to try his hand at scoring his own picture (paving the way for John Carpenter). (The delicate subject of who did the most actual musical work on Shaft’s Big Score! – and thus who should get the toplining screen credit – remained something of a long-running point of contention between Parks and McIntosh.) Whoever did the work, the Shaft’s Big Score! is better than you might expect. On the one hand, you’re probably not expecting the songcraft to be on Hayes’ level, but it’s certainly not lacking in either effort or orchestration. (Needless to say, everything in this entire box set is expertly played and extraordinarily well-produced – Hayes’ score from the original film is populated by musicians from the Stax Records stable of players, so it seems to be understood that, with that as the starting point, everything else in the Shaft franchise has to be at that level.) It may not be Hayes and his backing band, but the music of Shaft’s Big Score! is also not a letdown. Since the film’s director had direct input into the score, the second movie’s soundtrack is arguably more “soundtrackish” than the first, but still finds time to pause for a song (“Type Thang”, “Don’t Misunderstand”, “Move On In”) or two. The template established by Shaft is hewed to closely.
Though the extensive liner notes booklet acknowledges Shaft In Africa, it also reveals that the rights to that soundtrack – available elsewhere – did not allow it to appear in the box set, which means that almost half of disc two and all of disc three are devoted to the previously-unreleased-in-any-form complete episode scores from CBS’ short-lived Shaft TV series. That such a series happened at all – with Richard Roundtree remaining in the starring role, and on CBS, arguably the stodgiest old-school network on TV at the time – is still one of the most counter-intuitive moves in the history of film and TV, though to no one’s surprise, the television rendering of Shaft was vastly watered down from the far less filtered version of the character from the big screen. The result was a show that heavily compromised the films’ version of John Shaft, and probably made CBS’ older, largely white audience break out in a cold sweat. Still, the music tries to hold up its end of the bargain of connecting to the film franchise: the melody of Hayes’ “Theme From Shaft” is quoted often, and the TV episode scores spend equal time trying to summon the movies’ classic soul vibe, and dwelling in the space where a lot of ’70s TV music dwells (i.e. we can’t afford as large an orchestra as a movie, but we’re going to make the best of it). When there are tracks like “Cars And Bridges” connecting the TV series to the sound of the movies, There’s still a lot to love within the reduced expectations of Shaft: The Series.
Long out of print and much sought after, at least parts of The Shaft Anthology live on in other releases (Shaft’s Big Score! is available separately, and the first disc (minus the last two tracks) containing the complete score from Shaft itself is now part of Craft Records’ more easily attainable 2017 release Shaft: Deluxe Edition. This leaves the television scores as the real “killer app” of The Shaft Anthology, taking up nearly half of the box set. It’s gotten pricey on the secondary market, but the whole set is worth tracking down.
Disc One: Shaft ((1971)
- Title Shaft (Theme From Shaft) (4:34)
- Shaft’s First Fight (1:46)
- Reel 2 Part 2 / Cat Oughta Be Here (1:43)
- Bumpy’s Theme (Bumpy’s Lament) (1:44)
- Harlem Montage (Soulsville) (3:32)
- Love Scene Ellie (Ellie’s Love Theme) (1:43)
- Shaft’s Cab Ride / Shaft Enters Building (1:38)
- I Can’t Get Over Losin’ You (2:06)
- Reel 4 Part 6 (1:37)
- Reel 5 Part 1 (1:35)
- Reel 5 Part 2 (A Friend’s Place) (1:44)
- Source No. 1—6M1A (Bumpy’s Blues) (3:05)
- Source No. 1—6M1B (Bumpy’s Lament) (1:32)
- Source No. 1—6M1C (Early Sunday Morning) (3:05)
- Source No. 2—7M1A (Do Your Thang) (3:21)
- Source No. 2—7M1B (Be Yourself) (1:54)
- Source No. 2—7M1C (No Name Bar) (2:28)
- Shaft Strikes Again/Return of Shaft (1:36)
- Source No. 3 (Caffe Reggio) (4:23)
- Shaft’s Walk To Hideout (Walk From Reggio) (2:27)
- Shaft’s Pain (3:03)
- Rescue / Roll Up (10:44)
- Bonus Tracks)
- Theme From The Men (4:09)
- Type Thang (From Shaft’s Big Score!) (3:53)
Disc Two: Shaft’s Big Score! (1972)
- Blowin’ Your Mind (Main Title) (3:30)
- The Other Side (1:49)
- Smart Money (2:10)
- The Search/Sad Circles (2:31)
- Asby-Kelly Man (1:45)
- First Meeting (1:56)
- Don’t Misunderstand (1:46)
- Fight Scene (1:06)
- Ike’s Place (4:09)
- Move on In (3:38)
- 8M1/8M2 (1:25)
- Funeral Home (4:02)
- Don’t Misunderstand (instrumental) (1:53)
- 9M3 (0:44)
- Symphony for Shafted Souls (Take-Off / Dance of the Cars / Water Ballet / Call and Response / The Last Amen) (14:06)
- End Title (1:16)
- Don’t Misunderstand (demo) (2:00)
Shaft (Television Series, 1973-74)
The Executioners- Courtroom/Leaving Court (2:36)
- Dawson’s Trial (1:58)
- Shaft Leaves Barbara / East River / He’s Dead, Barb / Cunningham’s Breakfast (1:58)
- Visiting Jane / Act End / Jury Meets (2:02)
- Cars and Bridges (2:43)
- Leaving Airfield / Shaft Checks Hospital (2:22)
- Shaft Gets Shot / Shaft In Car (1:29)
- Night Blues (1:02)
- Day Blues (1:04)
- Pimp Gets Shot (2:59)
- Handle It / Follow Cunningham (3:31)
- Shaft Escapes / Stalking Menace (2:42)
- End Theme (0:30)
Disc Three: Shaft (Television Series, 1973-74)
The Killing- Opening (2:33)
- Diana In Hospital (2:37)
- Window Shop / Leaving Hospital / Ciao (1:28)
- Restaurant Scene / Punchin’ Sonny (2:52)
- Hotel Room (3:05)
- Diana Splits / Booking Shaft (1:31)
- Shaft Gets Sprung / Searchin’ (2:09)
- Pimps / Lick Her Store / Wettin’ His Hand / Diana Ducks Out (2:12)
- Juke Box / Hands In The Box (2:31)
- Shaft (2:53)
- Iggie’s Tail (2:21)
- Kyle Goes Down / Case Dismissed (1:21)
Hit-Run
- Opening (1:57)
- He’s The Best / Reenact / Good Day (2:38)
- Travel Shaft (0:42)
- Coffin Time (1:34)
- To the Club (1:22)
- Ann Appears / Shaft Gets It (2:14)
- Jacquard (2:31)
- Dart Board / Kissin’ Time (3:09)
- Omelette (1:55)
- Cheek Pat / Don’t Shoot / Shaft’s Move (1:05)
- Funny Time (0:58)
- At the Club (2:12)
- Ending (1:49)
The Kidnapping
- Chasin’ Shaft (3:00)
- Sleep, Dog, Sleep (1:37)
- Here Comes The Fuzz (2:11)
- I Said Goodnight / Walkie Talkie (3:46)
- Shoot Out (2:34)
The Cop Killers
- Rossi Gets It / Hospital / Who The Hell Are You? (2:06)
- Honky Horn (1:22)
- Sleeping Pigs (1:35)
- Splash Time (1:32)
- Shaft Gets It (1:50)
- Vacate The Van (1:41)
- Fork Lift (2:09)
- Shaft Theme (End Credit Version) (0:30)
Released by: Film Score Monthly
Release date: September 10, 2008
Disc one total running time: 1:10:18
Disc two total running time: 1:17:50
Disc three total running time: 1:18:49