Herbie Hancock – The Spook Who Sat By The Door
Label:
Not On Label (United Artists Records) – UAR-7370
Format:
Vinyl, LP, Album, Unofficial Release
Country:
Released:
Genre:
Style:
Tracklist
| A1 | Revolution | 1:39 | ||
| A2 | The Spook Who Sat By The Door (Reprise) | 4:10 | ||
| A3 | Revenge | 1:43 | ||
| A4 | At The Lounge | 1:28 | ||
| A5 | Training Day | 2:30 | ||
| A6 | The Stick Up | 1:56 | ||
| A7 | Main Theme | 1:24 | ||
| B1 | Underground | 2:03 | ||
| B2 | The Spook Who Sat By The Door | 2:52 | ||
| B3 | The Big Rip Off | 4:25 | ||
| B4 | Recruiting | 0:50 | ||
| B5 | The Pick Up | 2:04 | ||
| B6 | It Begins | 0:36 | ||
| Dialog (2:27) | ||||
| B7a | The Plan | 0:51 | ||
| B7b | CIA Spook | 0:08 | ||
| B7c | Best Of The Best | 0:15 | ||
| B7d | Step Outside | 0:08 | ||
| B7e | Junkie | 0:11 | ||
| B7f | Man & Machine | 0:08 | ||
| B7g | Bad Move | 0:19 | ||
| B7h | I'm Black | 0:18 | ||
| B7i | Network | 0:13 | ||
Credits
- Producer, Conductor, Composed By – Herbie Hancock
Notes
Original motion picture soundtrack to the film by Ivan Dixon & Sam Greenlee.
Track B7 listed as "Dialog" is a collection of dialogue samples from the film.
Other Versions (Showing 1 of 1) View All
| Title, Format | Label | Cat# | Country | Year | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Spook Who Sat By The Door (LP, Album, RE) | United Artists Records | UAR-7370 | US |
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[r635602]
The film itself was controversial and only saw limited release in America, due to the subject matter. It is a very good movie, produced on a shoestring budget. The premise is that the CIA is forced to integrate and invites the "best and brightest" of the African American community. The candidates are then put through a rigorous testing process to weed out the less than qualified. Eventually one man was able to pass all the stringent tests and was accepted into the CIA, he was immediately was placed in a sub basement manning the copy machine. He eventually is fed up with the institutional racism at the CIA and quits and returns to his hometown in Chicago. This is where the film gets crazy. The black ex CIA agent takes his skills learned from the CIA and trains local hoodlums to organize and embark on a guerilla war against the United States of America. To me the film feels like a catharsis, the frustrations of the 60's in the Black community are depicted on screen, the idea of taking up arms against the federal government was not unheard of at the time, so this film depicts what may have happened had a black group actually gone militant.
As far as the music itself, goes. Herbie Hancock really utilizes synthesizers to create a eerie atmosphere, he also uses what sound like tapes of funk vamps played in reverse. I can hear elements of "Mwandishi" as well as "Head Hunters" in this score. I imagine Hancock was not paid a lot to make this music, so it does not sound as polished as his other projects from the time, to my ears the rawness of the sound matches nicely to the rawness of the subject matter of the film. This soundtrack also has lots of dialog from the film. I suggest watching the movie and also hearing the soundtrack.
Has anyone ever seen a bona-fide original of this soundtrack? I don't think one exsists.