Herbie Hancock – The Spook Who Sat By The Door

Heres a link to where q-tip reveals a test pressing of the the soundtrack: https://youtu.be/ZHPWwTVlmMc?t=2m18s

Track A2 rather than being the main film title, is just "Actual Proof" from Thrust, seemingly an edit of the album version.

mine is a recent reissue

I may be wrong, but I believe this was never actually released in 1973. I have never seen a original in person or on ebay. Every copy I have ever seen on-line or in person is a modern pressing.

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, there are a couple tracks on the "Death Wish" soundtrack that also sound very similar to what one can hear on this soundtrack. 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.