Does anybody know were I can get my hands on an original release of "Super Fly"? Now days, it is called "Superfly" and for all you old school people like myself, the new versions do not play the song "Freddie's Dead" after Freddie get hit by the car. "Freddie's Dead" was one of the title tracks hits, how dare modern day yuppies butcher it out. The newer versions is butchered!
Too bad someone won't re-edit it or release the full theatrical release!
Freddie's Dead on YouTube (Curtis Mayfield live):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9nwcpGZE6A
Freddie's Dead 45 on ebay (excellent condition):
http://snurl.com/freddiesdead
Two Superfly albums on ebay:
http://snurl.com/superfly1
http://snurl.com/superfly2
I think it's the movie he's after and the place where the song features in it.
After the revolution everything will be different. Your password is 'Giliap'!
I was wondering about that. Because they never really have the song Freddie's Dead in the movie except for the instrumental, and it's always been one of my favorite ones from the soundtrack. I just saw the movie and was kind of taken aback by it.
share[deleted]
On the Live at Ronnie Scott's CD and video (recorded in 1988), Curtis introduces the song by saying "We know what happened to Freddie, don't we? Tell me, what happened to Freddie?"
(voices from the audience:) "Freddie's Dead!"
(Curtis:) "Yeah, Freddie left here. But we'd like to give you his story."
After the revolution everything will be different. Your password is 'Giliap'!
One of the interesting things about Freddie's Dead by Curtis Mayfield vs. Freddie the minor character in the Superfly movie, is how much more complex and compelling Mayfield's version is. Mayfield seems to have created his own Freddie who has almost nothing to do with the character in the film, who is just a two-dimensional small-timer who gets hit hit by a car. Someone should make a movie based on Mayfield's characters--it would be a better film.
shareOP, I wonder if maybe your memory is playing tricks on you. Offhand, it might seem logical for the filmmakers to have put the song there-- but think about it again.
If the original version of the movie had the vocal version of "Freddie's Dead" playing right after Freddie gets hit... then what would be on the screen while the song was playing for one or two or three minutes? A long drawn-out shot of the accident scene? For that long? Well, then maybe they ran the song over the scene of Priest and Georgia talking in the park, which is what the DVD cuts to? No, that wouldn't have worked-- we wouldn't hear their dialogue.
Besides, to start in with the "Freddie's Dead" lyrics immediately after he goes down would just be too... literal. And he's only a supporting character-- would they really drop a whole song about his life into the middle of this movie about Priest? I can't see them doing it. On the other hand, a trailer or other promotional film could well have run part of the song over the footage of Freddie's last moments-- maybe that's what you saw.