Tuesday, March 3, 2009

LaMont Johnson - "Thunderfist" OST (1973)




A follow-on from the last post, LaMont Johnson's "Nine : A Mystical Musical Allegory".

Blogger Fraykerbreaks responded to my search for the promo 7" single from LaMont Johnson's 1973"Thunderfist" kung fu soundtrack (which features Blue Mitchell) and posted it, but (2014 note) his post is long gone. so now I'm adding it here.

It has three great tracks on one side, and radio promos for the film on the other side. The single itself was initially just manufactured to be sent to radio stations. In this download,  I've added the movie's theme that I ripped from the VHS soundtrack.

Artisan Releasing Corporation was LaMont Johnson's own film production/distribution company. The music here was re-used in the 1978 Jim Kelly vehicle "Death Dimension".

Thus far, I can't find any evidence of a full soundtrack release for "Thunderfist" - the fragment of the film I've managed to see used the opening section of the Temptation's "Pappa Was a Rolling Stone" several times for action sequences after Johnson's opening theme.

Anyway, hope you enjoy it, and thanks to Fraykerbreaks for the original post.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Find more LaMont Johnson in my mp3blog and forum searches:

HERE
and
HERE

ish said...

Catching up on some old posts. This is amazing stuff and couples well with the theme you ripped from video...in that theme I actually love the preservation of the dialogue. Makes it kinda haunting.

Wonder what a whole album would have sounded like. It's too bad LaMont is gone, I imagine he would have enjoyed seeing this crate-digging revive interest in his work.

Simon666 said...

Hi ish, I'm still curious about the rest of this soundtrack - I'll try and get a better torrent download than the one that stopped after ten minutes, and see if there's some more sections worth ripping.

There was a 30 second punchup scene where the fight effects obliterated the music so heavily I didn't bother :)

MAC said...

That Thunderfist theme is incredible! Any idea how to hear the rest of that score? Doesn't seem to be on Frayker's site anymore...
Also..completely unrelated...well, except for the Rhodes connection...any idea where one could find Bora Rokovic's Ultra Native? no luck so far...just heard one song from it that I loved...
anyways...aside from all that... Thanks for promoting all this great music!!!
It's food for the soul.

Anonymous said...

Came across this site while looking for lamont. We grew up together in NYC specifically harlem. On Convent ave btwn 129th and 130th Streets. Lamonts dad mr johnson was white and his mom mom was black. He had a younger brother and sister, Keith and Beverly. When Lamont fimished high school. I remember him telling me about his scholarship offer. One was a math schshp to Manhattan college. But over the summer he decide to join the Air Force. When he came home on leave he said they were sending him to syracuse unv to learn Russian and then off to germany.m about 2 yrs.later i joined the AF and was sent over seas when i landed at rhein main afb germany and went to brieifing to be routed who walks in to give the briefing? Lamont. He cxld the briefing took me to his apt in frankfurt where i met his wife anna and their newborn baby. When he was getting out the AF would not pay for anna and the baby so i helped scrap up th $ for their civilian flt back to NY. Lamont was a genius. He taught himself to read music and play the piano in just 6 months. Often practicing 3 to 4 hrs a day. And played with some of the best german musicians. Carlos bolinger and the mengelsdorf bros. We lost touch after got involved scientology. Sorry hes gone. You'd hv to hv grown up on the block with us to understand the kind of friendship we had. The block cool moe dee describes as The Wild Wild West. Guy "buddy clark" Copes

Simon666 said...

Hi Guy -
Thanks a lot for stopping by and sharing your stories. LaMont's daughter Kyleigh posted on another LaMont thread at this site, looking for more information about her dad, you might want to contact her there :

http://neverenoughrhodes.blogspot.com/2009/03/lamont-johnson-aces-1979.html

regards,
Simon

the beatman said...

any way to reup this gem

Simon666 said...

hi beatman,
Yes - I just finished re-uploading the entire blog today. New link in the post.

Unknown said...

Great dig! Thanx!

Simon666 said...

you're welcome :)