It must have been fate.
Earlier this evening, I was enjoying a rant from a rock-writer friend on Facebook. Phil wrote:
I've written a lot of dumb shit over the years. But Jonah Bromwich, via the AV Club, has written some of the dumbest shit I've ever read. First, he asserts that Future Shock is "arguably [Herbie] Hancock's best album." All I can really say in response to that is: Really? Quick: Name five more Herbie Hancock albums. Hell, name three songs from Future Shock besides "Rockit." Then, because he hasn't quite proved himself a completely irredeemable dumbass yet, he claims that Hancock's "aggressive experimentation in the realms of electro-funk and jazz can be seen as a direct antecedent to the lush productions of Steely Dan"...who recorded from 1972 to 1980, breaking up three years before Future Shock was released. Where do these people come from, and can we send them back there, please?
To his point, I offered that Herbie Hancock's score to "Blow-Up" (featuring "Bring Down the Birds," its opening hook later sampled by Dee-Lite for "Groove Is in the Heart") takes a giant shit over his early MTV stuff. By the same token, I'm not exactly an expert on the ouevre of the storied jazz musician/composer, so I should probably shut the hell up about it as well.
Strangely, about two seconds later, I scrolled down my Facebook feed and found the video below, posted by Dirty Old 1970's NYC.
Here's a clip of Herbie Hancock's "Hang Up Your Hang Ups" (from his 1975 album Man-Child) scoring a montage of gritty NYC footage that looks like it was culled from films like "Marathon Man," "The French Connection," "Taxi Driver" et al. (not at all unlike the films featuring here).
In any case, it's righteously groovy. Do check it out.
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