Isaac Hayes – Truck Turner

Back last autumn we finally decided we needed to subscribe to the Criterion Channel – all kinds of movies we wanted to see that had gone behind their paywall when they split off as their own channel some years ago, and we kept being frustrated by the movie offerings of the other services, which are really centered on episodic TV these days. That’s fine, but I love movies, so we committed to Criterion.

Well, one of the first features that we loved was a Yaphet Kotto festival or collection or whatever they call them – a whole bunch of movies with Yaphet Kotto, and one of those was “Truck Turner,” a 1974 blaxploitation film starring Isaac Hayes and Nichelle Nichols. It’s a fairly typical example of the genre, with strong performances by the leads but the normal stereotypes and problems of a ’70s blaxploitation film. Highly enjoyable nevertheless, and as we were watching it, we thought: “This soundtrack is really good.” And because this is the age of instant gratification, and because I don’t recall ever seeing this in the used record bins (though there must have been a time), I just did the unthinkable and went to Discogs to buy a copy.

The songs with lyrics are meh – the “Truck Turner” title track is no “Shaft,” and the big romantic number “You’re In My Arms Again” is so Isaac Hayes that it might have been written by an Isaac Hayes bot, had such a thing existed in 1974. But the background score is really some solid background funk, when you need a low-key soul soundtrack going on in the background, it’s fabulous. Highly recommended.