TS: "Theme From Shaft" vs. "Truck Turner"

So we all know the big huge supersmash blaxploitation Oscar-winning Isaac Hayes classic by heart, right? Black private dick, damn right, shut your mouth, etcetera. I don't really have to go over it too much, except to observe that one of my favorite theme song slip-ups arises when Isaac sings "no-one understands him but his woman" - woman, singular?

But as full of ultra-cool as John Shaft is, Truck Turner's theme is a different beast altogether. If the song's any indication, he doesn't strut all suave like John does; he straight up runs full-tilt and smacks some sense into your damn fool head whether you deserve it or not. "Theme From Shaft" is a middle finger and a snarled "up yours" as a reaction to an impertinent cabbie, while Truck would just pull the door open, yank the cabbie out and just beat the hell out of him before sticking a Jackson in his bleeding mouth and warning him to watch himself from now on. He doesn't front like he's a pimp - hell, he blows pimps heads clean off. You don't introduce Truck with a little tshicka-tschika hi-hat beat, you have him bust through the wall Kool-Aid Man style to a frantic rubbery bassline - and that's not the horn section of a man who takes his challenges sitting down. And those strings, the way they segue from majestic Bernstien's "Magnificent Seven"-style sweeps to the machine-gun bowing that punctuated many an action-flick theme of the day - basically the "Shaft" formula taken to a ridiculously bombastic extent.

And the genius bit is? He's singing about his own character that he plays in the movie.