Opening Titles and Song: Trouble Man (1972)

I was recently reminded of 1972 by a few folks¹, some of whom were even around back then. A momentous year no matter how one cuts it. Ranging from the good — the Olympic year opening with the Winter Games at Sapporo, Japan, the Equal Rights bill passed by Congress, and the release of The Godfather movie; to the bad… the brewing Watergate scandal, growing inflation, and the crooked Richard M. Nixon winning re-election by an electoral landslide.

And of course, we can’t leave out the truly ugly, the continuing Vietnam War, The Troubles, and the tragedy of the Munich massacre at the Summer Games that changed us and the Olympics from then on — oh, and I graduated high school.

This brings us to something more enjoyable, and a tad nostalgic, for me at least. The release of the Blaxploitation film², Trouble Man, that same year. And if you were young, into action movies, and wanted something different than what the typical heroes in mainstream movies promoted, this was right up your alley. Certainly, the film, the debut of African-American actor, Ivan Dixon, in the director’s chair³, carried on what many of us savored with the sub-genre from the start⁴.

The accompanying and straightforward titles that opened the movie begin as they trace our black white knight to and from two particular neighborhoods that mark the southland’s racial barriers. Leaving the Malibu pad of a lady friend, leading out his cool Lincoln Continental Mark IV 2-door hardtop onto the Pacific Coast Highway, the credits cover much ground. From the land of sandy beaches, celebrity homes, and stunning views, to its coin-flip locale where those who share Mr. T’s skin color live.

Cruising his sweet ride down PCH, through Santa Monica and the McClure Tunnel⁵, brings our protagonist back on the freeway that bisects the City of Angels into two distinct hemispheres. Eastbound on the 10, transforming the region from waterfront to intraurban once going under Lincoln Boulevard. Beyond the 405 bringing vehicles north to the San Fernando Valley or down to the South Bay, before finding his way onto La Brea Avenue and up into the familiar Baldwin Hills⁶.

Culminating with Mr. T. making the sweeping turn onto Don Lorenzo Drive, then continuing the hook over to Don Alberto Place — arriving at one of the iconic condominiums of the area and strolling confidently up to his crib.

No doubt, the opening titles’ short sojourn flitted across one of the diverse, though redlined⁷, metropolitans, ushered in via one of the seminal songs of the era that continues to reverberate in the decades since. Even referred to in another action genre that impacted fans in this century. Case in point, as noted in this key bit of dialogue from Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)⁸:

Sam Wilson: “You must miss the good old days, huh?”

Steve Rogers: “Well, things aren’t so bad. The food’s a lot better, we use to boil everything. No polio is good…Internet, so helpful. Been reading that a lot, trying to catch up.

Sam Wilson: “Marvin Gaye, 1972, Trouble Man soundtrack. Everything you missed, jammed into one album.”

Steve Rogers: “I’ll put it on the list.”

The uniquely bluesy yet sophisticated title track written, produced, and sung by the great Mavin Gaye, in the only film soundtrack he ever authored.

“Bolstered by film soundtracks such as Shaft and Superfly Motown offered the musician a chance to compose his own film soundtrack after winning rights to produce the crime thriller, Trouble Man.” ~ Wikipedia

Even if his one-of-a-kind vocal presence, outside of the lead song, is held back, the soundtrack’s fare is something to behold and dazzles well beyond this early urban-styled film. The tracks range from jazzily urgent, sometimes forlorn, but always soulful, and epitomized by the title track. The album sits in between his seminal, politically charged What’s Going On and the sexy funk of Let’s Get it On, LPs, which remain my three favorites of this legendary artist that buoyed this troubled period.

Nostalgia

Since I have a nostalgia gene, to my spouse’s regret, would have to add the following to this post. When I first enjoyed the movie and its soundtrack after graduating prep school, hadn’t expected I’d come to learn more about the locations in later years. Before I married, I lived in Santa Monica in the mid-’80s, and as an avid cyclist, would do a 60-mile loop from my flat, through the San Fernando Valley, over the Santa Monica Mountains, and take PCH by Pepperdine University in Malibu⁹ home.

That meant I’d regularly ride past the filming location where Jean Bell¹⁰ was poolside before Robert Hooks got into his car homeward. And a year after I married my lovely bride, we’d relocate to the nearby View Park area on the other side of Stocker Street. A mere few blocks from where Mr. T. took that exterior elevator up to his stylin’ digs. In fact, I still see that same building from nearby Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area when riding the trails on my gravel bike.

In other words, everything between then and now, even the ’70s, is still somehow happily imprinted in memory. 🙂