If you’ve followed the funk for any amount of time you’re familiar with the classic Earth, Wind, and Fire album That’s the Way of the World. What you may not be familiar with or may have forgotten is that the album was the soundtrack to a movie of the same name. It turns out that when the film was released in 1975 the response was so disappointing that the movie studio pulled the film out of circulation after just 3 days. It remained in limbo for over 30 years before being released to DVD in 2006.

To be honest the film is not an example of great cinema. It’s produced by Sig Shore (who also brought us the film Superfly), and is of similar standards to the typical “blaxploitation” films of the day. That said, it presents a bleak picture of the record industry and their shenanigans promoting sugar coated “product” over “art”. That may seem a bit old hat in 2011 but in 1975, when this movie was filmed, recording artists were just starting to gain some bits of control over their careers and recordings. The sad part, of course, is that the record companies are still trying to pull the same tricks.

Starring Harvey Keitel and the one of the funkiest soundtracks ever, the flick is definitely worth a look. Even though EWF gets precious little face time, You finally get a chance to hear the music in the context it was written for.

A lost piece of funk history. Check the trailer.

And the original movie poster

Pick up the album if, by some gross oversight, you don’t already have it.