Isaac Hayes

[loveless]

I was listening to the luxuriant double album Black Moses [1971 - his second double LP that year and his sixth album overall] while working earlier...and...it was a treat. An indulgence, for sure, and...truthfully more than a little "Pan Seared Soul" (TWO Bacharach covers, returning to mine a vein from albums 2, 3, and 4) to a large extent, but...I guess I must really like what he was doing then.

Two of the arrangements and performances which really satisfied me the most are the albums bookends:




and




"Theme from Shaft" is an absolute masterpiece, in my view. 

And...I can't say enough about Hot Buttered Soul. His sense of arrangement and production is so singular, and...yes, as much as it does grow formulaic after a few albums, it's a unique and powerful formula (especially, on HBS when he first unleashes it on the world). Such an unlikely pop star (a towering bald behemoth of a baritone - I met him, and he really was exactly the gentle giant everyone pictures)...combining the taut funk of the Bar Kays with those incredible strings, horns, and sweet female backing vocal harmonies (one of my favorite bits of the recent Stax doc was the breaking down of these tracks and one of the singers describing her process for creating these parts).




(I posted the single edit of "Walk On By", but...I fully prefer and recommend the LP version, which may be canonically known enough that I don't need to recommend ANYTHING)

His pre-featured artist 1960s as a session musician, writer, producer and arranger for Stax is no less magnificent. I can't even begin to effuse properly about something like "Soul Man".

I'm giving a neophyte's overview of his best years/work, and...have left a lot of blanks for anyone to fill in (should they care to).

I just reckoned we hadn't looked at him (certainly not in any recent memory) around here, and...I guess I'm curious to see how "marmite" he is (or isn't, as the case may be). Older members of the community (and/or specialists) may have some deeper "real feel" to provide to this discussion.

What do you make of him?

[fonz]

I could happily listen to stacks of that kind of thing, but don’t feel like I’d need to know too much about the artist.
Whereas, other stuff from that era (say, Zappa or Crimson) I want to know all the details.
Maybe it’s a relatability thing?
That said, reflecting a bit more, I want to know everything about the Miles groups of that time. Maybe I just perceive a different process, or intent to really push music’s boundaries, which I don’t feel with IH.

["BING E BONG"]

The arrangements are stunning. That's usually what I notice with Hayes' stuff. They're classy, they're super-pro, but there's definitely a timestamp on them - which is good.

I have HBS and the Shaft OST and they're perfect for a bit of late-night 'arousal'. Or so I'm told.

[DarknessFish]

I can appreciate the craft, but the music just doesn't connect with me at all. I think it's too smooth, too impersonal for my own tastes, and I can't see that changing.

The man had really strong album cover-art images though, I'll give him that. I don't think there are any better covers that are just close ups of the artist.

[Half Machine Lipschitz]

In the mid-90's put a couple of tunes from HBS on a mixtape to play in the band van while we were touring around - 'Walk On By' and 'Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic'. I'm still trying to get my hands on a copy of Black Moses, though.

Those tracks helped get me though some long, dull drives for sure, and I appreciate being reminded of them at this particular moment because work is a going to be a real slog for the next couple of weeks and I'm going to need some musical help to get through it.

[fange]

Oh man, I rate him immensely in terms of songwriting ability, and that would even be JUST on his output as writer with Porter say during the 60s golden period at Stax! I mean, come on - 'Soul Man', 'I Thank You', 'Hold On, I'm Comin'', 'B-A-B-Y', 'Wrap It Up' et al... legend. Pure and simple.

But then you have the singular solo work as well, and that just franks his talents beyond dispute for mine. Not only was the songwriting on further show, but his distinctive vocals, his playing, production and arranging, top-freaking-shelf. The whole deal.

I really know nothing about his personal life beyond music apart from he was a Scientologist and was on South Park, so tbh, I am happy to keep it that way.

This is a personal fave, an extraordinary piece of music, captured just as well in the radio/single edit as the monster album version, 'Joy'...

[Sneelock]

I like him so it's nice hearing good things said about him.
I can't really be objective. His performance of SHAFT at the Academy Awards was one of the great pop-culture moments of my life.

[Charlie O.]

I'm a little surprised to realize that Hot Buttered Soul and Shaft are the only Hayes solo albums I've heard - surprised, because I like them quite a bit, and I can't explain why I haven't pursued this further. Recommendations for a next step?

As for his '60s collabs with David Porter: well, duh! Here's a relative obscurity, which I first heard done by Sir Douglas Quintet (their version is great):





And let us not forget his other great contribution to western society... I'm just talkin' 'bout Chef!

[quaco]

Good actor too, at least for a role that's good for him like Gandy Fitch. You just like looking at him, just like on those album covers.

[Stacy Heydon]

Oct 16, 2024 18:20:31 GMT Charlie O. said:

I'm a little surprised to realize that Hot Buttered Soul and Shaft are the only Hayes solo albums I've heard - surprised, because I like them quite a bit, and I can't explain why I haven't pursued this further. Recommendations for a next step?

Black Moses is great. Not so much an advancement from Hot Buttered Soul, more of a continuation.

[Charlie O.]

Nobody ever seems to talk about The Isaac Hayes Movement or To Be Continued... are they lesser?

[loveless]

Oct 17, 2024 1:14:59 GMT Charlie O. said:

Nobody ever seems to talk about The Isaac Hayes Movement or To Be Continued... are they lesser?

I really haven't heard them in forever, but...I remember being pretty into his version of "The Look of Love" (which is on one of them).

I think the sort of "continuity" within those four albums (HBS, Movement, TBC, and Moses) - stretched out, elaborately and lushly arranged covers, some "rapping" (in the late 60s/early 70s sense of the word) - casts something of a shadow over how (barring HBS) they're perceived, but...I'd gone decades without listening to Moses ("too much of a good thing" seems to be the theme here), and found it enormously satisfying when I finally came back to it, so...at this point, I'm likely/due to revisit the middle two freshly.