The Musical Box

issac hayes

For one generation, he was the cat that sang about “that cat Shaft.” To another, he was the womanizing, foul-mouthed father figure known as Chef on South Park.

But to any audience, Isaac Hayes was the soul man supreme. He died on Saturday at age 65 in Memphis, the city he was essentially a musical ambassador for.

Hayes was, regardless of how commercially visible his music or career was, a template for cool. But in the early ‘70s, he was also a true innovator whose records became orchestral incantations where vocals were spoken as much as sung. Barry White ran with the formula in the mid ‘70s when Hayes’ hits started to settle. But Hayes was always the man. He was the one who designed the breathy, baritone-rich romanticism that defined a vocal era in R&B music.

But Hayes was so much more than that. Along with the Staple Singers, he helped write the last great chapter in the golden age of Stax Records. That meant forging a soul sound that was reflective of the times. Funk discreetly prevailed in his best songs, as in the mantra-like guitar riff that percolated throughout 1971’s career defining Theme from Shaft. But Hayes, like the underappreciated Motown producer Norman Whitfield, also took a nod or two from psychedelia. A prime example: the fuzzy guitar counterpoint that injected the Burt Bacharach staple Walk On By with a sense of urban urgency. It became Hayes’ breakthrough hit in 1969.

Hayes’ charisma often carried over to movie screens as well, right up through Hustle & Flow in 2005. A personal favorite was a slice of pure camp: 1981’s Escape from New York, where he played a gang leader called The Duke who paraded around the decimated city in a Continental with twin chandeliers as hood ornaments. The Duke was a bad shut-your-mouth, too

But a defining screen appearance came in the1973 concert documentary Wattstax, where he closed the day-long “Afro-American Woodstock” with Shaft. The concert, staged the previous year, commemorated the seventh anniversary of the Watts riots. But it also, perhaps unintentionally, chronicled the end of Stax Records’ reign as one of the most influential soul labels to blossom out of Memphis - or the entire South, for that matter.

"soul men": bernie mac (who died friday), hayes, samuel l. jackson

Coincidentally, one of Hayes final filmed performances will be released this fall. He will be featured in Soul Men, a comedy starring Samuel L. Jackson and Bernie Mac. Mac died on Friday at the age of 50. The premise: two veteran R&B singers reunite after 20 years at the Apollo Theater to honor the passing of their band leader.

There remains, of course, the music. While dozen of Hayes anthologies have been issued over the years, it’s best to stick with the early Stax recordings - specifically 1969’s Hot Buttered Soul, 1971’s soundtrack to Shaft and Black Moses and, for a time capsule view of what a vital R&B voice Hayes was to his generation, the 2004 remastered CD and DVD editions of Wattstax.

All were cut in an age where soul music was way, way more than simple entertainment. It was groove. It was heart. It was social consciousness. It was Isaac Hayes.