It might be easy to simply consider Isaac Hayes as ‘Black Moses,’ as the distinguished winner of an Oscar for “Theme For Shaft,’ as the man who literally changed the sound of R&B radio in 1969 with his groundbreaking “Hot Buttered Soul,” as a 1977 duet partner with Dionne Warwick – for their famed “A Man And A Woman” tour (I saw it; it was amazing) and to whom he gave the Grammy-winning song “Déjà Vu” as a birthday gift, as a dynamic showman resplendent in gold chains, bald head glistening, a physical giant of a man.

But for old school R&B buffs like me, Isaac Hayes - briefly a sax player with The Mar-Keys and then a keyboard player on several sessions at the Stax studios – was (with songwriting and producing partner David Porter), the genius behind some of the greatest and most soul recordings ever to come out of that studio on McLemore Avenue in Memphis. I’m not talking about the obvious Sam & Dave material – as good as it is and as important as it was for establishing Stax Records as a viable hitmaking machine (and soul music-wise, “When Something Is Wrong With My Baby” is still one of the best ballads the duo ever cut). I’m talking Ruby Johnson (“I’ll Run Your Hurt Away”), Mable John (“Your Good Thing”), Johnnie Taylor (“I Got To Love Somebody’s Baby”) and my personal, forever-favorite the late Judy Clay (“Give Love To Save Love,” “It’s Me,” “Remove These Clouds”).

In putting together a musical tribute to Isaac at www.soulmusic.com, I went for those kind of tracks – along with the requisite “Soulsville,” the still-brilliant “Walk On By” (my eternal favorite song) and an often-forgotten duet with Barry White entitled “Dark & Lovely (You Over There),” significant because when Barry first emerged as a recording artist, there were obvious comparisons with Isaac because of their bass-baritone vocal sound. Truly, if there was a ‘definition’ for deep soul, for the kind of chills-down-the-spine, make-the-hair-on-your-neck-stand-up recording, Ike and David’s work – mostly with bluesy female vocalists like Johnson, John and Clay – was it.

Of course, no one makes records like “Your Good Thing” or the stunning “I’ll Run Your Hurt Away” (on which the late Ruby J. wails and churchifies like Otis Redding) anymore, steeped in emotion and passion, lacking all the ‘cleanliness’ of Pro-Tools and pitch-fixers. Isaac and David set it up for soul sisters (and brothers like Johnnie Taylor, with whom they made some masterful sides) to have the right environment, Ike on keyboards, those funky Stax horn players punctuating the track with dead-on timing. The songs were full-on stories – Mable’s “Taking Up Another Man’s Place” is high drama (“you don’t want me to go to the store alone, what kind of man are you? You run over me to answer the telephone…”) and she recalls that “Your Good Thing (Is About To End)” was written as a result of her sharing with Isaac and David about a marriage gone bad. But what made Isaac Hayes and David Porter so compelling as songwriters – beyond their ability to create seriously soul-filled tracks – was their skill at writing songs that everyday folks could relate to. You need go no further than The Soul Children (who tore the house down in Memphis at the Stax 50th last year) whose Hayes-Porter-penned-and-produced “The Sweeter He Is” is an unadulterated classic!

Whenever I was in Isaac’s presence – which was a few times over the years (interviewing him for “Blues & Soul” in the late Seventies a couple of times and then doing a bio for his 1995 Virgin/Pointblank release, “Branded”) – I was always conscious of the musical contribution he had made to me personally as much through “Hot Buttered Soul” and “Shaft” as with the afore-mentioned Stax recordings he did with Judy Clay, Mable and their ilk and was appropriately respectful and awed. It was a real treat for me to put together my own personal musical tribute to Isaac at Soul Music.com (http://www.soulmusic.com/ishatrsomuco.html). I hope you can go check it out and discover for yourself the soulful genius of a man who will be much missed but whose recorded legacy remains intact.

David Nathan
A/k/a the British Ambassador Of Soul
Secretary, The Rhythm & Blues Foundation (www.rhythmblues.org)
Owner,
www.soulmusic.com,
www.soulmusicstore.com,
www.soulmusicglobal.com

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