Yet another legend gone. Isaac Hayes, the great songwriter, performer, soundtrack composer, restaurateur, actor (and erstwhile voice of "Chef" from South Park), died yesterday at age 65.
In addition to writing a slew of hits with David Porter for Stax Records soul men Sam & Dave, Isaac was doing the "deep-voiced love man" thang years before anyone had ever heard of Barry White, and his wah-wah-flecked, Academy Award-winning "Theme from Shaft" virtually defined the "blaxploitation" sound. A renaissance man of considerable gravitas as well as an earthy sense of humor (at least until South Park mocked Scientology), Hayes was truly the only person who could have titled an album Black Moses and actually gotten away with it.
I never got to interview him, though I did meet him very briefly at, of all surreal things, a David Lee Roth show. It was the opening night of the House of Blues on Sunset, and my friend Chris and I were standing inside the doorway of what was then the club's George Gruen guitar shop, gazing lustily at the drool-worthy vintage axes on the wall. I turned back towards the door just in time to see Isaac Hayes walk in. He was shorter than I would have expected (frankly, I wouldn't have been remotely surprised if he'd turned out to be eight feet tall), but it was unmistakably the man in the flesh. I wasn't remotely starstruck; the man's music had been a constant presence in my life for so long that, in that second, I felt like I was running into a friend I knew from work or softball or something. "Isaac, what's happening?" I blurted out. From behind his shades, I caught a brief silent flash of "What the fuck?", but then he grinned and nodded back at me. "How's it goin', man?" he said, smooth as a newly-waxed Caddy. That was all, but that was enough.
I think the following clip does a nice job of summing up at least part of his genius. Watch (and groove) as he works on the instrumental "Cafe Reggio's" for the Shaft soundtrack, and then the title cut. Damn, the cat was good.
Damn, I was in the same room as I Issac Hayes? I don't even remember that. Must've been the guitars....
Posted by: Chris Perry | August 11, 2008 at 05:40 PM