Although Isaac Hayes' Hot Buttered Soul has a familiar looking cover I feel I've clocked in my subconscious over the years the actual album is yet another from my #WhyHaven'tIHeardThisBefore? series. In fact the only thing I knew Hayes for was his cameo appearances in South Park as "Chef"! (entirely irrelevant and off the subject but I read his leaving of that show was cloaked in some mystery surrounding Hayes' alleged involvement with Scientology).
Anyway, it's always a joy to discover new music and this album packs an extra bonus in being different to what I was expecting. I'm not a massive connoisseur of the 70s soul (and "lurve") artists like Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Barry White et al, but assumed Isaac Hayes was from the same pedigree. That being said, although there's plenty of "hot love" on this album it's actually more rock than I imagined.
The first track is Walk On By which in my ignorance I only know from the excellent Stranglers version (possibly their greatest ever track?). Of course I now know this is a classic Bacharach and David number made famous by Dionne Warwick in the early 60s. Hayes' version is almost unrecognisable being slowed right down (and dirty). A languid 2 minute introduction sets the pace before Hayes' super smooth voice comes in on an orgasmic chord change...
... a voice that hits like a velvet sledgehammer.
Nate Patrin in Pitchfork
This version (surely the greatest of many covers of this song) features horn fanfares, girl backing singers, Hayes' Hammond groove, and wonderful sweeping movie-epic strings which wash over you like a shower of syrup. It's Michael Toles' sleazy fuzz guitar that steals the show here though (a sound borrowed on my recently discovered Soft Hair album). The second half of the track builds to a crescendo of pumping bass and distorted lead guitar before ending with a hi-hat and drum break which I'm sure would have been sampled numerous times.
Even better is the second track, the curiously entitled Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic. This track literally rocks with the guitar locking into a wah-wah groove over a blues riff. Again the second half is an instrumental jam, this time with piano vamps over a repeating bass cycle.
Side two doesn't quite match the power of side one. One Woman is a much more traditional soul ballad cover clocking in at a relatively modest 5 minutes. Then the final track (yes, really, there are only 4 tracks on this "Soul" album) is an epic 18 minute version of Jimmy Webb's By The Time I Get To Phoenix, but half of this is a spoken word introduction which I feel breaks up the flow of the album as a whole somewhat. Once the music starts proper Hayes' soulful vocal chops are fully displayed against another string drenched backdrop and a honking horn finish. This track redefined the concept of a slow build!
The providence of the album is interesting. Originally a behind the scenes producer for the Stax record label Hayes was encouraged to follow up a 1968 debut album (which had bombed) when the record company lost the rights to their back catalogue to Atlantic Records. In order to rebuild a library of work Stax boss Al Bell ordered the label's artists (and behind the scenes creatives!) to immediately record solo albums. Hayes agreed to do so but only if he was able to maintain complete creative control. What followed was therefore an audacious record of excess and self indulgence consisting of extended jams, and very different to the standard Soul releases of the day dominated by the 3 minute single.
Despite such inauspicious beginnings the album proved to be a massive commercial and critical success chancing upon a luxurious rawness that soul artists would strive to match for years to come. Becoming one of the landmark Soul albums Hot Buttered Soul would forever bring Isaac Hayes out from behind the mixing desk (notwithstanding a stint in the South Park kitchens!).
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