Issac Hayes 1942 – 2008

Issac Hayes, the pioneering soul music legend best known for the theme from the 1970’s blaxploitation movie Shaft was found dead earlier today at his home in Memphis, Tennessee. Hayes was 65 years old.

Relatives found the singer next to his treadmill, which was still running. Cause of death has not yet been determined. Hayes was a three time Grammy award winner, for the 1972 album Black Moses and for the blockbuster hit soundtrack to Shaft, which netted the singer two Grammys in 1971. The "Theme From Shaft" also won an Oscar for best original theme song that year. In 2002, Hayes was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.

Hayes will no doubt be remembered as much for his image as for his music. With his trademark shaved head, and his seventies album covers (where he sometimes wore chains), Hayes dramatic appearance was one not soon forgotten. Hayes began his career as a charter member of the legendary Stax Records house band, the BarKays – performing with the band on hit records by the likes of Otis Redding and Sam & Dave. Hayes also wrote a number of hit songs for artists on the label.

By the time he began recording his own albums however, Issac Hayes became just as well known for his dramatic reinterpretations of the songs of other artists as for his own compositions. A perfect case in point was his eighteen minute reinvention of Jimmy Webb’s “By The Time I Get To Phoenix,” on his platinum selling 1969 release Hot Buttered Soul. The song had previously been a hit for country singer Glen Campbell. In Hayes version, the singer spends well over half of it’s eighteen minutes setting the song up, by breaking the lyrics down line by line to reveal a gut-wrenching tale of romantic heartbreak. From there, the song draws to a thunderous ending crescendo of horns and strings.

But Issac Hayes biggest hit was still to come. The smash theme song from the movie Shaft was instantly recognizable for both it’s signature wah-wah guitar, and it’s catch-phrase spawning lyrics of “shut yo’ mouth” and “can ya dig it?” Once you heard that song, there was no mistake who “the black private dick who’s a sex machine with all the chicks” was. “Theme From Shaft” would go on to be the biggest hit of Issac Hayes career, forever setting the blueprint for future blaxploitation themes like Curtis Mayfield’s “Superfly.”

In more recent years, Hayes gained a new generation of fans in the role of the “Chef” with the “chocolate salty balls” on the racy cartoon series South Park. Hayes left the show in 2002 after a dispute about an episode lampooning the Scientology religion. Hayes was a devout Scientologist.

Rest in peace Black Moses.


RELATED: otis redding, BarKays, Stax Records, Issac Hayes

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