Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul(Stax / Enterprise 1969)
Four songs in forty-five minutes. Wiki has some interesting stuff to say about the album,
"The album almost never came to be. Hayes' solo debut, Presenting Isaac Hayes, had been a poor seller for Stax Records, and Hayes was about to return to his behind-the-scenes role as a producer and songwriter at the venerable soul label when it suddenly lost its complete back catalog after splitting with Atlantic Records in May 1968. Stax executive Al Bell decided to release a new, almost instant, back catalog of 27 albums and 30 singles at once, ordered all of Stax's artists to record new material, and encouraged some of Stax's prominent creative staff, including Hayes and Steve Cropper, to record solo albums.Burned by the retail flop of Presenting Isaac Hayes, Hayes told Bell that he would not cut a follow-up unless he was granted complete creative control. Since Bell had encouraged Hayes to record Presenting... in the first place, he readily agreed."
"By the Time I Get to Phoenix" takes some patience, the whole album does really...but it's worth it. Get your groove on, baby.
01. Walk on By
02. Hyperbolicsyllablicsesquedalymistic
03. One Woman
04. By the Time I Get to Phoenix
1 comments:
Let me get this straight...Hot Buttered Soul by Isaac Hayes "takes some patience"?? This is one of the greatest soul albums of all time, a million-seller that topped FOUR Billboard charts for most of the year following its release. It is crediting with being the breakthrough project that transformed the soul market from being primarily singles-based to concept-album-based, paving the way for Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway and other soul artists to do their thing throughout the 1970's. True, it's a 40 year old record, but it's an enduring masterpiece. I can put it on and just lose myself in the music. I think the blogger agrees with me that this is an album worth hearing, but we could have done without that condescending little side observation. If this album takes "patience", then maybe you need to slow down a little. What I have no patience with is that they don't make records like this any more. It is jazz, it is blues, it is soul, it is almost easy listening but in a way turns that category on its ear by bringing all these other influences to what are usually considered easy listening songs. You listen to this album and realize Isaac Hayes is the precursor to rap. Given the extended mixes with their repetitive drum and bass rhythms, maybe you can credit him as being the precursor to trance music. It saddens me that we've come to live in a world that is so A-D-D it takes "patience" to experience an album with so much musical and emotional depth. I just got the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab remaster of this album on SACD and intend to patiently let it entertain me for a long time to come.
Post a Comment