Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul

The Real Quiet Storm

Imagine you, your romantic partner a chilled bottle of Chablis on a lazy Sunday afternoon. A beautiful rain storm and - Oh Yeah .....it's that good. Nuf said. June 10, 2008

Inspired, but flawed.

Musically and vocally a joy, and surely ahead of its time. However, a little less instrumentation and a lot more of Hayes' fabulous voice would go a long way. The nine minute spoken word intro to "by the time I get to Phoenix" is a self-indulgence which costs Hot Buttered Soul a fourth star. May 30, 2008

The 70's

This is a Hayes classic, if not master piece. Can listen to the whole album. The CD did not correct the volume leveling issue of the analog recording but this can be corrected after transfering to a media player. February 26, 2008

Classic Hayes.......BAR NONE

in the case of Hot Buttered Soul, Less is truly more.

and the remastered quality is AWESOME!

great price, you can't beat it. September 20, 2007

Adventurous Soul

Most people know Isaac Hayes as the guy that did Chef's voice in South Park or the guy that did the soundtrack to "Shaft" or even a spokesperson for the Scientology Church. For those of you even more devoted, he's quite a good actor these days and made an appearence in "Hustle & Flow" for example. However, there is much more then that. Back in the mid 60's he released several landmarks for the evolution of Soul & Funk. His albums would later also have a huge impact on the birth of Rap. In order to understand this we need to look back at the music that was played in the mid 60's and make a comparsion. Motown with Berry Gordy controlled R&B of the 60's, he had artists like The Supremes, Martha & The Vandellas, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye Jackson 5 and The Four Tops in his label. The Motown sound was mostly catchy upbeat with a strong hook and melody. With writers such as Holland/Dozier/Holland, and Norman Whitfield Motown defined the R&B sound of te 60's. But the sound nor the albums weren't very personal, it was mostly about making strong hits for the radio. In the late 60's R&B later called Soul was expanding and becoming more commercial and popular by all ethnicys and Detroit's Motown were losing it's grip on genre. Aretha Franklin with a more Gospel infleunced take on it, Sly & The Family Stone with it's Funk and even Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye chosing diffrent directions in the early 70's, this is kind of like when Hip Hop came to Cali and the South and the sounds were totally diffrent from the original from New York. However, Isaac Hayes was even more diverse.

From the modest label Stax he released debut album Presenting Isaac Hayes in 1967 and it really was diffrent. Hayes who was a producer/arranger/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist playing with many diffrent bands and often backing "bigger" artists with Piano or Sax had now finally got the chance to record his own album. His take on music didn't focus on melody or hooks but on sound and effects and his songs were often far more longer then the standard 3 minutes at the time. He focused alot on adapting classics, (but also made his own) but whatever he did they became his own and almost recognizable to the original. It was funky Soul from the arrangers point of view, something had hadn't been done before. Berry Gordy would probably have kicked him hard. Unfortunately, his debut album sold poorly and his chances to release a successor seemed to be in jeopardy. But Stax that was owned by Atlantic was suddenly sold to Warner Bros and they lost most of their big artists at the same time. They didn't have any other choise to let Mr Hayes release a sophmore effort. In 1969 Hayes released "Hot Buttered Soul" and I don't think they regret this decision cause the album would be a massive landmark for Soul and it sold 3 Million copies only in 1969. The album only had 4 songs and they weren't exactly radio standards when the shortest was 5 minutes and the longest 18, so what in heaven made people want to buy this?.

Isaac Hayes continues with what he started on his debut album but this time around it's close to perfection. Hayes is a good singer and he's very seductive but for long parts of these 4 songs it's instrumental where his backing band The Bar Keys get the chance to shine. But every second is perfectly planned and Hayes proves that Soul is alot about passion and creating a feeling thanks to arrangements and mood. He takes the Burt Bacharach classic "Walk on By" and make it 12 minute seductive jam with strings, horns piano and guitar riffs dripping in syryp. Compared with Diane Warwick's radio friendly version, this one is far more dramatic and sensual. This is what I would call the perfect cover. Next song with the almost un-pronouncable title "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic" is ONLY 9 minutes. It's a midtempo with backround singers and a very funky tone with piano and guitar riffs, for long parts it's also instrumental. Hayes wrote this song, but it was the only one on this album. Check his piano solo towards the middle, it's very impressive. "One Woman" is 5 minutes and is a classic romantic ballad. Although it's a good song it isn't as adventurous as the other songs. The orchestra and the backround choir make a great impression again. "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" closes the album, but it's a very long closer with it's 18 minutes. Hayes starts with his trademark "Rap" where he deeply talks for half of the song. Then it kicks off, another great romantic love song with great sensual vocals and wonderful orchestration. You could hardly believe that this was a remake cause once again Hayes makes it his own.

Overall, Isaac Hayes was perhaps a quite unlikely star. He was first and foremost an arranger, his songs were not commercial for the radio and his hairstyle was diffrent (what hairstyle?). But "Hot Buttered Soul" is a landmark in any way you put it. With it's direction, arrangements and emotion, there are no album quite like it. Hayes changed Soul forever with his unique style and this later led to making the soundtrack to Shaft: Music From The Soundtrack (1971 Film) and albums like ...To Be Continued and Black Moses that became his nickname just like "Lady Soul" was to Aretha. "Hot Buttered Soul" is a wonderful album but it may not be for everyone, but if You're interested to explore something diffrent You should guve it a try. September 6, 2007

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