In Memory of Moses

I realize I’m way late on this, but I’ve been coach-ridden with Olympic Fever and just found out today that the legend Isaac Hayes passed away. I’m a huge fan of his work, both as an artist and as a songwriter for so many of the great Stax artists of the 1960’s.

It’s a little bit spooky for me, because I was just thinking about Isaac earlier today, when I was going through a hard drive and stumbled on this picture from my old apartment in Rotterdam, where the epic fold-out from his Black Moses album was basically the only decoration we had…

Anyway let’s celebrate the man’s amazing music, today and forever.
Here’s a clip of Isaac in his prime performing Burt Bacharach’s timeless lover’s pitch ‘The look of love’

Here’s the beginning of his performance at Wattstax (the rest of it’s on youtube). I think this one shows not only the man’s superhuman soulfulness, but also the sense of showmanship and humor that led to his later incarnation as Chef on South Park.

And here’s a highlight from that era - Chef’s chocolate salty balls:

Yup. Check out more at the South Park Studios site.

Music-wise it’s so hard to choose, but here’s a personal favorite: the full-on nineteen minute version of ‘By the time I get to Pheonix’ from Hot Buttered Soul , an historic album and essential listening for anyone who enjoys pleasure.

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The Isaac Hayes song everybody knows is Theme from Shaft of course, so I’m not gonna bother putting that up. But check out Versions Galore, a cool new cover song blog, for a crazy selection of Theme of Shaft covers.

Isaac was also one of the most sampled artists around, and the Jamsbio blog has put up a nice little overview of a few of the most famous ones. Check it here.

*Serious Update* - DJ Wonder made a very thorough mix of original and sampled tracks for Shade45. It’s available on his site. Download this shit.

**Serious Update #2** - Producers Cookin Soul out of Valencia, Spain have just released Hot Buttered Soul: Isaac Hayes Instrumental Tribute via Nah Right. And man, it is good. Art in tribute to art. Get it now, get it here.

We’ll miss you.

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