Send "Isaac Hayes " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
![Isaac Hayes - Shaft OST [Deluxe Edition] review](http://www.sweetslyrics.com/poze/shaft-OST.jpg) It's not often that a musician gets a chance to initiate a massive shift in two different fields of entertainment at the same time. Things were different before Isaac Hayes made the leap to scoring movies: you had your Beatles vehicles and your concert documentaries, your ripped-from-the-charts soundtracks (Easy Rider) and your film scores that became pop hits (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). But there was nothing quite like the convergence of popular and cinematic music in Shaft, at least not since Duke Ellington was tapped to soundtrack Anatomy of a Murder 12 years previous. With Shaft, Hayes didn't just break through with a #1 pop album, #1 pop single, and Academy Award, he changed the musical directions of Hollywood and R&B simultaneously. Within two years, damn near everybody in soul had a soundtrack in their discography, resulting in career-defining classics (Curtis Mayfield's Super Fly) as well as creative transitional experiments (Marvin Gaye's Trouble Man). And it hit hard in the other direction, too: by 1973, Bruce Lee and James Bond alike were busting heads to Lalo Schifrin and George Martin scores that threw in the same serpentine wah-wahs and supple funk percussion that nabbed Hayes his Oscar.And yet most people have a hard time looking past that first song. For all the "baaaad mother--/ Shut yo' mouth" rapport and whocka-chicka style that provoked a thousand deconstructions of 1970s attitude, "Theme from Shaft" was an intricate overture doubling as a character-establishing theme that made a title card all but redundant, and it proves how easy Hayes' transition from songwriter to film-score composer actually was. The liner notes to Stax's new, remastered Deluxe Edition reissue of the Shaft soundtrack make note of Hayes' previous foray into the field (the semi-obscure Norman Mailer film Maidstone) and the advisement of jazz composer Tom McIntosh to "just do your thing" instead of worrying about taking cues from the score to an epic like Doctor Zhivago. But despite his non-traditional approach-- The Isaac Hayes Movement was said to have recorded "headwise," without the use of sheet music-- Hayes reached an ideal midpoint between film scoring convention and R&B auteurism, and Shaft is full of cinematic cues and motifs that came naturally to a musician who'd already pushed the boundaries of symphonic soul two years before on Hot Buttered Soul....full text |
| Superseventies |
| Pretty rhythmic for a soundtrack -- if a backup band played this stuff before the star-of-our-show came on you wouldn't get bored until midway into the second number. Proving that not only do black people make better pop-schlock movies than white people, they also make better pop-schlock music. As if we didn't know. C+ - Robert Christgau, Christgau's Record Guide, 1981. Bonus Reviews! Isaac Hayes surprised many in the film and R&B/soul world when he produced, arranged and composed the music for Shaft. Only three of the 15 tracks featured vocals, and Hayes displayed a finesse and capability with strings and mood pieces that his fans already knew he possessed from earlier albums, but which the general audience might have missed. This was a #1 pop LP and eventually earned Hayes an Oscar. It's also held up much better than the film. * * * * - Ron Wynn, The All-Music Guide to Rock, 1995. Isaac Hayes made his mark with his own recordings; his sweaty, epic productions featured extended sides of influential soul orchestration and ushered R&B into the concept album era, while his work on the Oscar- and Grammy-winning Shaft soundtrack paved the way for similar blaxploitation artists such as Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye. The Shaft soundtrack features several shorter cuts, including the classic title track and a series of instrumentals. Yet it also features a lengthy workout, the nearly 20-minute vocal ramble, "Do Your Thing." While the soundtrack does not address social concerns, a la Curtis Mayfield's Superfly, it still grooves hard. It also features a crack rhythm section, the Bar-Kays. * * * * 1/2 - Joshua Freedom du Lac, Musichound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, 1996. Gordon Parks' film was one of the very first blaxploitation pics and, as such, it had to have a killer soundtrack in order to reach the desired audience of teens and twentysomethings. Who better to provide it than veteran soul producer and singer-songwriter, Isaac Hayes? "You didn't know life could be that good," style guru Peter York later said about first hearing the Oscar-winning Shaft theme and you could see his point. Hayes had created a huge, pulsing symphony of a track, with flickering high-hats, speaker-shaking basslines and staccato brass stabs crashing around the rhythm guitar -- a slab of post-Hendrix wah-wah. The theme was also supremely orchestrated -- radio DJs forgave Hayes for keeping his gruff vocals and the supporting girlie chorus off the track until almost two minutes in. Originally released as a double album (at the time a format usually reserved for ponderous rock concept or classical albums), like the film it helped to promote, the sound soundtrack cut across genres and set new standards. The surreally dynamic "Do Your Thing" and the bluesy "Cafe Regio's" showed Hayes could master other moods with dexterity, but it was the stunning Shaft theme itself that will always be linked with his name. - Collins Gem Classic Albums, 1999....full text |
| Avrev |
| I admit that I often dream of being “the black private dick who’s the sex machine to all the chicks.” Who doesn’t? When Isaac Hayes was tagged to compose a soundtrack for the blaxplotation film “Shaft,” starring Richard Roundtree, I don’t think there was any way he could have know how popular the project was going to be. I have taken the time to watch the film some 20-plus years after its release and I can tell you the music for the film passed the test of time exponentially better than the slow plot of the movie. The “Theme From Shaft” is possibly the most recognizable use of a wha-wha pedal in the history of music (sorry Jimi – Voodoo Chile Slight Return was killer, but…). The badass shtick that makes up the lyrics as performed by Hayes have transcended into American culture to the point where Lisa and Bart Simpson sing the tune at a karaoke bar as their father eats potentially poisonous fugu. Not many R&B songs make it that far. The reissue of the “Shaft” soundtrack onto Hybrid SACD allows people with SACD players to hear new levels of audio resolution. The record was remastered for SACD and, in direct comparison to the Stax CD version I also own, I can say that the SACD is superior in every facet. The most notable improvements are heard in the openness and airiness on “Theme From Shaft.” On the CD, the high hat sounds crowded and cluttered vs. the SACD remastered edition, which reproduces the high hat with much clearer sound and more energy....full text |
Isaac Hayes lyrics
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