The punchline of the old joke with the subtext of "these damn kids have no sense of musical history" used to be "you mean Paul McCartney had a band before Wings?" - but even that's out of date now. These days (or at least, a few years ago) a more apt analogy would be "you mean 
Chef was a Singer before South Park?"
Not only was Isaac Hayes a singer, he was also one of the true genius producers of early 70s. His records, as well as those he made for other Stax performers, just sound amazing, creative, groundbreaking, and more. Certainly the Theme from Shaft has made him a fine career (and hopefully some good bank over the years) and it's a fine place to start - everyone knows that wocka-wocka guitar, and there's also that quick riding on the hi-hat, the horn stabs and more making this a tour de force. There's a lot more where that came from - Walk on By, with its epic strings and fuzz-guitar combo later sampled by the Wu Tang Clan. Likewise Ike's Rap II, with a slow and low groove used by both Portishead and Tricky.
And then there's Ike's version of By the Time I Get to Phoenix, which starts with a 3-1/2 minute spoken intro telling the backstory of the song, all done in a gospel sermon style. Not fire-and-brimstone preaching, but just a soulful story telling backed with a quietly powerful organ and drum sound, that makes me want to yell 'tell it brother!' with all my white heart...
When I first started getting into Mr Hayes's music, I had these grand visions of becoming - if not Shaft - then definitely a (perhaps) lower-rung, but still well hung, sex machine to all da chicks, somebody who'd get chicks all hot and wet, cos I could play them deep-throated bassy vocals by someone who wasn't Barry White (who all the ladies already knew via Ally McBeal).
Picture the scene:
[late night funky stuff in da bedroom. soft female moaning, wafting thru the house]
me: MMM..mmMMMMM.. ooh.. yeah... baby, you like that doncha??
she: uh-huh... uhmm... mmm...
/krangsquared pulls supacool vinyl out of his dj bag
she: whatchu got there, baby?
me: This is Isaac Hayes's album, "... To be Continued"
she: so what?
me: This is what you could call my big gun, baby, musically speaking. This is where I go for the kill and demolish all your trainspotting, sampledelic defenses. Listen to this closely, my lovely, for almost every note in this has been sampled to a degree not too far removed from "Apache" and "Funky Drummer"
she: huh?
/krangsquared puts album on turntable, and cues up "Ike's Mood"
me: Listen that horn blast in the intro. Doesn't that remind you of every Ms Universe broadcast you ever saw back in the 70s? When the strings come in and you hear your M.C. for the evening talks about "these lovely ladies from all around the globe vying for this prestigious title"..
[music continues for a while]
Listen to that guitar riff... picked up and recycled by groups like Massive Attack and The Chemical Brothers...
she: Waitaminnit, but that riff wasn't really used on a Chemical Brothers song, I think. It was on the track "Wede Man", in the intro...
me: I see...
she: And the "Live at the Social" CD, where it's on, is pretty much just a DJ set, and only features I think 1 or 2 tracks by them.
me: mmm...MMMMM... baby, I can clearly see whose defenses are coming down... mine. And I thought I was gonna try and impress you! I can see we've really got a groove thang going here.. Together, we'll set the sky alight. Together, we'll make each evening feel like it's our very last night. Together, we've got a chance to spot so many samples, and identify so many riffs - we could even win at musical trivial pursuit at the local bar on Wednesday nite!
she: Baby, that rhymin' was risky but heartfelt. It's almost like in Light My Fire where Jim matches "liar" and "pyre". He could've just used fire anyway, but that boy, he just had to tempt fate.
Yeah, baby, we've really got it going on.... uh huh...
Ooh, dat's right... do dat again, lovah... mmmm...
me: mmmm-mmmmm-MMMMM!
[the strings come in, and the lovin' keeps comin on]
Posted by: krangsquared | March 01, 2005 at 10:13 AM