Isaac Hayes
Hot Buttered Soul
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AMG Review of Hot Buttered Soul
Jason Birchmeier
All Music GuideReleased at the tail end of the '60s, Hot Buttered Soul set the precedent for how soul would evolve in the early '70s, simultaneously establishing Isaac Hayes and the Bar-Kays as major forces within black music. Though not quite as definitive as Black Moses or as well-known as Shaft, Hot Buttered Soul remains an undeniably seminal record; it stretched its songs far beyond the traditional three-to-four-minute industry norm, featured long instrumental stretches where the Bar-Kays stole the spotlight, and it introduced a new, iconic persona for soul with Hayes' tough yet sensual image. With the release of this album, Motown suddenly seemed manufactured and James Brown a bit too theatrical. Surprising many, the album features only four songs. The first, "Walk on By," is an epic 12-minute moment of true perfection, its trademark string-laden intro just dripping with syrupy sentiment, and the thumping mid-tempo drum beat and accompanying bassline instilling a complementary sense of nasty funk to the song; if that isn't enough to make it an amazing song, Hayes' almost painful performance brings yet more feeling to the song, with the guitar's heavy vibrato and the female background singers taking the song to even further heights. The following three songs aren't quite as stunning but are still no doubt impressive: "Hyperbolicsyllabicsequedalymistic" trades in sappy sentiment for straight-ahead funk, highlighted by a stomping piano halfway through the song; "One Woman" is the least epic moment, clocking in at only five minutes, but stands as a straightforward, well-executed love allad; and finally, there's the infamous 18-minute "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" and its lengthy monologue which slowly eases you toward the climactic, almost-orchestral finale, a beautiful way to end one of soul's timeless, landmark albums, the album that transformed Hayes into a lifelong icon.
Isaac Hayes-styled funk
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Isaac Hayes, along with David Porter, was responsible for about 165% of Stax Records' brilliant output in the 60s. Without those Stax records, the world would be a not-as-good place. Along those lines, the world just might be a tad less funky without Isaac Hayes' 1969 album Hot Buttered Soul. The whole album is tremendous, but "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic" is the tune that most mesmerize...
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Isaac Hayes & His Huge Impact On Hip Hop Music
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Isaac Hayes is a part of an elite group of musicians along with James Brown, George Clinton, Marvin Gaye and a few others who have had a lasting effect on rap music. Hip Hop Is Read put together an awesome collection of hip hop tracks inspired by Mr. Hayes. I could attempt to describe what the mixtape entails, but nobody can express the meaning better than the person who created it."To call thi...
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Issac Hayes: The Coolest
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Isaac Hayes had the coolest voice I've ever heard - deep, sexy, velvety, totally commanding and thoroughly vulnerable. It was imposing as well; he may have sung about the bad motherfucker that was John Shaft, but I always thought of him as the truly bad mofo. After all, he was real and Shaft was fiction.But beyond the wonder of his voice (and his sublime 1969 album Hot Buttered Soul), I'm mos...
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 "Hot Buttered Soul")
