Top 102 Albums. No 65.
Hot Buttered Soul - Isaac Hayes
My No 67 included Isaac Hayes on piano. Today I thought I'd give the man his own slot. A while back Trevor at Hissyfit (also choosing his top albums) included the collaboration between Richard Harris and Jimmy Webb, an extravagant confection, often left out in the rain. It made me think of this album which includes an 18 minute version of Webb's By The Time I Get To Phoenix. Even the spoken intro is around eight minutes long. I can see how scientology looked a pretty sane proposition to the man who made this...
This album has only four songs but is pretty much a standard length album. As well as the four hour version of By The Time I Get To Phoenix there is a 12 minute version of Bacarach and David's Walk on By, the nine and a half minute Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic (even his song titles were long at the time) and the brief five minute One Woman.
The album features the Bar-Kays, the ones that didn't die in the plane crash with Otis Redding. They must have often thought of Redding when recording this. It feels like the songs are extended by being slowly stirred in a pot filled with delay and wah-wah, all bound together by Hayes' deep, buttery vocals.
Don't leave this cake out in the rain..... it deserves a home. It deserves all the homes it can get.
I have a 9 and a half minute version of Hayes singing 'The Look of Love' on a collection entitled 'Apres Ski'. He likes to find a groove and luxuriate in it does Isaac; how does he ever get played on the radio?
ReplyDeleteI love Ike's Rap II from Black Moses sampled to good effect on Glory Box by Portishead.
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