update from previous post.
Isaac Hayes, shaper of Stax sound, became pop culture icon
By Bob Mehr (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Originally published 03:02 p.m., August 10, 2008
Updated 10:53 p.m., August 10, 2008
In life, Isaac Hayes was the last person to reflect on his past glories or celebrate his remarkable achievements; in death, the world is doing it for him.
It began just hours after news broke Sunday afternoon that Hayes, 65, had died at his home in Memphis, discovered by his family next to a still-running treadmill in his master bedroom.
Tributes poured in from every corner of the globe, mourning the loss, not just of a musician and entertainer, but an artistic innovator and cultural icon.
Nowhere was that loss felt more dramatically than in Hayes’ hometown of Memphis, specifically among the family of artists and employees he grew up with at Stax Records, where he was both a writer/producer and solo star in the 1960s and 1970s.
“I’m just absolutely overwhelmed today,” said Deanie Parker, longtime Stax veteran and recently retired president of the Soulsville Foundation. “Usually I’m not at a loss for words, but this has really gotten to me. The enormity of Isaac’s contributions are almost too much to try and reflect upon. He was one of the key architects of the Stax sound, the Memphis sound, the legacy that Stax is recognized for today. All the things that have made that music so indelible for so many generations, Isaac has to be credited with much of that.”
To his lifelong friend and great musical partner, David Porter, Hayes was a true visionary. “He was an innovator. A musical genius. And he had a mind that was ever searching for better ways to do things musically. At Stax he was viewed as the epitome of what everybody wanted to be,” said Porter, his voice choked with emotion.
“As a creative force, he was revolutionary. And, personally, I’ve lost a big part of me with him.”
Hayes, the father of 12 children, is survived by his fourth wife Adjowa, and their 2-year old son Nana Kwadjo. Plans for services were incomplete late Sunday.
A songwriter, producer, performer, actor, author, activist, philanthropist, and business owner, Hayes was an R&B renaissance man. His journey is even more remarkable considering his humble beginnings.
The son of sharecroppers, Hayes was born in Covington in 1942. Orphaned as a child, Hayes and his sister were raised by their maternal grandparents, Willie and Rushia Addie-Mae Wade.
A musical prodigy from childhood – he began singing in church at 5, and soon began learning the first of many instruments — Hayes’ tastes were wide-ranging, embracing both the black and rural roots music around him, as well as the sophisticated songwriting of composers like George Gershwin and Cole Porter.
After dropping out of Manassas High School, Hayes became a presence on the Memphis club scene in the early 60s, leading a series of bands before gravitating to the fledgling Stax Records label as a session pianist.
There, he began a historic partnership with an up-and-coming staff writer named David Porter. The two had known each other previously as members of rival doo-wop groups, facing off at local talent shows. “We initially got together to try and emulate the success of songwriting teams like Holland-Dozier-Holland, and Bacharach and David,” said Porter. “One thing we noticed about those accomplished collaborators is they seemed to have consistency. So, from the beginning we worked to try and find that.”
Find it they did, writing over 200 songs together including some seminal contributions to the soul music canon, including hits for Carla Thomas (“B-A-B-Y”), Johnnie Taylor (“I Had A Dream”), the Soul Children (“The Sweeter He Is”), and most notably, Sam & Dave (“Hold On, I’m Coming”). “Everybody wanted to see what we were going to come out with next,” recalled Porter, “because the creative juices were coming from a special place when we worked together.”
An outsized character even among the colorful crew at Stax, Hayes was noted for his (then novel) shaved head and outlandish dress sense.
“The first time I saw Isaac he was wearing pink socks, green pants and a yellow flowered shirt — and he was completely bald,” said Sam Moore, of Sam & Dave. “I thought ‘Oh, my God, who is this guy?’ But, man, what songs [he] wrote for us.”
Hayes and Porter would serve as alter-egos for the dynamic duo of Sam & Dave, writing a succession of classics for the pair, including “You Don’t Know Like I Know,” “Soul Man,” and “I Thank You.”
As his songwriting and production achievements continued to grow, Hayes made a rather inauspicious debut as a solo artist for Stax, with 1967’s Presenting Isaac Hayes. Recorded on a whim one late night after a party at the studio, the album was a casual jazz-flecked affair that drew little notice upon its release. It would be Hayes’ follow-up LP, 1969’s Hot Buttered Soul, that would take him from behind-the-scenes player to front-and-center star.
An adventurous and conceptual platter, Hot Buttered Soul shattered traditional R&B conventions. Comprised of four lengthy songs – including moody, epic reinterpretations of pop hits like “Walk On By” and “By The Time I Get To Phoenix” — the tracks were transformed by Hayes’ complex arrangements and the sheer power of his rumbling baritone.
The LP would have a massive effect on the music industry, proving that R&B acts could think in terms beyond singles. “Like rock groups, I always wanted to present songs as dramas: it was something white artists did so well but black folks hadn’t got into,” Hayes said in 1995. “Which was why I picked those, if you like, white songs for that set, because they had that dramatic content. And I knew it would work, too.” The album did become both a critical and commercial success and catapulted Hayes into a fulltime performing career.
While Hot Buttered Soul would represent his breakthrough — a winning streak he would keep alive with two more chart-topping efforts, 1970’s …To Be Continued and The Isaac Hayes Movement — it was his work on the soundtrack to director Gordon Parks’ pioneering 1971 “blaxploitation” film “Shaft” that would forever cement Hayes’ place in history.
The film’s title track — an irresistible mingling of wah-wah guitar, orchestral flourishes and Hayes’ proto-rapping – became a pop sensation topping the Billboard charts. The tune would earn Hayes an Academy Award for “Best Original Song.”
“When it hit so big I was in severe disbelief,” Hayes once recalled. “I walked around thinking, ‘Did I really do that?’ Then when it won an Academy Award ... I was in a state of shock.”
Almost overnight, the phenomenon of “Shaft” completed Hayes’ transformation from successful songwriter to innovative solo artist to cultural icon, particularly within the black community.
By the early ‘70s Hayes had become both a cottage industry and the catalyst for Stax’s shift toward a new kind of black consciousness. He would continue to evolve his music with albums like the Grammy-winning Black Moses and a soundtrack for the film “Truck Turner” (in which he also starred in the title role). He also served as the headliner for the historic 1972 Wattstax concert in Los Angeles.
Despite his numerous successes, the rapid demise of Stax in the mid-70s coupled with management woes forced Hayes to declare bankruptcy in 1976. He would mount a comeback later in the decade with a series of hit songs and albums for the Polydor label.
Although he would continue to write and record sporadically over the next two decades – Hayes took an extended five-year break from music in early-‘80s — his second career, as an actor, blossomed. He appeared on a number of television shows (“The Rockford Files,” “Miami Vice”) and films (“Escape From New York,” “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka”) and became familiar to a whole new generation with his role as “Chef” in the popular animated series “South Park.”
“When my agent told me I had a job doing a voice-over, I thought it was for Disney,” recalled Hayes of his involvement with the program. “But when I read the script it was really funny. I remember saying, ‘I hope you guys got insurance because you’re going to get sued.’ The more I did it, the more fun I had. But at the beginning of South Park, I thought that I’d ruined my career.”
Hayes eventually left the program in 2006 after the airing of a controversial episode poking fun at Scientology, of which Hayes was an adherent.
At the time of his death, Hayes was preparing a new album for the revived Stax Records label, and it would have been his first new studio effort since 1995.
Despite his long absence from the recording studio, Hayes remained a touchstone for several generations of artists. As a stylistic innovator, he exerted a major influence throughout the decades, as his work both anticipated and contributed heavily to the evolution of disco, rap, house music and modern R&B. That legacy was honored when Hayes was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. He was also given performing rights organization BMI’s Icon award in 2003 and was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005.
Over the years, Hayes also developed into one of Memphis’ most familiar cultural and civic icons – lending his name to a soul food restaurant at Peabody Place and his likeness to displays greeting visitors at the Memphis International Airport.
In 2004, Mayor Willie Herenton named Hayes, along with B.B. King, as Memphis’ “musical ambassadors” during the city-sponsored 50th anniversary celebration of rock and roll.
Hayes had also been a big part of the local Blues Ball. “He’s been my honorary chairman since day one,” said Pat Kerr Tigrett, the event’s founder. “We’re celebrating our 15th anniversary this year. Certainly, we’ll turn this (one) into a celebration of his life. He has been incredibly important to the whole re-acceptance of Memphis music here. He is one of our great legends.”
Hayes was also involved in numerous charity and humanitarian efforts, particularly in Africa, as well as promoting the cause of literacy in the United States.
In recent years Hayes had been dealing with a number of health issues – including a stroke — but he continued to perform and tour regularly. He could often be seen at local functions, usually with David Porter at his side.
“The commitment that we had made to each other many, many years ago — before we ever had any success — was that if need be, we would always be there for each other,” Porter said. “Always.”
Although much will be said about his musical legacy in the coming days and weeks, Hayes himself was never one to trumpet his past achievements. Asked to reflect on his life in 2006, Hayes related a lesson he’d learned from his grandmother.
“When I used to pick cotton in the fields as a little kid, I was always looking back to see if I got cotton in my sack, and she said, ‘Stop! Don’t look back. Just keep picking, you’ll find out,’” Hayes said. “So I was picking, picking, picking, and then it felt like someone was standing on my sack. I looked back. My sack is full!
“I always keep my head down, working, doing things, moving forward. That’s what I’ve done all my life.”
Says Porter: “That was Isaac’s spirit and philosophy. He always felt ‘OK, I did that. Now let me do something better.’ It was never a situation where he took comfort in what he’d done. He wanted to do something better, always. I truly believe that was the thing that made him so special.”
— Bob Mehr: 529-2581
