"...You Socked It To Me!"
Not 30, not 40 - but 50
years old! Can the full-on sexpot that is "Hot Buttered Soul" really
be the big fifty in 2019 – God Gawd y’all!
In July 1969, I was a spotty
Dublin kid approaching eleven years of age that September and quickly
assimilating all the blast furnace music changes emanating from both the UK and
USA. Rock, Pop, Psych, Prog, Blues-Rock, Folk-Rock - I chewed it all up. Kind
of with it for the times or at least the older lads around me who did all the
advising were.
So one of my earliest
memories was seeing the LP sleeve for Isaac Hayes’ second platter in a Dublin
record shop window (probably Spring 1970) - a big bald black head, sunglasses
and gold chains. People gawked at it – old biddies suspected it was rude and
salacious but not sure how and quickly went by in a sort of cloudy catholic
huff. Me - I'd never seen anything so damn cool.
My school-pal's bigger
brother told me about the 'mistic' grooves contained within (courtesy of Stax's
blistering backing band, The Bar Kays) and advised me to ask the rock dude in
the shop to maybe play a slice (the bugger wouldn't). But it stuck with me. That
Summer as I recall, I was back at his place and there it was on the Garrard – a
secondhand copy with that yellow label grooving through "Hyper-unpronounceable"
and then flipping over to the huge string section in the second half of the near
19-minute "By The Time I Get To Phoenix". And I was hooked.
We now know that over at
Motown, Norman Whitfield and his like-minded musical cohorts were moving away
from boy-gets-girl 3-minute love-ins and channelling something more serious,
more socially conscious and dare we say - sexually expansive. They had The
Temptations and The Four Tops opening up to spectacular effect – beginning that
process – and the Rare Earth label beginning to take shape too. But with
"Hot Buttered Soul" and its four uncompromising slabs of longevity,
Isaac Hayes seemed to join up the loverman and psychedelic Soul dots for Stax
Records faster than Marvin Gaye or Barry White or anyone else for that matter.
And the man looked and sounded amazing too – yeah baby. Let's get to the
hyperbolic details...
UK released August 2009 -
"Hot Buttered Soul" by ISAAC HAYES on Universal/Stax 0888072314580
(Barcode 888072314580) is an 'Expanded Edition' 24-Bit CD Remaster with Two
Bonus Tracks that plays out as follows (56:39 minutes):
1. Walk On By [12:03
minutes] - Side 1
2.
Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic [9:39 minutes]
3. One Woman [5:11 minutes]
- Side 2
4. By The Time I Get To
Phoenix [18:42 minutes]
Tracks 1 to 4 are his second
studio album "Hot Buttered Soul" – released July 1969 in the USA on
Enterprise Records ENS-1001 and January 1970 in the UK on Stax SXATS 1028.
Produced by AL BELL, MARVELL THOMAS and ALLEN JONES - it peaked at No. 1 on the
US R&B LP charts and No.8 on the US Pop LP charts
BONUS TRACKS:
5. Walk On By (Single Edit,
4:33 minutes)
6. By The Time I Get To
Phoenix (Single Edit, 6:57 minutes)
Tracks 6 and 5 (note order)
are the A&B-sides of a US 7" single released July 1969 on Enterprise
ENA-9003 and October 1969 UK 45 on Stax Records STAX 133 with the sides reverse
("Walk On By" as the A)
The 12-page colour booklet
sports typically informative and affectionate liner notes from long-time
R&B and Soul writer BILL DAHL including archived interviews with one of the
LP's principal producers Marvell Thomas (other contributors include Audio
Engineers Terry Manning, Ed Wolfrum, Ralph and Russ Terrana). There's a few
photos of the main man including a colour centre-spread shot of him receiving
another Gold Disc from some label lady - her grin equalling his period sassy
clothes (dig the duds baby). But the big news is a 24-bit Remaster by BOB
FISHER at Pacific Multimedia and its sounds so good. The fuzz guitar solo on "Walk
On By" – his voice to the fore – the string arrangements as they kick in –
all are really good. For sure the age of the tapes and the speed at which the
album was put down shows in some severe separating – but it’s a lively remaster
– air around all of it – allowed to breathe. Let's get to the music...
The stories that surround
this record are legend. Stax and Enterprise Records Producer Al Bell is on a
plane to Jamaica and apparently sees an advert in an inflight mag about some
sexy ‘hot buttered rum’ that awaits him when he lands. And the canny boy thinks
– um – with a bit of word switch-er-roo – there’s an even sexier album title.
Written by Jimmy Webb and of course made a huge hit by Glen Campbell over on
Capitol Records, Hayes was more than enamoured with how Campbell arranged the
song and had already begun to unravel it at live shows, practising and honing
his spoken monologue before the groove kicked in. But in the studio as they
recorded nineteen minutes of "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" – Hayes
pressing down one organ note and rapping the story intro – drummer Willie Hall
had only a cymbal to tap (ding ding) and keep time. But nearly 10 minutes in
and piano-player Marvell Thomas sees him catch his eye – something’s wrong.
Hall the Drummer has cramp, so up pops Thomas, takes the stick and apparently
without missing a beat, takes over while allowing Willie Hall to massage his
hurting arm back to playing shape. Didn’t miss a beat and its on the tape!
The band was the re-made Bar
Kays (after the fatal plane crash that killed most of them and Otis Redding) –
with original member JAMES ALEXANDER on Bass, newcomers MICHAEL TOLES on Guitar
and WILLIE HALL on Drums. Isaac of course sang and played organ/piano with co-producer
MARVELL THOMAS also contributing piano. The three backing singers were
Saxophonist CHARLIE CHALMERS, his soon to be wife SANDRA RHODES and her sister
Donna. In fact it was Charlie Chalmers and Sandra Rhodes who gifted the lovely
yet sensual "One Woman" to the sessions. It had already be covered by
Al Green on his "Green Is Blues" LP and issued in June 1969 (a month
before the HBS LP hit the shops) as a Hi Records 45 for Green (Hi 2164). The
fourth tune is a 34-character long tune about bravado and hubris called "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic"
which itself is a misspelling on the artwork – the mistic should read nistic –
as sung by the trio throughout its funky bass-driven groove.
Revolutionary for the day, I
would agree however with many critics who regularly throw up the word indulgence as being one of the albums
downfalls. Both the centrepieces – a cover of the Bacharach/David song "Walk
On By" (made a hit by Dionne Warwick in 1964 on Scepter records) and the
cover of "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" (already discussed) seriously
test your patience in 2019. In fact I’ve often edited on computer "By The
Time I Get To Phoenix" to play from after 09:30 minutes to the end to
avoid the monologue. And the single edits possibly only go to proving their
argument. But that doesn’t stop the whole LP from feeling like magnificence to
me – a record that is and was artistically pushing it when so many would have
played safe.
"Hot Buttered
Soul" is obviously of its time – but man what a time it was. And to think
that it still sounds sexy a full 50 years after the event is ample testament to
its seductive brilliance. Take it for what it is brother, but take it – damn
right!
