165. Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul (1969)
Label – Stax
Producer – Al Bell, Allen Jones and Marvell Thomas
Art Direction – Honeya Thompson
Nationality - USA
Running Time – 45:24
Track Listing
Side one
"Walk On By" (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) – 12:03
"Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic" (Isaac Hayes, Alvertis Isbell) – 9:38
Side two
"One Woman" (Charles Chalmers, Sandra Rhodes) – 5:10
"By the Time I Get to Phoenix" (Jimmy Webb) – 18:42
“Hot Buttered Soul” was Isaac Hayes' second record. Released in 1969, it is firmly planted as a landmark release in soul music, as it set the precedent for how soul would evolve in the early '70s and beyond.
There are only 4 songs on the record, therefore each track is an epic. The album begins with a cover of the Bacharach/David track "Walk On By." Second is "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic", (how do you SAY that??) which is a uptempo funky song complete with wah-wah guitars and rollicking rolling pianos. "One Woman", the shortest track at just over five minutes, is followed by an extended version of the Jimmy Webb country classic “By the Time I Get to Phoenix". Not that it’s really recognizable. It has an 8 minute spoken introduction, then the song slowly builds to a climax of horns, strings, organs and vocals. I personally would have preferred more focused tracks than the meandering lengthy ones as you easily find your mind drifting away from the music.
Isaac Hayes did record some better records; (“Black Moses”, “Shaft”) but “Hot Buttered Soul” is that seminal record that soul music needed to set the standards.
It is recommended.
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