This is the latest from The Bluesmobile’s C.C. Rider, who spends her life venerating the founding fathers of the blues. She’s walked the crooked highways of this singing country to resurrect the voices of the past. With the dirt of the Delta on her hands, she sleeps in the shadow of the giants on whose shoulders popular music now stands.
Isaac Hayes
(August 20, 1942-August 10, 2008)
There’s a whole generation that knows him best for his catchphrase— Hello there, children! But Isaac Hayes…he’s much more than South Park’s Chef.
As a young session musician in Memphis, Isaac helped develop the gritty sound of Stax Records. Played his first session with Otis Redding. And with his partner, David Porter, Isaac wrote some of the most iconic songs of the era. That’s right. Isaac Hayes—Chef—wrote “Soul Man” for Sam and Dave. Incredible, huh?
He defined the soul sound, and then completely revamped it. On albums like Hot Buttered Soul and Black Moses, he got a hold of classic 3-minute pop numbers and spun them off into 15-minute long super tracks, like his revolutionary rendition of Burt Bacharach’s “Walk on By.”
And of course, he gave us that Shaft theme. Hayes composed the soundtrack for Shaft, the classic Blaxploitation film, in only four days, and later won the Oscar for it. Only the third African-American to win an Academy-Award, after actors Hattie McDaniel and Sidney Poitier.
Songwriter, producer, singer, honorary Ghanaian Chief, The Chef on South Park and so much more…Isaac Hayes and Shaft.
