Isaac Hayes – Hot Buttered Soul   (Super Audio Compact Disc)

 

Music: A-     PCM CD Sound: B+     DSD Stereo: A-     DSD Multi-Channel: N/A

 

 

Even before he became a music performer, Isaac Hayes had already made his mark on Soul music as a writer of classics like “Hold On (I’m A Comin’)” and the ever prominent “Soul Man” for Sam & Dave.  He worked behind the scenes with Otis Redding and it was obvious that he was one of the driving creative forces behind the legendary record label Stax.

 

By 1969, he decided to release his second solo album, Hot Buttered Soul, and it became an instant classic.  His long meditation on the Jimmy Webb-penned “By The Time I Get To Phoenix” became his first big hit, but it runs 18:42 on the actual album.  How did that Happen?  At the time, Rock bands influenced by The Beatles’ masterwork Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) were allowing themselves to be challenged by the idea of an entire album-side being a single song, or at least a non-stop studio production.  Progressive Rock band s in particular, like Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer were pushing the limits.  Even Iron Butterfly, an early Heavy Metal band, went length-bonkers with their “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”.  For Hayes, though, he was the first, lone R&B artist to go there.

 

Where this was the riskiest and really paid off was in his daring to remake the 1964 classic Burt Bacharach/Hal David masterpiece “Walk On By”.  Not only was it one of their greatest compositions among a long list of flawless (or near flawless) compositions, but it was also one of the biggest hits ever by the great voice that most defined their work: Dionne Warwick.  Where Warwick’s hit version lasted an intense 2:55, Hayes went on brilliantly in his version for a solid 12 minutes.  Part of the trick was to find things in the song that would make it work that long.  The other was a gender issue.  In a song so closely associated with the feminine pain Warwick so utterly epitomized in her classic cut, what would a very masculine vocalist do to make the song his?  The result is a performance that instantly made Hayes a sex symbol, pulling off the incredible feat of expressing the same pain in an even more profound variation of the song, almost making it his own (though even the mighty Isaac Hayes could not erase the Warwick version completely, as legend Aretha Franklin learned when she well-remade Warwick’s “I Say A Little Prayer”), but retaining his masculinity in total.  It was a breakthrough in not only masculine sexuality in American music, but especially for African-American males.  This put Hayes instantly a step ahead of Al Green and Marvin Gaye for a very short period of time, but also set the model for the male Soul sex-symbol of 1970s R&B that men like the late Barry White would follow.

 

It is not surprise, then, that this was a big hit flipside for Hayes, nor is it an accident that this is the album’s first track.  Hayes was making the announcement that he had arrived, and everyone took notice.  This also would not be the last time Hayes and Warwick sparked success.  In the mid-1970s, they would do a well-respected duet album during one of her odd off periods, then Hayes co-wrote one of the big hits for her 1979 comeback album Dionne, “Déjà Vu”.  Their live appearances together are also some of the greatest man/woman soul pairings ever, worthy of Otis Redding/Carla Thomas, or Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell.

 

Then comes “Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic”, a brilliant 9:36 work that best demonstrates the next level Hayes’ was taking R&B like it had never been taken before.  The wit and exasperation of people who throw big words around is a get R&B corollary to Joe Jones “You Talk Too Much” from 1960.  The liner notes from the fine booklet included in the Super Jewel Box, state that the end of word should have been “…nistic”, but the misprint stands.  It is eccentricities like this that distinguished Hayes from his contemporaries, and is also the only song he created for this album.

 

That leaves Charlie Chambers’ “One Woman”, a song also cut by Al Green.  At 5:08, this is the only cut that runs at a more typical length, though the hits were cut down for single form, but not included here in their abbreviated length.  All in all, Hayes found his musical identity, and the rest is history.

 

As for the sound quality, it is remarkable for an album recorded in 1969.  The PCM CD tracks are fine enough, with their clarity, fidelity, and recent transfer.  You can tell it was recent, because this is the kind of clarity that has only recently arrived to CD playback.  As good as they are, they are no match for the 2.0 Direct Stream Digital SACD tracks, which sound practically like they are the masters.  It is incredible how clean these are, with instrumentals, vocals, and soundstage space, especially created to give the songs depth and dissonance.  This instantly makes this SACD one of the best back catalog albums on the market in any format.  Those only familiar with Hayes from TV’s South Park or his theme from Shaft should prepare for a major shock.  This album is as incredible as ever, still ahead of its time 35 years later.

 

Hayes remains one of the giants of the Soul genre and Hot Buttered Soul is one of the watershed reasons why.  Let’s hope Mobile Fidelity issues his entire catalog like this!

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo