Disc of the day
The Feelies - The Good Earth
Good-natured powerpop gets two-thumbs-up from MOJO messageboarder.
Features Disc of the day
Isaac Hayes
The Isaac Hayes Movement
(Stax, 1970)
The industrious, illustrious Black Moses – where did he find the time to do it all?
A belated DOTD tip of the toque to the late Ike Hayes, who long before reaching new generations as South Park’s Chef was a gold standard Stax songwriter/producer in partnership with David Porter, a silver medal session musician in Memphis and, of course, a highly prolific, boldly innovative and unexpectedly commercial solo star. Ike’s style was a cunning mélange of ingredients. Often taking a well-known pop or rock song, Hayes would fashion a meticulously constructed arrangement using a full orchestra in all its rich tonal pomp. Atop this he’d intone a vocal of thick, dark, treacly earthiness, pregnant with sexual implication. His solo debut album in this style, Hot Buttered Soul (1969), and the equally genre-defining blaxploitation soundtrack Shaft (1971) rightly get the standing ovations. But this album, sandwiched between those two, was one of a pair that came out in 1970 (…To Be Continued was the other), which in itself is a terrific monument to his drive, energy and quality control. Movement starts with a modest (for Ike at the time) four-minute interpretation of Jerry Butler’s I Stand Accused, in which he replaces the pain, heartache and yearning of the original with a vocal that promises more pleasure than guilt. The other soul standard on Movement is a seven-minute take on Bacharach & David’s Dionne Warwick vehicle I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself. Starting with a slow, measured instrumental, Hayes’ vocal soon leans toward melodrama. The heat is gradually turned up until at the halfway point drummer and girl vocalists gently steam for 60 seconds before the heat’s turned down again and Ike simmers through a rap-sung outro for another two minutes. It’s a brilliantly modulated arrangement and performance – you can imagine Motown’s Norman Whitfield going, “Damn, that’s where I was headed, but he’s using ballads!” Gamble & Huff in Philadelphia must have thought the same. And you can definitely picture Barry White making a book full of notes.
Geoff Brown
Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 22/08/2008
Further Listening
Barry White – I’ve Got So Much To Give (20th Century, 1973)
The Temptations – Sky’s The Limit (Motown, 1971)
Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes – Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes (CBS, 1972)
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Previous Disc of the day
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The Feelies - The Good Earth
Good-natured powerpop gets two-thumbs-up from MOJO messageboarder.
6:00 AM GMT 02/07/2009
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Chico Hamilton Quintet/Elmer Bernstein - Sweet Smell Of Success
Double noir delights from jazz and orchestral giants!
6:00 AM GMT 23/06/2009
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