Singer, songwriter Isaac Hayes dies at age 65

[needlefingers]

Very sad news indeed.

Singer, songwriter Isaac Hayes dies at age 65

Singer, songwriter Isaac Hayes dies at age 65 - Yahoo! News

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Isaac Hayes, the pioneering singer, songwriter and musician whose relentless "Theme From Shaft" won Academy and Grammy awards, has been found dead at home. He was 65.

The Shelby County Sheriff's Office says a family member found Hayes unresponsive near a treadmill on Sunday. He was pronounced dead about an hour later at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis. The cause of death was not immediately known.

In the early 1970s, Hayes laid the groundwork for disco, for what became known as urban-contemporary music and for romantic crooners like Barry White. And he was rapping before there was rap.

His career hit another high in 1997 when he became the voice of Chef, the sensible school cook and devoted ladies man on the animated TV show "South Park."

[needlefingers]

Isaac Hayes - Shaft


Isaac Hayes-Don't Let Go
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3x-2...eature=related

[needlefingers]

Isaac Hayes - The Look of Love (live) 1973


Isaac Hayes - Walk on By


hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymystic - Isaac Hayes


ISAAC HAYES - DISCO CONNECTION

[SandraDee]

This is a real blow; Isaac's influence over the years was enormous as most people must be aware. His solo 'I Can't Turn Around' was used for an early house hit and he was the first artist to do very long funky versions of established songs. He recorded some of the classiest slow sensuous tracks I've ever heard & I love his production work for other artsists such as Linda Clifford & Donald Byrd. Very sad.:icon_cry:

[needlefingers]

I used to have this "rubber legs" dance that I did to Shaft and when it came on the radio, or at a school dance, I would go into my act and it always cleared the floor.

Along with Curtis Mayfield, I could just put on an Isaac Hayes album and let it play. His death reminds me so much of my youth. In fact, this forum this week, with the talk about the '60's, Herb Alpert, passing of Robert Hazard....is a little bit of an emotional rollercoaster.

Another part of my life's soundtrack. Of many peoples soundtrack.

[needlefingers]

Linda Clifford - Shoot Your Best Shot
(written/produced by Isaac Hayes)

[SandraDee]

Linda Clifford - Shoot Your Best Shot
(written/produced by Isaac Hayes)

Thankyou needle! You know what I like.

[needlefingers]

More about the man

Isaac Hayes, Deep-Voiced Soul Icon, Is Dead at 65
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- Isaac Hayes, the pioneering singer, songwriter and musician whose relentless ''Theme From Shaft'' won Academy and Grammy awards, died Sunday afternoon, the Shelby County Sheriff's Office said. He was 65.

A family member found him unresponsive near a treadmill and he was pronounced dead an hour later at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis, according to the sheriff's office. The cause of death was not immediately known.

In the early 1970s, Hayes laid the groundwork for disco, for what became known as urban-contemporary music and for romantic crooners like Barry White. And he was rapping before there was rap.

His career hit another high in 1997 when he became the voice of Chef, the sensible school cook and devoted ladies man on the animated TV show ''South Park.''

Steve Shular, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said authorities received a 911 call after Hayes' wife and young son and his wife's cousin returned home from the grocery store and found him collapsed in a downstairs bedroom. A sheriff's deputy administered CPR until paramedics arrived.

''The treadmill was running but he was unresponsive lying on the floor,'' Shular said.

The album ''Hot Buttered Soul'' made Hayes a star in 1969. His shaven head, gold chains and sunglasses gave him a compelling visual image.

''Hot Buttered Soul'' was groundbreaking in several ways: He sang in a ''cool'' style unlike the usual histrionics of big-time soul singers. He prefaced the song with ''raps,'' and the numbers ran longer than three minutes with lush arrangements.

''Jocks would play it at night,'' Hayes recalled in a 1999 Associated Press interview. ''They could go to the bathroom, they could get a sandwich, or whatever.''

Next came ''Theme From Shaft,'' a No. 1 hit in 1971 from the film ''Shaft'' starring Richard Roundtree.

''That was like the shot heard round the world,'' Hayes said in the 1999 interview.

At the Oscar ceremony in 1972, Hayes performed the song wearing an eye-popping amount of gold and received a standing ovation. TV Guide later chose it as No. 18 in its list of television's 25 most memorable moments. He won an Academy Award for the song and was nominated for another one for the score. The song and score also won him two Grammys.

''The rappers have gone in and created a lot of hit music based upon my influence,'' he said. ''And they'll tell you if you ask.''
Hayes was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

''I knew nothing about the business, or trends and things like that,'' he said. ''I think it was a matter of timing. I didn't know what was unfolding.''

A self-taught musician, he was hired in 1964 by Stax Records of Memphis as a backup pianist, working as a session musician for Otis Redding and others. He also played saxophone.

He began writing songs, establishing a songwriting partnership with David Porter, and in the 1960s they wrote such hits for Sam and Dave as ''Hold On, I'm Coming'' and ''Soul Man.''

All this led to his recording contract.

In 1972, he won another Grammy for his album ''Black Moses'' and earned a nickname he reluctantly embraced. Hayes composed film scores for ''Tough Guys'' and ''Truck Turner'' besides ''Shaft.'' He also did the song ''Two Cool Guys'' on the ''Beavis and Butt-Head Do America'' movie soundtrack in 1996.

Additionally, he was the voice of Nickelodeon's ''Nick at Nite'' and had radio shows in New York City (1996 to 2002) and then in Memphis.

He was in several movies, including ''It Could Happen to You'' with Nicolas Cage, ''Ninth Street'' with Martin Sheen, ''Reindeer Games'' starring Ben Affleck and the blaxploitation parody ''I'm Gonna Git You, Sucka.''

In the 1999 interview, Hayes described the South Park cook as ''a person that speaks his mind; he's sensitive enough to care for children; he's wise enough to not be put into the 'whack' category like everybody else in town -- and he l-o-o-o-o-ves the ladies.''

But Hayes angrily quit the show in 2006 after an episode mocked his Scientology religion. ''There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins,'' he said.

Co-creator creators Matt Stone responded that Hayes ''has no problem -- and he's cashed plenty of checks -- with our show making fun of Christians.'' A subsequent episode of the show seemingly killed off the Chef character.

Hayes was born in 1942 in a tin shack in Covington, Tenn., about 40 miles north of Memphis. He was raised by his maternal grandparents after his mother died and his father took off when he was 1 1/2. The family moved to Memphis when he was 6.

Hayes wanted to be a doctor, but got redirected when he won a talent contest in ninth grade by singing Nat King Cole's ''Looking Back.''

He held down various low-paying jobs, including shining shoes on the legendary Beale Street in Memphis. He also played gigs in rural Southern juke joints where at times he had to hit the floor because someone began shooting.

[Disco Funk]

Ike certainly deserve a lot of credit as a person who was not only a great singer and songwriter, but also someone who was able to re-invent himself over and over again. He started off as a songwriter, then become an artist in his own right. He transitioned from soul to disco, and then to movies (remember his role in Escape From New York). And then in the last decade or so, he's been the voice of Chef on South Park.

RIP Ike.

[Videoskooter]

OMG, I've just logged in and saw Needle's topic...minutes after my wife and I saw..."Shaft" on DVD! Devastating!

Another legend gone too soon! We better get used to it coz' our heroes are leaving us. It's our task to preserve their legacy.

Mr. Hayes, Rest In Peace and thank you for the Music!

[wever]

ahhhh i read it 5 minutes ago in another forum (about george clinton) and i knew you were goin to write something....

this is so sad.... never had the chance to see him life....so i didn't know him personally but i'm gonna miss him so much........

what a sad year.... since the death of James Brown this has been like non stop of the biggest ones! :icon_cry:

REST IN PEACE Isaac Hayes!

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

I'm truly stunned and heartbroken...:icon_sad:

Issac... Mister Hayes... Truck Turner... The Duke... Black Moses...

Since I was a teenager, he was the coolest Man on earth! The embodiment of it, for so many of us, in those early 70's.

Because of The BIG Hayes, I discovered a new world of music, on these hard-to-find, obscure labels out of Memphis, Atlanta, Houston. My pubescent classmates wondering why I'd take the bus into JERSEY:icon_eek: to go to a little record shop on Bloomfield Ave., in Newark and buy these unknown 45's. He gave this funky-white-boy a passport to the grittiest and purest sounds of Soul. Southern Soul

An underestimated (and for so many years, underrated) genius, who so beautifully, and as if effortlessly, brought the funk into my Disco, with three of the greatest Dance tracks I've ever broken a grinding sweat to:

Isaac Hayes - "Don't Let Go"
Linda Clifford - "Shoot Your Best Shot"
Isaac Hayes - "Theme from SHAFT"

Suddenly I feel 13 years old again. But I don't remember it hurting like this.:icon_cry:

[markydefad]

Sad news indeed.

Hayes was a true pioneer of what eventually became disco--that "sound" that first revealed itself as the "Theme from 'SHAFT'" bridged the gap between the urban funk of Sly Stone and the orchestral sweep of Barry White. Isaac Hayes did it first in a masterpiece that remains one of my favorite records of all time. I could listen to it 50 times in a row and never tire of it.

from AMG:

"You know it right from the opening wah-wah guitar notes, well before the piano, flute, punchy horn section, funky bass, tambourine, and heroic orchestral strings kick in. Hayes juggles all these elements masterfully in his arrangement, leaving enough space for each so that nothing becomes dominant — each tonal color is part of an integrated whole. Then, in just a few jive-laden couplets and spoken interjections — a section that only lasts one minute — he utterly immortalizes the character, while a female chorus coos Shaft's name in the background. Hayes' smooth, silky bass voice is perfect for the task, too, seemingly embodying all the qualities he attributes to Shaft."
____________________________________________

From The Book Of Rock Lists:

EARLY RUMBLINGS ON THE DANCE FLOOR:
The First Disco Records

1) "THEME FROM 'SHAFT' " - Isaac Hayes (1971)
2) "ARMED AND EXTREMELY DANGEROUS" - First Choice (1973)
3) "SOUL MAKOSSA" - Manu Dibango (1973)
4) "UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF LOVE" - Love Unlimited (1974)
5) "THE PLAYER" - First Choice (1974)
6) "DREAMING A DREAM" - Crown Heights Affair (1975)
7) "FOOT STOMPIN' MUSIC" - Bohannon (1975)
8.)"FREE MAN" - South Shore Commission (1975)
9) "NICE 'N' NAASTY" - The Salsoul Orchestra (1976)
10) "TANGERINE" - The Salsoul Orchestra (1975)
11) "WE'RE ON THE RIGHT TRACK" - South Shore Commission (1975)
12) "YOUNG HEARTS RUN FREE" - Candi Staton (1976)
________________________________________

from AMG:
ISAAC HAYES
Biography by Jason Ankeny
Few figures exerted greater influence over the music of the 1960s and 1970s than Isaac Hayes; after laying the groundwork for the Memphis soul sound through his work with Stax-Volt Records, Hayes began a highly successful solo career which predated not only the disco movement but also the evolution of rap.
________________________________________

R.I.P. Isaac Hayes, a true "Soul Man" if there ever was one.

[disco1999]

I am devastated and speachless, this is the worst lost in this business since James Brown.

I have 2 favorite tracks from him

SHAFT (1971)
I AIN'T NEVER (1980)

Rest in peace Isaac and thanks for your contribution.

[Nano]

Sad song :icon_cry: