Hot Buttered Soul [Vinyl]

Isaac Hayes | Format: Vinyl

Product Details

• Vinyl (February 10, 2009)
• Label: Stax
• ASIN: B000000ZGN
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #188,624 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

By 1969, black artists were following rock's lead and recording extended epics. At the forefront of such experimentation was big bad Isaac Hayes, coauthor of countless Stax classics and an artist in his own right. On this, his second album, Hayes takes two MOR-pop benchmarks, Burt Bacharach's "Walk On By" and Jimmy Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," and spins them out into slow-building sermons lasting 12 and 18.5 minutes apiece. Heavily romantic, they predate by two years Barry White's symphonic adventures in the same style, revolutionizing soul music in the process. Meanwhile, on the album's third epic, the 10-minute "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic," Hayes and his backing band the Bar-Kays wind up sounding, bizarrely, like a black Crazy Horse. --Barney Hoskyns

Product Description

Out of print in the U.S.! Hotbed was originally released in 1978 and finds Ike working out, in his own unique way, on such vehicles as Bill Withers 'Use Me' and the 'Ten Commandments Of Love'. Also included is the gorgeous 13 minute work out on Roberta Flack's 'Feel Like Makin' Love'. One of the key links between the old-school Soul of the R&B revue shows of the '60s and today's Rap/Hip Hop movement, Isaac Hayes gave to Soul music not only a very sophisticated kind of rapping but also some style pointers in the shaved head, gold chains and wrap around shades. Stax. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dayyyumm! Four tracks an' still it's a long, LONELY road..., October 21, 2002

By 

Nathan "Cawntry-fried Calypso Beach Bum" (Charlotte, N.C. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hot Buttered Soul (Audio CD)

...but, oh, how lovely it is to travel. Isaac Hayes went into the recording studio back in 1969 with his the Bar-Kays as his backing band and created something magical and timeless that is beyond comparison from anything else I've ever heard. With only four numbers present here, it'd be easy to second-guess picking this up, but if you do you are a sucker, because you just don't understand how strong and potent this album is. It's almost ridiculous how many rappers have sampled this material, and how many times they've done it at that, but none of 'em, NONE OF 'EM could amass the emotion and skill that Brother Ike amassed into these four incredible numbers. The opener 'Walk on By' is not to be messed with for nothin'. The intro is hypnotic and intoxicating, stretching on for over two minutes before Brother Ike's mournful and dour voice comes in to sing his frustration and sadness away. Is' a rough number if you lived through it, but it's good fa' the soul. What follows is jus' somethin' funky, fa'real, an' I'm'a try an' spell it all out fa' you. 'Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic' is down-and-dirty gut-bucket funktified soul. Rhodes electric piano, classic guitar riffs, and that repetitive piano that Public Enemy jus' loves to sample. Oh, what a classic piece 'a work. I'm surprised lotsa these reviews don't seem to think too highly of 'One Woman' 'cause I can't get enough of that number. It's sweeter and more easy-going than the other three, but it's no less strong. I first tooke heavy notice of it while I was stuck in traffic on the highway on my way to my girl's house an' I heard Brother Ike say "I fight my way through the five o'clock rush hour, as daylight slowly leaves the sky..." That stuff gave me chills, fa'real. The good kinda chills when you can't wait for those loving arms of that special someone to greet you, like they always do at the end of everyday. It's just a nice poetic song, irreplaceable if you ask me. Alright, but the truth is that the next number is the real tear-jerker. For the first eight or nine minutes of 'By the Time I Get to Phoenix' there is nothing in the back ground but a hypnotic thumping bassline and Brother Ike telling a truly heartbreaking story of a man and a woman wo were in love, well, at least the man was in love, you know? ("But, y'see, girls, I don't mean to come down on you, but this man LOVED this woman so, but, they say love is blind...") If you're feelin' it, then when the song finally kicks in, you should already be reduced to a puddle of tears. Then all you can do is moan an' wail along with Isaac about bein' a prisoner of love who will never be free.

Fellas, if you've ever had your heartbroken, an' you intend to get anything outta reading this review, it should be to not go another day without this masterpiece. If your lovelorn, sad, an' need somethin' to feed your sadness, or somethin' to keep you in touch with your spirit and soul, then this is the album to pick up. It's by all means one'a the baddest and best soul albums of ALL TIME, flawlessly performed from start to finish. Like I said, it's a long and lonely road, but it's a lovely one to travel. Again and again.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SOUL, SOUL, AND MORE SOUL....., August 19, 2003

By 

mediaagent "mediaagent" (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hot Buttered Soul (Audio CD)

Let me just start off by saying I was 3yrs old when this "Album" came out. And I remember that every one of my relatives had this album (including my mom and grandparents). Everyone would be partying and playing this album. (Ours is worn out....believe me).

You know how a song can trigger a memory? Well, I saw movie "Dead Presidents" (great soundtrack CD), and Issac's "Walk on By" is included in movie (where they count the money). All of a sudden, I remembered this cut! I heard it so many times in my childhood. So I had to see if HOT BUTTERED SOUL was released on CD.

Thank god it is! Honey, this is soul music at its finest. Issac Hayes does not get the credit he deserves in music history. Forget Dionne Warwick's version, Issac Hayes is the BEST version I've ever heard. The horns, the violins, the melody, the man is BAD! This has got to be the best musical introduction I have ever heard in my life!

Then you get to "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedelamystic"...I have NO IDEA what the hell this means, but I feel the smoke, the sweat, the sex, the incense, the energy of this cut. I tell you, they just don't make them like this anymore.

You want some soul, get HOT BUTTERED SOUL. Issac may be "Chef" on SOUTH PARK now, but he's a musician always. In heart and soul.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't WALK ON BY on this one !!!!, August 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hot Buttered Soul (Audio CD)

This album is a musical masterpiece !!! Ike transmits his emotions through his sublime voice and his fantastic music. When I hear the nearly 20 minute ``By the time I get to Phoenix ``, I never get bored by the 7 minute intro. You can't skip his rap cause you'll miss part of the message that Black Moses is delivering to you. Walk on by is charged with so much sadness that you can relate easily to what he's going through. Hyperbolic... is pure funk pleasure. One woman is a sweet ballad filled with incredible background vocals. Hot buttered soul is one of the key albums that popularized album concepts and proved that M.Hayes is a musical genius.