Customer Reviews

Isaac Hayes - The Black Moses of Soul

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First a little warning... released on video ages ago, long out of print and virtually impossible to find, if you already have the VHS version, don't breathe too much of a sigh of release... It definitely is *NOT* digitally remastered... The sound still sounds like it was recorded... well back in 1973 (in all fairness) and the picture is somewhat dark. With that said... what do you expect... this is SOUL MUSIC and a live concert in 1973... and you know the POWERS THAT BE weren't going to send out their BEST camera crew and recording equipment... Still, this is a window back in time, and considering it was recorded live in 1973 let's give the producers a break... despite the face that the recording could definitely have been cleaned up (even with the software I have on my own computer !)

The group features the entire MOVEMENT, HOT BUTTERED SOUL and that hardcore bald check (Is she the model from those old Ohio Players albums covers ?) Tunes are LIGHT MY FIRE, I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MYSELF, NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE, BY THE TIME I GET TO PHOENIX, LOOK OF LOVE and I STAND ACCUSED and the playing time is 78 minutes. Issac Haye's is wearing the chains and the audience (overdubbed or not) is quite hyped. - - Though the concert gets off to a bit of a slow start, the soul and orchestral arrangements are totally off the wall by the time Haye's hits on NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE and you realize why in that era if you had a chick and wanted to impress her, it was out with the fro and in with some scalp !

Overall... if you can get back being spoiled by recent advances in digital remastering and place yourself in the position of the people who were viewing it when it first came out... you'll dig it majorly !

This is probably a great show by Isaac--- too bad the audio is so tinny and high-pitched that even the most hardcore fan will turn it off after about 20 minutes. The audience seems to drown-out the action on-stage. I appreciate the age of the document, but even still... damn.
It's a shame.

Okay, I saw this yesterday after finding a $5 copy at a local discount shop along with some last minute dark socks for work. In spite of the previous reviews, I personally thought it was quite good.

Granted, this WAS filmed in 1973 and not digitally remastered. A few annoying seventies effects such as the fuzzy double -exposures appear from time to time. But the SHOW and the MUSIC are the things here!

Ike's band "The Movement" and his lovely background singers (as well as the pit orchestra) ROCKS! The show beings with a bald female dancer doing her thing and when Ike comes out in a grand entrance (smiliar to his classic onstage introduction with Jesse Jackson in WATTSTAX a few months earlier), Ike and the bald sister dancer get together in what appears to be either a prayer, a long embrace of love, or perhaps both. In either case, it's a beautiful sight and the audience responds accordingly-and the show beings.

This is not the same song set from Ike's WATTSTAX appearance from 1972 on DVD that has the SHAFT sountrack material. This focuses on the slower love songs he made famous such as his covers of BY THE TIME I GET TO PHOENIX, THE LOOK OF LOVE, NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE, LIGHT MY FIRE, and his own classic I STAND ACCUSED. The ending of the latter is a sight to behold.

This is valuable, as VERY few live Soul or R&B concerts from the classic Soul and Rhythm and Blues era (late 1940s to about 1982) are domesticlally available on non-bootleg DVDs (the legendary bootlegs of James Brown's THE TAMI SHOW and LIVE AT THE BOSTON GARDEN APRIL 5, 1968 come to mind). So we are quite lucky to have this.

In one episode of GOOD TIMES circa 1974, Bernadette Stanis and her boyfriend are shown planning to attend an Issac Hayes concert. This is what they would have seen. Enjoy, and encourage DVD companies to bring MORE Classic Soul concerts from these artists in their PRIME to light!

I was recently on youtube scanning through any footage of Mr. Hayes,being that he passed away so quickly,what a tragic loss,indeed? So,I find a mesmerizing version of "The Look Of Love",and it was so good,after only a minute or so,I stop it,and immediately post it on my myspace page. I thought that it would take me years to find the actual recording,as it usually does for the classics. But I actually found the same performance on amazon,much to my chagrin,like within days,I was practically shocked,OK? I am old school,from the mail order era,where one could be waiting for months,if not several years,searching & hunting down a record/tape/film/etc. From the way that the other reviewers were writing,I just knew that it was the same one that I saw,and it was,whoa? I was even able to transfer it to disc,and the transfer in nothing more than brilliant,so I don't know what these other folks were complaining about,huh? They need to stop relying on the digital format so much,and embrace the analog age,as it will never ever let you down,and you can always tweak it out,if you prefer,ya know? But the Isaac Hayes live performance is absolutely wonderful,and anyone who gets it,will truly be in for a treat,that will last for years to come. Five stars,r.i.p.,Mr. Hayes...

Come my children. Let us go back to those thrilling days of yesteryear. Black Moses is about to descend upon the stage and in our psychies and take us to that place where he holds sway for an hour or so. You remember don't you? Well, if you don't, or if you weren't there, then try this show on for size. It'll give you some idea of what it was like. There was magic. And there was 'MOSES'

I was very disappointed in this DVD. I am a huge Isaac Hayes fan, but the music quality on this DVD was bad and the picture was very dark. The concert in general was pretty good, but it's hard to enjoy because of the poor quality of the DVD.