Customer Reviews

Joy [Vinyl]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Cut #3 says it all: "A Man will be a Man". Isaac Hayes, like contemporary Barry White, has the bass pipes to seduce the heartiest of women. Hayes is the master technician of romance on a disc that is expertly balanced with a powerful party jam (the fifteen-minute-plus title cut) and the remainder of the album, a collection of "bedroom ballads" that will more than likely get the female listener's attention in the most arousing of ways.

The "boys" that are populating today's R & B/hip-hop charts need to learn from one that knows exactly what women want and can convey his desires in a most passionate of musical wizardry.

This classic album should be considered a 1970s R&B essential. The chugging, bubbly, sensual mid-tempo title track remains one of Isaac's most compelling ballads and also foreshadows the Disco style which would take the world by storm just a few years later. "A Man Will Be A Man" and "I'm Gonna Make It Without You" were not released as singles but are pure vintage Hayes and are high points of this classic album. Nearly 40 years after its original release this album remains a true "Joy" to listen to.

i just got my copy of this album.....YIKES!

the opening track.....nothing short of a 15- minute SEDUCTION!

i suggest thee get it.......NOW!

Issac Hayes has been in my EARS for YEARS & now the simplicity and durability of CD's has made my ownership of Ike's music that much more portable I am introducing Ike to all sorts of folk. This album is a superb example of the power of words when sung & spoken with feeling Long Live IKe

It really pissed me off when people told me "Chef" from Southpark died in August 2008. That fun little askerist being what Isaac Hayes-Black Moses-is most known for shows you the unfunky state of American cultural literacy.

Speaking of American culture, the contribution Hayes made was huge. If he wrote only his 1960s Stax songs for Sam and Dave and Carla and Rufus Thomas, his name would be cemented. Even if he had just written Sam and Dave's "Soul Man," the sound image we think of when we imagine a hip soul singer, he would be an icon. Half of John Baluchi and Dan Akroid's career-The Blues Brothers-- came from the imagination of the bald Black Moses you see above.

But in 1969, Hayes, along with Barry White, expanded the entire genre of soul: turning it from a singles medium to an ambitious, progressive orchestral template. For the reinvention of this music, check out Hayes' Hot Buttered Soul.

Joy is Hayes continuing his greatness: the long title track here is both raw and orchestrated, muscular and elegant. Big as any 1973 art rock. The remainder of joy is Master Moses continuing his expansion of the music he sat on the mountaintop of. Hear the deep and sweet arrangements, the 1970s Purple Velvet of Hayes' work

Not chef. Master Chef.

When I listened to the ultra cool track "Joy" I thought about Donna Summer's "Love To Love You Baby" - I swear Donna's tune borrowed heavily from this Isaac classic. He was the first to release extended jams that would take up most of the side of an LP. "Joy" is proto-disco, an excellent, forward concept in soul/dance music.....a must have album. Also, don't miss other classics from IH like "The Look Of Love" and "Something".

Isaac was on a roll in the early 70's with his cinematic romantic funk/soul tales. Than around this this time BOOM!:I've Got So Much to Give,Barry White's debut album was unleashed on the world and all of a sudden Hayes started to seem like he was part of a movement rather than the sole purveyor of it. It was all for not as it turned out: Isaac himself was already so successful and he and Barry's style of orchestration and approch were so fundamentally different at the very bottom that both could easily exist in the same world together. In fact on this album Isaac is borrowing very heavily from Barry's cross pollination of his own sound. The psychedelic element,already being purged heavily from his sound during the Shaft period is completely gone here. Not that it's noticable:while there are changes in production and arrangement style,the musical flavors remain the same. Five songs,all between 6 and 15 minutes in lengh and featuring spoken "raps" in and around them are again the order of the day. The title song is the longest,almost 16 minutes in fact and catching onto this very deep and potent sound of what I call atmospheric funk:the sound seems to float but also be rooted at the bottom as well. But then again that is kind of how joy feels sometimes and,it's certainly one of his classic slow burning funk jams. The rest of the album is focused on slow grooves,all of them very much on the changing moods and twists in romance-both taken from the male and female perspective. On "A Man Will Be A Man" Isaac has been a cheat and is not asking to be forgiven but rather a chance to be accepted AND to redeem himself-looking at the possibility of again being some of integrity. "I Love You That's All" of course has the distinction of consisting mostly of a toast between Isaac and his lady-after which the vocal consists of the sounds of love making:the aspect of Isaac's sound Barry White obviously borrowed most heavily from. On "I'm Gonna Make It (Without You)" Isaac is the one whose been played but has learned an important lesson on both ends. In this day and age when one too many a male R&B singer seems all to wishy washy or plain just-don't-care-ish it is always refreshing to think of someone like Isaac who,while freely admitting romantic flaws also uses his own dignity and self pride to get himself into a better place no matter how it turns out. It's that concept that makes not only the music on this album so potent but adds that important ingrediant of thoughtfulness to what happens in the bedroom as well.

Isaac Hayes was one of the rawest, funkiets, soul singers ever and his cd proves his legacy and he's way overlooked I mean Isaac made songs which always had a black mafia feel to it.