Customer Reviews

Shaft: Music From The Soundtrack (1971 Film)

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Simply put, the greatest movie soundtrack of all time. No other soundtrack has seemlessly tied together a storyline, mood and the time it was released. It's a lyrical painting of urban America in the 70s. And the opening cymbal/wah-wah guitar combo has NEVER been matched. Think about it. What other classic is immediately recognizable within the first five or ten seconds?? I'm a white, suburban, 42-year-old guy who grew up on great music like this. I just wish American youth (white and black) would be more exposed to guys like Issac Hayes, Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye and Al Green instead of the hip-hop garbage that passes today as urban/soul. They could learn a thing or two about arrangements and composition too!!

It is hard sometimes to remember how seminal a work Shaft was, now some thirty years ago.

And the music was as groundbreaking as the movie was. There had not been very many pieces of music like it at the time. Few have been able to be this innovative since that time.

Issac Hayes had already established himself as an arranger and producer par excellence. He could twist new and different music from oft-heard classics, as was done in his first three albums like no one else, before or since. His bona fides as a writer were long established, from a ton of work for the Atlantic/Atco stable.

The guitar scratching opening of the "Theme From Shaft" has been repeated to death, and the song itself gets lots of airplay on oldies stations (and we'll probably hear this even more when the re-make comes out in a few weeks). But there was nothing like this ever heard in 1970! This album, though, has a ton of other good music, seldom heard. "Cafe Reggio" is as cool as the other side of the pillow. "Ellie's Love Theme" is soft and romantic. Those who might dis this work as being as banal as elevator music are missing something really special.

This single CD is a good place upon which to recapture Ike's creative excellence.

The influence of SHAFT, not only the movie but the sountrack on popular cultural is immeasurable, and I'm sure with the new Samuel L. Jackson movie, people will be renting, and hopefully buying the soundtrack once again. - - But the question is, what makes this sountrack so special that while movie scores come and go, this movie which wasn't even a musical has had such a major impact on our popular culture ? There are a lot of answers, but what made the movie stand out at the time in part was the music, which plays almost back to back through the film and performed by Issac Hayes, who back then was the soul icon and superstar. But he not only "sung" a few songs, he practically wrote and orchestrated the entire score and created a soundtrack which practically sold the movie. His fame at one point in the early '70s had him known as the Black Moses of Soul, with his shaved head, riding out on stage on a motorcycle wearing nothing but chains... this is CHEF from South Park we're talking about here. - - But it wasn't just his image that made him an icon. Issac Hayes created a form of orchestral soul which the soundtrack to Shaft epitomized. Slick, commercial arrangements with his notorious "love raps", and energetic hooks and emotions. He could be wicked, funky and nasty or slick and soulful - - and even though his songs broke the 3 minute radio airplay rule often by entire album sides, his albums sold. Sadly, the demise of Stax, which in years would go from riches to financial ruin, would lead to the downful of the Hayes and The Movement who by then was also an action film star (check out Truck Turner ! ! !) From what I understand he doesn't even get residuals on his hits, but a new generation is discovering Hayes's talent... now more often then not as an actor, not the architect of the STAX sound of the '60s and '70s (he wrote many of Sam & Dave's big hits as well as other Stax hits). Kudos for Issac Hayes in his ability to remain fresh and re-invent himself... he was always ahead of the times, as is this album which despite the fact that for many people SHAFT was a partial embodiment of soul culture in the '70s, is fresh and entertaining today. - - While Theme from Shaft is the most memorable cut on the album, DO YOUR THING, CAFE REGIOS'S, ELLIE'S LOVE THEME and SOULSVILLE are my faves. If you can get your hands on it... check out ISSAC HAYES LIVE AT THE SHARA TAHOE ! ! !

One of the best soundtracks to come out of the 70s, if not the best was Isaac Hayes'Shaft' soundtrack.With the academy award winning 'Theme from Shaft'.I still remember seeing him performing the song at the awards show on tv. Isaac Hayes recorded Shaft during his best creative years.So what makes Shaft so special? Well to answer wy own question.Shaft is a blend of funk,smooth jazz (before it was called smooth jazz) soul and rhythm & blues.And it all comes together to produced the Isaac Hayes sound.Very few artist have manage to bring together both film and sound like Isaac Hayes did with the Shaft soundtrack.You find yourself enjoying the music just as much as the movie.Before Shaft Isaac Hayes was best known for working his magic with other people's material like 'Buy The Time I Get To Phoenix,Our Day Will Come and The Look Of Love etc,etc,etc.But Shaft if I'm not mistaking was Isaac Hayes first whole album of his own original music.And he rose to the challenge.I think Shaft gave Mr.Hayes an opportunity to record songs that weren't a part of his normal routine.And this gave us songs like Ellie's Love Theme,Early Sunday Morning and Shaft Strikes Again.Just to name a few on this great album.So thanks to Shaft we got to hear these gems.Yes Shaft is a fantastic soundtrack it's Isaac Hayes at his best and I highly recomment it.After thirty-five years the music still sounds good.The only downside to the album to me is the length of Do Your Thing.Why so long? I don't know why Isaac Hayes made it so long.Maybe he needed to fill in some space.Well I guess I'll go and watch the movie Shaft on my DVD player now.

I don't care if you characterize all the music beyond the "Theme from Shaft" as "mood music", "smooth jazz" or whatever. It's outstanding.... Dated? Maybe. Wicked cool? Without a doubt.

I first bought this recording back in the '70's when it was released as a double LP. I was very pleased when I saw it on CD and was even more satisfied when I received it and played it.This is Isaac Hayes' best work as far as I'm concerned.Not only do you get the full version of the "Theme From Shaft" but you also get a good selection of soul/jazz fusion.This recording brought back some fond memories and the remastering makes it all that much more enjoyable ...

In spite of the fact, that the music beyond the "Theme from Shaft" is being characterized as "mood music", I feel that it is also some of the best "smooth jazz" that you will hear! It is music that has, and will stand the test of time. Listen to "Cafe Regio","No name bar", and "Ellie's love theme". Songs that have been covered by other artist, such as Norman Brown, and Doc Powell. This album is a classic! Perfect for "that mood"!

i still enjoy the music and the arrangements much.to be perfectly honest there have been maybe between 10-25 good soundtrack cd's since this one.and many of those were by curtis mayfield.and considering how many soundtrack cd's come out daily and what have you that's not many.that's the brillance of mr.hayes.

After hearing the sad news that Isaac Hayes had passes away yesterday I decided to pay tribute to the man that re-wrote the rules for popular music by writing a review of his classic soundtrack to the blaxploitation flick "Shaft" from 1971 with Richard Roundtree in the lead. When people talk about blax flicks they talk about Shaft and when they talk about Shaft they talk about Hayes. But in order to understand Hayes legacy we need to go back to 1969 when he released his groundbreaking album Hot Buttered Soul. An album that only included 4 songs and 4 songs much longer then the average radio time of 3 minutes at the time, Infact the shortest song clocked at 5 minutes and the longest at 18!. 3/4 of those songs were also covers but unrecognizable to it's originals. Hayes and his band The Bar-Kays would have long spoken intros, instrumental parts of horns, strings, organs and guitars and a productions that would be influentual to the birth of Hip Hop one and a half decace later. Hayes had a very unique deep voice and would sometimes also rap and he was both sensual and charismatic and his original shaved head was not too common back in the day when everyone had an afro. An on top of that, Hayes would lead the way for Soul Music in the 70's and open the doors for other Soul musicians like Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder to break out of the fabricated motown influenced music of the 60's where musicians had no personal integrity and were all sounding the same. The irony behind this was that Hayes was a humble backround musician and he worked for the modest label Stax, after his debut album Presenting Isaac Hayes flopped he wasn't even suppost to release a successor.

Hayes released two more albums in 1970, The Isaac Hayes Movement and...To Be Continued before it was time for Shaft the year after. Originally Hayes had hoped to play the lead and to writeit's music, but when Roundtree was appointed as Shaft, Hayes accepted to play a smaller role and since the record company was impressed by the songs he had written thus far he was given green light to record the rest of the soundtrack. The result was groundbreaking. The lead track "Theme From Shaft" topped the Billboard singles chart for two weeks, The album peaked at #1 on the album charts and Hayes even won an oscar for best film music. After the major success of "Shaft" film music got a new importance and even to it's day big budget films always try to attract good musicians for it's soundtrack. it also attracted other artists such as Curtis Mayfield to record the soundtrack for Blax flicks like Superfly and Willie Hutch for Foxy Brown: Original Soundtrack From American International Pictures. Blax flicks became just as famous for their plot as for their music.

To try to sum up the songs of this album in the best possible way, you can say that they all are closely related to certain scenes of the film which make them quite memorable if you have seen the film. Most songs are instrumentals, excellent as soundtracks but not exactly single material, there are also many very short songs. On Mayfield's "Superfly" soundtrack there were more songs with vocals and therefore also more memorable moments since almost any song could have been picked as a single there. But let's not take away anything from Hayes, all of the songs are beautiful and they fit the diffrent scenes of the film well. Obviously the theme song stands out as nothing else here, partly cause it's amazing but also cause it became a synonym for an entire film genre. This brilliant piece is mostly instrumental but the few words that Hayes say are memorable enough "Who's the black private dick
That's a sex machine to all the chicks?" (Shaft!). The 20 minute jam of "Do Your Thing" which shows what Hayes is all about and the hauting and deeply realistic "Soulville" about povery, racism and segregation in USA. Out of the instrumentals, we need to mention the marimba of "Ellis Love Theme" the horns of "Be Yourself" and the electric piano of "Bumpy's Lament".

Well, "Shaft" in an exellent and highly influentual album in any way and if you call yourself a Soul fan you should own this. It demonstrates Hayes and The Bar-Kays at their peak of creativity and this is why he got introduced into the Rock N Roll Hall of fame in 2002. The same year as shaft he would also release his last great album Black Moses which finalized his creative peak. In latter years, he may be better known for Chef in Southpark and for being a spokesperson for the Scientology Church (read sect) but musically no one can take anything away from him. Rest In Peace Isaac Hayes 1942-2008.

I first found this soundtrack in a bootleg 8-track tape in 1972 at a flea market and I haven't stopped liking it since. From the infectious guitar lick on the opening track to the closing reprise, Shaft stands on its own as a milestone in movie soundtracks. Isaac Hayes' score still sounds fresh and impressive, not dated. "Early Sunday Morning" and "No Name Bar" are notable contrasts in smooth jazz and progressive funk. Pick it up and you'll wish you could buy it again and again.