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oul icon-Isaac Hayes, who won Grammy andAcademy awards for the theme to the 1971 film“Shaft,’’ racked up hundreds of hits on others, wrotemore than 50 soundtracks, appeared in countlessfilm and TV shows, most recently as the characterand voice of “Chef’’ in the comedy series `SouthPark,’’ and was actually crowned a King in Ghana, Africa, diedat his home in Memphis, Tennessee on August 10. He was 65.The first time I ever saw Ike, as people called him back inthe day, he was heading straight at me in the middle of the L.A.Coliseum’s infield. I remember I was wearing reddish-pink bell-bottoms and so was he, but while I had on a shirt, he did not.He was wearing gold, or rather
GOLD
. Chains and chains of it.His face hidden in huge sunglasses. It was, of course, Wattstax’72, the concert that would become legend, film and all. A hugepart of the legend was the supersize presence of Ike. He was, inactuality, just a shade under six feet tall, but that night and onmany other nights, he looked an easy seven or eight feel tall.He was saying something to me, but I couldn’t tell what. Iwas overwhelmed and struck dumb. Not only was he visually apowerful presence, he was
Shaft
for god’s sake. Well, ok,
Shaft
was played by Richard Roundtree, but rarely, if ever, has musicmade a film so exactly what it was supposed to be as Ike’s soul-inspired soundtrack. Ask anybody.On this night, under the Los Angeles skies, with 100,000joyous people watching, Hayes delivered his symphonettes assemonettes with long, seductive instrumental intros propellingthe crowd, already on its feet, to screams. Somebody introducedthe backup singers, three women he’d named Hot, Butteredand Soul, after his album of the same name, and the audienceswooned. The women were bald and startling and gorgeous!Heaven help us, they’d shaved their heads to stand up there andsing with Ike. Of course, with those album covers and his BlackMoses persona, he’d sent men everywhere out buying clippers totry to duplicate his shaven head.Most people know about his music-making career. The Sam& Dave joints spring to mind: “Hold On, I’m Comin,” “SoulMan,” “I Thank You.” Ike and the wonderful David Porter alsowrote “B-A-B-Y” for Carla Thomas and hits for the Emotions,the Soul Children, Mable John and Lou Rawls.His solo work includes a string of Top Twenty albums:
Hot
S
ISaac HayeS:
Thr-tim Grmm
®
wir Is Hs ws tr rissm — sigr, sgwritr, prdr, sssi msii, tr, tivistd mr. aftr ig th grdwrk fr th Mmphis s sdthrgh his wrk with Stx Rrds, his grdbrkig thm sgd sr fr th mvi ‘Shft’ mtd his stts s msii. H ws tiv ivvd with r Mmphis chptr, shrighis rtivit with stbishd prfssis d p-d-migmsiis ik. Th wrd hs st tr rtiv gis d pssit hmitri, bt his idib g wi rmi vrprst.
—ni Prtw, Prsidt/ceo, Th Rrdig adm
S msi dvd dtimss i his mpsitis, IsHs ws vd d ppritdb s m. H ws drigsmb f th strgg f thafri-amri m d ws shiig xmp f s t itsbst. Gd bss d bssdIs Hs.
—arth Frki, Q f S
Buttered Soul
(1969),
The Isaac Hayes Movement
(1970),
To Be Continued
(1970),
Shaft
(1971),
Black Moses
(1971),
Live at the Sahara Tahoe
(1973),
Joy
(1973) and
Chocolate Chip
(1975).He had 89 film and 56 TV credits, many of them for soundtracks buta lot of them for acting. In some stage of completition is “Knight Fever,”in which he acts and composes the soundtrack. In the 1972 AcademyAwards broadcast, he became the first Black man to win a music Oscar,and the world went crazy.There is an eerie photo on Haye’s website. It is Bernie Mac who hasalso just died, Ike and Samuel L. Jackson, the stars of a film to be releasedthis November entitled, “Soul Men.”My favorite TV role of Ike was in “The Rockford Files” because hisacting seemed so effortless and his character of Gandolf Fitch worked soperfectly with James Garner’s flawed hero, Rockford.Ike also had a powerful presence on radio. In 1996, while diving intothe advertising world with commercials for both Pepsi and Burger King(writing and performing music for both), Isaac joined the Emmis urbanAC WRKS-FM (KISS 98.7) radio family, taking on the morning slot andquickly becoming KISS’s top rated DJ as well as the second most popu-lar morning jock in New York City. In addition, every Sunday night, hehosted “The Isaac Hayes Top 20 R&B Countdown” from 8pm to 10pm.Later, as part of his triumphant return to Memphis, he began spinninghis own style of classic love songs on “Hot Buttered Love Songs” WRBOSoul Classics 103.5 in Memphis. His show aired from 7pm to midnightSunday through Thursday.It is Hayes’ role as humanitarian that has been largely overlooked in themainstream media. But long before any Black celebrity with a higher pro-file talked of an African school, Ike had already been moving mountainsover there.In late 1991, he and Barry White traveled to the Ivory Coast in Africato shoot a video for “Dark & Lovely,” the single from White’s come-back album
Put Me In Your Mix
. The following year, Hayes and DionneWarwick accepted an invitation by the Cultural Minister of Ghana to visitthe Cape Coast and Elmina slave castles. Walking through the dungeonslistening to the horrifying stories told by the guide, Hayes was over-whelmed with emotion. He realized it was not enough to help finance therenovation of the castles; there was bigger work to be done in Africa. Heasked how much it would cost to build a school. Returning to America,Hayes took his energy on the road, speaking to African-American commu-nity groups and Black expos around the country. He encouraged everyonehe met to visit Africa if they could, to interact with the people, or at the
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