Today Craft Recordings is reissuing an expanded edition of Isaac Hayes’s groundbreaking soundtrack to the 1971 blaxploitation film Shaft. (You can read Wm.™ Steven Humphrey’s scathing review of the remake—starring Samuel L. Jackson and Richard Roundtree—here.) I’ve not seen the original version of the movie, but I’ve listened to the soundtrack many times, and it’s justifiably entered the canon as one of the greatest in its field, up there with Curtis Mayfield’s Super Fly, Marvin Gaye’s Trouble Man, James Brown’s Black Caesar, Roy Ayers’s Coffey, and Earth, Wind & Fire’s Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.
On Shaft, Hayes excelled as a crafter of lush melodies, tender meditations, muscle-clenching suspense, and with “Theme from Shaft,” a cosmos-sweeping paragon of vertiginous, orchestral funk that not only topped the charts, but also served as bumper music for the Detroit Red Wings hockey team’s TV broadcasts in the early ’70s—an unbelievable paradox for the ages.
Hayes and his band recorded 22 tracks in Culver City, California, that didn’t make it onto the original release, and only turned up in a 2008 box set. Now for the first time, these recordings are bundled together on two CDs, so you get them with the Memphis sessions that made it onto the LP that you know and love. Among the previously unreleased songs are the sweet pop-soul of “I Can’t Get Over Losin’ You,” the eerie “Shaft’s Pain” (which bears an uncanny resemblance to some of Herbie Hancock‘s Death Wish OST), and the sparse, 11-minute spine-tingler “Rescue Roll Up.”
One of the key musicians on these recordings is James Alexander, bassist and only surviving original member of Memphis soul-funk stars the Bar-Kays. He contributed low-end ballast and funk to Shaft, as well as to earlier Hayes records such as Hot Buttered Soul, The Isaac Hayes Movement, and …To Be Continued—sample goldmines all.
Alexander considered Hayes and his songwriting partner David Porter, as well as legends Booker T. & the M.G.’s as mentors. His stint with Hayes led to the Bar-Kays succeeding the M.G.’s as the Stax Records house band. (Side note: Hayes bestowed the nickname “Knuck” to Alexander “because when Isaac would teach me a part, I would always forget it and Isaac used to call me ‘Knucklehead,’ and we shortened it to ‘Knuck.'”)
I ask Alexander if during the recording of Shaft the musicians had the sense that it would be an iconic soundtrack. “We had no earthly idea of what the end results would be,” he says. “All I can tell you is that it felt good. We had no idea that it would be iconic. We were only doing what we knew how to do. We had already performed with Isaac on Hot Buttered Soul, The Movement, and …To Be Continued, so this was just the next album. Isaac said that he was working on the soundtrack and he wanted us to go to LA with him and we said yes.
“Also, you need to know that during the time that we [members of the Bar-Kays] were recording Shaft, we’re also the opening act on tour with him; touring up and down the East Coast. We were in LA on Monday through Thursday, recording the motion picture soundtrack, and would leave for the East Coast on Thursday night. We would be back in LA on Monday to begin recording again. We did that for three months.”
Alexander describes the mood in the studio during the Shaft sessions as “really happy-go-lucky. Everyone was in a jovial, fun mood. It was business, but we had a way of doing business and having fun at the same time.”
You may be wondering how “Theme from Shaft”—which is the anomaly on the LP and, I reiterate, one of the greatest creations in Western civilization—came into being. Alexander makes it sound simple. “It all started when Isaac was picking at some notes on the piano and Skip Pitts jumped in and started creating a wah-wah sound on his guitar. [Author’s note: This is one of the most distinctive, transcendent guitar parts ever.] We started playing around with what they had created. Isaac had pointed out that we should play whole notes and we just started building the house and kept moving through the song. We knew that we had something unique, but didn’t realize how unique it was until later on. It was musicians jammin’ together off of the foundation that Isaac was playing; however, Isaac gave direction on what he wanted to hear.”
Alexander’s favorite tracks on Shaft include “’Café Regio’s,’ because that reminds me of Wes Montgomery—somewhere between George Benson and Wes Montgomery’s guitar playing. I really like ‘Soulsville,’ because it is really soulful. I also like ‘Do Your Thing,’ because it was just a jam. It started out one way and ended up being a jam.”
Alexander has fond memories of working with Hayes. “The best thing about working with Isaac Hayes is that there was always a learning curve, if you didn’t know it. There was always something that you were going to do that you hadn’t done before. He stretched us, musically. If you noticed, most of the Isaac Hayes songs were long, and that got to be a trip sometimes.” You may think that Hayes wanted to control every aspect of his music, but he allowed his players to contribute ideas. That’s how Pitts’s famous, mind-blowing wah-wah sound emerged.
However, there were some down sides to being in Mr. Hayes’s backing group. “We had issues with him being late all the time. He would call the session at 6 pm and he may not show up until midnight. That could be a trip, because there was enthusiasm at 6 pm and by midnight you would be burned out. There are a few occasions where I walked out of the session because he was late, and Isaac was upset that I had left.”
Thankfully, the long wait was worth it, and Alexander and the rest of the Shaft crew created one of the most enduring cinematic sonic monuments in musical history. Ya damn right…
TRACK LISTING:
DISC 1: ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
1. THEME FROM SHAFT
2. BUMPY’S LAMENT
3. WALK FROM REGIO’S
4. ELLIE’S LOVE THEME
5. SHAFT’S CAB RIDE
6. CAFÉ REGIO’S
7. EARLY SUNDAY MORNING
8. BE YOURSELF
9. A FRIEND’S PLACE
10. SOULSVILLE
11. NO NAME BAR
12. BUMPY’S BLUES
13. SHAFT STRIKES AGAIN
14. DO YOUR THING
15. THE END THEMEDISC 2: FILM SCORE (INCLUDED IN DELUXE EDITION ONLY)
1. THEME FROM SHAFT [FILM VERSION]
2. SHAFT’S FIRST FIGHT
3. REEL 2 PART 2 / CAT OUGHTA BE HERE
4. BUMPY’S LAMENT [FILM VERSION]
5. SOULSVILLE [FILM VERSION]
6. ELLIE’S LOVE THEME [FILM VERSION]
7. SHAFT’S CAB RIDE [FILM VERSION] / SHAFT ENTERS BUILDING
8. I CAN’T GET OVER LOSIN’ YOU
9. REEL 4 PART 6
10. REEL 5 PART 1
11. A FRIEND’S PLACE [FILM VERSION]
12. BUMPY’S BLUES [FILM VERSION]
13. BUMPY’S LAMENT (REPRISE) [FILM VERSION]
14. EARLY SUNDAY MORNING [FILM VERSION]
15. DO YOUR THING [FILM VERSION]
16. BE YOURSELF [FILM VERSION]
17. NO NAME BAR [FILM VERSION]
18. SHAFT STRIKES AGAIN [FILM VERSION] / RETURN OF SHAFT
19. CAFÉ REGIO’S [FILM VERSION]
20. WALK FROM REGIO’S [FILM VERSION]
21. SHAFT’S PAIN
22. RESCUE / THE END THEME [FILM VERSION]
