10 August 2008

He was a baaad mother-(shut your mouth)

Augh! Isaac Hayes just died. What? How the hell did that happen?
That means that pretty much all the cool in the world (except, you know, for what resides in my own body) is gone.
Wasn’t Isaac Hayes too cool to die? I mean, seriously, you’d think Death would walk in and Isaac would go, “Hey, baby, don’t wreck the groove, dig?”
“But I’ve come to take you to the other side,” Death would say, somewhat nonplussed by his total lack of fear.
“Just have a seat while I dim the lights, baby. Care for a drink?”
“I really shouldn’t…” but Isaac would put Hot Buttered Soul on his record player, and the cool would overwhelm it, “well, okay…maybe just one…”
And a couple hours later, Death would walk out of the house empty-handed with a big smile. Death’s driver would say, “Ummm…so where’s this guy we came for?”
“Whoah,” Death would say, “step off a brother, a’ight? He’s cool.” And then Death would go off to bother, say, Andy Dick.
The man has great personal significance for me beyond just being super-cool. He was a huge part of my courtship with Rhonda. She had never listened to him before. At the time, she was a big fan of Stealing Beauty, which has one of the best soundtracks ever, and we used to listen to it while we were out driving. It features a song called “2-Wicky” by a band named Hoover, which samples “Walk On By” very heavily. I told her the origin of the sample, and later played Hot Buttered Soul for her, and she loved the record, and...well, let’s just say that LOTS of sex was had with that record playing in the background, okay? So, everybody thinks of sex when they listen to Isaac Hayes, but maybe I think of a little more sex than most.
Speakin’ of which, I’m gonna put Hot Buttered Soul on right now, and when that’s over, I’m gonna watch Shaft (which, of course, I own on DVD...I mean, come on). And maybe later I’ll go hang out with Mama’s cat, who is pretty much Hayes’ avatar amongst the common folk.

Walk on by, walk on by,
Make believe that you don’t see the tears
Just let me grieve in private
‘Cause each time I see you
I break down and cry
And walk on by

I just can’t get over losing you
So if I seem broken and blue
Walk on by


 
So long, brother.

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