St. Louis’ Bernie Hayes witnessed history in the making when a young Isaac Hayes and members of The BarKays were entrusted with creating the theme song and soundtrack for a Gordon Parks’ film named Shaft.
The film and the song will never be forgotten. Nor will Isaac Hayes, who died Sunday (August 10, 2008) at 65 of an apparent stroke.
Bernie Hayes and the soulful Isaac shared a surname and also a zeal for pure soul music.
“I was in the studio often when he and The BarKays were working on Shaft,” said Hayes, who would return to St. Louis and become one of its most popular DJs and producers.
“Luther Ingram and I were there with him often during the composition.”
He said Isaac Hayes “was much more than a musical talent.”
“He was also a man who very quietly and discreetly was involved in politics and civic affairs,” Bernie Hayes said.
“He was an advocate for women and minority rights. His political convictions and ideals were as much a part of Isaac as his music, although he was not a grandstander.”
Born in 1942 in the South, Hayes was no stranger to segregation and racism. But unlike many black entertainers, he did not shun his blackness. He wore it with pride, just as he triumphantly wore chains during the height of his prominence.
Aretha Franklin said Hayes was “so musically advanced and timeless in his compositions.”
“He was loved and appreciated by so many. He was an enduring symbol of the struggle of the African-American man and was a shining example of soul at its best.”
R&B great Patti LaBelle reminisced about the last time she saw Hayes, at a concert they both played in Washington, D.C.
“Although he was under the weather, he was still performing. He was the man – he had ‘the show must go on’ spirit. In his absence, he will be remembered through his great music. He will forever be in our hearts and souls.”
Before he became a world renowned star, Hayes produced and wrote many soul classics at Memphis’ Stax Records, including hits for Sam & Dave, Booker T and the MGs, and other artists.
The Stax album Hot Buttered Soul made Hayes a star in 1969. Late that year, he began working on Shaft, the work that would thrust him on to the international stage.
April 10, 1972
It was one of those nights that Black America stopped what it was doing to watch television.
Isaac Hayes’ “Shaft” was nominated for Best Song during the 44th Academy Awards. Not only was he nominated, he would perform live.
Like his band, which was among the largest to travel the nation with an artist during the 1970s, dozens of dancers jumped, twirled, pushed and pulled as Hayes laid down a perfect set. Covered in gold chains, he gave a performance that earned him a lengthy standing ovation. Hayes would win the Oscar, and TV Guide later chose it as No. 18 in its list of television’s 25 most memorable moments. The song and score also won him two Grammys.
“I tried to be as real as I possibly could,” Isaac Hayes said.
“And I keyed in on the character, Shaft, the character himself. That was through the suggestion of Gordon Parks, the original director. He said, ‘You got to depict the personality of this guy. You got to stick with him.’ ”
After the success of Shaft, Hayes released Black Moses in 1971, and soul music was changed forever.
Noted critic Wil Haygood said in the Washington Post the album and its artwork “got alarming stares from plenty of folks – especially whites – but blacks considered it an instant revelation. It was in one flourish, a kind of iconic art: a muscular black man in a flowing robe. The religious merged with the political, all coming alive against a backdrop of thumping music.”
Elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, Hayes branched out into acting in the 1970s, as well. He starred in Truck Turner and played supportive roles in many other films.
His gregarious personality didn’t match the aura that his chains and intense music produced, and it helped him become one of actor James Garner’s best buddies. He was a guest star on three episodes of 1970s classic The Rockford Files, starring as Gandolph Fitch. His work helped Garner and the show earn Emmy Awards in 1976 and 1977.
Hayes composed film scores for Tough Guys and Truck Turner. He also wrote “Two Cool Guys” on the Beavis and Butt-Head Do America movie soundtrack in 1996.
That work introduced him to a younger audience and led to his role as the voice of Chef in Comedy Central’s scurrilous cartoon series South Park.
Hayes was also the voice of Nickelodeon’s Nick at Nite and hosted radio shows in New York (1996 to 2002) and then in Memphis.
He was in several other movies, including It Could Happen to You with Nicolas Cage, Ninth Street with Martin Sheen, Reindeer Games starring Ben Affleck and the blaxploitation parody I’m Gonna Git You, Sucka.
Born in the rural poverty of a sharecropper’s family on August 20, 1942, in Covington, Tenn., Hayes rose to become a coronated King of Ghana in western Africa. Instead of a palace, he built an 8,000-square-foot educational facility, as he felt that education and literacy are the keys to a successful life.
He is survived by his wife of three years Adjowa Hayes, and their two-year-old son Kwadjo Hayes; 10 children – Jacqueline Fields, Felecia Hayes Fisher, Veronica Hayes, Vincent Hayes, Melanie Hayes, Nikki McGhee, Heather Hayes, Isaac Hayes III, Darius Caston and Lillian Bryant; 14 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
“We are overwhelmed with the outpouring of support and love from Isaac’s dear friends, colleagues and fans from every corner of the world, and we thank each and every one of them for their kind thoughts and prayers,” the family said in a statement.
“While he was an iconic figure to many, to us he was husband, father and friend. We will ever miss his love, wisdom, humor and the familiar comfort of his voice.”
The life of award-winning composer/musician Isaac Hayes will be memorialized next week during a funeral service in Cordova, Tenn.
The service will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday (August 18) at Hope Presbyterian Church.
In lieu of flowers, the Hayes family asks fans to celebrate Hayes’ support of the Stax Music Academy and his Stax Records Legacy, by sending donations to the Academy that are made out to Soulsville, 926 E. McLemore Avenue, Memphis, TN 38106.
Please specify “In memory of Isaac Hayes.”
“He wrote songs of pride. He was an inspiration,” said Bernie Hayes.
“The music world and the world-at-large has lost a great man, and heaven is now blessed with his presence.”
