Isaac Hayes - Soulville

This is a live performance by soul music legend Isaac Hayes playing the song "Soulville" live in concert.
The song is from the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film "Shaft". The most famous song of that soundtrack of course being the Academy Award nominated "Theme from Shaft" famous for it's heavy use of wah-wah pedal and somewhat cheesy lyrics. Click here for a performance of "Theme from Shaft". The soundtrack only contained three songs with vocals, the rest of it were instrumentals. The last song with vocals was "Do Your Thing".
It's a great performance and Hayes really impresses with his musical abilities. As he's playing the saxophone on this song. In the later years of his career he'd usually stick to playing piano. The horns would come from a three piece keyboard section Hayes used on the road.
But a great performance of a really nice song. And this song has some pretty good lyrics.

Enjoy ;-)

Rory Gallagher – I Take What I Want

This is a live performance by Irish guitar, folk and blues legend Rory Gallagher playing his version of the classic soul song “I Take What I Want”.
The song was written by David Porter, Mabon Hodges and soul legend Isaac Hayes. And it has been done by a large number of artists such as: Aretha Franklin and Rory Gallagher who are probably the most famous artists who have done this song.
Gallagher’s studio recorded version of this song was released on his 1975 album “Against the Grain”. And besides two other tracks on the album all tracks were originals composed by Gallagher.
I love Gallagher’s performance of this. It’s like he fuses rock ‘n’ roll with soul music in this as there are still some soul elements in there. Gallagher does an amazing solo and so does Lou Martin on the keyboard. It’s a great song and a great performance by Gallagher and band.

Enjoy ;-)

Isaac Hayes - Walk On By

This is a live performance by soul musician Isaac Hayes doing his version of "Walk On By" at the 2005 Montreux Jazz Festival.
"Walk On By" was originally composed by Burt Bacharac with lyrics by Hal David. The song was first recorded by Dionne Warwick. It has since been covered by many artists who have made the song a hit. Of course Isaac Hayes, but also The Stranglers, D-Train, Cyndi Lauper and Seal among others.
Isaac Haye's version was released on his 1969 "Hot Buttered Soul" album. On this version the song is transformed into an almost 13 minutes funk jam. This live version is about 9 mintues and 30 seconds. The single version from the album was cut down to about 5 minutes and it got to no. 30 on the US Hot 100 chart.
I really love this live version it's really a jam and the band is feeling it. Especially love the guitar intro by Charles "Skip" Pitts. Hayes also refers to him as Skip under the concert. The funky bass line at the end that just escalated at the end is also very impressive. A very good and funky performance.

Enjoy ; )

Isaac Hayes - Theme from Shaft

This is a live performance from 1973 of Isaac Hayes performing the Theme from Shaft. The song was originally recorded in 1971 as the theme for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film "Shaft". The song was shortened from the version in the film and was released as a single. It reached no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in America. The following year the song won an Oscar for the best original song. This also made Hayes the first Afro-American to win an Academy Award in a non-acting category.
The song has been featured in many TV-shows and films since and was also re-recorded for the 2000 remake of the film, it wasn't changed, just re-recorded.
It's a very traditional and good funk song. It has a lot of wah-wah on the guitar and I think it sounds amazing, and Hayes has a voice unlike anyone. It's so low-registered, and I love it. It's a great song, but also a historic song in recent Afro-American historic events. A great song.

Enjoy ; )