Customer Reviews
Before Barry White........ - By: Magic Rat, 25 Sep 2007 
......came Isaac Hayes. A four track album ? In 1969 ? You've got to be kidding, right ? No Sir. Isaac Hayes took the orchestration & elongation of soul music to the nth degree with this ground-breaking release. Whether or not you find the four abnormally-extended workouts to your own personal taste or not, you simply have to admire the artist's willingness to push back the boundaries of contemporary popular music & the sheer chutzpah of it all.
The opener, "Walk On By" is a magnificent interpretation of the track made famous by Dionne Warwickin anyone's book. Lushly & lasciviously orchestrated it has so many peaks it leaves you breathless, despite its essential laid back groove. The contender for the longest track name ever is next, & a wonderful earthy funker it is too, with Hayes' band right on the money. Top dollar soul/funk. "One Woman" seems like a throwaway cutin comparison to its mighty counterparts, but it has a great chorus rise to it with peerless gospelly female backing vocals. The album's closer, the monumental pot boiler of "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" out-Barry Whites Barry White three years or so before he made the drawn-out soulful spoken introduction his ownin many people's eyes. This track is a mighty eighteen-minute opus, rising to a classic, comparatively frenetic ending that just leaves onein awe of this album's achievement. Remember once again. It was 1969.
Throughout this album the sound & standard of musicianship (from the Bar-Kays) is top notch, save for one strange crackly bit two thirds of the way through "One Woman". Overall, though, highly recommended if you are interestedin the progression of soul music.
There's nothing like this !! - By: Andy Edwards, 23 Sep 2006 I can remember well the first time I heard this album. Used to a diet of Soul from the more commercial end of the spectrum, this was the album that sent me on a journey to discover Soul & Funkin all its forms - & what an album!!
I cannot hear Ike's version of "Walk on By" without marvelling at the sheer audacity of the man - but I love it, the strings, the guitars, the slow build up (will he ever sing?) & then the gravelly vocal - epic stuff.
There' more - "...Phoenix" is the same but more so, & while "One Woman" is almost standard fare, Hyper..." was the forerunner of the funk workouts Ike would become famous for on "Shaft".
No. this is not for everyone, & there are better albums but Soul music would not be the same without it & I love it.
I,m souled on this album(Sorry) - By: russell clarke, 08 May 2004 
It starts with a crisp peal of percussion & then the strings flow dreamily in. They seethe with honeyed intensity but then glistening steely bursts of guitar crackle like lightning on the horizon. Then they sound suddenly wonky, slightly out of key before that incredible rumble of a voice joins the fray with admirable restraint. Over the next ten minutes Isaac Hayes takes us through a rendition of “Walk on by” that is both graceful & majestic ending with a string twanging fevered intensity & along the way incorporates girly backing vocals, a clarinet & fermented key boards.
Isaac Hayes recorded “Hot Buttered Soul”in 1969, his first album for Stax records he was shoved into a studio at short notice along with three producers & the Bar -Kay’s rhythm section under the instructions to produce anything as long as he did it with alacrity. Which is why Hayes got away with producing an album that contained just four songs, only one of them an original, & saw him produce not so much cover versions as stretch -limo versions as he distend the originals way beyond their intended lengths through audacious instrumentation arrangements & slow-mo raps that if done by any one else would be so corny they could be sponsored by Green Giant.
His opening take on Bacharach/Davids “Walk on by” leads into the one original song on the album the tongue dislocating “Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic” which is a fantastic funk work out with hip swivelling bass & swanky licks of wah wah which ends with demented piano. His version of Chalmers/Rhodes “One Woman” is relatively restrained comingin under six minutes with more female backing & those trademark strings which leads into his truly extraordinary version of Jimmy Webbs “By the time I get to Phoenix”. Here Hayes over lachrymose organ & swishes of hi-hat actually introduces the song he’s going to sing before embarking on an epic tale of betrayal & love gone bad. Then those strings quiver in, the horns break out like a rash, the clarinet & piano motifs weep sympatheticallyin the background & Hayes sings the song with increasing crooning vehemence while the instruments risein fervour until it reaches a point of such glorious epiphany it’s almost masochistic. “You had a good heart & you abused it” he sings. Listening to this it’s hard to disagree.
This is a brilliant album One of the truly great soul releases up there with anything by Green, Gaye or Mayfield. In factin terms of its fervent emotional catharsis it’s up their with anythingin the entire musical canon.
Forget the rest cos this is the best - By: D. B. Dalglish, 24 Feb 2004 At Glastonbury 2003, (i think), Hayes did a set which consisted of 15 minutes of 'SHAFT!' he's a complicated man etc.' Why didn't he play something from an album that sets him above other soul folk? The rendition of 'walk on by' is not just another attempt at remaking the original but a successful delivery of a classic song with a touch of conseptual improv. The best track by far, is 'Hyperbolersylabic'. This isn't soul, but hardcore funk. This literally has never failed to get me wailing along to Isacc's dulsit tones & bouncing along to a fantasticaly simple, pounding bass line. This gets closer to a Funkadelic live jam at points, (all be it with just the one guitar & piano), than a soul revolution. The final track is extremely long (18:00), most of which is story telling, but this needn't be skipped if the album is listened to the way it should be. Just sit back, with unnecessary sunglasses & a free 45 minutes.
Bloated, Tedious, Over Rated - By: , 29 Jan 2004 
It is difficult for me to quite understand how this has become such a classic. Perhaps it is the wonderful production of 'Walk on By'. Besides that sound, which is admittedly way ahead of it's time, I can hear little to recommend on this album. All 4 tracks are sprawling, unfocused messes - getting to the end of the discin one sitting is a real chore, & I have an unusually large attention span for music.
Issac comes across as insincere & untalented. The songs do not grab me as being musical enough. Why not try a real soul classic such as Inspiration Information by Shuggie Otis or There's a Riot Going on?
