Previously, I wrote about acquiring the album “Hot Buttered Soul” by Isaac Hayes, and the profound impact this innovative music had on me as a young man when I first heard it and shared the experience with my dad.
The most memorable part of the Isaac Hayes concert for me, was his introduction of the lovely and talented female background singers, Hot, Butter and Soul and Hayes’s entrance to the stage. There I was, at Constitution Hall, in the mid ’70s. I believe the first song they played was “Walk On By.” During the first two-minute intro, before he began to sing, Hayes slowly approached center stage, wearing a dark, gold-embossed hat and an ankle-length matching gold embossed robe that slowly swayed from side to side with the rhythm of the music. As he reached the center stage, a beautiful ball-headed woman first removed his hat, exposing his bald head.
The audience cheered.
Then she removed his robe, exposing his bare chest and an awesome thick-linked gold chain around his neck, meeting shortly below his collarbone and hanging down the middle of his stomach.
A roar of cheers and applause came from the audience.
Then he began to sing “If you see me walking down the street, and I start to cry, each time we meet…. Walk onnn byyy.”
What an entrance! What a show and concert!
Just as this music took me back to a good time in my life, I’ve always thought that it would be a good idea to provide the veterans in the V.A. hospitals the music that will take them back to a good time in their lives.
I’d like to thank my former classmate and friend for exposing me to this extraordinary, original composer, Isaac Hayes, and the magnificent, stereophonic music he produced.
My dad and I enjoyed it immensely then, and I continue to enjoy it to this day!
(to be continued)
