Download It #11: Theme from "Shaft"

Aug. 10, 2008

Isaac Hayes (usable).jpg

A couple weeks ago, I considered writing something about Isaac Hayes’ transcendent collection of New York City street vibrations known as “Theme from ‘Shaft’.” I never quite got around to it, though, and, just this morning, Hayes died unexpectedly. It’s unfortunate that I’m finally tackling the tune under these circumstances. But if Hayes is to be remembered for the sounds he created, you can’t find a better celebration than this one.

Isaac Hayes, by the way, accomplished a lot more in his life than most people realize. He was the key arranger and songwriter for Stax Records during its considerable heyday, and was the driving force behind such enduring R&B classics as “Soul Man” and “Hold On! I’m Comin’,” to name just two.

This is no small thing. Stax and Motown accompanied, and to a certain degree, helped define, the grit and elegance of the African-American experience in the 1960s. So even before he won an Oscar for “Shaft,” Hayes had already co-written a pivotal, groundbreaking soundtrack. In this case, the "movie" just happened to be real life.

Shaft Times Square (shrunk).jpg

But, man. You can’t beat “Theme from ‘Shaft’.”

When I was 10 years-old, the opening sequence of “Shaft,” in which Richard Roundtree struts his stuff through the dilapidated, early-1970s version of Times Square, was just about the coolest thing I’d ever seen. It absolutely defined New York for me. And, even though those sidewalks seemed a lot scarier than the ones in Alabama, I wanted to go there.

Thirty-five years later, when I walk for the 4,000th time through the “new” Times Square, I feel a deep twinge of regret that the place has ceased to be so sleazy. Shaft wouldn’t like it a bit. Remember— he used to buy his newspapers from a sarcastic blind guy.

Roundtree, of course, looked terrific in his scowl and leather overcoat. But, even as a kid, I realized I was mainly responding to Hayes’ profoundly evocative music. “Theme from ‘Shaft’” felt like pavement and traffic and guys on the take. It’s the perfect intertwining of sound and image; you can feel the subway rumbling way down beneath the tune. Along with the “Gonna Fly Now” portion of “Rocky,” “Theme from ‘Shaft’” is arguably the most effective musical interlude in any movie from the period.

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By now, Hayes’ bad-ass, half tongue-in-cheek lyrics are the stuff of legend (That cat Shaft, as you might know, is a bad mother. But if you’re talkin’ ‘bout Shaft, then the ladies can definitely dig it.) But I think Hayes’ real accomplishment, the thing that’s made "Theme from 'Shaft'" endure for all these years, is a meticulous, slowly-mounting arrangement that’s got more hooks in it than a fisherman’s tackle box.

If you already have the song, put it on right now, and pay attention to how brilliantly the staccato sounds build up and play off of one another. It’s as if you’re pulling out of the Lincoln Tunnel, passing across the relatively sparse west side, and slowly getting immersed in the hustle of midtown:

First, you get some cymbals.
Then that ridiculously catchy wah-wah guitar.
Then a deep bass note that seems to contain a piano and a baritone sax.
Now a flute floats in.
Then another wah-wah guitar, in the right channel.
Then some muscular-sounding trumpets.
Then an entire string section!

Hayes hasn’t even started singing yet, by the way, and it’s already an exhilarating experience. But back to the song:

Now you get the famous “ba-duh-bump, ba-duh-bump, bah-duh-bump, BUMP” bass line.
Now the trumpets are brought forward…
And the violins join them.
And, just before the vocal finally arrives, you get an even more massive bass note that sounds like a fog horn booming in off the Hudson River.

From there, Hayes expounds on the outrageous machismo of our man Shaft, and the horns and strings play counter-melodies until you’re ready to pass out.

Jesus Christ, it’s just a great song— big and brawny, with a touch of raunch and a lot of humor. It's so ingenious, I can’t envision Hayes actually sitting down and thinking of it. When you’re listening, it sounds more like he was housing it in his chest for his entire life, and it just rose up out of him at the right time.

But that’s why it’s called “soul music.” On Sunday morning, Isaac Hayes’ soul suddenly rose up out of him and continued on its eternal journey. Anybody who ever grooved to “Theme from ‘Shaft’,” though, knew damn-well it was there long before he died.

That cat Hayes was a bad mother. And we can dig it.

Download: “Theme from ‘Shaft’” by Isaac Hayes. Album: “Shaft” (original soundtrack) (1971).

Paul Tatara

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