"Theme from Shaft" is a song, like "Town without Pity" or "Goldfinger," that's just so berserk and over the top it doesn't even seem like a real song-- more like a parody of some other song that doesn't exist in this reality.
I've been trying to find a clip of the great Karaoke version of "Theme from Shaft" that Bart and Lisa do on the "One Fish Two Fish Blowfish Blue Fish" episode, but no luck so far, although you can at least hear it on this guy's photo page: http://home.att.net/~tgsound/mannyphotos.html
The song is also reworked as "Two Cool Guys" in the Beavis and Butthead movie. Listen here. (And here's a song -- not by Hayes but from the same movie -- that may help you cope with some of those feelings.
"I love that quote. Jocks would play it at night. They could go to the bathroom, they could get a sandwich, or whatever."
As a former DJ, I can attest to the need for a few "bathroom songs" during a normal shift. Since my station had a jazz format (and thus played longer songs on average than Top 40 stations did), we had plenty of choices in that area.
Maybe someone did this and I missed it, but I always though that someone should have played up the Shaft/Chef connection with a "Theme from Chef" song parody, since the two words sound so similar:
Who's the big black dude That cooks all that great cafeteria food? (Chef!) Can you dig it?
The first time I saw issac hayes was as the "Duke of New York,"
[From IMDB -- Escape from New York]
The Duke: Who are you? [Snake says nothing, staring defiantly; the Duke grabs the arrow in Snake's leg and twists it] The Duke: I said, WHO ARE YOU? [Snake... in obvious agony, still says nothing] Brain: Snake Plissken, Duke... the Man sent him in. Somethin's goin' down, we need him... The Duke: [releases the arrow] Snake Plissken... I've heard of you. The Duke: [strikes Snake with a tire iron, knocking him unconscious] I heard you were dead!
Maybe someone did this and I missed it, but I always though that someone should have played up the Shaft/Chef connection with a "Theme from Chef" song parody, since the two words sound so similar:
They sort of did.
They did a "Chef: Behind The Music" thing as a "South Park" episode used to pimp the CD to go along with the Chef Aid episodes*, they interviewed a lot of famous pop musicians (Elton John, Meat Loaf), etc.
Then, at the stinger, they had Isaac Hayes come on, and say something like,
"Well, Shaft was this song I did for the...what? Who? Chef? Who the hell is Chef?"
I love that quote. Jocks would play it at night. They could go to the bathroom, they could get a sandwich, or whatever.
The late folk singer and story teller Harry Chapin used to say the same thing. Many of his songs were considered "too long for radio." He said that about the only air play he ever got was from constipated disk jockies.
Let us not also forget his songwriting career in the '60's with Sam & Dave ("Soul Man", "Hold On I'm Comin"), Stax Records, and the Wattstax concert in '72. He had a studio in Atlanta near where I worked in the '80's and would come in often for Honey Vanilla ice cream. Very charming man.
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15 comments:
Please, let's not speculate about celebrities dying in threes and the fact that Bernie Mac died yesterday.
Talk about the wonderful Isaac Hayes.
"Theme from Shaft" is a song, like "Town without Pity" or "Goldfinger," that's just so berserk and over the top it doesn't even seem like a real song-- more like a parody of some other song that doesn't exist in this reality.
I've been trying to find a clip of the great Karaoke version of "Theme from Shaft" that Bart and Lisa do on the "One Fish Two Fish Blowfish Blue Fish" episode, but no luck so far, although you can at least hear it on this guy's photo page:
http://home.att.net/~tgsound/mannyphotos.html
The song is also reworked as "Two Cool Guys" in the Beavis and Butthead movie. Listen here. (And here's a song -- not by Hayes but from the same movie -- that may help you cope with some of those feelings.
"I love that quote. Jocks would play it at night. They could go to the bathroom, they could get a sandwich, or whatever."
As a former DJ, I can attest to the need for a few "bathroom songs" during a normal shift. Since my station had a jazz format (and thus played longer songs on average than Top 40 stations did), we had plenty of choices in that area.
Maybe someone did this and I missed it, but I always though that someone should have played up the Shaft/Chef connection with a "Theme from Chef" song parody, since the two words sound so similar:
Who's the big black dude
That cooks all that great cafeteria food?
(Chef!)
Can you dig it?
He's with Hubbard now.
R.I.P.
We will miss him!
His music was an art that changed things!!
George Vreeland Hill
"We shouldn't be mad at Chef for leaving us. We should be mad at that fruity little club for scrambling his brains."
South Park eulogizing Chef seems only slightly inappropriate at a time like this.
I loved him as Gandy in Rockford Files.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0688071/
The first time I saw issac hayes was as the "Duke of New York,"
[From IMDB -- Escape from New York]
The Duke: Who are you?
[Snake says nothing, staring defiantly; the Duke grabs the arrow in Snake's leg and twists it]
The Duke: I said, WHO ARE YOU?
[Snake... in obvious agony, still says nothing]
Brain: Snake Plissken, Duke... the Man sent him in. Somethin's goin' down, we need him...
The Duke: [releases the arrow] Snake Plissken... I've heard of you.
The Duke: [strikes Snake with a tire iron, knocking him unconscious] I heard you were dead!
I still have the original album, the instrumentals that backed the rest of the movie are really fine.
A little music, a little wine, a few years and now I have grandchildren.
Thank you Isaac Hayes.
He was a bad motha (shut yo mouth). RIP Isaac.
Cheers,
Victoria
Maybe someone did this and I missed it, but I always though that someone should have played up the Shaft/Chef connection with a "Theme from Chef" song parody, since the two words sound so similar:
They sort of did.
They did a "Chef: Behind The Music" thing as a "South Park" episode used to pimp the CD to go along with the Chef Aid episodes*, they interviewed a lot of famous pop musicians (Elton John, Meat Loaf), etc.
Then, at the stinger, they had Isaac Hayes come on, and say something like,
"Well, Shaft was this song I did for the...what? Who? Chef? Who the hell is Chef?"
I love that quote. Jocks would play it at night. They could go to the bathroom, they could get a sandwich, or whatever.
The late folk singer and story teller Harry Chapin used to say the same thing. Many of his songs were considered "too long for radio." He said that about the only air play he ever got was from constipated disk jockies.
Let us not also forget his songwriting career in the '60's with Sam & Dave ("Soul Man", "Hold On I'm Comin"), Stax Records, and the Wattstax concert in '72.
He had a studio in Atlanta near where I worked in the '80's and would come in often for Honey Vanilla ice cream. Very charming man.
Post a Comment
Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 2 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith.