Remarks:
This went to #1 on the US pop chart in 1971, to #2 on the R&B chart and #4 in Britain. An extremely well known song in the US, probably better known than either Isaac Hayes or the film it came from, “Shaft” (1971). Hayes wanted the song to get across that John Shaft was “a relentless character always on the prowl, always on the move.”
Instruments are by the Bar-Kays, who used to back Otis Redding. Backing vocals by Dawn (Stax session singers Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson), who backed Tony Orlando.
The video is from the beginning of the film. It shows Times Square in New York in January 1971. At the 4:00 minute mark you can see Naomi Sims on the cover of Essence, a magazine which director Gordon Parks had a hand in founding.
See also:
- songs, the 1970s
- Isaac Hayes
- Isaac Hayes: Don’t Let Go (1979)
- Isaac Hayes: Walk On By (1969)
- Tony Orlando & Dawn: Knock Three Times (1971)
- Irene Cara: Fame – shows Times Square in 1982
- Times Square through time
Lyrics:
Who’s the black private dick
That’s a sex machine to all the chicks?
(Shaft!)
You’re damn right
Who is the man
That would risk his neck for his brother man?
(Shaft!)
Can ya dig it?
Who’s the cat that won’t cop out
When there’s danger all about
(Shaft!)
Right on
You see this cat Shaft is a bad mother
(Shut your mouth)
But I’m talkin’ about Shaft
(Then we can dig it)
He’s a complicated man
But no one understands him but his woman
(John Shaft)
Source: Songfacts.
Good post!
Issac Hayes made some great music/arrangements. This album is one of his best. My favorite track is a soulful instrumental called A Friend’s Place.
Honorable mention and props also goes to Curtis Mayfield and his ground breaking Superfly album. These two artists/albums set very high musical standards that influenced many artists to this day.
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Add Herbie Hancock “The Spook who sat by the door” to that list of classic soundtracks.
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@ : o O ) >
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I don’t think I’ve ever heard this song, despite living in the US my whole life. I have heard references to Shaft, though.
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I think Isaac Hayes received an Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy for the music score Shaft. I love this album. I also love the album Hot Buttered Soul, especially By the Time I Get to Phoenix.
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Brings back memories. My world was falling apart in London in 1971. The “Theme from Shaft” was being played all over the place and was ringing in my brain! In all that, I went to Leicester Square and saw the film.
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wow. must be the mandela effect. I thought Isaac was singing in the lower voice that apparently he started doing later. and that line.
You see this cat Shaft is a bad mother
I heard as
They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother
That was before it was ok to curse on music recordings.
What a pioneer. Started the trend of using profanity in music. Or pointed the way.
@Fan
Curtis doesn’t just get an honorable mention. The Shaft single was great but The Superfly track was much better on the whole. Damn near every song.
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I just thought about it. I’ve seen Shaft. Don’t own the music. Never seen Superfly but play the album to death.
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Damn. I was just joking about the Mandela effect. But damn. Unless this clip has been edited or something, this may actually be a Mandela effect. The way I remember this line from the song is essentially the way songfacts prints it here.
“You see this cat Shaft is a bad mother” though my version is
They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother
In both versions the cadence is the same “this cat Shaft is a bad mother.” Both versions remember Isaac saying “this cat Shaft“.
Yet that is not what the video says. 3:45. “They say this cat is a bad mother”. Not “They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother”. Maybe this is a different version of the song.
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@ nomad
“Curtis doesn’t just get an honorable mention. The Shaft single was great but The Superfly track was much better on the whole. Damn near every song.”
I can’t argue with you here Nomad! I never enjoyed Shaft as a single track. I always listened to it in the backdrop of that album’s other tracks. Same with Superfly. I’m not hearing individual tracks here, I’m comparing albums and artists. Both albums were/are extraordinary presentations. Both men were musical pioneers/super-gifted geniuses/entertainers and more.
I LOVE Issac’s To Be Continued & Black Moses albums
As well as the time Mayfield put in with the Impressions AND the album after Superfly, ROOTS. There were a few other super-musical innovators back then. These two were about neck and neck at the head of the film-musical score pack followed by Quincy Jones who began flexing his own musical/film-tv-video scores muscles shortly afterwards. It was a great time of innovation for Black musicians!
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@ Nomad
“I just thought about it. I’ve seen Shaft. Don’t own the music. Never seen Superfly but play the album to death.”
As it turns out both albums were very much better than their movies. I could listen to both albums, over and over… and watch the films about once a decade, maybe. As movies, I might enjoy Superfly a bit more than I enjoy Shaft. They’re both unique in their scenes, cinematography, etc..
If you like jazz, you should own the Shaft album. If you like funk/soul/R&B you should own Superfly. If you like old school Black music …. both!
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My cousin went to the Staxx museum and found a picture of my mother there. Apparently she used to sing with a group called The Teen Town Singers, two of whom went on to be the Bar-Kays. Small world innit?
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@Fan
I don’t know why I’m not quite an Isaac fan. The only one I remember grooving to other than the theme song was Soulsville.
Shaft 00:00
Bumpy’s Lament 03:12
Walk From Regio’s 04:59
Ellie’s Love Theme 07:16
Shaft’s Cab Ride 10:30
Cafe Regio’s 11:36
Early Sunday Morning 17:30
Be Yourself 21:16
A Friend’s Place 25:43
Soulsville 28:59
No Name Bar 32:44
Bumpy’s Blues 38:52
Shaft Strikes Again 42:49
Do Your Thing 45:53
The End Theme 01:02:28
Driving In The Sun 01:04:21
By contrast
I know every one of these great peices. Each song stands on its own. One of the baddest albums ever made.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=absss4RXfys&list=PLcThhlUWw54bGlNFGeEy1l73YlL1feo7S)
(https://youtu.be/absss4RXfys?list=PLcThhlUWw54bGlNFGeEy1l73YlL1feo7S)
And the profundity!
“While I was just a nothing child
Why couldn’t they just
Let me BE, let me be, let me now” followed by one of the baddest sax solos in history.
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@ Nomad
“Let me BE, let me be, let me now” followed by one of the baddest sax solos in history.”
I believe that’s Curtis playing the sax!
His’ background sax presence (I think it’s him) can also be on No Thing On Me (Cocaine Song) another fav track of mine.
After Shaft (had propelled Issac further into the public’s consciousness) I learned via his contemporary albums that he could actually do more than sing a few lyrics and play the xylophone. The brother could actually hold his own in the crooning dept as well as play piano, keyboard, trombone, sax and other instruments
I still can’t decide which album I like the most between Shaft or …To Be Continued. Maybe now I’ll check out his 13 albums from 1975 – 1995.
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@Fan
Whaatttt!!! That’s Curtis? Quiet as a cap, I’m a sax man myself. I did not know that. If my esteem for the musician could get any higher it would have just gone up. That’s a badass saxophone. And oh yeah, I knew Isaac was a musician, growing up in Soulsville.
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“If my esteem for the musician could get any higher it would have just gone up. That’s a badass saxophone.”
I did a bit of research on the web re who played sax on Superfly
According to my deductive reasoning it was him (since he plays the sax and no one else – I found – was given the credit).
I would have loved to have heard some Quincy, Hayes and Mayfield collaborations !!!
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