So you’ve probably heard by now that Isaac Hayes died Sunday. While the bulk of the obits fail to mention that he was a gifted multi-instrumentalist and instead focus on the fact that he voiced Chef on South Park and was responsible for the theme to “Shaft,” they also neglect to note that among his greatest contributions to music was “Walk on By.” The song is a heartbreaker, complete with a tear-jerking string arrangement and Hayes’ distinctive, deeper-than-the-sea baritone. The distorted guitar, spitting hot licks to emphasize the burning pain, and the solemnly urgent background vocals all join the gravely bellowing organ to underpin the gravitas of the song.
The song was later sampled by the RZA for the Wu-Tang Clan, who featured Hayes on it and titled it “I Can’t Go To Sleep.” It finds him and Ghostface Killah in typical form, capably trading rhymes and spinning another ghetto yarn about the plight of the black man and the futility of violence. This time however, it’s different. Hayes’ arrangement, which already lends to a saddening sense of loss and hoplessness, adds a new dimension to the Wu’s sound and gives them the freedom to tap into a well of emotions once deemed too ‘soft’ for hip-hop music. Ghostface’s lyrics, spoken in a wavering voice that’s one step away from full-blown, broken-down sobbing, ride the stirring melody rather than the bass and drums, echoing the heartache of the weeping strings and setting up Hayes for a reprisal of the role he played in his original version. This time however, it sounds as if he’s matured since his last dejected outing in “Walk On By,” now playing a wizened sage instead of the burnt and hurt lover. He sings advice, as only he could, that everyone would do well to heed: “Let’s love each other…Use your head…The power is in your hands/stop all this cryin’ and be a man.”
The song was later sampled by the RZA for the Wu-Tang Clan, who featured Hayes on it and titled it “I Can’t Go To Sleep.” It finds him and Ghostface Killah in typical form, capably trading rhymes and spinning another ghetto yarn about the plight of the black man and the futility of violence. This time however, it’s different. Hayes’ arrangement, which already lends to a saddening sense of loss and hoplessness, adds a new dimension to the Wu’s sound and gives them the freedom to tap into a well of emotions once deemed too ‘soft’ for hip-hop music. Ghostface’s lyrics, spoken in a wavering voice that’s one step away from full-blown, broken-down sobbing, ride the stirring melody rather than the bass and drums, echoing the heartache of the weeping strings and setting up Hayes for a reprisal of the role he played in his original version. This time however, it sounds as if he’s matured since his last dejected outing in “Walk On By,” now playing a wizened sage instead of the burnt and hurt lover. He sings advice, as only he could, that everyone would do well to heed: “Let’s love each other…Use your head…The power is in your hands/stop all this cryin’ and be a man.”
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