“Panos’ Brew” is Sonicbids founder/CEO Panos Panay’s weekly (or more) post about whatever happens to be on his mind. Look for musings and observations on entrepreneurship, the state of the music business, his experiences with members, interesting things he’s seen in his travels, or just about anything else.
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I just learned about the sudden death of soul legend Isaac Hayes at age 65.
I had the privilege of booking Isaac for about three years in the mid-nineties and those were some of the most fun tours that I booked in my entire time as a booking agent. This was at the time when Isaac starred as the Chef on “South Park” and his career was on an upswing after many, many personal set backs. “South Park” was a great gig for Isaac and it introduced him to a whole new audience. (A shame that it ended rather ignominiously after he had a falling out with the creators.) Booking a whole Europe tour around a song called “Chocolate Salty Balls” (it hit Number 1 over Christmas in the UK) was one of those Spinal Tap moments in life when you have to pinch yourself to see if it’s happening for real (I was about 25 at the time and for a kid from Cyprus, this was just otherworldly).
For those of you not familiar with Isaac’s music and voice, you should head over to iTunes and check out his catalogue. Isaac influenced a whole generation of songwriters and was the first guy to blend modern pop music with the sound of orchestral strings. You’ll hear (and even see) Isaac in everyone from Jamiroquai to Prince and Jay Z. He was one of the first black songwriters to win an Academy Award (for “Theme from Shaft”) and he wrote and played on many Stax Records hits from the 60s and 70’s including “Soul Man” (yes, that “Soul Man”). In many ways, he was the prototypical empowered artist, always marching to his own funky drum beat.
Isaac, may you rest in peace.
Panos
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