Cool Groove #4: "Theme from Shaft"

"Theme from Shaft" by Isaac Hayes. Album: Shaft (original soundtrack) (1971).

Feb 03, 2025

Movie themes come and movie themes go. But man, you can’t beat Isaac Hayes’ “Theme from Shaft.”

When I was 10 years old, the credit sequence from Shaft, during which Richard Roundtree struts his leather-clad stuff through the bustling, early-1970s version of Times Square, was just about the coolest thing I’d ever seen on TV. It absolutely defined New York City for me.

Those sidewalks seemed a lot more complex and dangerous than the ones in Alabama, and I wanted to go there. That was the goal.

When I finally made it at the age of 25, I quickly realized I was meant to stay.

Nowadays, when I pass through the “new” Times Square, I feel a deep twinge of regret that the place has ceased to be so sleazy. I just caught the tail end of all that, right before everything was turned into an uprooted, neon-covered mall from Bloomington.

It doesn’t seem right that work crews now walk around sweeping up the sidewalks all day long. And no one needs another Sunglass Hut, let alone the fucking Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

That’s not Shaft’s Times Square

Roundtree, of course, looked fantastic with his knowing scowl and flapping leather overcoat, strutting around like he owned the place. But, even as a kid, I realized I was also responding to Hayes’ profoundly evocative music. “Theme from Shaft” is the perfect mingling of sound and image; you can sense the subway rumbling way down beneath the tune.

Along with the “Gonna Fly Now” sequence in Rocky, “Theme from Shaft” is arguably the most effective musical interlude in any movie from the period. It somehow feels like New York City.

And I should know, because now I’m a New Yorker.

Isaac Hayes didn’t come from out of nowhere when he wrote the music for Shaft. He had been the key arranger and songwriter for Stax Records during its considerable heyday, and he co-wrote with David Porter such enduring R&B classics as “Soul Man,” “Hold On! I’m Comin’,” “B-A-B-Y,” and “When Something is Wrong with My Baby,” to name just a few.

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 became the first Black man to win an Oscar for best score, Hayes had already co-written a pivotal, groundbreaking soundtrack. In that instance, though, the "movie" just happened to be real life.

By now, Hayes’ bad-ass, half tongue-in-cheek Shaft 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). Still, I’ve always felt 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.

Give it a listen.

Note how the sounds build up. 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. Then some muscular-sounding trumpets. Then an entire string section!

Hayes hasn’t even started singing yet, and it’s already an exhilarating experience.

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 foghorn 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 humor. It's so ingenious, it sounds more like Hayes was housing it in his chest for his entire life, and it just rose up out of him at the right time.

That’s why it’s called “soul music.”

Before I shut this thing down, here’s a bonus. If you’ve never heard this before, you’re welcome in advance.

On August 20, 1972, Stax Records presented a day-long concert in the Watts section of Los Angeles, which, of course, had been decimated by riots six years earlier. Black stars aplenty performed, including the Staples Singers, the Bar-Kays, Albert King, and Rufus and Carla Thomas. Jesse Jackson even made an appearance.

But the main attraction, because he was the single coolest person in America at the time, was Isaac Hayes.

It was all filmed (in a pretty sloppy manner, unfortunately) and title Wattstax, and a soundtrack album was released in 1973. A couple of years ago, the recordings were gorgeously remixed and remastered, and the show was reissued in several formats for its 50th anniversary, including a twelve-CD collection, if you need to hear every single second of it.

For now, though, let’s content ourselves with Isaac Hayes and his extended band—including flutes, trumpets, congas, several types of saxes, and anything else you can imagine—as they tear through a ridiculously intense version of “Theme from Shaft.”

I don’t have to point out that funk legend Charles “Skip” Pitts plays the living shit out of his guitar on this—you couldn’t possibly miss it! His use of the wah-wah pedal is mind-blowing.

Wow! I mean...wow!

I love at the end how Hayes apologizes for technical difficulties, then tells the crowd they’re gonna play the whole thing over again! They promptly do so, and the second performance is just as ridiculously great as the first! And it’s all now available for your listening pleasure.

No doubt about it—that cat Hayes was a bad mother. And it’s very easy to dig it.