ISAAC HAYES - Black Moses (VMP Reissue with fold-out poster) - 2LP - Blue Vinyl [NOV 22]

2LP - Limited Edition Blue Vinyl with Listening Notes Booklet by Andrew Winistorfer and fold-out poster. (AAA) Lacquers Cut From the Master Tapes by Ryan Smith, Sterling Sound. 

For all the name Black Moses conjures, for all that it confers, it was not a name Isaac Hayes gave himself; that title was bestowed by a radio DJ sermonizing an intro to one of his songs. It was not a name Isaac Hayes — raised by his god-fearing grandparents in a former sharecropper’s shed after his parents died before he turned two years old — thought was even appropriate. It seemed sacrilegious to him. But that name, it meant something that even Hayes had to acknowledge. He had ascended to a plane that no Black performer before him had ever reached before. He topped the R&B charts and, eventually, the pop charts without ever having to compromise who Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. was. He had shown his people that James Brown’s “I’m Black and I’m Proud” edict was possible. He dripped in gold chains inside his album gatefolds and drove cars literally trimmed in it. Unapologetically. 

Black Moses towers as Hayes’ crowning solo achievement. Its 14 songs stand as a 90-plus-minute testament to Hayes’ nonpareil greatness, songwriting ability, singing, and arranging. A monument to authenticity, Black Moses projects a self-confidence so mammoth it feels like receiving the stone tablets of swagger down from the mountain of cool.

Tracklist: 

A1        Never Can Say Goodbye
A2        (They Long To Be) Close To You
A3        Nothing Takes The Place Of You
A4        Man's Temptation

B1        Never Gonna Give You Up
B2a      Ike's Rap II
B2b      Help Me Love
B3        Need To Belong To Someone
B4        Good Love

C1a       Ike's Rap III
C1b      Your Love Is So Doggone Good
C2        For The Good Times
C3        I'll Never Fall In Love Again

D1        Part Time Love
D2a      Ike's Rap IV
D2b      A Brand New Me
D3        Going In Circles