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Sep 6, 2008Genius Doesn’t Discriminate
 In the last month, there have been a couple of significant losses to our world that went largely unnoticed. Two men of extraordinary talent passed away, and the vast majority of people would probably struggle to remember their names unless they were the answer to a $1,000,000 trivia question. These two men were Isaac Hayes and Jerry Reed.Like many, my love for these two artists’ work started with movie theme songs. Isaac Hayes’ Theme from Shaft and Jerry Reed’s East Bound and Down are two of my all-time favorite songs. With Shaft being the epitome of the hardass, sex-machine cop film and Smokey and the Bandit defining car chase movies, Reed’s and Hayes’ songs have become the standard by which movie themes are measured. To this day, when I hear these songs, I walk with a little more soul or I lean into the accelerator and run a red light. These songs not only define a moment in time for me, they define an attitude. Both men transcended the music industry and became great character actors. Jerry Reed perfected the Good Ol’ Boy and Isaace Hayes became everyone’s favorite Chef. Okay, so their influence on screen was nothing compared to their musical influence. Hayes showed countless musicians exactly how much soul it took to play Soul and Reed was one of the most amazing guitarists to ever pick up the instrument. Like most, I would give my left arm to have even a fraction of the talent these two men had. They were artists in the truest sense of the word and they will be missed.
posted by Jim at 4:16 PM
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