Isaac Hayes/Black Moses/1972 ENS-5003-Double LP Sleeve VG/ Vinyl NM

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Artist: Isaac Hayes Title: Black Moses Enterprise Records ENS-5003 Stereo Double Album Set with elaborate fold outs Release Year: 1972 Sleeve Condition: VG, with normative wear at creases and corners. Vinyl Condition: NM, looks unplayed!

Black Moses was at its release, one of the most elaborate LP packages issued for a black artist and as such represented a show of faith that Hayes, fresh off the unprecedented success of the Shaft soundtrack in 1971, could command sales to rival those of his white contemporaries. And like that foldout cross, it was a massively ambitious statement album, a collection of covers and originals that documented the collapse of Hayes' marriage. It was an enormous success, lodging at #1 on the black charts for seven long weeks.
The album title was not simply a glorifying nickname, but a sort of prophecy. Hayes led his people not to a promised land (racial relations in America during the 1970s were so complex and heated as to make any such place almost impossible to visualize) but to a freer musical sensibility that emphasized synthesis: rock, funk, disco, and new strains of soul music marked by elaborate arrangements and lengthy running times. Black Moses is brashly, lushly, and lovingly orchestrated, each track piled high with soundtrack strings, insistent horns, tender flutes, sultry back-up singers, and of course lots of wakka-chikka guitars, a Hayes signature.

Side one 1. "Never Can Say Goodbye" Clifton Davis 5:07 2. "(They Long to Be) Close to You" Burt Bacharach, Hal David 8:58 3. "Nothing Takes the Place of You" Toussaint McCall, Alan Robinson 5:29 4. "Man's Temptation    Curtis Mayfield 4:59 Total length: 24:33
Side two 5. "Never Gonna Give You Up" Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, Jerry Butler 5:47 6. "Medley: "Ike's Rap II" / "Help Me Love" Hayes, Johnny Baylor, Mickey Gregory, Luther Ingram, Tommy Tate 7:31 7. "Need to Belong to Someone" Curtis Mayfield 5:15 8. "Good Love" Gregory, Hayes 5:15 Total length: 23:48
Side three 9. "Medley: "Ike's Rap III" / "Your Love is So Doggone Good" Hayes, Difosco Ervin, Rudy Love 9:15 10. "For the Good Times" Kris Kristofferson 5:20 11. "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" Burt Bacharach, Hal David 5:02 Total length: 19:37
Side four 12. "Part-Time Love" Clay Hammond 8:30 13. "Medley: "Ike's Rap IV" / "A Brand New Me" Isaac Hayes, Kenneth Gamble, Thom Bell, Jerry Butler 9:40 14. "Going in Circles" Jerry Peters, Anita Poree 7:02 Total length: 25:12