You see this cat Shaft is a bad mother...

(Shut your mouth.)

That would be Shaft, John Shaft. Sadly, the man who penned the film's immortal theme, Isaac Hayes, has died, at 65. The Times obituary by Ben Sisario may forever redefine the parenthetical use of "furthermore."

Hayes' first recording session was with Otis Redding. With his partner David Porter, he helped create the distinctive sound of Stax Records, which released some of my favorite music of all time.

I produced a soul music project once that wound up being mostly Stax artists, and when I drove cross-country on my way back from LA to NYC, planned my route so I could visit the Stax Museum of American Soul Music on McLemore Avenue in Memphis , one of the better museums anywhere, which contains, among other exhibits, Hayes'1972 peacock blue, gold-trimmed two-door Eldorado Cadillac.

The next time you use a manual toothbrush, try doing it in rhythm to the opening of this tune and see if your recommended two minutes don't go a lot faster: