Isaac Hayes is such a natural star: muscular and shaven-headed with a deep and surprisingly sensitive voice, underpinned by funky, lavishly orchestrated jams.

Yet he was all set to return to his behind-the-scenes role of writer and producer at Stax after his debut album flopped in 1968.

A follow-up only emerged after Stax split with Atlantic Records and suddenly lost their entire back catalogue, prompting label boss Al Bell to order all his artists – including studio staff Hayes and Steve Cropper – to record solo albums.

Hayes told Bell that he would only do so if he was granted complete creative control – and the result was Hot Buttered Soul.

It’s an extraordinary album, a landmark in soul music, containing only four tracks across its 46 minutes, including an epic 19-minute take on Jimmy Webb’s By The Time I Get To Phoenix and a 12-minute cover of Burt Bacharach’s Walk On By.

This, though, is the funkiest jam of the lot.

Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic (thank god for copy-and-paste) was recorded in two halves, 750 miles apart: the backing tracks were laid down in Memphis by The Bar-Kays; James Alexander on bass, Willie Hall on drums and Michael Toles on guitar.

But it’s Marvell Thomas – son of soul singer Rufus Thomas – who steals the show with his piano solo (and co-produced the album with Al Bell and Allen Jones), while Hayes apparently combined playing the Hammond organ and singing his vocals live while conducting the musicians.

The producers wanted a sweeping orchestral sound to enhance the rhythm tracks so they sent the finished recordings up to Detroit, where arranger Johnny Allen recorded them, along with backing vocals, at United Sound Studios.

Anyway, here it is; it just gets funkier and looser and wilder as it goes on, with the incomparable Alexander matching Thomas for energy as the track draws to a close. I’d be happy if it had gone on for ever.