Walk On By – Isaac Hayes
My walk to work this week has been different than usual. Can any of my perceptive readers guess which city I’ve been working in?
This clue is a red herring, as I haven’t actually been working in Liverpool:
I had to cross this road every morning:
I have to be careful as the traffic drives on the right hand side on the road, when I’m used to the left. Did you know….
In the past, almost everybody travelled on the left side of the road because that was the most sensible option for feudal, violent societies. Since most people are right-handed, swordsmen preferred to keep to the left in order to have their right arm nearer to an opponent and their scabbard further from him. Moreover, it reduced the chance of the scabbard (worn on the left) hitting other people.
In the late 1700s, however, teamsters in France and the United States began hauling farm products in big wagons pulled by several pairs of horses. These wagons had no driver’s seat; instead the driver sat on the left rear horse, so he could keep his right arm free to lash the team. Since he was sitting on the left, he naturally wanted everybody to pass on the left so he could look down and make sure he kept clear of the oncoming wagon’s wheels. Therefore he kept to the right side of the road.
From https://www.worldstandards.eu/cars/driving-on-the-left/
If your feet get sore during transit, you can treat them with a fish massage:
It’s not just the fish offering massages. Sometimes walking back to the hotel at night was intimidating as I got lots of massage offers.
I asked and apparently these massages escalate from g-rated. It’s awkward avoiding them – if you make any eye contact they take it as encouragement- and it’s really horrible thinking about the situation that these people are in, as I imagine they have less rights and less options in a developing country. Even though I work for a travel company with a social focus that helps community members in need, by measures like providing employment for disabled drivers in our tuk tuks, running a non-profit fundraising cafe, and providing volunteer manpower in the community, in this case all that I could do was Walk On By.
This was the first thing I saw on my walk to work, although I left it as the last clue as it’s the most helpful:
Where did I work this week? And even though we didn’t discuss it in this post, Isaac Hayes’ ‘Walk On By’ is a total jam, right? Hot Buttered Soul is easily in my top 100 all time albums.
Aphoristical
Graham Fyfe is fascinated by pop music, and he may be the only blogger in the world to cover Neil Diamond and Ariana Grande.
Angkor Wat, Cambodia?
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You got the right country, but not the right city.
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I love Hot Buttered Soul. That lengthy Walk On By is a journey in itself. As for the fish feet thing. I tried it a few years back and can truly recommend it. It tickles but it’s worth it
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I’d definitely choose the fish over the person. Where did you have yours done – any guesses where this was?
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Is yours Vietnam? Mine was in York in the shadow of the minster no less.
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It wasn’t Vietnam but I didn’t realise it had spread outside Asia.
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Thailand then?
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Nope, but I’m in Thailand as we speak.
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Laos?
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It’s Cambodia, but noone’s figuredout where yet.
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Hot Buttered Soul’s on the 1001 (I was fortunate to find the LP for $5, still haven’t listened to it)
And seeing as our music tastes (and quiz scores) tend to overlap, I’ll have to explore sooner rather than later!
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It’s easy to think of him as a caricature with South Park, but he was super talented. Professional songwriter in the 1960s, then a solo career.
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There is a fantastic indy band in Los Angeles that plays in the tradition of 1970s Cambodian pop. They are Dengue Fever and they are great!
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A great band. First I heard of them was The Deepest Lake and I absolutely loved it.
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Just listening to this now – I basically just heard a whole lot of western music in Cambodia, but probably cos I was hanging out with western people.
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Cheating off another comment. Is it Phnom Penh?
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Nope, but closest city guess so far.
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Hm. Anybody else got a guess?
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It’s been up for almost 24 hours, you’re probably allowed another try.
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Well, I can’t glean anything from the pics that make it a dead giveaway, so I’m gonna go with a town name I love because it makes me think of drums: Battambang?
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Nope, it’s not Battambang.
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Also man you reminded me I needed to dig out this LP and give it another go. Thanks!
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He was really pretty incredible. A few years ago, a pal of mine told me about the awesome 70’s stuff he’d done… and he wasn’t wrong. Some really exceptional stuff.
As for where… I see from the comments Cambodia, but I have no idea.
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Interesting post. As I haven’t travelled in SE Asia, I’ll pass on the Cambodian location, but agree with all about the talents of Isaac Hayes. His capacity to infuse funk and jazz elements into his extended instrumental sections was unique.
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I need to spend more time with his other early 1970s albums, but this one seems like the peak so far.
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