Hello Hpathy Family!
Oh look! It’s little baby Shana! I hope everybody is ready for the November Quiz!
I’m sure they are, Mom; but first … I have announcements!
Well; this is highly irregular….
I’m sad to report that we lost actor Richard Roundtree,
famed for his portrayal of “Shaft”, an iconic movie from 1971, featuring the Academy Award winning “Theme From Shaft” written and sung by Stax recording artist, Isaac Hayes. He won a Grammy for that too!
Apparently Richard Roundtree had pancreatic cancer, he was 81 years old.
I found the opening credits to “Shaft” on Youtube:
Great find, Shana! The Theme From Shaft catapulted Isaac Hayes to Super-Stardom! After Stax lost super-star Otis Redding in a plane crash…
there was Isaac Hayes to fill his shoes!
Now who is Isaac Hayes you might ask? Not you, Mom! When I say, ‘you’, I mean our readers who have no idea what we’re talking about…
They don’t know who Shaft is?
Who is the man who would risk his neck for his brother man? Shaft! Can you dig it?
Mom…because “Shaft” is an American movie and Isaac Hayes is an American recording artist, I just assumed that, as usual, our audience from India and Pakistan, not to mention the gang from Slovakia, might feel very left out. But anyway…
The thing with “Shaft”, Shana, is that it came out in 1971, only 3 years after Martin Luther King was assassinated…
6 years after Malcolm X was assassinated…
the Civil Rights Movement was still very much alive (the movement for equal rights for Black People, including the right to vote) and so in the midst of all this, to have a major motion picture come out with a black star and a theme song that wins the Academy Award from an all-black record label?
Well, it was unheard of, is all I’m saying!!!!!
Isaac Hayes, for his part, is famous for being one of the most prolific writers and producers at Stax, but more people will know him as the voice of “Chef” on “South Park”,
an adult satiric cartoon, like “The Simpsons”, that managed to insult just about everyone.
We lost Isaac to a stroke in 2008 before we started doing the “Death Report” and, hence, these lovely tributes.
But, back to “Shaft”…. Apparently the movie really took off because a couple of sequels were made, and Richard Roundtree was still portraying “Shaft” in 2019!
Get out! No way!
In 1973-1974 there was even a series of seven television films featuring his character. Isaac Hayes’ Theme Song is so iconic that it even made it into an episode of “Dexter’s Laboratory”! This is a short clip from an episode of “Dexter’s Laboratory” (see last month’s “Tidbits” on Sulphur) where Dexter used his scientific know-how to grow a beard because his television hero, ‘Action Hank’, also had a beard. The music playing in the background is the “Theme From Shaft” — more or less. Watch what happens when Dee Dee and her two friends see the beard:
So “Shaft” not only was iconic enough to be referenced on television, but it was preserved in the “National Film Registry” in 2000. I also just learned something else interesting. One of the backup singers on the record was Telma Hopkins from Tony Orlando and Dawn!
Telma and Tony
You know, “Knock Three Times” and “Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree”? Well, Telma was the one who delivered the iconic line, “Shut your mouth!”
But I’m talkin’ ’bout Shaft….
And we can dig it!
OK, Mom, are you happy now that I just made a complete fool out of myself?
He’s a complicated man, but no one understands him but his woman….
OK, I am not going to say, “John Shaft”!!!!!
Aaaah!!!! RIP, Richard Roundtree AND Isaac Hayes!
Mom; shouldn’t you be cooking dinner?
Sadly, I have more deaths to announce! We lost a member of the original Isley Brothers from 1959, Rudolph Isley died at 84 last month from an apparent heart attack.
From left to right: Ronnie Isley (lead singer) Kelly Isley and Rudy (Rudolph) Isley.
Of course, their big hit from 1959, “Shout”, is so iconic that I just heard it today on an E-Trade commercial!
But even having said that, The Isley Brothers had hits in the ’50’s, ’60’s, ’70’s and ’80’s and I don’t know about the ’90’s cuz I was too busy raising a baby to notice what songs were on the air!
Also I’m just now finding out that Kelly Isley died in 1986 and we lost younger brother and bass player, Marvin Isley, in 2010. The only two left now are Ronnie and Ernie, their brilliant lead guitarist, who can be heard so clearly on “Who’s That Lady” from 1971.
Oh and Chris Jasper who was responsible for writing and producing but he isn’t part of the Isley family.
Wait, he is! He’s a brother-in-law. His sister is married to Rudolph. Chris Jasper is also the keyboardist and the primary writer and arranger between ’73 and ’83, which means he’s responsible for their best songs.
The Isley Brothers were on Motown from 1966-1969, and during their time on Motown, we got songs like; “This Old Heart of Mine”, “I Guess I’ll Always Love You”, “That’s The Way Love Is”, etc.
Also here’s an insane story about their hit, “Twist and Shout” which was covered by The Beatles. John Lennon had a bad cold when it was recorded; by the end of the session, his voice was almost completely gone!
Maybe that’s why I hate it!
Mom, everyone else in the world disagrees with you. I don’t know if you were aware of this, but, the Isley Brothers’ “3+3” album turned 50 in August.
Ernie, Kelly, Ronnie, Chris, Rudy, Marvin
I believe this is one of several Isley Brothers albums we have here on vinyl but I haven’t checked. Anyway, 3+3 not only has the famous “That Lady” on it but it’s also notable for a cover of James Taylor’s
Aaaaaaah!!!!!!!
“Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight” as well as “You Walk Your Way” and “What It Comes Down To”.
Oh and I forgot to mention the excellent cover of Seals and Crofts’ “Summer Breeze”.
It sounds like a real blockbuster!
I may have mentioned that Jim Seals died last year. Anyway as I was saying, the Isley Brothers have so many great songs that you can’t even choose which ones to play, but I like “What It Comes Down To” a lot.
Really? I had noooo ideeeea!
“You Walk Your Way” also needs more attention.
You walk your way (you walk your way) let me walk mine (I’ll walk mine), you walk you way…(You walk your way)….
Mom!!! Isn’t there something burning in the kitchen??? I also didn’t recognize “If You Were There” until I went onto youtube for this article.
…If you were there you’d know, if you were there you’d know, that I care…
Do you plan to burst into song every five feet?
That is my plan! Oh, and don’t forget, “Say You Will”.
I love that song too! Now Mom, just bear with me for the next announcement. A while ago I was watching my favorite 1990s TV show “Kenan and Kel.” Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell are the greatest comedy duo of the 90’s.
I had nooooo ideeeea……
They’re going to be in a streaming sequel to their classic movie, “Good Burger.” But, long story short, there was this one episode I was watching where Kenan hired actors to pretend to be his parents, because the Principal was coming over and he didn’t want his real parents to hear what she had to say! Anyway, only one of them was a real actor and the other was a lady who couldn’t get Kenan’s name right.
I didn’t know the name of the actress who played Principal Dimly, and for some reason I thought it was Rudy’s teacher from The Cosby Show. Well, it turns out, the principal wasn’t who I thought she was but they look so much alike. Rudy’s teacher was played by Elaine Stritch.
Kenan’s principal was played by Hersha Parady (pictured below with the fake dad) and she’s famous for being on a television show called “Little House on the Prairie”. Her real name is apparently Betty Sandhoff.
Is there a bleeping point to this story??!!!
She died.
Principal Dimly died?
Yes.
Oh, that is a shame. Is that it?
Now for my big announcement!!!!
This better be good, Shana!
We got a new Beatles song!
It’s called “Now and Then”. Now try to pay attention Mom, because this story covers 25 years!
Oh dear God!!!! It’s not going to take 25 years to tell it, is it?
OK, so here’s the story. George was talking to Yoko in 1995, and Yoko said she had a demo tape of John singing a song he wrote called “Now and Then”, it was a home-made cassette tape of John singing and playing the piano—not a studio tape, in other words. So, George, Paul and Ringo got together and recorded parts to go with the tape but it was a lost cause! John’s voice was muffled and the piano was too loud! It was so bad they gave up on it completely!
Now, 25 years later and along comes something called “A.I.” Well guess what? Through the use of AI, John’s voice was able to be cleaned up, sharpened, and separated from the awful piano which was thrown out completely. Now all of a sudden a brand new record was possible with John singing lead! Paul still had George’s guitar lines from 25 years ago, plus he hired an orchestra to get strings put on, and the bottom line is, there is now a brand new song with all 4 Beatles on it—surely the last one there ever will be, and here it is now!!!!! I guess the Beatles are going to have the #1 record in the country—again!!!
John, Paul, George and Ringo.
Wow Shana, that really was worth waiting for! I suppose we have to start the Quiz now….
Who’s in the quiz this month?
Felisha Fettuccine.
Who????
Felisha Fettuccine!!! She’s Italian!
No kidding!
Her husband, Felice, fell through the ceiling and landed on his foot!
OK, I’m outta here!
No, really, it happened!
*******
Elaine, as you will recall, I told you about my husband, Felice, breaking his foot. In the hospital I gave him a dose of Ruta and told you about how he was worried and had sweaty palms and you prescribed Aconite. I gave one dose of that.
He had no pain or swelling till 4.00 pm. I gave him another dose as he had some pain. After they put the splint in eventually it got worse and very bad and at night it was full blown, nothing worked (Tylenol/ Ibuprofen). He took the opioid meds and slept.
We tried lachesis 30 and it didn’t seem to help.
On the second day afternoon I gave him Dr.Christopher’s Complete Tissue and Bone and it the took the edge off of the pain. So he was on 6 capsules per day and by the 3rd day, the pain was a 2 on a scale of 1 – 10.
Yet night time sleeping was tough but now even that is better.
Apart from Dr. Christopher’s, I was giving him high doses of vitamin c, zinc 60 mg some days and magnesium citrate. Looks like that helped.
In between I gave him Hypericum 30C, suspecting nerve pain during sleep I’m not sure if that helped.
I don’t know what to do. I might have given him Symphytum 30C just 2 doses to help with pain but stopped as I think the bones need to be set first to heal in correct position.
My stomach is churning with worry! I just hope whatever way he heals he should be able to walk eventually and he can wear different size shoes on each foot, we can live with that.
It’s been 10 days now.
I think YOU need a dose of _______________!
Elaine, you were right yesterday about me needing _________ for stomach churning, I had the same thought too.
Since you wrote, I took ___________ 30C.
I slept like a charm and feel great mentally today. Surprisingly I’m not worrying at all! And I am getting a lot done, cleaning etc., as I’m not feeling depressed.
______________________________
OK, that’s it everybody, what’s the remedy? Write to me at [email protected] and let me know! The answer will be in the December ezine.
See you then!
_______________________________
Elaine Lewis, DHom, CHom
Elaine takes online cases. Write to her at [email protected]
Visit her website: https://ElaineLewis.hpathy.com
