The Historama
Alex Ben-Arieh
P.O.Box 32128
Tel Aviv, Israel 61321
Tel/Fax: +972-3-546-1971
Mobile:  +972-547-680-086
e-mail:   alex@historama.com


The Music Room
A dream of mine for years has been to find a way of presenting Israeli music to foreign ears. The motivation stems partly from a desire to share our identity with others, even if it seems on the surface 'foreign' and un-understandable; it also stems from my belief that Israeli music is excellent music, whose melodies and lyrics (when translated) are at once local, universal - and profound.

Though not being a scholar of music I can still say portable instruments like the guitar, accordion or horn have been central pieces in Israeli music since pioneering days. And with that, these instruments - particularly the guitar - live on in our songs: powerful, untainted and played in styles that give our music a unique sound. In an age where electronic instruments have replaced most musical instruments, and marketing companies now assemble together 'stars' for public consumption, our music remains pure (and for the few impurities that we have, they're still so few that we can digest them as amusements), with no shame for simple vocals or piano accompaniments.

And our songwriters are probably even more famous and revered than the musicians who sing their songs. There's a refreshing reality in that Israeli music is really a coming together of experts in complementary fields - gifted vocalists, skilled musicians, and talented songwriters; each with a name and each with an identity of his/her own.

It's a cliche which many would agree with, that in order to understand a country - or in my case, her collectibles, her heritage - one has to understand its culture. Given the easiness of occupying space online and providing inexpensive 'facilities', I'd like to invite you to sample the sounds of the music we live here with everyday. I've divided the songs by category, and the songs have a number which you can ask the music player to play - like a jukebox. If you click the link next to the song titles on this page, you'll be taken to the translated lyrics, which include some information about the musician and/or the song. The music selection is by no means complete: this page will be continuously updated with more songs, but as a basic principle it is based on real, legal disks sitting on my shelf and therefore many great hits and music legends will still be missing from the offering here until I buy those disks. Enjoy the music!

Click Here to Activate the Jukebox

Main Music Genre Menu
CONTEMPORARY HITS CLASSIC / ROCK POLITICAL & WARTIME ANTHEMS
YEHORAM GAON ARIK EINSTEIN SHALOM HANOCH MATTI CASPI
YEHUDA POLIKER EHUD BANAI MASHINA 80'S AND 90'S
CONTEMPORARY FEMALE ARMY (IDF) ENSEMBLES FOREIGN COVERS ISRAELI SOUL
OVERALL JUKEBOX MENU



Contemporary Hits

Song Name Artist Name Genre Song # in Jukebox
"Something Small and Good" Mashina Pop / Rock Song #3
"Birthday" (remix) Berry Sakharof and Infected Mushroom Techno Song #5
"Not Suckers" Hadag Nakhash Hip Hop / Rap Song #6
"Borders" Ehud Banai Rock Song #17
"Perhaps on the Sea-Shore" (remix) Yehoram Gaon and The Doves Classic Rock revised Song #20
"The Child in You" (live) Yehuda Poliker Rock Song #22
"On Full Moon Nights" Eran Tzur Rock / Pop Song #23
"In a Striped Shirt" Ivri Lider Rock / Pop Song #24
"15 Minutes" Assaf Amdurksy Techno / Instrumental Song #25
"Dark Dream" Assaf Amdursky Techno-Rock Song #26
"Nails and Feathers" Micha Shitreet Pop / Rock Song #27
"Enta Omri" Micha Shitreet Dance Song #28
"Landscape of Childhood" Shlomo Artzi Pop / Rock Song #34
"Overtakes From Above" Mookie Hip-Pop / Rock Song #38
"Today" Shalom Hanoch (featuring Monica Sex) Pop / Rock Song #39
"City Evening" Yossi Banai Pop / Rock Song #43
"I See You" Shlomo Artzi & Shalom Hanoch Pop / Rock Song #63
"Arik" Shlomi Shaban Pop / Rock Song #71
"America" Ethnix Pop / Rock Song #73
"My Old Friends" Ivri Lider Pop / Rock Song #78
"Preelie" Fools of the Prophecy (Shotei Ha'Nevuah) Indie Song #79
"The Doll House" The Doll House (Beit Ha'Bubot) Indie / Rock Song #80
"Here Again (Part B)" Shabak Samekh Indie / Rap Song #82
"Going Wild in the Countryside" Fools of the Prophecy (Shotei Ha'Nevuah) Indie Song #83
"Better Nothing Than Almost" Ivri Lider Pop / Rock Song #88
"Iris Fields" (live) Yehuda Sa'ado Pop / Rock Song #99
"How 'Yossi'" (live) Berry Sakharof Rock Song #110
"Haifa Across the Sea" Micha Shitreet Rock Song #119
"Momentum" Boaz Banai Rock Song #120
"Dog Competition" Eviatar Banai Rock Song #122
"Sigapo" The Doll House (Beit Ha'Bubot) Indie / Rock Song #124
"End of Summer" Micha Shitreet & Berry Sakharof Rock Song #127
"A Person Accumulates Memories" Avraham Tal Indie Song #135
"The Remains of Life" Idan Raichel Project Ethnic / World Music Song #143
"The Dreams of Others" Idan Raichel Project Ethnic / World Music Song #144
"With My Eyes Shut" Idan Raichel Project Ethnic / World Music Song #145
"Everything Passes" Idan Raichel Project Ethnic / World Music Song #146
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Song Title: Something Small and Good [live] ("Mashehu Katan ve Tov")
Musician: Mashina
Video: From September 2003 concert in Caesaria (Yuval Banai - vocals, Shlomi Brakha - lead guitar, Avner Khodorov - keyboards/sax/accordion, Michael Benson - bass, Iggy Dayan - drums)
Year Released: 2003
Credits: lyrics and music by Yuval Banai and Shlomi Brakha
Website: www.mashina.com
Comments: Mashina's first release - and a major hit - after a hiatus of 8 years. Recorded live in Caesaria.
Hear the song!


Mashina album: Mashina Live, 2003
I don't see now the light, looking for it in vain
Wandering across the whole area, from place to place
Like a scratched old record, like a knight on a white horse
Going on no accomplishments, everything will be done alone by himself

And it seems that this is good, that's how he needs to love
And it seems that it's close, something small and good...

You won't be able to hold it, if you seek it it will get lost
A man needs to move from place to place
Deep in the heart of darkness something comes and goes
The liight that's on the hurt is exposed, in sadness and joy it lies

And it seem that this is good, that's how he needs to love
And it seems that it's close, something small and good...

I don't see now the light, looking for it in vain
Wandering across the whole area, from place to place....

And it seems that this is good, that's how he needs to love
And it seems that it's close, something small and good
And it seems that this is good, that's how he needs to love...

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Song Title: Birthday (remix) ("Yomuledet")
Musician: Berry Sakharof and Infected Mushroom
Video: Video of Infected Mushroom's remix featuring Berry
Year Released: 2002
Credits: lyrics and music by Berry Sakharof; remixed by Infected Mushroom
Website: www.berry.co.il
Comments:
Hear the song!


Infected Mushroom & Berry Sakharof single: Birthday (Yomuledet), 2002
Today is a birthday
Look, there is an old-new secret here
To slice the bread
To touch something nearly perfect
It's already the middle of the night
I thought perhaps its worthwhile to sleep
But something is stuck
Stuck deep down in my throat

That's right, you know
You make me crazy
Before you run away, come without fear
And take me like this

Today is a birthday
I thought of almost all of the details
I ordered a room
Blue skies with stars

That's right, you know
You make me crazy
Before you run away, come without fear
And take me like this

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Song Title: Not Suckers ("Lo Freierim")
Musician: Hadag Nakhash ('Fish Snake')
Video: From Israel Channel 24 Music TV
Year Released: 2003
Credits: lyrics by Sha'anan Street and Hadag Nakhash; and music by Hadag Nakhash
Website: www.levantini.com/hadag/
Comments:
Hear the song!


Until when
will we stop dreaming we're a MIG in the sky flying high
over the stench at a safe distance of 5 minutes from Kfar Sava...
Until when
will we stop closing our eyes to what's going on
under our nose and accepting that everything's just groovy

Beer from the fridge we'll bring, to a different channel we'll surf

Until when will we stop thinking of endless alcohol and non-stop f**king
So what if my neighbor is Danny Yatom
I went to the funeral and went to him in mourning
but the cycle of suffering is too big for me to break

And we'll do reserve duty, and we'll pay taxes
And we'll stand in traffic - for us they'll never screw
We're definitely, definitely, definitely not
We're definitely not suckers

My friends says "enough, stop being heavy"
And I'm not arguing, but the situation is absurd
Try to find some examples
And if you don't succeed, wait for me
'Cause if here falls a missile, over there is still more worthlessness
What does it matter who succeeds - Jordan, Katash or Shaqueel
And if here is a firing zone, over there is a mine
What does it matter if I pay by cheque, credit or cash
And with 700 [Shekels] for water and 2000 for city tax
It's certain that I participate in the deal for...
Left, right, look on the sides

And we'll do reserve duty, and we'll pay taxes
And we'll stand in traffic - for us they'll never screw
We're definitely, definitely, definitely not
We're definitely not suckers

And sometimes everything simply looks strange, not put together
Like a nun in a whore-house, or a whore in a convent
Everything's going from failure to failure
A tear from the eye slides down the cheek, and you?
I'm crying about it all
Crying about how everything could have been good
there could have been h-a-r-m-o-n-y...
From the Synagogue to the flack jacket to the Mosque
Shopping mall, Church, everything could have been one
Instead of this, there's a feeling of "Help"
Living in a sense of such an "As if"
Without looking at the reality in the face
Without moving ahead, just trying to watch
To disconnect
Doing everything, just not to get screwed
Doing everything, just not to get screwed

And we'll do reserve duty, and we'll pay taxes
And we'll stand in traffic - for us they'll never screw
We're definitely, definitely, definitely not
We're definitely not suckers

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Song Title: Borders ("Gvulot")
Musician: Ehud Banai
Year Released: 2004
Credits: lyrics and music by Ehud Banai
Website: www.ehudbanai.co.il
Comments: This song is an allegory of Israel during the period of the current Intifada. Politically, it's pessimistic message came 'late' - after the IDF managed to subdue the main force of the Intifada in operation "Defensive Shield" (2002); musically however, this song and the album itself are probably the finest pieces of Israeli music produced in the last 10 years. Backing vocals with Salaam Darwish
Hear the song!


Ehud Banai album: Answer Me (Aneh Li), 2004
He's already not so young, more than 50 years old
And he's experiencing difficult times
Fighting with the irritating neighbor in the yard
Each one saying: "I'll die (first), but with you I won't speak"
He's completely not at peace, living on the edge
Never understanding what he really wants
Curses and apologises, going wild and relenting
He cries alone at night when no one's watching

Rises every morning and sees that the night continues
Doesn't remember where he came from and now where he'll go
Turns from side to side, torn up from within
Confused and divided, he lives on pills
He has no time to sit and eat like a human being
Everything he sticks in a pita, flies on the street ahead of everyone
Overtakes from the right, then cuts sharply to the left
He'd like to straighten up, but now can't really manage to

Between and you, between us and them
Between darkness and light, between land and sea
Between religious and secular, between sweetness and bitter
Without borders there's no limit for anything

There's a border to despair, there's no limit for hope
There's a border to hate, there's no limit to love
There's a border to reality, there's no limit to the dream
There's a border to war, there's no limit to peace

From time to time he remembers when he was young
There was a dream, there was hope on the clear horizon
But now he sees clouds of fear
And he runs straight home after work
Stuck in a traffic jam, helpless, honks in rage
Turns on the radio and thinks: "just not this, just not again"
Smokes like a chiminy, worries for the kids
And the path to his heart is strewn with bypasses

Between and you, between us and them
Between darkness and light, between land and sea
Between religious and secular, between sweetness and bitter
Without borders there's no limit for anything

There's a border to despair, there's no limit for hope
There's a border to hate, there's no limit to love
There's a border to reality, there's no limit to the dream
There's a border to war, there's no limit to peace

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Song Title: Perhaps on the Sea-shore ("Ulay Al Sfat Ha'Yam")
Musician: Yehoram Gaon (remixed by The Doves - "Ha'Yonim")
Video: Yehoram Gaon (remixed by The Doves - "Ha'Yonim")
Year Released: (1971) 2005
Credits: lyrics by Ehud Manor; music by Nurit Hirsh
Comments:
Hear the song!


Go find the happiness
Between the pillow and the blanket,
In me, or her, or in yourself
Or perhaps on the sea shore

Brooks are streaming towards the sea
And at the sea every path ends
Also the sun sets there
Don't tell me why

Go find the direction
In the notes of the music
In the tail of the octopus
Or perhaps on the sea shore

Brooks are streaming towards the sea
And at the sea every path ends
Also the sun sets there
Don't tell me why

Brooks are streaming towards the sea
And at the sea every path ends
Also the sun sets there
Don't tell me why

Go find the Truth
In the Torah or the scriptures
In a sad barn owl
Or perhaps on the sea shore

Brooks are streaming towards the sea
And at the sea every path ends
Also the sun sets there
Don't tell me why

Go find G-d
In the gardens, in the stones
In the leaves, in the stamen
Or perhaps on the sea shore

Brooks are streaming towards the sea
And at the sea every path ends
Also the sun sets there
Don't tell me why
Don't tell me why

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Song Title: The Child in You [live] ("Ha Yeled She'bekha")
Musician: Yehuda Poliker
Video: original music video
Year Released: (1995) 1996
Credits: lyrics by Yehuda Poliker and Ya'akov Gil'ad; music by Yehuda Poliker
Website: www.nmc-music.co.il/nmc/artists/poliker/
Comments:
Hear the song!


Yehuda Poliker album: Live in Caesaria (Hofaah Khaya), 1996
There is out there some kind of record
There is some kind of sadness

But there is life outside
There still is more love

You burn dead hours and piles of newspapers every weekend
Family pictures of others, on the windows burn you
You go out when it's already dark, dressed in black
You drive and drive at the speed of light
As if there's some kind of record that only you can break

You hide the beatings, the open wounds and scars that haven't healed
You remember little details that others before years already forgot
Sometimes you sink and sustain everything
Sometimes you hurt someone dear, from coldness
As if there's some kind of pain that only you can tolerate

There is out there some kind of record that you haven't broken yet
And there is some kind of pain that you already know
There is some kind of switch that only you can close
But there is life outside that you haven't finished
And there is more love that you haven't yet loved
There is some kind of switch that no one ever will be able to close

The child there is a man lost, feeling abandonned, rejected, robbed of dreams in the darkness
And he falls asleep and wakes up, thrusts his hand and forgets that there's no one there
And in the dream descends a child tied from behind, and this is the child that's in you
But they call for him to return, and there's some kind of switch that only you can close

There is out there some kind of record that you haven't broken yet
And there is some kind of pain that you already know
There is some kind of switch that only you can close
But there is life outside that you haven't finished
And there is more love that you haven't yet loved
There is some kind of switch that no one ever will be able to close

There is out there some kind of record
There is some kind of sadness
There is some kind of switch that only you can close
But there is life outside that you haven't finished
And there is more love that you haven't yet loved
There is some kind of switch that no one ever will be able to close

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Song Title: On Full Moon Nights ("Be'Leilot Shel Yare'akh Maleh")
Musician: Eran Tzur
Year Released: 2000
Credits: lyrics and music by Eran Tzur
Website: www.eranzur.com/main.htm
Comments:
Hear the song!


Eran Tzur album: Underground Meaning (Takhlit Batakhtit), 2000
On full moon nights
I see you next to me
Us lying on the bed in darkness
All the windows open
The light reflects on us
Silvery and milky

Here is you face
Here are the eyes
Here is the refined smile
Here are the fears and detatchment
Here is worry for me
And here is happiness
Because we're here together

We have love
Would you believe it
After all this desert
What a consolation

On full moon nights
Fantasy turns into reality
Almost as if you can touch it
By way of memory - in the imagination
I know, it's true you're not mine
But now, in the darkness you're with me

We have love
Would you believe it
After all this desert
What a consolation

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Song Title: In a Striped Shirt ("Be'Khultzat Pasim")
Musician: Ivri Lider
Year Released: 1999
Credits: lyrics and music by Ivri Lider
Website: www.ivrilider.com
Comments:
Hear the song!


Ivri Lider album: Better Nothing than Almost (Yoter Tov Klum MeKimat), 1999
In a beautiful city full of longings, I walk
To give into my desires to fall in love
And to the beauty that sends me to the clouds
Love like this without boundaries
Now I swallow the spit which has accumulated in my mouth
Opportunities like these in life won't be many
In a thin striped shirt with an unusual hat
It's the eyes that make the difference so beautiful

Now I'm shocked and then return
Take my time, don't hurry
I hear from outside
That my mouth is saying, what my mouth is saying
Now it's forever or else to give up
I came for one, and left with another
In a new Japanese car
At the [bus] stops I drive fast

In a beautiful city full of believers
I want to find my life, to get adjusted
When you drink just a little everything seems suddenly so nice
When the girl beside me tells me how hard it is
And how the people around her stop her, and what will be
In a thin striped shirt with an unusual hat
It's the lips that give me a kiss on the mouth

Now I'm shocked and then return
Take my time, don't hurry
I hear from outside
That my mouth is saying, what my mouth is saying
Now it's forever or else to give up
I came for one, and left with another
In a new Japanese car
At the [bus] stops I drive fast

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Song Title: 15 Minutes ("Khamesh-esre Dakot")
Musician: Assaf Amdursky
Year Released: 1999
Credits: lyrics and music by Assaf Amdursky
Website: www.amdursky.com
Comments:
Hear the song!


Assaf Amdursky album: Silent Engines (Menoyim Shketim), 1999
Flies over the city
Shooting at them flashing arrows in the eyes
Air in the bays
floats in the currents
Pleasant like tickles
Electricity in the ears, shivers of pleasure
Fifteen minutes, flutes and violins
I simply want to be someone they'll remember

Give a sparkling smile, end of the balloon will explode

It's not worth over-exerting yourself
In any case, from end to end it's always summed up in the same point
The stains are removed
The nights get shorter
To a white line between background to background
Sweet revenge
Silent engines
Trains of words cross paths like shadows above me and above the city, lifting me up
The bulge of the breasts hides the face
Fifteen minutes
Photographers and ashtrays
I simply want to be someone they'll remember

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Song Title: Dark Dream ("Khalom Keheh")
Musician: Assaf Amdursky
Video: Assaf Amdursky with the band Knesiat Ha'Sekhel ("Entry of the Mind")
Year Released: 1999
Credits: lyrics and music by Assaf Amdursky
Website: www.amdursky.com
Comments:
Hear the song!


Assaf Amdursky album: Silent Engines (Menoyim Shketim), 1999
They'll always find us thrown out on the pavement
Days which fell off from us will be presented on display in the newspapers
Headlines which reverberate, and the heart breaks
Something inside died already years ago
And the noise in the head
We don't manage to breath
Many emotions
Guilt
Many deviations from the conscience
And a hole of emptiness

One foot squeezes the gas
Sunken eyes, deep inside a dark dream
Can't stop
In the newspapers, headlines which reverberate
And the heart breaks
And everything remains pale like always

I have freedom, I have a goal
You don't have to go back
There's still a desire
You can find a corner
Give me the end or find me the beginning

[TV clip:]
There are things that exist inside and we're like not aware of them
We're always full of dark feelings, opening the papers and saying
"Well, another disaster"
but it's not like that
It's a shame that we reached such a terrible condition where it's
normal to wake up and see this
I know I woke up, I woke up somehow

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Song Title: Nails and Feathers ("Masmerim ve'Notzot")
Musician: Micha Shitreet (pronounced "Shetreet")
Video: original music video
Year Released: 1998
Credits: lyrics by Micha Shitreet and Miki Zar; music by Micha Shitreet, Berry Sakharof and Yizhar Ashdot
Website:
Comments:
Hear the song!


Once I could swallow the whole world
I rode on a bicycle with my hands in the air
Once I was a bad animal and you were a sweetie
Once I really lived

Once you were close to me, now you're distant
Once you used to cry less and laugh more
Once, when you were happy you used to dance
Once you really lived

And now? What now?
Nails and feathers - a bird that doesn't fly

And now? What now?
Nails and feathers - a bird that doesn't fly

Once I could swallow a full moon
You didn't bite your fingernails, you used to scratch
You got dressed in full light before me, now you're embarrassed
Once you were real

Once I could tell you "Behold you are my bride..."
I broke the glass and left the house
Once you could twist me around your finger
Once we were real

And now? What now?
Nails and feathers - a bird that doesn't fly

And now? What now?
Nails and feathers - a bird that doesn't fly

Once.. no, no there won't be another time
Twice you gave up for me and once on me
Once you wanted to know and I forgot
What we really were

And now? What now?
Nails and feathers - a bird that doesn't fly

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Song Title: Enta Omri (You Are My Life) ("Inti Omri")
Musician: Micha Shitreet (pronounced "Shetreet")
Year Released: 1998
Credits: lyrics and music by Micha Shitreet
Website: On Um Kulthum
Comments: Based on the Arabic song 'You Are My Life' (Enta Omri) by Um Kulthum, the Egyptian diva.
Hear the song!


They're closing the plant, come we'll go home
It doesn't pay, doesn't pay... doesn't pay
It's a matter of economics, of politics
Issues of a global scale
But not on the issue, not on our issue

And you're beautiful, oh so beautiful
And like then, so also now 'Enta Omri'

We listened to the man who said and said
And we believed in everyone who spoke about G-d
Words, words, words
Many, many, many
But not on the issue, not on our issue

And you're beautiful, oh so beautiful
And like then, so also now 'Enta Omri'

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Song Title: Landscape of Childhood ("Nof Yaldut")
Musician: Shlomo Artzi
Year Released: (1971) 2000
Credits: lyrics and music by Shlomo Artzi
Website: www.shlomoartzi.com
Comments:
Hear the song!


Shlomo Artzi album: I Loved Them (Ahavti Hem), 2000
The landscape of the old buildings
Which were shadows in my childhood days
Since then have passed many years
Since then have passed many years
The landscape of the old buildings is already crumbling
And its walls are disappearing
Since then have passed many years
Since then have passed many years

In the Garden of Eden of childhood
Which had flourished
I was part of the landscape.
Today I'm just a visitor

In the tree garden which is peeling
Which were shadows from my childhood days
The branches have already broken
Old age suddenly surged forth
I am walking and you're with me
And they altogether are disappearing
Old age suddenly surged forth
What a day it is.

In the Garden of Eden of childhood
Which had flourished
I was part of the landscape.
Today I'm just a visitor

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Song Title: Overtakes From Above ("Okef Mi Lemala")
Musician: Mookie
Video: Original music video pulled from the "Musika 24" channel; features Mookie and Piloni
Year Released: 2005
Credits: lyrics by Danny ("Mookie") Niv; music by Danny ("Piloni") Kirk
Website: shabakmusic.co.il
Comments:
Hear the song!


Mookie album: Higher Trod (Okef Mi Lemala), 2005
I deliver the message to you telepathically
Hitting in the head in my problematic way
When I beat, I hit mathematically
One by one I kill them automatically
I present the anti-plastic reality
Life I wrap up, rhyming bombastically
This is the truth which strikes us drastically -
The alternative which is fanstastic
If we try to examine our being objectively
We'll see ourselves rotting passively
What turns me on over and over aggressively
Flows and froths with the massive music
Indulge myself on the microphone psychopathically
My splif sits on my hand aristocratically
I march on the way to freedom systematically
With a desirous heart and a militant spirit.

On my way to the beyond, I overtake from above
Between myself and the tomorrow separates just the night
Moving towards the beyond - overtaking from above


Because what is freedom after all
If not the victory of the man over himself?
We're dust in space, everything we could have been and we're not.
Because what is freedom after all
If not the victory of the man over himself?
We're dust in space, everything we could have been and we're not.

I build my existence logistically
Against the events I'm prepared militaristically
Against a world which goes and dumbs down sadistically
A world whose heart froze it statistically
How is it to live in a post-traumatic society
Which gets addicted to hate narcomatically?
How she drowns in the bureaucratic morass
Dead eyes which gaze at me antipathically
As she fries my brain cellularly
She and her conscience which crumbles molecularly
This is the stored thing for the moment of need modularly
This is the branded thing, all of it fattened dollaristically
Mook comes and brings the fire, sparking it vocally
The words burn and don't get burned, attacks verbally
Always in motion, managed multistylistically
I fight my battles mentally.

On my way to the beyond, I overtake from above
Between myself and the tomorrow separates just the night
Moving towards the beyond - overtaking from above


Because what is freedom after all
If not the victory of the man over himself?
We're dust in space, everything we could have been and we're not.
Because what is freedom after all
If not the victory of the man over himself?
We're dust in space, everything we could have been and we're not.

And if you'll say I'm exaggerating with this dramatically
I say that your idea is not relevant
I cut and avoid the brain-washing acrobatically
And it's impossible to squeeze me into a compact slogan
It's impossible to take me and market me authentically
It's impossible to dazzle me, to lie to me cosmetically
The good which returns to the creator of it magnetically
Peels all the masks from you poetically

On my way to the beyond, I overtake from above
Between myself and the tomorrow separates just the night
Moving towards the beyond - overtaking from above


Because what is freedom after all
If not the victory of the man over himself?
We're dust in space, everything we could have been and we're not.
Because what is freedom after all
If not the victory of the man over himself?
We're dust in space, everything we could have been and we're not.

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Song Title: Today ("Ha'Yom")
Musician: Shalom Hanoch (featuring 'Monica Sex')
Year Released: 2003
Credits: lyrics and music by Shalom Hanoch
Website:
Comments:
Hear the song!


Shalom Hanoch album: Israeli Light (Or Israeli), 2003
Just yesterday, just yesterday
I simply got fed up with everything
To die I wanted, not to suffer
But to die I always can

And today the wind changed
It took away the pain
I don't know how
It's definitely because of you

Just yesterday, not long ago
I was a king, Don Juan
The most known, the biggest of all
The most artistic without falling

And today there aren't anymore clouds
Everything lightens up the face
I've started to smile
I don't know how
It's definitely because of you

Just yesterday, not long ago
Late at night, far from here
Barefoot in the weeds, walking in the forest
To smoke in the rain on the little bridge
And to dream

Today the wind turned over
I started to smile
I don't know how
It's definitely because of you
There aren't anymore clouds
And everything lightens up the face
I don't know how
It's definitely because of you
Because of you...

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Song Title: City Evening ("Erev Ironi")
Musician: Yossi Banai
Video: Clip from his performance "From So Much Love"
Year Released: 1987
Credits: lyrics by Natan Alterman; music by Yoni Rechter
Website:
Comments: Yossi Banai (1932 - 11 May 2006) is one more in a string of musical treasures that have left us in the last three years, following Natan Yonathan, Nomi Shemer, Arik Lavie, Ehud Manor, Uzi Hitman and Shoshana Damari. Banai began his musical career in the first draft of the Nachal brigade band ("Lahakat Ha'Nachal", which became legendary for its songs and the subsequent stars it produced in the '50s and '60s), in 1951. After his army service he joined the "Ha'Bima" theater and became a successful stage entertainer. Later he wrote the materials for the country's legendary comedy troupe "The Pale Scout Trio" ("Ha'Gashash Ha'Khiver"), and released musical albums of his own which became successful in their own right. One of his key contributions to Israeli music was his incorporation of the French 'Chanson' tradition of careful language, storytelling and sound into the arena of popular Israeli song. He translated songs of Brel, Brassens and Moustaki into Hebrew and incorporated them into his presentations of Israeli song. Though this song is already almost 20 years old, out of respect to him and the poet of the words I've placed it in as 'contemporary' as nothing about its sound justifies consigning it to more out of date music periods.
Hear the song!


Yossi Banai album: Collection of Songs (Osef Shirim), 1990
A pink sunset between the rooves
Blue asphalt from below
Womens' eyes, sad, sad, say to the evening
Why did you come?

The street-lamps are the flowers of the city
Blooming in the scented light
A sad electric Spring in the city
From its intoxication it's forbidden to run away

He's just an orphan and just innocent
Born for a moment and then no longer
Between the nights and the days
He comes to color our eyes

[Chorus]
He's just an orphan and just innocent
Born for a moment and then no longer
Between the nights and the days
He comes to color our eyes


Between the days and the nights
Shows a blue appearance which we go towards
All our breaths are worn out
Over there the grass, which the weeds consume

The naive wave of a small girl
Her smile carried in a car
What there was and what there wasn't
It seems as if it will come to be again

At the moment I'm just one
And I look, very quietly
How the moon extracts a breast
From the wall of the building opposite

[Chorus]
At the moment I'm just one
And I look, very quietly
How the moon extracts a breast
From the wall of the building opposite


My body gets smaller and dwarfed
But my head is so high up
So that even if I go
I won't look at where I'm going

A pink sunset at the end of the road
Like a tunnel of light blue
He who reaches the end
Will want to cry from all what could have been

[Chorus]
A pink sunset at the end of the road
Like a tunnel of light blue
He who reaches the end
Will want to cry from all what could have been


A pink sunset between the rooves
Blue asphalt from below
Womens' eyes, sad, sad, say to the evening
Why did you come?

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Song Title: I See You ("Ani Ro'eh Otkha")
Musician: Shlomo Artzi and Shalom Hanoch
Video: from their concert in Caesaria 2005
Year Released: 2005
Credits: lyrics and music by Shlomo Artzi and Shalom Hanoch
Website:
Comments: Near contemporaries of one another, Shlomo Artzi (born 1949) and Shalom Hanoch (born 1946) developed into the country's most popular and prolific singer-songwriters even though they never performed or collaborated together, much to everyone's retroactive suprise - including theirs. Artzi pursued a pop-rock sound from the late '60s while Hanoch focused mostly on blues, though much of early Israel's rock music was written by him as early as the mid-'60s. Last year and this they went on tour together, with the concept being that each would chose and sing songs from the other, playing it with his own band (Hanoch: Moshe Levy, Roni Peterson, et. al.; Artzi: Meir Israel, Avi Singolda, et. al.), and this song - conveying their awareness of each other and their relative similarities through the distance and the years - was the thematic emblem of their "Connection" concert series.
Hear the song!


Shlomo Artzi and Shalom Hanoch album: Connection (Hitkhabrut), 2005
[Artzi]: If I look, I see you
[Artzi]: If I count, I count on you
[Artzi]: You're not always like me, just similar to me sometimes
[Artzi]: If you call for me I come right away

[Hanoch]: If I look, I see you
[Hanoch]: If you remain, I'll stay with you
[Hanoch]: If you call for me, I'm here nearby
[Hanoch]: You're a little like me, you're like me a little

If I become silent don't take it to heart
Let the music sing to the soul
[Hanoch]: I catch a guitar, and begin to sing
I come home, don't leave the city

If I look, I see you
If I count, I count on you
[Hanoch]: You're a little like me, and also a little different
[Artzi]: Speak to me, if that suits you

If I listen I understand you
If you remain, I'll stay with you
Sometimes on the path, you're not alone
[Hanoch]: You're a little like me, you're like me a little

If you lie on a beach, thinking about nothing
[Hanoch]: What is redemption if you don't see the end?
[Hanoch]: Like the question, "where is G-d?"
[Hanoch]: A conversation that begins itself, so how don't they see?

[Artzi]: If things will be a little good, that would be wonderful
[Artzi]: If we sing for fun like there's no tomorrow
Call me up, it's not such a big deal
[Artzi]: You can leave a number, I'll get back to you on time

[Artzi]: If I look, I see you
[Hanoch]: You're a little like me... a little... a little... a little... a little...
[Hanoch]: If things would be a little good
[Hanoch]: You're a little like me

[Hanoch]: If I become silent don't take it to heart
[Hanoch]: Let the music sing to the soul
[Hanoch]: Look at her and continue to sing
[Hanoch]: I come home, don't leave the city

[Artzi]: If you begin a sentence, I'll find it an ending
[Artzi]: If you draw me a line, I'll add to it a setting
[Artzi]: And if you go, and I come from across
[Artzi]: So let's go together, we'll go on a journey

[Hanoch]: If you begin a sentence, I'll find it an ending
[Artzi]: We'll go on a journey
[Hanoch]: If you draw me a line, I'll add to it a setting
[Artzi]: We'll go on a journey
[Hanoch]: And if you go, and I come from across
[Artzi]: We'll go on a journey
[Hanoch]: So let's go together, we'll go on a journey

If I look, I see you
If I count, I count on you
If you call for me I come right away
You're a little like me, you're like me a little

[Hanoch]: If I become silent don't take it to heart
[Artzi]: You're a little like me
[Hanoch]: Let the music sing to the soul
[Artzi]: You're a little like me
[Hanoch]: Look at her and continue to sing
I come home, don't leave the city

If I look, I see you
If I count, I count on you
You're not always like me, just similar to me sometimes
If you call for me I come right away

If I look, I see you
If I count, I count on you
You're not always like me, just similar to me sometimes
If you call for me I come right away

If I look, I see you

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Song Title: Arik ("Arik")
Musician: Shlomi Shaban
Year Released: 2000
Credits: lyrics by Shlomi Shaban; music by Shlomi Shaban
Website:
Comments: Amusing song based on a real experience by Shaban who was dating a girl who was seeing him and another man ("Arik") at the same time. The phrase "Bleed for me" comes from the Velvet Underground song 'Venus in Furs'.
Hear the song!


Shlomi Shaban album: Shlomi Shaban, 2000
When you're in my bed
Don't talk about Arik
Don't talk about Arik

Me and my thing don't like Arik
Arik causes us to shrink

Don't talk about Arik
Don't talk about Arik
Don't talk about Arik
Don't talk

You want to talk about Arik
Go be with Arik
Don't talk about Arik
Don't talk about Arik

What's the story with this Arik anyway?
You always remember him when you're with me
Is your game double-meaning-ed?
Do you throw my name around in Arik's room?

Don't talk about Arik
You just said Arik
You just said Arik
I'm getting tired

You want to talk about Arik
Go be with Arik
Don't talk about Arik
No more
Ho-ho

"This Arik", she continues
"He's got on himself"
If he has on himself, I thought
Why are you on me?
And if you're already on me
Why is he on top of us?
Why is he burdening us?
What, what did we do wrong?

Don't talk about Arik
Don't talk about Arik
Don't talk about Arik
Don't talk
You see, you just said Arik to me
I'm getting emotionally disturb-ariked
Don't talk about Arik
No more

And now the truth
Tell me the truth
Who f***s better, Arik or I?
What does that mean, everyone is different?
Speak in grades, lady, speak in numbers

Don't even answer me
Don't even answer me
Don't even answer me
It's not my business

You see, you just said Arik to me
I'm getting emotionally disturb-ariked
Don't talk about Arik
No more

And now I'm a cowboy
In the wild, wild west
And I'm gonna shoot Arik
Yes, I'm gonna shoot Arik now
Bleed for me

Don't talk about Arik

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Song Title: America ("America")
Musician: Ethnix
Video: original music video from Channel "Musika 24"
Year Released: 2005
Credits: lyrics by Ze'ev Nechama; music by Ze'ev Nechama and Tamir Kalisky
Website: www.ethnix.co.il
Comments:
Hear the song!


Ethnix album: America (America), 2005
People travel to America,
When there's America everywhere
There's something good in a faraway land
And sometimes it's just a dream

And you, why don't you cast a glance over here
For how may years can you possibly dream of America? Oh America...

Life is not America
And America is another place altogether
Everything's in the mind of the person
If you'll only want here too can be a dream

And you, why don't you cast a glance over here
For how may years can you possibly dream of America? Oh America...
And you, why don't we live with the little that we have
It's not so different in America... Oh America.

And you, why don't you cast a glance over here
For how may years can you possibly dream of America? Oh America...
And you, why don't we live with the little that we have
It's not so different in America... Oh America.

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Song Title: My Old Friends ("Ha'Khaverim Ha'Yeshanim Sheli")
Musician: Ivri Lider
Year Released: 1999
Credits: lyrics and music by Ivri Lider
Website: www.ivrilider.com
Comments:
Hear the song!


Ivri Lider album: Better Nothing than Almost (Yoter Tov Klum MeKimat), 1999
My old friends, they're all the same
One became a big hero and the other got wiped out
A few others traveled far in order to return
The tenth one who I once left far behind

My old friends in the black book
Everyone who I now love
Everyone I will remember
And for whom it interests, we'll smoke and talk
About sport and art until the night will end

Until the night ends, lines and lines of people
Pass through my dreams
Until the night ends I'll still manage to speak
About every subject in the world
If G-d exists or doesn't exist
If there's a reason for disappointments
Whole lives in bags of plastic
And they pull at me by the edge of my shirt

My old friends have an unusual taste
He who was furthest away says he thinks about me a lot
And he who loved to drink remained with the habit
To a world of grownups he tries to get accustomed
He who loved to know, still he asks questions
And he who thought things were good for him is now praying
And even I remained almost the same way
Threatening to go but in the end I remain

Until the night ends, lines and lines of people
Pass through my dreams
Until the night ends I'll still manage to speak
About every subject in the world
If G-d exists or doesn't exist
If there's a reason for disappointments
Whole lives in bags of plastic
And they pull at me by the edge of my shirt

Whole lives in bags of plastic
Arguing if this happened or didn't happen

My old friends are not all the same
One became a big hero and the other got wiped out
And a few others traveled far in order to return
This love which I once left behind

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Song Title: Preelie ("Preelie")
Musician: Shotei Ha'Nevuah ("Fools of the Prophecy")
Year Released: 2000
Credits: lyrics by Gil'ad Vitel; music by Gil'ad Vitel
Website: www.foools.com
Comments: Sung/written in a stream of conscience style; parts in italics are supposed to be the "voices" in the singer's head.
Hear the song!


Fools of the Prophecy (Shotei HaNevuah) album: The Fools of Prophecy (Shotei HaNevuah), 2000
I want a little bit of "my fruit" ['Preelie' in Hebrew; the closest I can translate it is "my fruit", otherwise the word has no meaning in Hebrew]
And I want also cherry that lights up eyes
A flower when I enter the garden
Yes, again I'm speaking only with myself
And I have no idea what he
Is hiding for me in my debt
On the side of common sense
There are a lot of things to sleep about
What a drunk he is
That guy who is sitting now at the head
Decides now to conquer
This moment, on the road the people feel the morning which has broken
A gift from G-d
To dance, to jump
What a sparkle
Singing songs from inside the house
Moving the sofas
To wander around, to shout... yes
All this is a surprise
In life there are gifts
Because it's not in feelings and not in logic
Eretz Israel these days is in craziness
"The Enemy Will Attack Tomorrow"
Was written there in the paper
So give me a little honey and milk so we can mix
Arab Palestinian - Arab Palestinian, Jewish Argentinian
It doesn't matter, everyone's a human being
Everyone's here

No one will leave here
No one will leave
No one will leave here
So start to love

Say, is it fun to laugh?
We're a generation of love
And not of wars
Tell me "yes" to pleasant speech and yes to smiles
Five thousand years we're waiting

To dance, to jump
What a sparkle
Singing songs from inside the house
Moving the sofas
To wander around, to shout... yes
All this is a surprise
In life there are gifts
Because it's not in feelings and not in logic
Eretz Israel these days is in craziness
"The Enemy Will Attack Tomorrow"
Was written there in the paper
So give me a little honey and milk so we can mix
Arab Palestinian - Arab Palestinian, Jewish Argentinian
It doesn't matter, everyone's a human being
It's because of this - everyone's here

No one will leave here
No one will leave
No one will leave here
So start to love

No one will leave here
No one will leave
No one will leave here
So start from up close

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Song Title: The Doll House ("Beit Ha'Bubot")
Musician: Beit Ha'Bubot (The Doll House / House of Dolls)
Video: someone's interpretation of the song into video
Year Released: 2004
Credits: lyrics by Amir Atias and Itay Shiff; music by Amir Atias
Website: www.beit-habubot.com
Comments:
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The Doll House (Beit HaBubot) album: Shelves (Madafim), 2004
And again I encounter a moment of sadness
In a dark corner stands the boundary
I think about things in a new rhythm
I run thoughts, I try on a sheet

And again I encounter a moment of loneliness
I feel with all my might what innocence is
Think about Him up there who knows things
And His son all the time plays with the strings

So how is it in the end that we all meet up
With the same problems and the same emotions
In the little doll house of G-d's

And how I'm thrown strongly between the walls
Fall into myself, now I can't see
Lose the sensation, do you now feel
What it means to be alone, to be alone

And so how is it in the end that we all meet up
With the same problems and the same emotions
In the little doll house of G-d's

And how I'm slammed with force on the bed
The light turns black, everything here has changed
I'm sick of shouting into blocked ears
Again I can't see

And so how is it in the end that we all meet up
With the same problems and the same emotions
In the little doll house of G-d's

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Song Title: Here Again (Part B) ("Shoov Kan - Khelek Bet")
Musician: Shabak Samekh
Year Released: 2000
Credits: lyrics and music by Shabak Samekh
Website: Shabak @ Mooma
Comments: The band formerly headed by Mookie, who features on this page above; one of the first groups to introduce the concept of "Israeli hip-hop" (or what we call Zionist hip-hop) - snarling, indulgent, garrish and funny, but not violent. The band's name, Shabak Samekh - שב''ק ס - sounds similar to the State's secret service but it is actually an acronym of partially made-up words "Shufim Bufim Bits and Bravos".
Hear the song!


Shabak Samekh (Shabak Samech) album: Canaan 2000 (Knaan 2000), 2000
Blood and fire and smoked dates
Blood and fire and smoked dates
Blood and fire and smoked dates
Blood and fire and smoked dates
I return from a dark country in a time machine
Cross outer space in a hurricane
I bring the Shabak, we're here
Ask yourself if you're ready
King of the empire like Gengis Khan
Rule over the expanse like Zinedin Zidane
Take all the girls, gather up all the cash
Run away from the law like Jean Valjean
[Wearing] Beads to no end cause I'm a master craftsman
All day drunk so I'm a pothead bringing the revolution, I'm on a cloud
Girls, twist your tushies

Still here
We're here again
We're here again
We're here again
From three came out one,
From three came out one,
From three came out one,
And the one that came out is me
There's no one like me, the orange knight
Returning to the stages to save the crowds
From freezing depression in a period of craziness
Bringing to parades a little happiness and joy
I blow away those who hold the microphone ["blow away" - the expression in Hebrew here is to "give high-schooling to"]
Return to the kindergarden the whole "carton-culture" [possibly a reference to exploitation of workers]
Cook your brains like a cellphone - Ericsson -
Even Simon Le Bon doesn't have this much passion
I'm the voice from outer space, come to the middle east
A super-star who brings honor and vision
If I was in Japan I'd be a Shogun
The Shabak is stronger than Alexander the Great
I'm here in Zion on the way to rulership
I play in the country like Megatron in mega-disaster
Gamble on my last chip
And laugh all the way to first place - because I'm here again!

Still here
We're here again
We're here again
We're here again
Everyone talks about the good old days
With expanses and countryside, with chicken-coops and horses, yes
Everyone talks about the good old days
When cash would grow on the trees
They talk
About records and dance halls
They talk
About love, clean air and G-d
They talk
About politicians they don't count on
They talk and talk and talk and talk
After they talk about the good old days
They talk about me 'cause they've run out of subjects
A storm in the garden of eden, hell on the streets
Certain that when we rule we'll bring better days
Still here
We're here again
We're here again
We're here again

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Song Title: Going Wild in the Countryside ("Mishtolelim Ba'Kfar")
Musician: Shotei Ha'Nevuah ("Fools of the Prophecy")
Year Released: 2000
Credits: lyrics and music by Ro'i Levy
Website: www.foools.com
Comments:
Hear the song!


Fools of the Prophecy (Shotei HaNevuah) album: The Fools of Prophecy (Shotei HaNevuah), 2000
It's actually fun for me when you're around
But hard to say that love
Is what I have inside my heart
I'm after all just a hungry wolf
You're not the first and not the third
But we'll start almost from the beginning
Now it's just me and you
So come and let's undress little by little

I feel...
I feel...
I feel you tremble from desire
In the long breaks between thrust and thrust
Yes, you and mother nature are united now
In a moment of truth, in a supreme act
Wave after wave wash the whole body
Fireworks explode inside your head
Deep within the rhythm, aware of every nerve
I hope that this for ever lasts

Going wild in the countryside
Going wild in the countryside
Going wild in the countryside
Me and you, all night long
Going wild in the countryside
Going wild in the countryside
Going-wild-in-the-countryside

You have fruits which entice more than pineapples and coconuts
A wonderful opening like the blossom of a lotus
Froth on the seas, a rainbow in the cloud, how good this is now
To draw near the issue
All the night me and you go wild in the countryside
All the night me and you go wild in the countryside

Going wild in the countryside
Going wild in the countryside
Going wild in the countryside
Me and you, all night long
Going wild in the countryside
Going wild in the countryside
Going-wild-in-the-countryside

Come let's sit in a fig all night
Me and you, all night long
Going wild in the countryside
Me and you, all night long
Going wild in the countryside
Me and you, all night long
Going wild in the countryside
Me and you, all night long
Going wild in the countryside
Me and you, all night long
Going wild in the countryside
Me and you, all night long
Going-wild-in-the-countryside

So he told me
"Come here" and he gave me a kiss - it was sweet
He embraced me standing and the bed was so soft
And in the darkness he took me to a new land
And in the morning I sand and was still in the feeling of a dream
Simply a dream, a dream in broad daylight
I'm not ashamed, I feel like a woman
I'm his, for him and it's good for me because of him
...and it's good for me because of him
...and it's good for me because of him
Come and sit here, come
Come and sit here, come
Come and sit here, come

All night long

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Song Title: Better Nothing Than Almost ("Yoter Tov Klum Me'Kimat")
Musician: Ivri Lider
Video: From a live performance in Caduri, circa. 2006
Year Released: 1999
Credits: lyrics and music by Ivri Lider
Website: www.ivrilider.com
Comments:
Hear the song!


Ivri Lider album: Better Nothing than Almost (Yoter Tov Klum MeKimat), 1999
If it's not her than better it be no one
Better nothing than almost
An English newspaper and cheap perfume

In the middle of the night climbs onto an airplane
Which will take you first class to Germany
There's wine and food and a video movie
Another hour or two and you return home

If it's not her than better it be no one
Better nothing than almost
Nice clothes in luxury shops
All the time together and nothing happened

In the middle of the night climbs onto an airplane
Which will take you first class to Germany
There's wine and food and a video movie
Another hour or two and you return home

And what a lovely day there is beyond the rainbow
From what exactly are you so groggy
A fashion magazine and everything is the same routine
A few more hours and you return home

If it's not her than better it be no one
Better nothing than almost

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Song Title: Iris Fields ("Sadot Shel Irusim")
Musician: Yehuda Sa'ado
Video: Rebroadcast of the competition finals on Channel 2 with the lyrics displayed during the performance
Year Released: (1986) 2005
Credits: lyrics and music by Shlomo Artzi
Website: Yehuda Sa'ado @ MySpace.com and www.shlomoartzi.com
Comments: A wonderful (trunctated) cover of a Shlomo Artzi song submitted and performed for the 3rd season of Israel's American Idol-styled program, "Kokhav Nolad" ("A Star is Born"), which it won. It was performed by a religious singer, Yehuda Sa'ado, in a style defined locally here as "Mediterranean" ("Yam Tikhoni") - an Israeli blend of Arab/Middle Eastern tones with Mediterranean vocals. The song comes from Artzi's Lebanon war-influenced melancholy "Restless Night" album from 1986 and a forerunner to his landmark "Heat of July-August" record from 1987-88 - and for this public performance it seems certain lines with social critiques were removed.
Hear the song!


Album: A Star is Born 3 (Kochav Nolad 3), 2005 Yehuda Saado
In an astounded stadium and short of space
With all the people I sit
Waiting for the concert to begin
The band is already prepared

There, there were buildings, dispersed as islands and islands
There, there was my childhood and all my life
I am a loaded gun of yearnings
And it comes back to me, you understand
Returns to me in the room
Every song is an unavoidable memory

In an astounded stadium and short of space
With all the people I sit
Waiting for the concert to begin
The band is already prepared
The finger on the trigger
Every song is an unavoidable memory

Back then I didn't have a large car
Back then I didn't know what lay by the margins
Of the only road beside which were concealed secrets, fields [a play on words in Hebrew] of irises

Back then I didn't have a large car
Back then I didn't know what lay by the margins
Of the only road beside which were concealed secrets, fields...

Back then I didn't have a large car
Back then I didn't know what lay by the margins
Of the only road beside which were concealed secrets, fields of irises

This is not the same country
Already not the same room
Every song is an unavoidable memory

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Song Title: How 'Yossi' [live] ("Kama Yossi")
Musician: Berry Sakharof
Video: Original music video. Also: Live performance aired on Israeli educational channel 8.
Year Released: (1993) 2003
Credits: lyrics by Berry Sakharof; music by Berry Sakharof and Ra Mokhiakh
Website: www.berry.co.il
Comments: Mima.co.il sheds some light on an otherwise odd song: the lyrics describe Berry's childhood in the city of Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv (i.e. the "Big City" mentioned in the song). Sakharof grew up in the neighborhood of Ramat Yosef, named after Yosef Shprintzak, the first Speaker of the Israeli Parliament ("Knesset"); the neighborhood was also known for the high number of children named "Yossi". The reference to "Shlomo's white guitar" is to Shlomo Mizrachi, a well known Israeli guitarist in the 1960's; "Ahuva" refers to the Israeli singer Ahuva Ozeri. The reference to the "song contest" is of the 1968 competition in which Tom Jones won. "Fanny Hill" is a reference to a childhood pornographic publication which passed through many hands. "A downpour of go-go's, an Arab hole and a Jewish hole" refers to a game of go-go's in which a person has to throw a go-go into a hole and to try to pull out a pair from within it (in an "Arab hole" a player has one go-go, in a "Jewish hole" he has several).
Hear the song!


That town there, they named after the Speaker of the Knesset [Israeli Parliament]
Romanians, Moroccans, Poles mixed together on the [sand] dunes
A lot of pickles, a lot of bread with "khalva"
At the sparse first national song contest

So much sand, how "Yossi" [a play on the Hebrew word "Yofi" for "nice"]
It was good, it was "Yossi"

At the daily show Tarzan beats Machista
And Shlomi has a guitar colored in white
And Ahuva gave all she had, all that she had
What she had
And mom and dad feared that I'd turn out a criminal

Fanny Hill from hand to hand to hand to hand
A downpour of go-go's, an Arab hole, a Jewish hole
And far, far to the north, the real thing
In the big city on Fridays and Saturdays, looking for something to do

So much sand, how "Yossi" [a play on the Hebrew word "Yofi" for "nice"]
It was good, it was "Yossi"

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Song Title: Haifa Across the Sea ("Haifa Mul HaYam")
Musician: Micha Shitreet (pronounced "Shetreet")
Video:
Year Released: 2005
Credits: lyrics by Salman Matzlakha; music by Micha Shitreet and Berry Sakharof
Website:
Comments: A song about the Arab poet Emil Habibi; Berry Sakharof on guitars.
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In Haifa, across the sea, smells of salt
Arise from the ground
And sun which hangs on a tree
Which unravels the wind
Within a row of trees is immersed a stone
They planted men, women and silence
Tenants in a building
Whose name is Homeland
Jews whose voice I didn't hear
Arabs whose intentions I didn't know
And more such songs which I didn't know
To recognize
In that moment which became silenced

There in Haifa across the sea
Everyone was there for him
A poet, exiled in the wind, searches for the past
In a question blessed with questions
Fishes up words from within the sea
And again casts towards the waves
Which will return,
Like the Messiah,
To the world
A poet returns to a song which he didn't write
In the night of captivity, and has not yet returned
To the place which he drew as a child in the cloud

There in Haifa across the sea
At the end of summer which has broken
On the head of the tree blooms the moon
I return to the silence which I injured with my lips
I return to
The old words
In a page
Lumps of earth let to live
And a salty path grasp tightly forever the
Fishing rod of the fisherman
Little words grew silent to rest
And a song was silenced there in Haifa, across the sea

And a song was silenced there in Haifa, across the sea

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Song Title: Momentum ("Tnufa")
Musician: Boaz Banai
Video: original music video; Boaz always wanted to play football but his parents disapproved
Year Released: 2007
Credits: lyrics and music by Boaz Banai
Website: Boaz Banai on Myspace and on Facebook
Comments:
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I feel that this is the time
Now or forever
What's the point of waiting?

Something is stopping the momentum
Perhaps it's just a phase
That you just need to get through?

I have to get out to the street
Fresh air is good for me
To feel the movement

I'm in a thousand pieces
Still eating sweets
At night in bed

It always happens when I'm too busy in something else
The body slowly falls apart
And the head works too quickly
My head works quickly

I feel that this is the time
Now or forever
I need something to give me a spiritual elevation

Who is stopping the momentum
Perhaps it's just a phase
From here it can only get better

It always happens when I'm too busy in something else
The body slowly shrinks
And the head works too quickly
My head works quickly

[said to a female]: Only you know what's good for me

If only I could speak
Instead of shouting or dispersing
Words with no explanation
What would I then say

Instead of shouting like a retard
Na na na na...
What would I then say
If only I could speak
Instead of shouting or dispersing
Na na na na...

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Song Title: Dog Competition ("Takharut Klavim")
Musician: Eviatar Banai
Video: original music video pulled from Channel Musika 24; there are probably several personalities and band members (his cousin, Ehud Banai's band) I'm supposed to recognize in the video but can only identify Eviatar's sister, the actress Orna Banai, leaving the restaurant/sitting in the taxi
Year Released: 2005
Credits: lyrics by Eviatar Banai and Amir Lev / music by Eviatar Banai and Amir Tzoref
Website: www.eviatarbanai.co.il
Comments:
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A dog competition
Running in a circle
Eyes that are hungry
Speech with hints
In lovely shoes
I run barefoot
Deep dreams
I arrive first

I drive in a taxi, don't remember the address
So much time in the darkness
The despair, the flesh, the egotism
Big enemies which I cultivated

To light the sun with laughter and tears and music
I'm already coming, I'm already there

The banister is wet
The stairs are high
Quiet whispers on the neck
I hear trumpets at night in bed
I direct the traffic
Without knowing to where

I drive in a taxi, don't remember the address
So much time in the darkness
The despair, the flesh, the egotism
Big enemies which I cultivated

To light the sun with laughter and tears and music
I'm already coming, I'm already there

I drive in a taxi, don't remember the address
So much time in the darkness
The despair, the flesh, the egotism
Big enemies which I cultivated

To light the sun with laughter and tears and music
I'm already coming, I'm already there
I'm already coming, I'm already there

To light the sun with laughter and tears and music
I'm already coming, I'm already there

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Song Title: 'Sigapo' ("Sigapo")
Musician: Beit Ha'Bubot (The Doll House / House of Dolls)
Video: original music video
Year Released: 2004
Credits: lyrics and music by Amir Atias
Website: www.beit-habubot.com
Comments: According to mima.co.il, the song is named after a friend (Sigalit) of the band's lead singer and whose nickname was 'Siga'; when she returned to Israel from abroad her friends would say that 'Siga is here' (in Hebrew "Siga po"), and that's how the song got its name.
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The Doll House (Beit HaBubot) album: Shelves (Madafim), 2004
And the moon was full all night long
And it leaves me up
Write on all four walls in a moment
And it's not enough for her

A wave of hallucinations in nature
Loses reality in for a moment
How in the end she always returns to herself
And it's not enough for her

Suddenly when it seems that the dawn won't ever break
Another light raises an old memory
Suddenly when it seems that the dawn won't ever break
Another light rises and shows the way

Sigapo it's hot and it hurts
Not everything you know
It's the same light that always accompanied you
And it's not enough for her

Suddenly when it seems that the dawn won't ever break
Another light raises an old memory
Suddenly when it seems that the dawn won't ever break
Another light rises and shows the way

She returned from there in order to complete her circle for herself
To the spring came a young goat, a young goat came
With the logic of a legend she feels like a young girl
In a great field of understanding, which is pure

Suddenly when it seems that the dawn won't ever break
Another light raises an old memory
Suddenly when it seems that the dawn won't ever break
Another light rises and shows the way

Suddenly when it seems that the dawn won't ever break
Another light raises an old memory
Suddenly when it seems that the dawn won't ever break...
Another light rises and shows the way...

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Song Title: End of Summer ("Sof HaKaitz")
Musician: Micha Shitreet and Berry Sakharof
Video:
Year Released: 2002
Credits: lyrics and music by Berry Sakharof
Website: www.berry.co.il
Comments: title track to the Israeli film "Wisdom of the Bagel" ('Khokhmat HaBeigale').
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Micha Shitreet and Berry Sakharof single: End of Summer (Wisdom of the Bagel sountrack), 2002
Perhaps you'll come
perhaps you'll come now
This is the time to fall in love

Perhaps you'll come
Perhaps you'll come to me now
This is the time to fall in love

I sit across a window that's open
Before a wall, without strength
End of the summer
And the wind doesn't blow

The heart goes out to you
Still not too late
Perhaps you'll come
Because it is you I love

Perhaps you'll come
Perhaps you'll come now
This is the time to fall in love

Perhaps you'll come
Perhaps you'll come to me now
This is the time to fall in love

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Song Title: A Person Accumulates Memories ("Adam Tzover Zikhronot")
Musician: Avraham Tal
Video: Original music video
Year Released: 2008
Credits: lyrics by Yona Wallach; music by Shimon Gelbetz
Website: Avraham Tal @ Myspace
Comments: A cover of a song originally performed by Dorit Reuveni. Revised and performed by the former leader of "Fools of the Prophecy" ("Shotey HaNevuah"), which disbanded in 2007.
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A person accumulates memories like ants
In the summer months
In the summer months like grasshoppers
In summertime
And so it is that a person sings

And in the winter the ants congregate
Swaying with their belongings and finish slowly
The belongings and the winter they finish
Slowly, slowly

And the grasshopper in winter sings for openings
To taste from the memories of the season
The beloved season which is in his songs
Which avoided him

A person accumulates memories like ants
In the summer months
In the summer months like grasshoppers
In summertime
And so it is that a person sings

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Song Title: The Remains of Life ("Shaariyot Shet HaChaim")
Musician: The Idan Raichel Project
Video: Original music video
Year Released: 2008
Credits: lyrics and music by Idan Raichel
Website: www.idanraichelproject.com and Idan Raichel @ MySpace
Comments:
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What does time signal to me
This is all just the remains of life
And to live for the moment
To begin picking up the pieces

Perhaps I'll go out more
I'll start moving more quickly
To begin getting sorted out
And to make a little noise
Perhaps a different place
A more intense place
To begin messing things up a bit
And to fix things again

What does time signal to me
This is all just the remains of life
And to live for the moment
To begin picking up the pieces

Perhaps I'll go out more
I'll start moving more quickly
To begin getting sorted out
And to make a little noise
Perhaps a different place
A more intense place
To begin messing things up a bit
And to fix things again

Perhaps I'll go out more
I'll start moving more quickly
To begin getting sorted out
And to make a little noise
Perhaps a different place
A more intense place
To begin messing things up a bit
And to fix things again

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Song Title: The Dreams of Others ("Ha Khalomot Shel Akherim")
Musician: The Idan Raichel Project
Video: Original music video
Year Released: 2008
Credits: lyrics and music by Idan Raichel
Website: www.idanraichelproject.com and Idan Raichel @ MySpace
Comments:
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For years everyone's been running away
For years everyone's been returning
Chasing after the sun
Prisoners within circles
Everyone's entangled
So what are you still dreaming about

For years they've been concealing
For years everyone's known
A stone rolls over
In the nights and in the days
Everyone's talking already
Why are you still staying

It's better to run to the fire
To demand
Not to ask
What are you afraid of
There's nothing to think about when he says
There's no better time
[to a female:] Bring the day

For years they've been asking
For years not listening
Keeping it all in their stomachs
It gets accumulated and it gets pent up
And in the end it ends everything
[to a female:] What are you talking about

It's better to run to the fire
To demand
Not to ask
What are you afraid of
There's nothing to think about when he says
There's no better time
[to a female:] Bring the day

It turns out that you always keep silent
But inside it rages and everything burns
All the words which disappeared
You'll find them all in the dreams of others

It turns out that you always keep silent
But inside it rages and everything burns
All the words which disappeared
You'll find them all in the dreams of others

For years they've been opening
And remaining closed
Clinging to the wind
Every disaster chases after another person
This one comes
That one speaks
Returning to the open wound

It's better to run to the fire
To demand
Not to ask
What are you afraid of
There's nothing to think about when he says
There's no better time
[to a female:] Bring the day

It turns out that you always keep silent
But inside it rages and everything burns
All the words which disappeared
You'll find them all in the dreams of others

It turns out that you always keep silent
But inside it rages and everything burns
All the words which disappeared
You'll find them all in the dreams of others

For years everyone's been running away
For years everyone's been returning
Chasing after the sun

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Song Title: With My Eyes Shut (in Creole: "Ôdjus Fitxadu")
Musician: The Idan Raichel Project featuring Mayra Andrade
Video: Original music video
Year Released: 2008
Credits: lyrics and music by Idan Raichel
Website: www.idanraichelproject.com and Idan Raichel @ MySpace; Mayra Andrade @ MySpace
Comments: Mayra Andrade is a Cuban born singer raised in Cape Verde and sings in Creole. The translated lyrics below were cribbed from a poster on YouTube as I couldn't make a translation.
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When I looked at the sky today
All I could see were stars
Telling me that you are gone forever, my love

Do beseech Gods angels
To come and get this woman
Who refuses to go on living without your love
Your love
Sovereign queen over gloom
I seek a way out
Bearing the sword and the power of longing and pain

With my soul free in time
I vow to live with my eyes shut
And thus keep you with me,
With me...

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Song Title: Everything Passes ("HaKol Over")
Musician: The Idan Raichel Project
Year Released: 2008
Credits: lyrics and music by Idan Raichel
Website: www.idanraichelproject.com and Idan Raichel @ Myspace
Comments:
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And I was already quite far from you
And there weren't any words left for us to speak
And a wind swept away a lonely sail
In the end it made him lonlier still
From every dream and rustle awakens
Everything passes

Everything that once was and is now forgotten
Now he no longer returns
It's just all creased, which is engraved into the skin
Which now burns even more
Because there is no way back
And everything passes

As long as days and nights pass him by
And as long as there is nothing new under the sun ["on the surface of the land"]
It's good that we've stayed together
And it's good that we have some to tell it to
In spite of everything there's no way back
And everything passes

Every wound which healed and opened again
Now stings more
It heals and renews itself
And again everything bursts forth and gets more intense
It no longer breaks and becomes a crisis
And everything passes

And do you remember how we once were
Against the wind and her rising strength
And after all the bad years
Returned many more good years
Our time runs forward always
And doesn't stop

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Classic / Rock

Song Name Artist Name Song # in Jukebox
"I Have a Dream" Yehoram Gaon Song #7
"Why Didn't You Tell Me" Aric Lavie Song #11
"Don't Get Through the Month" Aric Lavie Song #10
"How Is It That a Star" Matti Caspi Song #12
"Terminal Luminelt" Meir Ariel Song #16
"Directed Signal" Yitzhak Klepter Song #40
"I See You Running Away" Oshik Levy Song #41
"Me and Simon and Little Moise" Yossi Banai Song #44
"And if This Song Sounds Familiar to You" Hanan Yovel Song #45
"Play On, Play On" ('Sakhki Sakhki') Aric Lavie Song #49
"Binyamina Days" Chava Alberstein Song #52
"I Will Speak to You" Chava Alberstein Song #58
"After All You're a Song" Shlomo Artzi Song #85
"Let Us Rest Our Head on a Dune" The Pale Scout Trio (Ha Gashash Ha Khiver) with Oshik Levy and Aryeh Moskona Song #87
"Give Me Strength" Ariel Zilber Song #95
"The Tree is Tall" Apocalypse (Akharit HaYamim) Song #129
"Come to Eilat" Lior Yeini Song #130
"The Babble Song" The Pale Scout Trio Song #134
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Song Title: I Have a Dream ("Yesh Li Khalom")
Musician: Yehoram Gaon
Year Released: 1974
Credits: lyrics by Yekhiel Moher (based on Martin Luther King Jr.); music by Moshe Vilensky
Website: www.yehoramgaon.com
Comments:
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Yehoram Gaon album: 40 Golden Hits (Lehitei Zahav), 1998
I have a dream
And it's much greater than anything else
I have a dream
And it's very ancient and also new
Will come the day, very clear and sweet like honey
I have a dream

Deliver peace
Mountains blue from depth to sea
And sing suddenly
Children will sing from nation to nation
And not in a dream
Their song will touch the heart of the whole world
I have a dream

I have a dream
Which I received as an inheritance from my father
From every abyss
It knew to spread it's wings and ascend
Comes a threat
Arose purity from death and captivity
I have a dream

I have a dream
Fixed like a spring in the heart of the hill
This is the place
From here will shoot forth and rise, and even become stronger
And a song of peace
Will blow from this stone to the whole site
I have a dream

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Song Title: Why Didn't You Tell Me ("Lama Lo Amart Li")
Musician: Aric Lavie
Year Released: 1971
Credits: lyrics by Amos Keinan; music by Yokhanan Zara'i
Website:
Comments:
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Aric Lavie album: Ata Israeli - The Best of Aric Lavie (Ata Israeli), 1998
Why didn't you tell me that today your mother isn't here
Why didn't you tell me that today you're on your own
Why didn't you tell me that your father ran away from her
Why didn't you tell me that your sister is prettier than you

Why didn't you tell me that your room has a separate entrance
Why didn't you tell me before how good you are
Why didn't you tell me that today you're not working
Why didn't you tell me that you have time for love

Why didn't you tell me that you're cheating on your husband
Why didn't you tell me that he's now on vacation
Why didn't you tell me that today you're not working
Why didn't I know before how much you're a woman

Why didn't you tell me that I ought to run away from you
Why didn't you tell me that life is so nice
Why didn't you throw me out when I still had strength
Why did G-d want me to meet you

Why didn't you tell me that today your mother isn't here
Why didn't you tell me that today you're on your own
Why didn't you tell me that your father ran away from her
Why didn't you tell me that your sister is prettier than you

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Song Title: Don't Get Through the Month ("Lo Gomer 'Ta Khodesh")
Musician: Aric Lavie
Year Released: 1980
Credits: lyrics by Chaim Hefer; music by Dubi Zeltzer
Website:
Comments:
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Aric Lavie album: Ata Israeli - The Best of Aric Lavie (Ata Israeli), 1998
I break my head not knowing what to do
And my eyes are black and I'm at my wits end
I drive to Herzl Street and see the prices
Fall off my feet and meet a pair of tourists
And drink a cup of soda with them and say
"I love you so"
And it rings in my ear and I hear soda bubbles
And I catch a normal driver and say
"Drive fast, the prices are already in the sky and I'm already late"
And say "Congratulations" ["Kol Ha'Kavod"]
And he asks "Where is there Kavod?" [honor]
And I whisper in his ear
"I don't get through the month"
I don't get through the month, Don't get through the month...

I sold everything and went into debt
And my wife's in seventh heaven and my dad's in an old age home
And I got snared into a shared buffet
And my cleaner ran off with a Dutchman from Lebanon
And my neighbor went into a frenzy , his cat got burned
And I bought a television and I'm now in overdraft
And I flew with a winner to Paris and Amsterdam
And I bough in Herzliya 4 dunam by the sea
And I bought shares in an exporter of religious items
Why don't they let you live, I don't get through the month

I don't get through the month, Don't get through the month

I finished with Yael and started with Tamar
And my lips got burned and my cheque was returned
And I told Shoshanna that I finished up with Shosh
And I stayed Ilana us together, head to head
With Shoshanna and Tziona I already went to Eilat
And got from Simona a quarter chicken without salad
And I found myself indebted to friends and in consolation
It's a pleasure simply to see beauties for hundreds here
But I have no more strength left
I don't get through the month...

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Song Title: How Is It That a Star... ("Eikh Ze She'kokhav")
Musician: Matti Caspi
Video: From an in-show performance, pulled from Educational TV channel 23
Year Released: 1974
Credits: lyrics by Natan Zach; music by Matti Caspi
Website: www.matticaspi.co.il
Comments: Caspi plays all the instruments in this song (in fact for all the songs on the album from which this song is from).
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Matti Caspi album: The Best of (HaMeitav), 2004
How is it that a single solitary star dares
How does he dare, for G-d's sake
A single solitary star
I would not dare
And I, basically, am not alone

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Song Title: Terminal Luminelt
Musician: Meir Ariel
Video: from the "Breeza Festival" (1999?)
Year Released: 1978
Credits: lyrics and music by Meir Ariel; arranged by Shalom Hanoch
Website: www.meirariel.org.il and www.meirariel.net
Comments: A richly textured song, and one of Meir Ariel's most popular - though least understood pieces. Ariel himself revealed little about its origins or meaning and left it up to others to understand what he meant. The title already alludes to the alterior meaning of its lyrics: "luminelt" is a candle that is put into a baby's rear-end in order to calm it down. An informal "lexicon" even exists to define Ariel's words and phrases. Although the modern Ben Gurion Airport made local history when it opened a year before the song, in 1977, as best as can be interpreted this song is not about airports at all, but rather about the search for satisfaction in relationships, whether as one-night stands or otherwise - Ariel refers to young pretty women as 'terminals', found everywhere, unavoidable, desired but unattainable.
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Meir Ariel album: The Best of (HaMeitav), 2004
At the time of my release the doctors recommended me a monthly visit to the terminal
This really does me well to see a big airplane take off through a clear tear
Afterwards the pressure is a little easier on the washed eye

It takes up for me a positive afternoon, I drive to the airport
To myself I say on the way that also from this I'll need to finish up
Myself replies back to me that when we arrive we'll also start to exercise

Terminal je t'aime, I love you terminal, bellamia

The doors sense me and open by themselves
I enter slowly with a lot of pomp in my rear-end
And all the intercontinentalia tickles me here and there

I take myself to the toilet to calm down
Steal a cutting glance, and seem there crazy
Chicks like terminal - there are many of her kind

Standing there curved, two pomegranates, a large earing, short hair
Like some kind of suspicious object that the counter for Swissair
The security officer stabs her with a penetrating glance
Je t'aime, I love you terminal, bellamia

I run to the schedule board to find me a takeoff
There's a flight to Zurich via Rome in another hour
Polite loudspeakers give me a warning
Here on the side I suddenly feel like a disturbance
It goes and gets more pressured, my decision
I love you terminal, bellamia

I run back to Swissair to make it to terminal
Beauties like her you can flip through in every magazine
But she's now not there, the security officer too, it seems to me
Polite loudspeakers with a more agressive tone
I need to go upstairs now to see
Here on the side it's always moving and getting worse

Almost without breath I get stuck at a barrier
A large sunset blinds me with its dazzle
A Boeing of Swissair slides, stops and waits

A reddish Boeing starts to run and rise up
Little by little taking off into the fading red [lipstick]
Through the tear of the astonished clown

Terminal je t'aime, I love you terminal, bellamia

Here on the side releases for me the shrinkage
Suddenly the night sky is lit up by explosions
On the field below begins some running around

At the time of my release the doctors recommended me a monthly visit to the terminal
This really does me well to see a big airplane take off through a clear tear
Afterwards the pressure is a little easier on the washed eye
Now it's a little easier... the pressure on the eye -
the washed, drawn, peeled, sniping, trickly, fastened, preying, burned - engraved in purity
And so it was myself told me, we have a remedy.

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Song Title: Directed Signal ("Tzlil Mekhuvan")
Musician: Tzlil Mekhuvan / Yitzhak Klepter
Video: Klepter solo in live performance, shown on Channel 3
Year Released: 1979
Credits: lyrics and music by Yitzhak Klepter
Website:
Comments: Israel's first "guitar hero", Klepter created a unique guitar tone of his own and made a name for himself well before the age of 20.
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Yitzhak Klepter album: Yitzhak, Alone, Holding On (Yitzhak, Levad, Makhzik Maamad), 1993
Come over, come here
I'm sending you a directed signal
After years of uncertainty
Come here to the words
To the rhythm, to the sounds
Enough as a dream, turn into reality

When a tree in the park blossoms
It doesn't hurt to fall in love
Therefore - stand up and play

Cover over, come with me
It's so easy to be practical
We'll go out together, we'll certainly have a good time
A little heartbreaker
I'm broken with no chance of repair
And that's a good enough reason -
So come...

When a tree in the park blossoms
It doesn't hurt to fall in love
Therefore - stand up and play

Come over, come here
I'm sending you a directed signal
After years of uncertainty
A little heartbreaker
I'm broken -
And that's a good enough reason -
So come, yes
Come

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Song Title: I See You Running Away ['The Prophet'] ("Khoze Lekh Brakh")
Musician: Oshik Levy
Year Released: 1971
Credits: lyrics by Ya'akov Rotblit; music by Shalom Hanoch
Website:
Comments:
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Oshik Levy album: Peace of Mind (Ktzat Sheket), 1991
The dwarfs find shelter in fairy tales
Dark shadows step slowly, slowly into the night
In white light behind heavy doors there in tall buildings

I see you running away - I see you running away
The night is so dark

The glow of a cigarette there in a Mars night
From within this dark forest suddenly Cinderella is waiting for the dwarfs
And in the street loiters the sin next to every entrance
From the tall buildings all the dwarves suddenly come
One by one to Cinderella - because Cinderella is all the fairy tales
Because there isn't another in the tales similar to her

I see you running away - I see you running away
The night is so dark

A keeper of his soul escapes - a simple keeper of his soul
Because there's no shelter in the city - and there is no mercy in her

I see you running away - I see you running away
The night is so dark - The night is so dark

And they return to their tall buildings - and they slip away one by one
From the forest - only Cinderella remains in her place
When they run away to fairy tales they close the gate

I see you running away - I see you running away
The night is so dark

A keeper of his soul escapes - a simple keeper of his soul
Because there's no shelter in the city - and there is no mercy in her
I see you running away - I see you running away
The night is so dark

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Song Title: Me and Simon and Little Moise ("Ani ve Simon ve Moiz ha'Katan")
Musician: Yossi Banai
Year Released: 1989
Credits: lyrics by Yossi Banai; music by Hanan Yovel
Website:
Comments: Yossi Banai (1932 - 11 May 2006) is one more in a string of musical treasures that have left us in the last three years, following Natan Yonathan, Nomi Shemer, Arik Lavie, Ehud Manor, Uzi Hitman and Shoshana Damari. Banai began his musical career in the first draft of the Nachal brigade band ("Lahakat Ha'Nachal", which became legendary for its songs and the subsequent stars it produced in the '50s and '60s), in 1951. After his army service he joined the "Ha'Bima" theater and became a successful stage entertainer. Later he wrote the materials for the country's legendary comedy troupe "The Pale Scout Trio" ("HaGashash HaChiver"), and released musical albums of his own which became successful in their own right. One of his key contributions to Israeli music was his incorporation of the French 'Chanson' tradition of careful language, storytelling and sound into the arena of popular Israeli song. He translated songs of Brel, Brassens and Moustaki into Hebrew and incorporated them into his presentations of Israeli song. The reference to Church bells in the song below is from Jerusalem, Banai's home town. The Banai family is well entrenched in Israeli entertainment, and some of her stars include Yossi's son Yuval (lead singer for Mashina), Meir and Ehud (Yossi's nephews); Gavri (Yossi's brother, a member of the Pale Scout Trio); Orna, Uri and Evyatar (all cousins of Yossi).
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Yossi Banai album: Collection of Songs (Osef Shirim), 1990
And sometimes when I'm alone like this
I return to the alleys of my childhood
To my youth which disappeared with the years
To them, my old friends
I return to the colors and the voices
To the large innocent eyes
I return to the neighborhood, to the mulberry tree
To the red red kite tied to a string
We were children and it was already long ago
Me and Simon and little Moise

I remember cinema 'Rex' in the everyday routine
And from a distance the bells of Churches
And how we chased doves on the roof-tops
To fly with them, we wanted, up to the clouds
And in the playground, on the swings
We swore loyalty to all the girls
We played sergeant and long horse and chiefs
The wars then were not real
We were children and it was already long ago
Me and Simon and little Moise

In Sabbath shoes and a beret hat
And in beautiful Hebrew with proper accents
We galloped on a cloud made of pillows
And with a cap gun we popped ships
I was Tarzan; Simon was Errol Flynn
And little Moise jumped like 'Gonga Deen'
And on the very cold winter nights
We'd cover ourselves with all the dreams
We were children and it was already long ago
Me and Simon and little Moise

Many years have passed, and now the city is larger
From Simon no one hears, not even a word
And little Moise, to where did he disappear
And even cinema 'Rex' no longer exists
But I, when I'm alone like this,
I return to the alleys of my childhood
To my youth which disappeared with the years
To them, my old friends
We were children and it was already long ago
Me and Simon and little Moise

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Song Title: And if This Song Sounds Familiar to You ("Ve Im Ha'Shir Haze Nishma Lakhem Mukar")
Musician: Hanan Yovel
Year Released: 1985
Credits: lyrics by Ehud Manor; music by Hanan Yovel
Website:
Comments:
Hear the song!


Hanan Yovel album: Twenty - The Best of (Esrim), 1992 Hanan Yovel album: Twenty - The Best of (Esrim), 1992
And if this song sounds familiar to you
It's just because the same dream remains
A little forgotten, a little less certain
Perhaps
But this song remains and is remembered
Still remains and is remembered

And if this song sounds simple to you
It's just because aspires still to enchantment
A little less than a child, less than light blue
Perhaps
But this song is suitable sometimes
Still suitable, sometimes

Towards light and towards freedom, in hope it rises
A song in a thousand, from "A" it begins and begins

And if this song sounds stubborn to you
It's just because it eternally never despairs
A little worn out, a little less touching
Perhaps
But this song is choppy and desireous
Still choppy and desireous

Towards light and towards freedom, in hope it rises
A song in a thousand, from "A" it begins and begins

And if this song sounds pained to you
It's just because it comes from the heart
A little balding, a little less promising
Perhaps
But this song loves, never leaves
Still loves, never leaves

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Song Title: Play On, Play On (I Believe) ("Sakhki Sakhki")
Musician: Aric Lavie
Year Released: 1978
Credits: Words by Shaul Tchernichovsky; music by Tuvia Shlonsky
Website:
Comments: Shaul Tchernichovsky (1875-1943) is one of the great Hebrew poets whose writings are closely associated with themes of nature, and influenced by the culture of ancient Greece. Tchernichovsky was a Russian medical student and later also a doctor, who had literary skills and wrote his first poems during his years of study. In subsequent years, he combined medical work with both literary and professional writing - and translations, of Greek, German and English writers into Hebrew; and moved to Eretz Israel in 1931. Tchernichovsky employed the styles of ballads and sonatas, and themes of elegy and idyll into his poetry - forms which had not till then been used in Hebrew literature, and is the Hebrew poet most closely identified with the sonnet. I had some difficulty translating this song patially because it is written in "old" Hebrew and partially because it seems to be based on - but not entirely - on a poem called "Creed" written by Tchernichovsky. Certain portions may have been written/added later and even the word "Laugh" in the original text seems to be substituted by a word similar to "Play on". I've placed the original text at the top and my (poor) translation in italics below. The grainy quality of the recording gives the piece a pioneering feeling from the '30s but it was actually recorded in 1978.
Hear the song!


Aric Lavie album: Ata Israeli - The Best of Aric Lavie (Ata Israeli), 1998
[Original text of "Creed"]:
Laugh, laugh at all my dreams!
What I dream shall yet come true!
Laugh at my belief in man,
At my belief in you.

Freedom still my soul demands,
Unbartered for a calf of gold.
For still I do believe in man,
And in his spirit, strong and bold.

And in the future I still believe
Though it be distant, come it will
When nations shall each other bless,
And peace at last the earth shall fill.



Play on, play on, on dreams
It's me who dreams to tell
Play on because in man I will believe
Because I still believe in you

Because still my free soul aspires
I will not betray her for a golden calf
Because still I will believe also in man
Also in his spirit a strong wind

His spirit will send chains of utterances
They raise raise us to my great height
Not from hunger will a worker die
Liberty for the soul is a meal for the poor

I will believe in her also in the future
Even if it will be far from today
But come, it will be and peace will be made then
And a blessing to the people from the nation

The settlement will blossom then and also my nation
And in the country will rise a generation
Its iron chains will be removed
Eye to eye, they will see light

It will live, it will love, it will accomplish achievements
A generation in the land indeed lives on
Not in the future in the sky
Living in the spirit is not enough

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Song Title: Binyamina Days ("Yamei Binyamina")
Musician: Chava Alberstein
Video: live broadcasted performance
Year Released: 1975
Credits: Words by Ehud Manor; music by Matti Caspi
Website: www.aviv2.com/chava/
Comments: One of Israel's most prolific singers with over 40 albums recorded in Hebrew and Yiddish, Alberstein - a guitarist - is closely identified with the period around the 1967 Six-Day War to the years just after the trauma of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Her songs evoke memories of old Israel as a developing state with simple tastes and norms ("Israel was like a little child in those days discovering all the parts of her body..."); they celebrate the beauty and the sadness that have passed over the country over the years. Chava grew up in the northern city of Kiryat Chaim; this song is about another old northern city (then town) of Binyamina, which came out on Alberstein's breakthrough album, which, as she wrote, is an album of "purification, of the desire to turn the frustration, the injury, the mourning and hurt that passed over [the nation] after the Yom Kippur War into something positive, for change to hope".
Hear the song!


Chava Alberstein album: Like a Wildflower (Kmo Tzemakh Bar), 1975
Whatever happened to the boy
who used to speak to the stars
who filed away secrets
with groundsels and seagulls
who counted every silent freckle
and in the sand fell asleep
What happened to him that one day
he arose and disappeared?

I want to return to the days
the lovliest of mine,
The barefooted days of Binyamina
yes, I remember everything flowed slowly
the sun didn't hurry
people said hello
a friend was a friend

The first rain will fall tomorrow,
look at the moon.
How was the crop of grapes this year?
Come in this evening
there's jam of garden strawberries,
and in the nights cover yourselves
because there will be a chill.

I want to return to the days
the lovliest of mine,
The barefooted days of Binyamina
yes, I remember everything flowed slowly
the sun didn't hurry
people said hello
a friend was a friend

And now if day or night,
if it's bad for me or if good
I don't have a moment's time
to sit and to think.
Sometimes I almost
go out of my mind,
everyday of mine I go there
and don't find [him].

I want to return to the days
the lovliest of mine,
The barefooted days of Binyamina
yes, I remember everything flowed slowly
the sun didn't hurry
people said hello
a friend was a friend

Whatever happened to the boy
who in the hot sand fell asleep
who one day suddenly
arose and disappeared.

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Song Title: I Will Speak to You ("Adaber Itkha")
Musician: Chava Alberstein
Year Released: 1975
Credits: lyrics by Rachel Shapira; music by Alona Tur'el
Website: www.aviv2.com/chava/
Comments:
Hear the song!


Chava Alberstein album: Like a Wildflower (Kmo Tzemakh Bar), 1975
When you're pale with sadness
Burrowing into your silence
Let me speak to you
To go between your shadows
To be with you

I won't ask you why
Won't frighten your lonliness
Cautious, like a hesitator
With signs of affection and grace
I will speak to you

I have strength, I have strength
Don't have pity on me
Don't prevent your thorns from
Scratching my legs

When you're tired to death
Not falling asleep in the darkness
At the hour when your nightmares
Are chasing your dreams
I will remain with you

Next to you I wander
Between your slumbers and your wakes
My words are fragile, they are
And the palms of my hands are small, they are
But they are next to you

When I'll see, or when you'll tell me
Silently, softly
Because your dead are congregating
Also I will bow my head

I won't ask you why
Won't frighten your lonliness
Cautious, like a hesitator
With signs of affection and grace
I will speak to you

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Song Title: After All You're a Song ("Akharei Ha'Kol At Shir")
Musician: Shlomo Artzi
Video: from live performance in Caesaria, pulled from "Musika 24" TV Channel
Year Released: 1979
Credits: lyrics and music by Shlomo Artzi
Website: www.shlomoartzi.com
Comments:
Hear the song!


Shlomo Artzi album: His Best 1 (HaShirim 1), 1985
(sung as if to a female)
After all you're a song
No longer flesh and blood
No longer a woman living
But you're a song existing
And it's wrapped in words
Words and melody
And a certain tempo
After all you're a song which exists

So sometimes when it's cold for me
In quiet I sit with you
And sing without words
I sing to myself
After all you're a written song.
All the words you whispered into me
All the words you whispered
They're a song now
A lover and more
That you sensed in me
Words, words, in a song written

I'm close in song
Like a breath
In love we shall open
And we shall end how?
And we shall end as who?
Perhaps in you, perhaps in me
Perhaps without words
After all you're a song of mine

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Song Title: Let Us Rest Our Head on a [Sand] Dune ("Ten La'Sim T'a Rosh Al Dyuna")
Musician: The Pale Scout Trio (HaGashash HaHiver) with Oshik Levy and Aryeh Moskona
Video: pulled from the movie scene (a shorter version than the audio edit here)
Year Released: 1976
Credits: lyrics by Asi (Asaf) Dayan; music by Naftaly Alter
Website:
Comments: This is a signature piece of what is probably the most popular Israeli comedy film ever made, "Halfon Hill is Not Replying". The film came out 2 years after the surprise Yom Kippur War and a year before the fall of the ruling Labor Party after 29 years in power. In the wake of the shock after the war the film poked fun at the military establishment which many felt had suffered from overweening pride prior to the war and failed to prepare for it, poked fun at the UN, and lampooned the reserve service on whom the outcome of the war depended, although the jokes have since been absorbed into popular culture. The three members of the comedy trio began their careers in the Nachal brigade band. Asi Dayan, an actor and director, and the lyricist here, is the son of Moshe Dayan, the former Chief of Staff and Minister of Defense. The scene from which this piece is taken features the Trio whiling away their reserve service strumming a guitar on a desolate sea-side dune, near the Egyptian border. The popular soundtrack piece for this film can be heard on the IDF ensemble music page here.
Hear the song!


Album: Green Airwave 2 - Songs Which Soldiers Love (Gal Yarok 2: Shirim ShKhayalim Ohavim), 2002
Let us rest our head on a sand dune
Let the muses thunder a little
Let us rest on every step
Give the respect to Tzahal [the IDF - Israel Defense Forces]

Take your time and 'take it easy'
Nothing is urgent here
Only in a Walt Disney movie
Does the desert there come to life

Wars there are a plenty
And troubles here aren't lacking
So between a missile and a rocket
Let us catch a 'relax' in the shade

Let us rest our head on a sand dune
Let the muses thunder a little
Let us rest on every step
Give the respect to Tzahal

All the day to sit in the "Shekem" [the military PX store]
And about you just to dream
Between [eating] the waffles and the wafers
Crashes down my heart
The paper my pen tears
When I dream of you
And a tear of longing
Gleams in my eyes

Let us rest our head on a sand dune
Let the muses thunder a little
Let us rest on every step
Give the respect to Tzahal

The whole column is heard in Tzahal
Every joy and every celebration
All of Israel is tired there
Don't disturb the serenity
Don't say, between the tanks in the cannon areas,
That the gang is enjoying it here
'Cause you'll wake the "neighbors" [i.e. the surrounding Arab states] yet

Let us rest our head on a sand dune
Let the muses thunder a little
Let us rest on every step
Give the respect to Tzahal

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Song Title: Give Me Strength ("Ten Li Koakh")
Musician: Ariel Zilber
Video: in-studio television performance pulled from Channel 3
Year Released: 1978
Credits: lyrics by Ehud Manor / music by Ariel Zilber
Website: www.arielzilber.com
Comments: A great start-of-workday song.
Hear the song!


various artists album: The 80s - A Decade of Israeli Pop (Lehitei Shnot HaShmonim), 1990
Oh, give me strength
Oh, let it go [be forgotten]
What does a man receive,
What does he have in this world?
When all his life
Is a moment which disappears

Oh, give me strength
Oh, let it go [be forgotten]
The slim chance
In games of luck
Who gets interested up above [i.e. G-d]
To whom does it matter at all?

Because a person who rises
For another for whom he toils.
What does he get for free?
What does he get?

Oh, give me strength
Oh, let it go [be forgotten]
So what if I win
So what if I cry [i.e. lose]
Because what was destined has already passed
What can await me now?

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Song Title: The Tree is Tall [aka "The Soaring Tree"] ("Ha Etz Hu Gavoa")
Musician: Apocalypse ("Akharit Ha Yamim")
Year Released: 1972
Credits: lyrics by Hanoch Levin; music by Zohar Levy
Website:
Comments: A one-album wonder which won all of Israel's top awards for "best band" in 1972 with the record that this song comes from. "Apocalypse" includes the famed guitarist Yitzhak Klepter and the singers Gaby Shushan and Miri Aloni
Hear the song!


The tree is tall, the tree is green
The sea is wild, the sea is deep
If the sea is deep, what does he care of the tree
What does the sea care if the tree is green

The tree is tall, the tree is green
Pretty is the bird, he will fly far
If the bird flies, what does he care of the tree
What does the bird care if the tree is green
The sea is wild, the sea is deep
Pretty is the bird, he will fly far
If the bird flies, what does he care of the sea
What does the bird care if the sea is deep

A man sings songs because the tree is green
A man sings songs because the sea is deep
If the bird flies, he will no longer sing songs
What does the bird care if he sings or keeps silent

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Song Title: Come to Eilat ("Boyi Le Eilat")
Musician: Lior Yeini
Year Released: 1970
Credits: lyrics by Yaron London; music by Nurit Hirsh; musical arrangements by Moshe Vilensky
Website:
Comments: Originally written as the jingle for an advertisement to promote the southern Israeli resort town of Eilat.
Hear the song!


(sung to a female)

Come let's escape from the asphalt
And from the wrinkled cities
Come let's escape to the quiet lagunas
Come to Eilat, to Eilat

Come let's escape from the asphalt
And from the wrinkled cities
Come let's escape to the quiet lagunas
Come to Eilat, to Eilat

In the capital of the sun
Freckled with freckles
Against the skies
We'll snap a picture
And the wind which will blow
Will divert us to think about nothing
Close your eyes
Will escape as two
To the waters of the coral reefs
Between blue and green
Our bathing suits we'll cast aside
We'll throw them to the fish

Come let's escape from the asphalt
And from the wrinkled cities
Come let's escape to the quiet lagunas
Come to Eilat, to Eilat

With razzled hair
Swept by the wind
I'm stretched out like a lizard
Like a dolphin who's slipped out
From the depths of the bay of Eilat
Like a surprise
Give me just two months
On the [water] skis
And on the water's waves I won't stand
Between green and blue
Man, I could...
I could live forever

Come let's escape from the asphalt
And from the wrinkled cities
Come let's escape to the quiet lagunas
Come to Eilat, to Eilat

Come let's discover the
Enchanted places
And the magic of the bays
Like Columbus so did suddenly
In a light bowed boat
Of masts
If this time you came again
Come back to Eilat
Because in witchcraft she's an estate of the city
And in sorcery she's a hideout
And you will come to her
You will come to her more youthful

Come let's escape from the asphalt
And from the wrinkled cities
Come let's escape to the quiet lagunas
Come to Eilat, to Eilat

To Eilat, to Eilat...

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Song Title: The Babble Song ("Shirat HaBirbur") [a play on the Hebrew words for "Swan Song" - Shir Barbour]
Musician: The Pale Scout Trio (HaGashash HaHiver)
Video:
Year Released: 1969
Credits: lyrics by Nisim Aloni; music by Yitzhak ("Ziko") Graziani
Website:
Comments: A comic piece sung with a mixture of high learned Hebrew spiced with Hebrew and English slang. Music written by the former conductor ("Ziko") of the Israeli Army Orchestra.
Hear the song!


La, la, la, la...

Moshe, Moshe
How are you?
   - ah...

How was the honeymoon?
   - ah...

Good?
   - good...

How are things at home?
   - okay...

How's the wife?
   - okay...

Good?
   - good...

Good "good"? or "good not-good"?
   - good...

Good, so why not good?
   - she's going crazy

Ahhh, heh-heh...

And how are things by you?
   - ah...

What's up?
   - ah...

Good?
   - good...

How's the wife ["Isha"]?
   - sha, sha, sha... ["shush" - a play on the end of the word for "wife"]

She's going mad?
   - "may the evil eye not affect him" [a superstition]

She's being a bully?
   - "Non stop"

She's babbling?
   - G-d almighty, an exclusive prattle specifically for the buried man
      - [buried] deep


This isn't hail
   - on a tin roof
It's not a barrage
   - from any cannon
This is the song
      - of the babble
         - of the babble
            - of the babble
For the buried man



I return from the office
   - I'm jovial,
      - I'm pleasant
   I'm good-looking
      -Like a quarter-chicken [standard fare at cheap weddings]
   Wearing a smile
      - from coast to coast
            And this is the end...

"Can I know honey what's all the happiness?"
   - what happiness?
"So what are you singing?"
   - who's singing?
"So what's so funny?"
   - who's laughing?
"So where have you been puttering on me all day?"
   - hallo, hallo, what's that "puttering"? Who's puttering? I'm a working man!
"Working..."


But if...

I return from the office
   - I'm jovial,
      - I'm pleasant
   I'm good-looking
      - Like a bowl
   Pasting a smile
      - on an atonement
         And in short...
            A dead man does not look worse!!!

"Fine, tell me honey..."
   - what?
"Are you coming from a funeral?"
   - what funeral?
"You couldn't help me frighten the children?"
   - what did I do?
"Do you think you're sweeter when you're more bitter?"
   - who's bitter?
"Smile a little"
   - okay
"Be happy a little"
   - fine


This isn't hail
   - on a tin roof
It's not a barrage
   - from any cannon
This is the song
      - of the babble
         - of the babble
            - of the babble
For the buried man



Take for instance, my wife...
   - Well?
Take her away from me!
   - No...


I sit down to eat
   - you sat
I eat
   - you ate
Just like that
   - no problem
That is, I also swallow
   - good going
A little from here, a little from there
   - here's to your health
Six ribs
   - it works
With liver
   - what...?
Perhaps for the spleen
   - and that's all?
Salad
   - ah...
Rice
   - ah...
Ful [middle eastern bean cuisine]
   - wow [Arabic slang]
To hasten the digestion...
That's how a man sometimes is - he's hungry!


"Hallo, hallo - you've never seen food before in your life?"
"Eat with your mouth closed - the neighbors can hear"
"Leave the pudding alone - it's for the kids"
"Put the bread down, you silly fatso"
"What about the diet?"

But if...

I didn't have a chance to finish the chicken
   - "so what!"
Spinach with semolina is not my fancy
   - not his fancy

I fancy...
   Coffee
      - blessed be its coming
   I want a cigarette
      - well done
   I want to read
      - the sports section
   And the cigarette
      - is inside the pastry
         - And that is the end...

"Welcome"...
"Happy new year"
"Are you ill?"
   - No
"Is my cooking burnt?"
   - No
"You mother cooks better than me?"
   - Ah
"You ate baked lamb and spices at Gamliel's!" [a real out of date ethnic name]
   - Yes!
"Why, don't you have a home?"
   "Don't you have a wife?"
      "Don't you have children?"
"Ahh... you ate with Shula!"
   - "with Ada!"
      - "with Hedva!"
         - "with Nitza!"
            - "with Ezra!"
               - "with George Washington!!"


This isn't hail
   - on a tin roof
It's not a barrage
   - from any cannon
This is the song
      - of the babble
         - of the babble
            - of the babble
For the buried man



Fine, here I am...
   - "Rise and come and bring forth from your heart"
Oiy...
"Did something happen?"
   - the alarm-clock went off late
"What a shame"
   - what could I do? I woke up late
"Better late than never"
   - but what?
"What?"
   - I didn't shower
oooohhhh
   - I washed up in a hurry
oooohhhh
   - I throw the wife a quick kiss
      - In a polite manner?
         - In a polite manner, but quick
oooohhhh
            - And that is the end...

What happened, what did I do?
   - "Look how you're dressed"
      - why?
   - "Look how you look"
       - not good?
   - "Where do you think you live?"
      - here
   - "What will they say at the grocery store?"
      - gee, what grocery store?
   - "You look like your aunt"
   - "Like before the wedding, when I found you in the rain, with influenza"

But...

If by chance I happen to wake up one morning with the sound of a mandolin in my heart... it can happen, no?
      - To the most married husband
In the bathtub there waft two tones or three
While shaving I shave both ways
I shorten, in my nose, two hairs [a play on the word "tone"]
I sprinkle some eau de cologne, a little aftershave
Throw a glance of great meaning to the wife...
...and quietly bite her on... the ear!

But she...

What happened, what did I do?
   "What happened?"
      - what?
   - "What holiday is today?"
      - Father's day!
   - "Look how you're dressed"
      - sporty!
   - "From whence is that awful tie?"
      - your mother brought it!
   - "With which sauce did you stain it?"
      - yours!
   - "You stink from a mile away"
      - oh, please!
   - "You'll wind up like a pimp in an amusement park!"
   - "You're spiraling downward!"
   - "You're becoming barbarian!"
   - "You're getting ugly!"
   - "You're becoming Christian!" [i.e. moving away from your roots]
   - "You're philandering!"


This isn't hail
   - on a tin roof
It's not a barrage
   - from any cannon
This is the song
      - of the babble
         - of the babble
            - of the babble
For the buried man



One word: curl and get curled up
   - "Without music, please"
   - "Orchestra, s'il vous plait"
               Why is there no understanding with the wife?!?
I said it
   - we heard
         Mo-she!
   - I'm coming, sweetie
We heard
   - you heard it, but you didn't experience it
"Please"
[music resumes]

I'm the first rain (of the season), she is the last
   - I'm Purim [a festive holiday], she's Kippurim [somber holiday of atonement]
I land, she takes off
   - I tie up, she unravels
And when the night falls, and I'm a rectangle, she's a triangle
   - I'm in Dan [the central region of Israel], she's in Eilat [southern-most resort town]

"What is this?"
   - what?
"You're going to sleep?"
   - yes, sweetie, I'm tired. Falling off my feet. Dead. RIP.
"Certainly, honey. Go, go on, honey. Go."
"To work, to eat, to sleep. To sleep, to work, to eat."

But...
If she wants to sleep:

"Mo-she!"
   - what is it?
"Turn off the light in the salon!"
   - fine, okay, just want to hear the news
"Turn off the radio, it's midnight!"
   - I heard you, why shout?
"Stop wasting the electricity!"
   - I heard you, but
"Finish the newspaper on Saturday!"
"Solve the crossword in the office"
"And come already"
"And wake up already"
   - okay
"And go already"
"Well, already?"

Quack, Quack, Quack...

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Political & Wartime

Song Name Artist Name Genre Song # in Jukebox
"The Heat of July-August" Shlomo Artzi Pop Song #8
"The Face of The Nation" T-Slam Pop Song #18
"Yonathan, Come Home" Oshik Levy Classic Rock Song #19
"Waiting For Messiah" Shalom Hanoch Pop Song #21
"They're Working on Us" The Pale Scout Trio
("Ha'Gashash Ha'Khiver")
Vocal Song #72
"We Overcame Pharaoh" (this too shall pass) Various Artists (Meir Ariel) Rock Song #123
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Song Title: The Heat of July-August (The Platoon) ("Khom Yuli August")
Musician: Shlomo Artzi
Year Released: 1988
Credits: lyrics and music by Shlomo Artzi
Website: www.shlomoartzi.com
Comments: A song mourning the loss of youth and friends during the War of Attrition (1968-70), and the after-effects of the trauma. The songs for the album and album itself, "The Heat of July-August", was released during a period of confusion, uncertainty and introspection - the height of the Israeli presence in Lebanon, the loss of the Airforce navigator Ron Arad, rising tension in the Territories and the outbreak of the first Intifada.
Hear the song!


Shlomo Artzi album: August-July Heat (Khom Yuli August), 1988
The July-August heat then was very heavy
It was afternoon and the platoon went in the wadi
Write in the book a page, they speak of battles
Write of the wounded that are trembling, and this is normal

Youth is pleasant, the summer neverending
Va'aknin arrived to the platoon, the champion of Kiryat Gat
He burned down the barracks and ran off to Beit Gobrin
The police in pursuit of him only here relaxed a bit

All that I remember from this I write down
Innocent souls in stretchers, two without a name
Lately thoughts return to me from there in my dim memory
A heavy screen of battles and hallucinations

July-August heat, when a pinecone falls
A helicopter lands, I lie alone in the field
when the helicopter leaves I suddenly feel hungry
Dying to eat you in the mother base

I return with a pass to you at your home
Close the room, even G-d won't enter here
Suddenly your father enters, looks like he's crying
In the canal a whole platoon was hit by anti-ship
fire in "tempo" [an outpost on the Suez Canal]

What I remember from this I write down,
Catch a Haifa taxi, jump to the discotheque
prostitues on the fence, in me just a ghost burns
I go dancing with dead soldiers in my heart

Write it down, write it down; I write, I write...

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Song Title: The Face of the Nation ("Partzufa Shel Ha'Medina")
Musician: T-Slam ('Tislam' - slang for "By All Means")
Video: live performance from their reunion concert, 2004(?)
Year Released: 1990
Credits: lyrics by Ya'ir Nitzani; music by T-Slam
Website: www.t-slam.com
Comments: A song that's played frequently around election times, the piece was written in the wake of the embezzlement scandal involving the religious "Shas" Party.
Hear the song!


T-Slam album: Play Now (Nagen Akhshav), 1990
He stepped out on the morning of a tiring day
Kissed a woman, and crossed the street,
A luxurious car, a dedicated chauffer
They gallop to the capital - a new day for the small fixer

He dials during the drive - party matters
And worries for his share in the division of the pie.
The conversation flows, things are promised to him
Already years that he doesn't represent voters

Documents for review, budgets for development
And smoke from the cigar rises to the open window
He says to a member of the party
"Wait, Gedalia, perhaps you'll be the ambassador to Australia"

He observes the landscape of the nation he loved
So what if on the way he lied and stole,
His face reflects off the corner of the window
His face is -
the face of the nation...

Corridors of authority and floors of bureaucracy.
Budgets for 'Yeshivot' at the expense of the inflation
He cut in a minute three factories
And four hundred people became unemployed

They live in the car - bluish window shades
He stops by to visit, parents in mourning
He forgot that he advocated in favor of war
His face is -
the face of the nation...

He's important, a crony, he will be come what may.
It's he who will decide if there will be war.
It's he who will determine the education of your children
He'll establish procedures, you'll go out of your mind

With passion he gives an address to an emotional mass
Land of the saviours with sickle and scythe!!!
Vote correctly and I ask...
Give me power
Let cry out
What I want
Because I had a land flowing with milk...
[Play now...]

And I don't understand, what changed?
If I'm the sole idiot in the country,
Who feared for tomorrow and dreams of olive leaves
And wants to feel that here is the home?

I stroke your face and look out the window
And you smile from within the dream
I love that you're like this and not different
Your smile is -
the face of the nation...

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Song Title: Yonathan, Come Home ("Yonatan Sa Habaita")
Musician: Oshik Levi
Video: from a live performance shown on Channel 33
Year Released: 1972
Credits: lyrics by Yonathan Geffen; music by Naftaly Alter
Comments: Released in 1972, this song nonetheless became an anthem during the 1973 Yom Kippur War - a song to encourage Israelis to return home and fight for the country.
Hear the song!


Oshik Levy album: Peace of Mind (Ktzat Sheket), 1991
A big city without soldiers and it's impossible to sleep
Bells rings in the morning on Sunday
A cold moon on the buildings and it's a real winter
I feel simply wonderful, but this isn't my home

Yonathan, come home - take a train, take an airplane
Take a little present for the boy, an airplane - Yonathan, go to sleep

Michael comes and puts on a record - lightning flashes outside
And Shalom speaks English - just like in the kibbutz
And he showed me the city - and Maya who got bigger
The people are healthy but the sun here is sick.

Yonathan, come home - take a train, take an airplane
Take a little present for the boy, an airplane - Yonathan, go to sleep

We went to a big place - to drink, you know
And they play there rock n' roll in so many colors
The winter came here early - the light is no longer cheerful
Perhaps we'll go to Amsterdam, Rome or Paris

Yonathan, come home - take a train, take an airplane
Take a little present for the boy, an airplane - take a backpack, take a cane
And travel to Eretz Israel

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Song Title: Waiting For Messiah ("Mekhakim Le Mashiakh")
Musician: Shalom Hanoch
Video: original music video, pulled from Channel 23 educational TV
Year Released: 1985
Credits: lyrics and music by Shalom Hanoch
Comments: A critical piece about the economic depression and hyper-inflation of the mid-Eighties, this became one of the most popular 'protest' songs written in Israel even though Hanoch didn't write the song for this purpose.
Hear the song!


Shalom Hanoch album: Waiting for Messiah (Mekhakim Le Mashiakh), 1985
Sitting for hours, waiting for Messiah to come
Messiah is a vital person, his hand in everything - and everything in his hand
Thick smoke and Yerukham smacks his lips
Yudah looks at his watch and rolls his eyes
An office in the north "Artzieli Ltd. - Advisors"
It's afternoon and outside the world turns
He presses a button an says "Bring us some coffee"
Messiah's not coming - and he's also not calling

A general silence, five people - tense
The door opens and Yardena's all smiles:
"The black for Yudah, the tea for Artzieli the son"
Yardena goes out, Ezra doesn't stop smoking
And so it is that hour passes hour
The elder Artzieli knows that he didn't err
Wiping sweat from his brow he raises his voice to his son:
"Messiah's not coming - and he's also not calling"

The entrance bell cuts through the hum of the air-conditioner
Making Yerucham jump to the door, cutting through the smoke
Artzieli the son looks at his father from the side
And at the entrance appears a policeman with his hat in hand
And Yudah says: "Something must have happened"
And Yerucham replies: "They don't just send the police for nothing"
And says the policeman: "There was an accident and therefore -
Messiah's not coming - and he's also not calling"

"An accident for whom?" asks Artzieli the son
"An accident for the nation" replies the poor cop
"The bourse collapsed, people are leaping from the roof
Also Messiah jumped and they reported that he was killed..."
"...Everything's lost" cries Ezra Dahan, the contractor
"Messiah's in the sky and we without the money are here"
And Yardena the pretty mumbles: "This cannot be -
Messiah's not going to come - and he's also not going to call"

"December the Bitter" announced the newspapers
And the Minister of Finance gave an interview on "Mabat":
"The public is stupid and so the public will pay
What comes with ease with the same ease will go -
The little citizen is forced to pay in big"
And what interests me is Yardena more than all else
Goes off to reserve duty and counts the money that isn't there
And Messiah's not coming - and he's also not calling.

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Song Title: They're Working on Us ("Ovdim Aleynu")
Musician: The Pale Scout Trio ("HaGashash HaHiver")
Video: An election night revised version shown on the Channel 1 program "That's How it Was". Opens with Shaike reading the 1981 election results and Poli asking for a piece of the paper (which he literally receives), then Gavri shows up, asks also for "a piece" which he promptly starts to eat - because he's hungry.
Year Released: 1977
Credits: lyrics and music by Yossi Banai
Comments: The Pale Scout Trio are Israel's premier and legendary comedy act, representing the apex of Israeli humor: jokes and satire built on impersonations and feeding off material from the day-to-day, with wit drawn from the skillful use of proper Hebrew to make plays on words and phrases.
Hear the song!


- I read in the paper
- Yes, what did you read in the paper?
- Thaaaat the prices will go down...
- will go down?
- ...and there won't be a recession
- ...and there won't be a recession
- I swear by Gooooooooddddd
- So we do the prices jump like crazies?
[Chorus]: Because they're working on us, working on us...


- And why do they say...
- What do they say? What do they say?
- That poverty won't exist and there'll no longer be gaps (in standard of living)
- ...and that people will be able to buy apartments dirt cheap
- ...and that the crew here will rule until the end of all generations...
[Chorus]: They're working on us... working... in winter, in summer, in the afternoon… They're working on us right before our eyes, they're working on us right in the face, and we don't learn...
- don't learn...
- Yes
- don't learn...
- Yes
- don't learn... don't learn



- I heard the news...
- Nu, what's old in the news?
- That a new page has been turned, and that there won't be any more scandals
- Ah, they confirmed it in the news?
- Yes, (I swear) on the lives of all the Holy men
- So how do you explain it that every day here heads get lopped off?
[Chorus]: Because, they're working on us, they're working on us... whaaaat...


- And why do they say that it's terribly worthwhile to save?
- ...that income tax authority promises not to come and bite?
- ...and that account credits won't be wiped out in at a murderous rate?
- ...and that the next Chief of Staff will finally be Yemenite... Yemenite, Yemenite... Chief of Staff Yemenite, a Yemenite as Chief of Staff, Chief of Staff Yemenite, a Yemenite as Chief of Staff...
- Hey, heeey, Yeshayahu!!
- Will he be?
- Who?
- The Chief of Staff...
- What?
- A Yemenite?
- He'll be, he'll be, he'll be...
- When?
- When the Messiah will come...
- And when will the Messiah come?
- When the Chief of Staff will be a Yemenite

[Chorus]: ...In winter, in summer, in the afternoon... They're working on us right before our eyes, they're working on us right in our face and we don't learn...
- don't learn...
- Yes
- don't learn...
- Yes
- don't learn... don't learn



- Before the elections, they promise and they promise...
- ...that they'll make of the country a Garden of Eden of flowers
- ...that anyone who just wants will immediately be able to get a phone...
- ...even if his father's name is Zilberboim [Ashkenazi/European name, i.e. upper class] and his mother's name is Khalfon [Mizrachi/Middle Eastern name, i.e. lower class]...
[Chorus]: Because they're working on us, they're working on us, they're working on us, they're working on us, they're working on us...


- My voters and voteresses… Here has arrived the critical moment… We're sitting at President Carter's...
- Where?
- At the "Laben" (i.e. White) House… There we will speak with him in a language which is not used, and we will tell him: Jimmy... laid before us is the Bible, and like the Prophet said, in Chapter 4 Verse 15: "Thus said the Prophet Yeshayahu: 'Lo zmichut mit ha bubkes!'" [in Yiddish: i.e. "cut the crap"]


- It's not correct that in the country
      - there's a lack of work
- Look how they work on us already according to a system, so come and let's raise a glass in song of thanks, that we're the nation which was born to live to work
[Chorus]: They're working on us, they're working, in winter, in summer, in the afternoon... They're working on us right before our eyes, they're working on us right in our face and we don't learn... don't learn... in winter, in summer, in the afternoon... they're working on us right before our eyes, they're working on us right in our face and we don't learn...
- don't learn...
- Yes
- don't learn...
- Yes
- don't learn... don't learn
- they're working on us, they're working on us...


- They're working on us, they're working
- They're working, eh?
- Indeeeed...

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Song Title: We Overcame Pharaoh (this too shall pass) [live] ("Avarnu et Paroh")
Musician: Various Artists (Association for Remembrance of Meir Ariel)
Video: original rendition by Meir Ariel
Year Released: 2001 (1990)
Credits: lyrics and music by Meir Ariel / re-edited by: Eran Weitz, Tal Segev and Dori Ben-Zeev
Website: www.meirariel.org.il and www.meirariel.net
Comments: One of Meir Ariel's (1942-1999) seminal pieces, it was re-recorded live during a concert in 2001 for the annual tributes paid in his memory. About 13 different performers participated in the concert and in this group-song, some of whom are already featured on this music page: Shotey HaNevuah (Fools of the Prophecy), Shlomi Shaban, Meir Banai, Eran Tzur. The song is a sort of anthem promoting positive thought and spirit in the face of relatively trifling (but meaning-ladened) problems. In this live version one stanza is missing and the last stanza has been re-written to relate to Meir Ariel himself.
Hear the song!


The income tax authorities, they seized my amplifier
The value added tax authorities, they confiscated my transmitter
The electric company seized my battery
The water authority blocked up my well
I saw that I was spiraling down into crisis
I'd begun as a visionary
But we overcame Pharaoh
We'll overcome this too

A mistake in the computer cost me a million
A cash machine swallowed up my balance
An electronic secretary postponed my interview
An automatic judge revoked my license
Into a mechanical lawyer I slid a token
through the slit in his mouth
But we overcame Pharaoh
- Pharaoh
We'll overcome this too

I learned a profession which was useful and necessary
In order to not be hard-pressed and stressed
I stuck with it, I was diligent
So too was the failure of the system, it too was diligent
I found myself with my profession left outside
getting thinner
But we overcame Pharaoh
- Pharaoh
We'll overcome this too

Yes, yes we'll overcome this too
If we overcame Pharaoh we'll overcome this too
Yes, yes
Yes, yes we'll overcome this too
Also this and this...
This and this...

I wandered around a bit without purpose
without specification and without compromise
I lost height [stature] and some consciousness [recognition]
I thought perhaps in any case, what is the definition
that will give a clear and precise answer
I got torn up by this!
But we overcame Pharaoh
We'll overcome this too

And now you're stuck in the modern age
And to tell you the truth, you're rather indifferent
The situation indeed is rotten, but you don't feel it
You don't have the stomach for all the material which the [television] screen delivers
And the authority of the land is sinking to the streets
And you're [Meir Ariel] missed here
"But we overcame Pharaoh"
...just more and more often

Yes, yes we'll overcome this too
If we overcame Pharaoh we'll overcome this too
Yes, yes
we'll overcome this too
If we overcame Pharaoh we'll overcome this too
Also this and this...
This and this...

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Anthems

Song Name Artist Name Genre Song # in Jukebox
"It Happens" Aric Lavie Classic Rock / Vocal Song #9
"Me and You" Arik Einstein Classic Rock Song #64
"Pillar of Fire" Shem-Tov Levy Instrumental Song #76
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Song Title: It Happens ("Ze Koreh")
Musician: Aric Lavie
Video: video of a remix edit by the band "Polyanna Frank", 2003
Year Released: 1975
Credits: lyrics and music by Shmulik Kraus
Website:
Comments:
Hear the song!


Aric Lavie album: Ata Israeli - The Best of Aric Lavie (Ata Israeli), 1998
It happens, that the path gets longer
It happens, you have to keep going
Nothing at all is for sure
Not for a year, not for a week
You have to wander and wander
And to think "how I could
go back on everything"
But man, it happens

It happened that the path got longer for me
It happened, I don't know how it came to me
Nothing at all is for sure
Not for a year, not for a week
You have to wander and wander
And to think "how I could
go back on everything"
But man, it happened

It will happen, and perhaps at the end
We'll see that the path continues on
Nothing at all is for sure
Not for a year, not for a week
You have to wander and wander
And to think "how I could
go back on everything"
But man, it will happen

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Song Title: Me and You ("Ani ve Ata")
Musician: Arik Einstein and Miki Gabrielov
Video: original music video. Interesting to see the Caesaria power station with only 1 tower (instead of 3 as today).
Year Released: 1971
Credits: lyrics by Arik Einstein; music by Miki Gabrielov
Website:
Comments:
Hear the song!


Arik Einstein album: At Avigdors Grass (Ba Deshe Etzel Avigdor), 1971
Me and you, we'll change the world
Me and you, then everyone will come
They said it before then, before me
Doesn't matter - me and you, we'll change the world

Me and you, we'll try it out from the beginning
If it will be bad, it's not a problem - it's not so bad
It doesn't matter - me and you, we'll change the world

Me and you, we'll change the world
Me and you, then everyone will come
They said it before then, before me
Doesn't matter - me and you, we'll change the world

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Song Title: Pillar of Fire ("Amud Ha'Esh")
Musician: Shem-Tov Levy
Year Released: 1981
Credits: music by Shem-Tov Levy
Website:
Comments: Israel received television as late as 1966 as successive governments had felt that the device would have a distracting effect on the citizenry, and even when TV did reach the country it remained in black and white until 1982; Israel's Channel 2 arrived as late as 1993. A similarly-minded government also helped prevent the Beatles from coming to the country in 1964 to perform live.

The theme music here is from the landmark Israel Channel 1 documentary series on the rebirth of Israel, "Pillar of Fire", produced between 1975 and 1981 (airing in 1981). The program bore certain hallmarks of the groundbreaking British documentary series "The World at War" which preceded it (1973-74), with an emphasis on first-hand interviews with historical figures and participants; somber, charismatic narration (Yossi Banai on "Pillar of Fire", Laurence Olivier on "World at War"); dramatic pauses on black and white pictures at the start and end of each segment as well as the series' emblem rising from fire. The strains of the theme music here with orchestral accompaniment by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is also reminiscent of Carl Davis's piece for "World at War".

A thematic derivation of Israel's national anthem, "Ha'Tikva" ("The Hope"), this piece is often used on public occasions as an unofficial anthem of sorts. Touching music with an aura of grandeur from an important production created relatively soon after the establishment of Israel's own television broadcasting authority.

Hear the song!


Shem-Tov Levy album: Music From Films (Musica Me'Hasratim), 1995
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Yehoram (Yoram) Gaon

Song Name Genre Song # in Jukebox
"Where Are You [My] Love" Classic Rock / Vocal Song #42
"Here I Am" Classic Rock / Vocal Song #59
"What Are Your Eyes Saying" Classic Rock / Vocal Song #117
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Song Title: Where Are You [My] Love ("Eifo At Ahuva")
Musician: Yehoram Gaon
Year Released: 1974
Credits: lyrics and music by Leonardo Fabio; Hebrew lyrics by Talma Aligon; arranged by by Alex Weiss
Website: www.yehoramgaon.com
Comments:
Hear the song!


Yehoram Gaon album: 40 Golden Hits (Lehitei Zahav), 1998
Where, where are you [my] love
Why, for what are you becoming estranged
You - perhaps you already don't remember
The sound of a kiss at night
The sadness in your hands
Which became stuck together with force
And didn't give refuge
Still I won't be able to forget
To forget [my] love
Where are they, the days that won't return again
No, they won't return no, no

Here, here are the days
Lovely days of summer
And laughter on the waters
Return [my] love
Where are they, the days that won't return again
No, they won't return no, no

Where, where are the nights
Yes, those same nights in winter
And in my pockets - your hands
And rain on your lips
The wind on your face
You forgot already [my] love
Where are they, the days that won't return again
No, they won't return no, no

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Song Title: Here I Am ("Hineini Kan")
Musician: Yehoram Gaon
Video: partial clip from movie sountrack of "Ani Yerushalmi" ("I'm Jerusalemite"), 1971
Year Released: 1974
Credits: lyrics by Chaim Hefer; music by Dubi Zeltzer
Website: www.yehoramgaon.com
Comments:
Hear the song!


Yehoram Gaon album: 40 Golden Hits (Lehitei Zahav), 1998
I go to you all my days
I go to you dazzled
The stones wound my hands
But I don't feel a thing

I return from an unsown land
Stretch out my hand to stroke your hair
Here I am, like a wounded dove
I always fall before your hair

Here I am
Like circling birds
Here I am
Like a stone in the barrier
Like a rock, like a well
I am the man who always returns

I return in a thousand incarnations
I'm a hermit, son of a king and a beggar
And in the nights, in the hideaways of the foxes
I dream and am aware of you at the same time

I see you, one far away
Like a princess imprisoned in towers
Between bars, sitting and waiting
Oh, G-d, oh great gods

Here I am
Like circling birds
Here I am
Like a stone in the barrier
Like a rock, like a well
I am the man who always returns

And you waited like the stones
And like the fool going in the desert
Soft sunrises kissed you on your face
Heavy sunsets kissed you on your neck

That's how I saw you sitting and expecting
And in your eyes light and great sadness
That's how I took you with me to the 'Hupah' [Jewish wedding canopy]
You the barefoot with a crown of gold

Here I am
Like circling birds
Here I am
Like a stone in the barrier
Like a rock, like a well
I am the man who always returns

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Song Title: What Are Your Eyes Saying ("Ma Omrot Einayikh")
Musician: Yehoram Gaon
Year Released: 1976
Credits: lyrics by Yitzhak Shenhar; music by Mordechai Zeira
Website: www.yehoramgaon.com
Comments:
Hear the song!


Yehoram Gaon album: 40 Golden Hits (Lehitei Zahav), 1998
Sun, sun go down to the sea
Wind, light wind go rage
Who is dreaming, dreaming of you
In a bare military, military post

Two lights at night, at night, at night
Hinting, hinting to me suddenly
What are your eyes, your eyes, your eyes saying
Without telling me all to the end, to the end

Between stones, stones and hill
A lone, lone tree dozes
Who goes, goes towards you
With a swarm, a swarm of wild beasts [ref: the fourth of the ten plagues]

Two lights at night, at night, at night
Hinting, hinting to me suddenly
What are your eyes, your eyes, your eyes saying
Without telling me all to the end, to the end

Morning, morning in the time of the Nile [i.e. Biblical times]
And I return, return from the heat
May I find, I find again
A memory, a memory of the dream

Two lights at night, at night, at night
Hinting, hinting to me suddenly
What are your eyes, your eyes, your eyes saying
Without telling me all to the end, to the end
Without telling me all to the end, to the end

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Arik Einstein

Song Name Genre Song # in Jukebox
"Sabbath the Queen" Classic Rock Song #15
"Drive Slowly" Classic Rock Song #53
"How Good That You Came Home" Classic Rock Song #61
"Eretz Israel" Classic Rock Song #65
"Once Upon a Time" Classic Rock Song #68
"Prague" Classic Rock Song #92
"The Light at the End" Rock Song #102
"Sitting on the Fence" Classic Rock Song #103
"Everybody Wants" Rock / Blues Song #111
"Achinoam Doesn't Know" Classic Rock Song #113
"Fragile" Classic Rock Song #115
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Song Title: Sabbath the Queen ("Shabbat Ha'Malka")
Musician: Arik Einstein
Year Released: 1968
Credits: lyrics by Arik Einstein; music by Shalom Hanoch
Website: arik220.tripod.com
Comments:
Hear the song!


Here she's getting closer, and arriving
that's the Queen
Here she's getting closer, and arriving
that's the Queen
Days come and go, Sabbath is the Queen
Blessed is your coming, Sabbath the Queen

It's good you've come, Sabbath the Queen
Sabbath, Sabbath
Sabbath the Queen
It's good you've come, Sabbath the Queen
Sabbath, Sabbath
Sabbath the Queen

Here she's getting closer, and arriving
that's the Queen
Here she's getting closer, and arriving
that's the Queen
Everything is white, Sabbath the Queen
Everything is ready, Sabbath the Queen

It's good you've come, Sabbath the Queen
Sabbath, Sabbath
Sabbath the Queen
It's good you've come, Sabbath the Queen
Sabbath, Sabbath
Sabbath the Queen

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Song Title: Drive Slowly ("Sa Le'at")
Musician: Arik Einstein
Video: from a live performance with Miki Gabrielov on guitar, 1980
Year Released: 1974
Credits: lyrics by Arik Einstein; music by Miki Gabrielov
Website: arik220.tripod.com
Comments:
Hear the song!


Arik Einstein album: A Collection (Leket), 1995
We're driving in the old car
Into the wet night
The rain again is getting heavy
And we don't see anything
Drive slowly

Tzvi says that rains like these are damaging to the agriculture
And I think how warm it is at home, and what poor souls the soldiers are
Lying now in the mud
Drive slowly, drive slowly

On the radio - the replacement for the scout -
Suddenly begins the news
Tonight a heavy hail will fall
My wiper's now broken

Tzvi says his head is cold, to close a window
And I think: Hapoel [Tel Aviv football club] has lost again, and what poor souls the fans are
Who are eating out their hearts
Drive slowly, drive slowly

Let your thoughts run in all directions
They won't start without us
Drive slowly, drive slowly

We're driving in the old car
Into the wet night
Tomorrow I'll wake up early
You'll see, it will be alright

Tzvi says that it's hard for him to breathe, and his medicines have run out
And I think, I think of you - and how you know how to indulge me
I love you
Drive slowly, drive slowly

You remember that we drove to Eilat
We went down to the water
Everyone was of the same mind
We sang impersonations of the Beatles

We're driving in the old car
Into the wet night
The rain again is getting heavy
And we don't see anything
Drive slowly

Tzvi says that they discovered a star that has life on it
And I think, in a little while we'll be near Gaza
And just that some grenade won't fly - and we'll go to hell
Drive slowly, drive slowly

Let your thoughts run in all directions
They won't start without us
Drive slowly, drive slowly

We're driving in the old car
Into the wet night
The rain again is getting heavy
And we don't see anything
Drive slowly

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Song Title: How Good That You Came Home ("Kama Tov She'Bata Ha'baita")
Musician: Arik Einstein
Video: from Shlomo Artzi and Shalom Hanoch's concert tour, "Connection", in Caesaria, 2005
Year Released:
Credits: lyrics by Ya'akov Rotblit; music by Shalom Hanoch
Website: arik220.tripod.com
Comments:
Hear the song!


Arik Einstein album: A Collection (Leket), 1995
How good that you came home
How good to see you again
Tell us, what's new, tell us
Tell us how it was
And why you didn't send a postcard?

How good that you came home
A little thin, but what does it matter
You had a good time, you did things
You saw some other colors

But how good it is that you're here
How good it is that you're already here
How it is good, good

How good that you came home
This house already says it all
It was hot for you, it was
It was cold for you
You're now much happier
Already much happier

So how good it is that you came home
As if you set out, set out just yesterday
Everything here remained the same thing
You're now much more mature
Yes more mature

But how good it is that you're here
How good it is that you're already here
How it is good, good

How good that you came home
Really, you thought of me
How good that you came
That you came home
How good that you came to me
Yes, that you came to me

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Song Title: Eretz Israel ("Eretz Israel")
Musician: Arik Einstein
Year Released: 1969
Credits: lyrics by Arik Einstein; music by Shmulik Krauss
Website: arik220.tripod.com
Comments: A mournful piece written during the 1968-70 War of Attrition between Egypt and Israel, just after the Israeli victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, contrasting the feelings of love and pride against the tears and sorrow of heavy losses during this period.
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Arik Einstein album: Poozy (Poozy), 1969
What did he say
A house for you I built there on the sand - Eretz Israel
I sang a lovely song about the blue sea - Eretz Israel

What did he say, oh guard what did he say

Eve again tilts towards the Golan - Eretz Israel
There a young soldier lies in silent wait - Eretz Israel

What did he say, oh guard what did he say

How much I do love you - Eretz Israel
Why am I so sad then - Eretz Israel

What did he say, oh guard what did he say

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Song Title: Once Upon a Time (For Ziggi) ("Hayo Haya")
Musician: Arik Einstein
Year Released: 1969
Credits: lyrics by Arik Einstein; music by Misha Segal
Website: arik220.tripod.com
Comments: A juicy piece of Israeli rock from Einstein's album "Poozy" (named after his daughter's nickname), considered to be Israel's first Israeli-rock album. This piece was written in memory of the pianist of Einstein's former music group, "The High Windows" ("Ha'Khalonot Ha'Gvohim"), and features clips of him in concert.
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Arik Einstein album: Poozy (Poozy), 1969
Once upon a time
There was a king
Once upon a time

Once upon a time
Far above cried G-d
Once upon a time

Once upon a time
And he will live forever
Once upon a time

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Song Title: Prague ("Prague")
Musician: Arik Einstein
Video: from a performance aired on Channel 3, probably mid-1990's.
Year Released: 1969
Credits: lyrics and music Shalom Hanoch
Website: arik220.tripod.com
Comments: From www.mima.co.il: this song was written a year after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia during the 1968 thaw. Einstein performed this piece for the 1969 Festival of Hebrew Music (Israel's annual music competition then), but reached only seventh place - some suggest because of its heavy tone. Upset, he refused to perform further in these competitions. The lines about a young man slipping away refer to Lian Falach, a young Czech who set himself on fire in Wenceslas Square in protest of the Soviet invasion.
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Arik Einstein album: Poozy (Poozy), 1969
Towards the city of the imprisoned dream
A strange and heavy shadow burst forth
And a red moon
It's kingship it dipped in soot

He who didn't close his eyes
His bitter night did he bear
An absolute silence of surrender without fight
A man who locked his rifled until death

How upon Prague did dawn not break
On Tuesday did her strength run out
How did the voice of the noisy square get silenced
A song which I dreamed, about Prague
There the dawn will yet break.

Like an old yellowing photograph
A city of ghosts submitted
To the silent march of bears
And in her consumed neck.

No one dares leave his doorway
A salty ghetto smell
From one end to the other
Across the city is carried by wind.

How upon Prague did dawn not break
On Tuesday did her strength run out
How did the voice of the noisy square get silenced
A song which I dreamed, about Prague
There the dawn will yet break.

Only the silence in her remains
A young man suddenly slips away
Then a strange light rose upon him
There in the city square which had died.

A song which I dreamed, about Prague
There the dawn will yet break
There the dawn will yet break.

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Song Title: The Light at the End ("Ha Or Ba Katzeh")
Musician: Arik Einstein
Year Released: 1987
Credits: lyrics by Yaakov Gilad and Yehuda Poliker; music by Yehuda Poliker
Website: arik220.tripod.com
Comments: Released on an album (1997) of the same name which contains a song specifically dedicated to the memory of the slain Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin (1995); the allusion to "addresses on the wall of the square of the city" probably refers to the square ("Kings of Israel") in which Rabin was assassinated.
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Arik Einstein album: Best of (HaMeitav), 2003
Life, my little girl
Is a serious matter
Sometimes I'm scared to death
From my own shadow
From all that's around
Sometimes there are moments where it seems
That there's light at the end
And suddenly it's darkness

And you, like everyone
Who lost their way
You will find some kind of light in the darkness
You will get stronger, you will change
You will get older and you will see
That sometimes there are moments where it seems
There is light at the end
Fluttering in the darkness

All the candles
Which we lit at night
Won't drive away this cold darkness
All the winds which blew all night long
Won't extinguish the light at the end
Won't put out the light
Which rises in the morning

Search, ask
And you too will find out
The answer is still carried in the wind
There are addresses on the wall
In the square of the city
That sometimes there are moments where it seems
There is light at the end
Flickering in the darkness

All the candles
Which we lit at night
Won't drive away this cold darkness
All the winds which blew all night long
Won't extinguish the light at the end
Won't put out the light
Which rises in the morning

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Song Title: Sitting on the Fence ("Yoshev Al Ha Gader")
Musician: Arik Einstein
Video: From a TV special aired on the occasion of the album's release. Yitzhak Klepter, one of Israel's best guitarists, is on the lead guitar in the video; several local celebrities of the time (and to this day) are featured in the clip, too.
Year Released: 1982
Credits: lyrics by Arik Einstein; music Yitzhak Klepter
Website: arik220.tripod.com
Comments:
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Arik Einstein album: Best of (HaMeitav), 2003
Sitting on the fence
One leg here, one leg there
Sitting on the fence
In good stead with everyone
Knocking out smiles in all directions
And always, always in the know

Sitting on the fence
One leg here, one leg there
Sitting on the fence
Looking over the world
Knocking out smiles in all directions
And always, always in the know

Sitting on the fence
One leg here, one leg there
Sitting on the fence
Taking it easy
Knocking out smiles in all directions
And always, always in the know

Sitting, thinking on the fence
Looking here, peeking there
Reading the paper, hearing the news on time
Washing himself in a screen of smoke

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Song Title: Everybody Wants ("Kol Echad Rotzeh")
Musician: Arik Einstein (featuring Shalom Hanoch)
Year Released: 1998
Credits: lyrics and music by Shalom Hanoch
Website: arik220.tripod.com
Comments:
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Arik Einstein album: Best of (HaMeitav), 2003
[Arik Eintein]
Everybody wants to be a musician
To be a musician, to be a musician
If not a musician, then an actor
If not an actor, then a clown
If not a clown, then a critic

[Shalom Hanoch]
Everybody wants to be a star
To be a star, to be a star
If not a star, then an entertainer
If not an entertainer, then a [show] host
If not a host, then an impersonator

[Arik Eintein]
Everybody wants to be a fat-cat
To be a fat-cat, to be a fat-cat
If not a fat-cat, then a model
If not a model, then a photographer
If not a photographer, then a poet

[Chorus]
Everybody wants to be general manager
To be general secretary, to be chief inspector
Everybody wants to be
Something, someone

[Arik Einstein]
Everybody wants a lovely woman
A lovely woman, a lovely woman
If not lovely, then warm
If not warm, [then] smart
[If] not smart, then rich

[Chorus]
Everybody wants to be general manager
To be general secretary, to be chief inspector
Everybody wants to be
Something, someone

[Shalom Hanoch]
Everybody wants peace now
Peace now, peace now
If not now, then tomorrow
If not tomorrow then when -
When it will be too late?

[Chorus]
Everybody wants to be a musician
To be a musician, to be a musician...
Everybody wants
Everybody wants to be
Everybody wants to be a musician
To be a musician, to be a musician...

If not a musician...
Something, someone

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Song Title: Achinoam Doesn't Know ("Achinoam Lo Yodaat")
Musician: Arik Einstein
Year Released: 1969
Credits: lyrics by Yonatan Gefen; music Robert Huxley
Website: arik220.tripod.com
Comments:
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Arik Einstein album: Poozy (Poozy), 1969
With closed eyes, two ribbons and two [hair] braids
All in all just a little, little girl
With lips embroidered by strawberry fields and dreams
All in all just a little, little girl

She doesn't know anything
[to a girl]: You don't know anything
Achinoam...

At a window across the boulevard, cyclamen [a plant] in clusters
Not for picking, little, little girl
She looks at a bonfire, floats onwards on a rowboat
Far, far away little, little girl

She doesn't know anything
[to a girl]: You don't know anything
Achinoam...

She smiles like grapes and we hope
After all just a little, little girl
And the dreams are nice, between leaves and branches
Good night little, little girl

She doesn't know anything
[to a girl]: You don't know anything
Achinoam...

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Song Title: Fragile ("Shavir")
Musician: Arik Einstein
Video: Original music video also featuring Yitzhak Klepter, one of Israel's best guitarists.
Year Released: 1982
Credits: lyrics by Arik Einstein; music by Yitzhak Klepter
Website: arik220.tripod.com
Comments:
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Arik Einstein album: Best of (HaMeitav), 2003
A fragile person crumbles with ease
Burdens himself with all the problems in the world
Drops off like a leaf blown repeatedly in a light wind
In short, a fragile person crumbles with ease

A fragile person crumbles with ease
Searches for himself, searches all the time
Takes things heavily, thinks it's the end of the world
In short, a fragile person crumbles with ease

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Shalom Hanoch

Song Name Genre Song # in Jukebox
"Because Man is a Tree of the Field" Rock Song #35
"This Way and That" Pop / Rock Song #36
"Little by Little" Pop / Rock Song #37
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Song Title: Because Man is a Tree of the Field [live] ("Ki Ha'Adam Etz Ha'Sadeh")
Musician: Shalom Hanoch
Year Released: (1983) 1988
Credits: lyrics by Natan Zach; music by Shalom Hanoch
Website:
Comments:
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Shalom Hanoch album: True Romance - Shalom Hanoch Live (Roman Amiti), 1988
Because man is a tree of the field
Like man, also the tree sprouts
Like the tree, man's life is cut short
And I don't know
Where I was and where I'll be
Like a tree of the field

Because man is a tree of the field
Like the tree he aspires upwards
Like man he's burned by fire
And I don't know
Where I was and where I'll be
Like a tree of the field

I loved and I also hated
I tasted from this and from that
They buried me in the earth
And it's bitter for me
It's bitter for me in the mouth
Like a tree of the field

Because man is a tree of the field
Like the tree he's thirsty for water
Like man he remains thirsty
And I don't know
Where I was and where I'll be
Like a tree of the field

I loved and I also hated
I tasted from this and from that
They buried me in the earth
And it's bitter for me
It's bitter for me in the mouth
Like a tree of the field

Because man is a tree of the field
Because man is a tree of the field
Tree of the field

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Song Title: This Way and That ("Kakha ve'Kakha")
Musician: Shalom Hanoch
Video: from Shlomo Artzi and Shalom Hanoch's concert tour, "Connection", in Caesaria, 2005
Year Released: 1991
Credits: lyrics and music by Shalom Hanoch
Website:
Comments:
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Shalom Hanoch album: This Time Around (Ba Gilgul Hazeh), 1991
I return from a night at the studio
Rhyming to myself an old love song
To sing in the shower
I think about you all the time
I love you in every way
This way and that, you're unforgetable
Even when you're not here.

Another morning rises in my life
Perhaps I worked too hard
Instead of us being together
But certainly - not perhaps
Also you work a little too hard
This way and that, I want you to rest
Here in my arms.

I wet my face and close my eyes
Letting my imagination run with the water
There's nothing to do - this is what there is in the meantime
You're in every place, this way and that
By night and by morning, this way and that
Fourteen days without being together.

This is a song from a boy in love
If you hear my voice now
You definitely forgive
I think about you all the time
I love you in every way
This way and that, you're unforgetable
Even when you're not here.

You're in every place, this way and that
By night and by morning, this way and that
Fourteen days without being together.
I wet my face and close my eyes
Letting my imagination run with the water.
Fourteen days are an eternity that lasts two weeks.

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Song Title: Little by Little ("Le'at Le'at")
Musician: Shalom Hanoch
Video: original music video pulled from Israel Music Channel 24
Year Released: 1994
Credits: lyrics and music by Shalom Hanoch
Website:
Comments:
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Shalom Hanoch album: Violence (Alimut), 1994
I hear how you sing for me
See you dancing before me
Such a sight with my own eyes
You're presence is a fire in my core [bones]

From how you pull down my clothes
Your body is exposed in all the colors of the rainbow
And you see me see
How much you're beautiful when you're emotional

You get closer to me, little by little
Between whisper and glance, little by little
You reveal who I am, little by little
You reveal to me who you are, little by little

Surprising how your body is so familiar
And how the soul touches the flesh
A touch like this that can't be described
I never knew before

You get closer to me, little by little
You melt between my fingers, little by little
Breaking waves come to the shore, little by little
In an endless movement, little by little

You get closer to me, little by little
Between whisper and glance, little by little
You will reveal who I am, little by little
You will reveal to me who you are, little by little

I hear how you sing for me

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Matti Caspi

Song Name Genre Song # in Jukebox
"A Moment of Silence" Classic Rock / Vocal Song #13
"On Hot Summer Nights" Classic Rock / Vocal Song #50
"Still Will Come the Day" Classic Rock / Vocal Song #51
"I Didn't Know That You Would Leave Me" Classic Rock Song #60
"There it Goes Again" Classic Rock Song #112
"Oh What Will Be" Classic Rock Song #139
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Song Title: A Moment of Silence ("Daka Dumiah")
Musician: Matti Caspi
Year Released: 1978
Credits: lyrics by Yonathan Geffen; music by Matti Caspi
Website: www.matticaspi.co.il
Comments: A song written in the spirit of the "moment of silence" which we observe to commemorate mournful or somber holidays in Israel - memorial day for fallen soldiers, Independence Day, Holocaust remembrance day. The notion of a "moment of silence" (daka dumia) here in Israel is an actual event, whereby people stop their activities completely and stand in silence for 1 or 2 minutes (depending on the occasion) as a siren wails. Caspi plays all the instruments in this song (in fact for all the songs on the album from which this song is from).
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Matti Caspi album: Side A, Side B (Tzad Alef, Tzad Bet), 1978
A moment of silence for the leaves,
which fell in the middle of autumn
And a moment for silence for the words,
which we said as if in vain.
A moment of silence for the flowers,
which fell without us noticing
And a moment of silence for the bird
which wanted to cross the street.

A moment of silence for the woman,
who was with me in my dream.
A moment of silence for the meeting
which hasn't taken place till today.
A moment of silence - and quietly -
for songs in general
And to all the the love
which could have been mine too.

To the memory of the colors which died
together with me and my years,
To the memory of that night
since which my traces have been lost.
A moment of silence for the spring
which changed here without stopping,
And a moment of silence for all those
who left and forgot to return.

And to the memory of all those who remember,
how much time you were at my side,
To the memory of this night
which sees me here all alone.
Many moments of silence
for all which changed and hurts
Listen here for the siren
which I have here in my heart.

A moment of silence for the leaves,
which fell in the middle of autumn
And a moment for silence for the words,
which we said as if in vain.
A moment of silence for the flowers,
which fell without us noticing
And a moment of silence for the bird
which wanted to cross the street.

A moment of silence for the woman,
who was with me in my dream.
A moment of silence for the meeting
which hasn't taken place till today.
A moment of silence - and quietly -
for songs in general
And to all the the love
which could have been mine too.

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Song Title: On Hot Summer Nights ("Beh Leilot Ha'Kaitz Ha'Khamim")
Musician: Matti Caspi
Video: the IDF band version performed by the Artillery Corps Spirit Team with Mali Brunstein on vocals, pulled from Channel 1
Year Released: 1978
Credits: lyrics by Danny Minster; music by Matti Caspi
Website: www.matticaspi.co.il
Comments: Orchestral accompaniment by members of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. The fluitist is a famous musician, Shem-Tov Levy; and the electric guitarist is Chaim Romano.
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Matti Caspi album: Side A, Side B (Tzad Alef, Tzad Bet), 1978
On hot summer nights
Nothing happens
Perhaps a fading star peeps
Through an open window
Perhaps a cricket is heard from far away
But even the clock doesn't tick
On hot summer nights
Nothing happens

Perhaps a cricket is heard from far away
But even the clock doesn't tick
On hot summer nights
Nothing happens

Underneath the mulberry tree in the village
People sit and talk
The read a book with an old smell
Close their eyes and go silent
Nothing else happens
On hot summer nights
Underneath the mulberry tree in the village
People sit and talk

Nothing else happens
On hot summer nights
Underneath the mulberry tree in the village
People sit and talk

Nothing else happens
Nothing else happens

Underneath the mulberry tree in the village
People sit and talk
The read a book with an old smell
Close their eyes and go silent
Nothing else happens
On hot summer nights
Underneath the mulberry tree in the village
People sit and talk

Nothing else happens
On hot summer nights
Underneath the mulberry tree in the village
People sit and talk

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Song Title: Still Will Come the Day ("Od Yavo Ha'Yom")
Musician: Matti Caspi
Year Released: 1978
Credits: lyrics by Ehud Manor; music by Matti Caspi
Website: www.matticaspi.co.il
Comments: Orchestral accompaniment by members of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. The electric guitarist is Chaim Romano.
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Matti Caspi album: Side A, Side B (Tzad Alef, Tzad Bet), 1978
Still will come the day -
Still will come the day
Like a sparrow to the garden in Autumn
Yes I see -
Yes I see
All of it elderly and white
It's a lost star -
It's a lost star
Which is coming closer to here now
Still will come the day -
Still will come the day
It will strike at its flute

Still will come the day -
Still will come the day
And again we'll be together with it without end
It's an ancient melody -
It's an ancient melody
Whose notes were discovered - it lives
Like an old friend -
Like an old friend
Who disappeared and returned to me
Still will come the day -
Still will come the day
Here it is over me

When the day will come -
When the day will come
Smile to me with a wet gaze
You will be with me -
You will be with me
I'm your good little child
Call out my name -
Call out my name
And a boy will dance with a girl in the street
Still will come the day -
Still will come the day
Perhaps it's already close at hand

When the day will come -
When the day will come
We'll walk in a new light - golden light
You will be good -
You will be good
Trickling with milk and honey like then
You will be close by -
You will be close by
And in your hand will be felt its grasp
Still will come the day -
Still will come the day
It will turn out sweet like then

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Song Title: I Didn't Know That You Would Leave Me ("Lo Yadati She'Tilkhi Mi'meni")
Musician: Matti Caspi
Video: performance for a memorial tribute to composer Ehud Manor, most of whose works were written for Caspi; from Channel 2, circa. 2006
Year Released: 1976
Credits: lyrics by Matti Caspi; music by Matti Caspi
Website: www.matticaspi.co.il
Comments:
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Matti Caspi album: The Best of (HaMeitav), 2004
I didn't dream that you would leave me
Without saying a word, without giving a warning
I didn't dream that suddenly I would be struck down
Thunder such as this on a clear day
And I am innocent, I always thought
That blissful ones like us there aren't
And in my imagination to see you my love
How together we would grow old

A voice calls out tonight
There isn't a reply tonight
And myself -
How I hate,
How I will change
For you

You were something so definite
Like coffee in the morning, like sleep
I was never next to you, tense
I didn't develop a means to defend myself
Perhaps you're soon returning
Just went out to buy a few things
And we'll go together to see a movie
Or we'll decide that we're staying in

A voice calls out tonight
There isn't a reply tonight
And myself -
How I hate,
How I will change
For you

And I am innocent, I always thought
That blissful ones like us there aren't
And in my imagination to see you my love
How together we would grow old

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Song Title: There it Goes Again ("Hineh Hineh")
Musician: Matti Caspi
Video: Taken from the Channel 10 show "Behind the News" hosted by former Tislam band member, Yair Nitzani, who begins his interview with the question: "Tell me Matti, did it ever happen to you in an interview or for a newspaper that they asked you a question and you didn't reply or didn't have an answer?" Caspi, famously, does not smile.
Year Released: 1975
Credits: lyrics by Ehud Manor; music by Matti Caspi
Website: www.matticaspi.co.il
Comments:
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Matti Caspi album: The Best of (HaMeitav), 2004
There it goes again
A song which starts low
A melody which begins with a "mi", with a "mol"
But wants
But wants to grow up into a "la" minor, a "fa" minor
And looks for an outlet for herself
And here she rises, rises, rises

I didn't know you would run away
I didn't know that you would fly so far away
I didn't know that you would forget me
Talk back to me and give me a reply
There it goes again

I didn't know you would run away
I didn't know that you would fly so far away
I didn't know that you would forget me
Talk back to me and give me a reply
There it goes again

Another year begins slowly
Another year begins today to grow
The day is crawling on
And tomorrow you'll say hello
Like a dream
She hurries on her way and she, she
Rises and rises up

I didn't know you would run away
I didn't know that you would fly so far away
I didn't know that you would forget me
Talk back to me and give me a reply
There it goes again

I didn't know you would run away
I didn't know that you would fly so far away
I didn't know that you would forget me
Talk back to me and give me a reply
There it goes again

A love that starts deeply
A love that promises to be close
Who promises that she'll be good [well behaved]
Pretty, pretty until her end
Still small for a big [grown up] one
But here she is
Rising, rising up

I didn't know you would run away
I didn't know that you would fly so far away
I didn't know that you would forget me
Talk back to me and give me a reply
There it goes again

I didn't know you would run away
I didn't know that you would fly so far away
I didn't know that you would forget me
Talk back to me and give me a reply
There it goes again

That was my song
A song which loved me for a year
But suddenly became different
Moved on and left
And she's no more, she's no more, she's no more

I didn't know you would run away
I didn't know that you would fly so far away
I didn't know that you would forget me
Talk back to me and give me a reply
There it goes again

I didn't know you would run away
I didn't know that you would fly so far away
I didn't know that you would forget me
Talk back to me and give me a reply
There it goes again

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Song Title: Oh What Will Be ("Ho Ma Yihiyeh")
Musician: Matti Caspi
Year Released: 1987
Credits: original music and lyrics by Chico Buarque / Hebrew adaptation by: Ehud Manor; music adapted by by Matti Caspi
Website: www.matticaspi.co.il
Comments: Based on "Que Sera Sera"
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Matti Caspi album: The Best of (HaMeitav), 2004
Oh, what will be, what will be
Tell me what will be here between me and you
They promised fairy tails to me and you, to me and you
And we didn't anything from all that was promised
They told me about a world without a shade of cloud
They told you about a prince and his white horse
They said that love is good, is good
They said look straight ahead in hope, in hope
And I have no idea what will be, what will be
But in my heart I still want, hope
That not all is lost, that we'll live here forever
In bliss and in wealth [a figure of speech in Hebrew]

Oh, what will be, what will be
Tell me what will be here between me and you
I tried to find everything that was promised
But no miracle befell me, it's an unsuccessful story
I tried to ask for just a little more, a little more
They said that's all there is, so learn to compromise
I thought of my house, of my father, of my mother
I thought I'd continue searching on my own
And I have no idea what will be, what will be
But in my heart I still want, hope
That not all is lost, that we'll live here forever
In bliss and in wealth

Oh, what will be, what will be
Tell me what will be here between me and you
See what cold, what rain pours down
When will this pass, it just continues, it just continues
You remember every story, every word, every word
Repeating every word like a prayer, like a prayer
One mustn't despair, and mustn't leave
One must be stubborn, and must love
And I have no idea what will be, what will be
But in my heart I still want, hope
That not all is lost, that we'll live here forever
In bliss and in wealth

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Yehuda Poliker
All the songs in this section come from one double-disk live album comprising Poliker's hits as a solo artist and member of the band "Benzine"; some of the songs were re-adapated from their original versions to reflect Greek influences (Poliker's family roots). Joining him on his concert tour were Mashina's basist Michael Benson and their keyboardist-accordionist-saxophonist Avner Hodorov. In my (humble) opinion this album is one of the finest works of music ever produced in any language...

Song Name Genre Song # in Jukebox
"Melting in the Rain" (live) Rock Song #46
"For Your Blue Eyes" (live) Instrumental Song #84
"A Story of Times Past" (live) Instrumental Song #90
"I Don't Know" (live) Rock Song #93
"Face to Face" (live) Rock Song #98
"What Will Be Will Be" (live) Rock Song #140
"Less But Hurts" (live) Rock Song #141
"And the Children Come" (live) Rock Song #142
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Song Title: Melting in the Rain [live] ("Namess Ba'Geshem")
Musician: Yehuda Poliker
Video: original music video
Year Released: (1995) 1996
Credits: lyrics by Ya'akov Gil'ad; music by Yehuda Poliker
Website: www.nmc-music.co.il/nmc/artists/poliker/
Comments:
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Yehuda Poliker album: Live in Caesaria (Hofaah Khaya), 1996
Rain is falling outside, he's alone and cold
On the public phone he hears a voice that familiar to him
It's his mother at home, automatic and brief
"Hello, leave a message and I will call you back"
It's really urgent for him
But she, what does she know
She watches 'Popolitika' [television show]
And she can barely hear
She told him: "don't live here"
And his dad also said: "one like you, not here with us
We didn't ask for an odd bird"

Rain outside still continues to fall
An ambulance wails, in the street passes a police car
"Kid, where do you live" everyone asks him
"Me, in the public park - on the bench above the sea"
He was last seen with a backback and a sweater
He left an envelope on the table in the room
And wrote in continuation about their last conversation
"One like me won't live here
It's better to live in a kennel"

Melting in the rain, nose in the wind
Yes, he won't, won't cry
Alone all night long
For whom is he waiting
Melting in the rain, nose in the wind
On a night as cold as this
If there is a god here
Also he would freeze

The hour is already late
His mother is in the shower, wrapped in a towel
The rain is falling, her laundry is getting wet
His father, on the phone, ordered a video and a meal
And fell asleep in a pyjama watching the family channel
It's raining outside and the traffic is crawling
The deliverymen are on the way, two cops are at the door
The found him freezing, they thought he'd fallen asleep
On the dark edge of the city
On the sea shore

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Song Title: For Your Blue Eyes [live] ("Le Einayikh Ha'Khulot")
Musician: Yehuda Poliker
Year Released: (1992) 1996
Credits: music by Yehuda Poliker
Website: www.nmc-music.co.il/nmc/artists/poliker/
Comments: An instrumental piece.
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Yehuda Poliker album: Live in Caesaria (Hofaah Khaya), 1996

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Song Title: A Story of Times Past [live] ("Sippur Zmanim Avru")
Musician: Yehuda Poliker
Year Released: (1990) 1996
Credits: music by Yehuda Poliker
Website: www.nmc-music.co.il/nmc/artists/poliker/
Comments: An instrumental piece; Poliker's Greek roots are apparent in this and his other Mediterranean pieces.
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Yehuda Poliker album: Live in Caesaria (Hofaah Khaya), 1996

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Song Title: I Don't Know [live] ("Lo Yodeah")
Musician: Yehuda Poliker
Video: original music video
Year Released: (1995) 1996
Credits: lyrics by Yehuda Poliker and Ya'akov Gil'ad; music by Yehuda Poliker
Website: www.nmc-music.co.il/nmc/artists/poliker/
Comments:
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Yehuda Poliker album: Live in Caesaria (Hofaah Khaya), 1996
I don't know if you know
How to love me,
Like I don't know if I know how
To love you like you are

I take back terribly hard things
That I said to you and you said also to me
Because every word is like a slap
Like a stab
Every word which was said

Perhaps I erred, and didn't see
Perhaps you loved me in your way
If only I could know
Perhaps I would calm down and relax

I take back terribly hard things
That I said to you and you said also to me
Because every word is like a slap
Like a stab
Every word which was said
Every word which was said

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Song Title: Face to Face [live] ("Panim El Mul Panim")
Musician: Yehuda Poliker
Year Released: (1981) 1996
Credits: lyrics by Ya'akov Gil'ad; music by Yehuda Poliker
Website: www.nmc-music.co.il/nmc/artists/poliker/
Comments: Originally a song by Poliker's first band "Benzine".
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Yehuda Poliker album: Live in Caesaria (Hofaah Khaya), 1996
Face to face
A meeting in the middle of life
We've reached ourselves
From places which are so different
The city looks different
As if we weren't here
Tonight you're staying
Wait with me for the morning to come

We loved each other once, in truth and in innocence
We loved like children know how
On me and on you they see the years
And you're beautiful, face to face

Face to face
Perhaps just once in a lifetime
Time closes in on us
A circle of changes
So what came over you
And what brings you to here
Tonight you're staying
Wait with me for the morning to come

We loved each other once, in truth and in innocence
We loved like children know how
On me and on you they see the years
And you're beautiful, face to face

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Song Title: What Will Be Will Be [live] ("Ma Yihiyeh Yihiyeh")
Musician: Yehuda Poliker
Video: original music video
Year Released: 1996
Credits: lyrics by Yehuda Poliker and Yaakov Gilad; music by Yehuda Poliker
Website: www.nmc-music.co.il/nmc/artists/poliker/
Comments:
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Yehuda Poliker album: Live in Caesaria (Hofaah Khaya), 1996
There's nobody at home
The door is closed
Doors always used to be open
And nothing would happen
And the world seemed small
Always protected and not understood
Tell me what have we lost here

They threw a stone at you
Some disturbed kid
The blood is on your shirt
I was really shocked
After almost thirty years
You can see a very small scar
And a sea of fears without amend

What will be will be
It's you who says that
And don't mean a word of it
What will be will be
It's you who says that
And I who fear every word of yours

Dogs are barking at us
The door is closed
The house we grew up in
Is up for sale
And in its place will rise a building
On a noisy street within the [car] smoke
Tell me what did we forget here

Years have turned into history
Don't look back
Everyone who is no longer here
Went without returning
And those who died still live within you
And don't leave you for a moment
Tell me what will become of you

What will be will be
It's you who says that
And don't mean a word of it
What will be will be
It's you who says that
And I who fear every word of yours

What will be will be
It's you who says that
And don't mean a word of it
What will be will be
It's you who says that
And I who fear every word of yours

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Song Title: Less But Hurts [live] ("Pakhot Aval Koev")
Musician: Yehuda Poliker
Video: original music video
Year Released: 1996
Credits: lyrics by Yonatan Geffen; music by Yehuda Poliker
Website: www.nmc-music.co.il/nmc/artists/poliker/
Comments:
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Yehuda Poliker album: Live in Caesaria (Hofaah Khaya), 1996
Eventually it's forgotten as if it doesn't exist
But when the evening strikes
I tell you that's how it is between us
[it exists] Less, but it still hurts

What was wounded within me, got wounded and healed
I almost don't think about it
You learn to live with it like that
Less, but it still hurts
You learn to live with it like that
Less, but it still hurts

With a glass and a cookie you can sweeten things up
There's no limit to the escapism
It doesn't disappear, it's just far away or asleep
And it hurts, but less
It doesn't disappear, it's just far away
Hurts but less

Less and yet, still it harms
It comes and goes, you know
It hurts when I, I touch you
It hurts when you touch [me]
Less and yet, still it harms
It comes and goes, you know
It hurts when I,
It hurts me when you,
It hurts when you touch [me]

Eventually it's forgotten as if it doesn't exist
But when the evening strikes
I tell you that's how it is between us
[it exists] Less, but it still hurts

We're not so far along, we
And if things are bad for me I write

It hurts but less
Less but it still hurts
It hurts but less
Less but it still hurts

Less and yet, still it harms
It comes and goes, you know
It hurts when I, I touch you
It hurts when you touch [me]
Less and yet, still it harms
It comes and goes, you know
It hurts when I,
It hurts me when you,
It hurts when you touch [me]

Less and yet, still it harms
It comes and goes, you know
It hurts when I,
It hurts me when you,
It hurts when you touch [me]

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Song Title: And the Children Come [live] ("Ve HaYeladim Bayim")
Musician: Yehuda Poliker
Year Released: 1996
Credits: lyrics by Yehuda Poliker and Yaakov Gilad; music by Yehuda Poliker
Website: www.nmc-music.co.il/nmc/artists/poliker/
Comments:
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Yehuda Poliker album: Live in Caesaria (Hofaah Khaya), 1996
They tug and continue, playing the game
Someone will cry and someone will laugh
Someone will come out of it whole, and someone hurt
I always think of the worst possible case

They hurt, they insult, they mistake and they are justified
We've turned into veteran fighting foxes
We who were the best of friends
We learned to be wolves and enemies

And the children come and the children go
They leave behind them innocence and adolescence
[After] so many years what's another week
It's a permanent routine, a permanent routine

And if we'll feel guilty, how will we part as friends
Losers, losing in lost battles
This battle is lost, I'm packing up and finishing
Tomorrow I leave, I say and stay

And the children come and the children go
They leave behind them innocence and adolescence
[After] so many years what's another week
It's a permanent routine, a permanent routine

They tug and continue, playing the game
Someone will cry and someone will laugh
How will I get out of this, the end after all is known
I'm tired of thumbing through another day and another week

And the children come and the children go
They leave behind them innocence and adolescence
[After] so many years what's another week
It's a permanent routine, a permanent routine

And the children come and the children go
They leave behind them innocence and adolescence

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Ehud Banai

Song Name Genre Song # in Jukebox
"Performance for Reservists" Rock Song #47
"Hebrewman" Reggae/Rock Song #48
"Coming Out" Rock Song #56
"I Will Bring You" Ethnic/Rock Song #57
"David and Saul" Ethnic/Rock Song #69
"Come Home" Rock Song #70
"An Hour of Mystery" Rock Song #75
"Your Time Has Passed" Rock Song #86
"City of Refuge" Rock Song #96
"The Golden Calf" Rock Song #101
"Starter" Rock Song #116
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Song Title: Performance for Reservists ("Hofa'at Miluim")
Musician: Ehud Banai
Video: original music video, pulled from "Musika 24" channel
Year Released: 2004
Credits: lyrics by Ehud Banai; music by Ehud Banai and Gil Smetana
Website: www.ehudbanai.co.il
Comments: Based on Banai's personal experiences as a travelling performer between army outposts during the Lebanon campaign (1982). In an interview with Army Radio ("Galatz") Banai said this song was based on one experience where while travelling between the outposts he was stopped by a convoy whose commander asked him to play just one song for the soldiers. They chose "David and Saul", which Banai played; two days later he found out that seven of the soldiers including the commander (Eyal Levi) died in action shortly thereafter. Former servicemen identify closely with this song because of the tense atmosphere it describes - and the heartbreak of the losses in Lebanon.
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Ehud Banai album: Answer Me (Aneh Li), 2004
From outpost to outpost, a musician with a guitar
Drags a TV-stand, sings on a crate
A moment before I sit to eat
A scrambled egg.
The cook smiles, the NCO says:
"This will be a surprise, they'll really be happy
Eat, they're now on the way,
We have here twenty soldiers or so"

The cook asks: "Do you sing 'mizrachi'? [middle-eastern/North African music]
Perhaps you can sing some Zohar Argov" [the most popular 'Mizrachi' singer in Israel]
I think to myself, why not,
If this can do them some good...

And here they are, coming with no form ["body"]
Alighting the glow of the heavens
The hall ["cavity"/"corpse"] fills up, light of memorial candles
And the time to perform has come

The NCO says: "you'd better get started
There are more performances, we need to hurry"
The cook says: "yalla, gingi, give it some gas ["hurry up"],
The boys are tired, nu, start playing"

I strum the guitar, not a sound comes out
A deep prolonged silence
A long convoy, on a dangerous path
Convoy, to where are you going

Light of memorial candles
Doesn't leave, doesn't leave
It flickers

And suddenly the sound of an explosion, they dash out in a hurry
I remain there in the empty room
The cook yawns, the NCO says
"Nevermind, it happens, there will be another time"

A deluge pours down on us
From the heights of Lebanon to Sinai
I strum the guitar and sing to the cook:
"A sea of tears in both my eyes." [from Zohar Argov]

Light of memorial candles
Doesn't leave, doesn't leave
It flickers

A long convoy, on a dangerous path
Convoy, to where are you going

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Song Title: Hebrewman ("Hibruman")
Musician: Ehud Banai
Year Released: 2004
Credits: lyrics by Ehud Banai; music by Ehud Banai and Gil Smetana
Website: www.ehudbanai.co.il
Comments:
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Ehud Banai album: Answer Me (Aneh Li), 2004
[in English]
Speak up, the language of the Hebrewman
Loud and clear! The language of the Hebrewman

It is the language of the prophets
Of the sign up on the wall
It is old and sacred
It will open up your soul
Speak up, the language of the Hebrewman
Loud and clear! The language of the Hebrewman

From the deepest mass of downtown Babylon
It will take you to the next train to Mount Zion
It will get you up, It will make you fly
The language of the Hebrewman will take you high

You know, Abraham spoke the language of the Hebrewman
And also Jesus from Nazereth and Maria Magdalene
Einstein Jeremiah the Dylan and the Cohen
They know something about the language of the Hebrewman

And when the Lord said "Let there be light!"
It was in the language of the Hebrewman
And when Moses said: "Let my people go!"
It was in the language of the Hebrewman
Speak the language of the Hebrewman

[in Hebrew]
And there was on that day a new light, great and illuminating
Slowly opens the crack, slowly falls the wall
And when the hour arrives, will come One in the name of One
Will know and understand the whole world one language
Speak the language of the Hebrewman

And there was on that day, will come One in the name of One
Will know and understand the whole world one language
Slowly will be build the verse stage by stage, and letter by letter
Please don't tell me "bye bye", say just "goodbye"
Speak the language of the Hebrewman

And let us all say: "halleluyah!"
Let us all say: "Amen"
A day will come and everybody
Will speak the language of the Hebrewman!

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Song Title: Coming Out to the Light [i.e. To Be Published / See Light] ("Yotzeh La'Or")
Musician: Ehud Banai
Year Released: 1996
Credits: lyrics by Ehud Banai; music by Ehud Banai
Website: www.ehudbanai.co.il
Comments:
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Ehud Banai album: In a Little While (Od Meh At), 1996
This path begins here
Between a bank branch and a stream
Not paved, not always marked
This path begins here

It crosses the city
Climbs up on a hill
Continues to the sea
It continues also tomorrow
Cuts through the air, between the buildings
Comes out to the light, to a new life

Go on it, go on it now
A flock of birds above you
Accompany your steps
From afar is lit a light
Don't stray, so that you can return

This song begins here
Blue on a page of white
Not completed, not always directed
This song begins here

It crosses the city
Climbs up on a hill
Continues to the sea
It continues also tomorrow
Cuts through the air, between the buildings
Comes out to the light [gets published / sees light], to a new life

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Song Title: I Will Bring You ("Avi Lakh")
Musician: Ehud Banai
Year Released: 1996
Credits: lyrics by Ehud Banai; music by Ehud Banai
Website: www.ehudbanai.co.il
Comments:
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Ehud Banai album: In a Little While (Od Meh At), 1996
What shall I bring you my little girl
What shall I bring you as a present
What shall I bring you my little girl
What shall I bring you as a present
I will bring a song of lovers
I will bring you light of stars
I will bring you a breeze of the sea
I will bring you all of the world

I will bring you laughter of children
Which will scare away all the fears
I will bring you in both my hands
I will bring you all of my life

The way to you I will turn into a picture
And I will bring it to you as a present
The way to you I will write into a song
And I will bring it to you on a clear morning

All the way to you I will write into a song
And I will bring it to you on a clear morning

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Song Title: David and Saul (A Song of Yearning) ("David ve Shaul")
Musician: Ehud Banai
Year Released: 1992
Credits: lyrics by Ehud Banai; music by Ehud Banai
Website: www.ehudbanai.co.il
Comments: With Yehudit Ravitz on guitar, this song is based on the biblical story of Saul (the first king of ancient Israel), and David. Troubled by an evil spirit, Saul requests soothing music and through this request David eventually comes to Saul's court to play the harp. David almost by chance also subsequently becomes the Jewish soldier to fight and defeat Goliath, and the praise of the women which he receives causes Saul intense jealousy who fears David will become a rival for the throne. On one occasion, posessed by an evil spirit, Saul throws a spear at David but misses. He conspires to remove David from the court, then pursues him beyond the city. Eventually the two make peace together.
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Ehud Banai album: The Third Album (Ha Shlishi), 1992
It's a late night hour, everyone had already gone to sleep
Only Saul is awake, gloomy, and calls David on the phone:
"Perhaps you could come over, eh David? My soul is a black lake,
Bring with you the guitar because your fingers bear light"

David comes immediately and calmly, sits down and tunes up
The labor he knows well, closes his eyes, plays
Ten fingers which David has, the tip of each finger is a ray of light
When he strums the chords the time flows for him backwards

Saul is inside torn up, struggles within his stomach
He loves, he hates, and is jealous, addicted to his friend
Something dark falls, the demon returns and rages
A knife is thrown in the air, and suddenly there's a wall between the two

David avoids Saul but Saul doesn't give up
David forgets and forgives when Saul calls:
"Come again to play for me David, take me to the stars
Come again to play tonight - a song of yearning".

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Song Title: Come Home ("Bo Ha'Baita")
Musician: Ehud Banai
Video: original music video (a live rendition)
Year Released: 1996
Credits: lyrics by Ehud Banai; music by Ehud Banai
Website: www.ehudbanai.co.il
Comments:
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Ehud Banai album: In a Little While (Od Meh At), 1996
This is not darkness, not light
This is the time to return, come home, bird-man

This is not darkness, not light
This is the time to return, come home, bird-man

A lightower flashes, tears clouds, a gloomy darkness, three stars
The satellite picture gets blurry, a twilight zone
The edge of the heavens you touch
Commander to bird-man, do you hear?
Do you even remember still who you miss?

Not darkness, not light
This is the time to return, come home, bird-man

Electricity flickers through the blinds, a white moon, purple skies
The shadow of a wing slips by and passes over the rooves of houses
The edge of the heavens you touch
Commander to bird-man, do you hear?
Do you even remember still where to you're going?

Not darkness, not light
This is the time to return, come home, come, bird-man

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Song Title: An Hour of Mystery ("Sha'ah Shel Mistorin")
Musician: Ehud Banai
Year Released: 1992
Credits: lyrics by Ehud Banai; music by Ehud Banai
Website: www.ehudbanai.co.il
Comments:
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Ehud Banai album: The Third Album (Ha Shlishi), 1992
Yitzhak Shen-Zahav ["Shen-Zahav" = Gold-Tooth] was the commander of a special unit
Shmuel was a kid who thought that life was a movie
The flag of the two became a wrung rag
After they, with great difficulty, were rescued from downtown Beirut.
Shen-Zahav left everything ran off to New York City
There were rumors that he was an advisor to an underground [movement] in Tahiti
They saw him in Abu-Dhabi, in the guise of an Agency [i.e. Jewish Agency] man
Converting to Islam with a Christian woman under the supervision of the Rabbinate

This was an hour in between the nights
An hour of mystery

Shmuel smelled that there was some kind of something in the air
And he looked for Shen-Zahav, like a madman, all over the city
Until he ran into him in a restaurant run by Yemenites
On the edge of 42nd Street, corner of 60th Street
Shen-Zahav said to Shmuel: "Listen, there's a certain matter,
Not drugs and also not arms but it's dangerous"
Shmuel said to Shen-Zahav: "Mate, I'm with you
After all, what already is dangerous to me and to you"

This was an hour in between the nights
An hour of mystery

Shen-Zahav brought Shmuel into the secret of the matter
Involved in a business already more than four sizes large
It's about a daring operation, against all laws of time
The commands come straight from above, the code word is "rainbow in the cloud".
The two were prepared now to go out towards the unknown
When appeared a pretty girl in modest dress
She said she was Rebecca Gur-Aryeh, from Brooklyn, from the garden of a Rabbi
A close, actually quite distant, relative of Yitzhak Shen-Zahav

This was an hour in between the nights
An hour of mystery

Shmuel invited Rebecca to sit in the back
Shen-Zahav behind the wheel drove hours without stopping
It was a night without a moon on a road covered in fog
Rebecca asked: "Where to?" And they replied: "To hell" ["Azazel" in the song - the cliff from which the scapegoat was sent to its death as part of the Day of Atonement ritual].
She shouted: "Hey! There's a chasm right before us!"
Shen-Zahav, emotion, whispered: "Yes, that's the border line"
When Rebecca understood that the two of them would not stop she jumped from the car
They were swallowed in a crack of light, which like thunder, cut through the dimness

This was an hour in between the nights
An hour of mystery

Shen-Zahav and Shmuel to this day have not returned
On CNN it was reported about a black hole in the place where they jumped
They say they overcome the forces of gravity and attraction
They saw them simultaneously in Texas, Bat Yam and in Haifa.
And Rebecca Gur-Aryeh awoke in ancient times
She search on the [TV] screens, fruitlessly, a program with roots
From time to time she thinks of Shmuel and of Yitzhak Shen-Zahav
And to herself she thinks, interesting where they are now

This was an hour in between the nights
An hour of mystery
Yes, this was an hour in between the nights
An hour of mystery

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Song Title: Your Time Has Passed (Your Time is Over) ("Zmankha Avar")
Musician: Ehud Banai and the Refugees (Ehud Banai ve Ha'Plitim)
Video: original music video, pulled from the "Zehu-Ze" ("This is It") program on Educational TV Channel 23, with Yosi Olifant on guitar, Gil Smetana on bass, Jean-Jacques Goldberg on drums and Noam Zeid at the desk
Year Released: 1987
Credits: lyrics by Ehud Banai; music by Ehud Banai
Website: www.ehudbanai.co.il
Comments:
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Ehud Banai and the Refugees album: Ehud Banai and the Refugees (Ehud Banai ve HaPlitim), 1987 Ehud Banai and the Refugees
In my dreams I returned to my high school
To a 'Purim' [Jewish holiday] party
Waxman stood in a corner embarrassed
This was before he began with his travels.
"I thought that you were in India" I told him
"I am in India" he said
"And you're also in India now
Don't you feel strange?!
We're just guests here for a moment
Look around
This isn't our party,
Are you listening?"
"I'm listening" I told him
"And that really isn't a familiar song"
"Very correct" said Waxman to me
"Your time has passed"
"Your time has passed"
"Your time has passed"
"Your time has passed"

In my dreams I returned to my high school
To the annual trip
Rosman disappeared with the portable tape-player
Suddenly I heard Abbey-Road between the bushes
"The truck won't wait" I called to him
"Let them go already!" he said
"I'm not moving from here until the end of the side
This is a wonderful part!
We're just guests here for a moment
Look around
That's not our truck
Are you listening?"
"I'm listening" I told him
"But it's starting to get cold for me"
"Goodbye" said Rosman -
"Your time has passed"
"Your time has passed"
"Your time has passed"
"Your time has passed"

In my dreams I returned to my high school
And I didn't prepare my homework.
Fixman, sweating, hinted that I come
He wanted us to run away, to his place to hear records.
"The bell is already ringing" I told him
"Let it ring" he said
"There's nothing at all to be afraid of
Everything has already passed
We're just guests here for a moment
Look around
This isn't our bell
Are you listening?"
"I'm listening" I told him
"And this is such a strange dream"
"Wake up" Fixman told me
"Your time has passed"
"Your time has passed"
"Your time has passed"
"Your time has passed, passed, passed, passed, passed"

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Song Title: City of Refuge ("Ir Miklat")
Musician: Ehud Banai and the Refugees (Ehud Banai ve Ha'Plitim)
Video: clip from a series of live performances broadcast in the framework of a Channel 1 program "Songs We Love", circa. 1987
Year Released: 1987
Credits: lyrics by Ehud Banai; music by Ehud Banai
Website: www.ehudbanai.co.il
Comments: The Book of Judges speaks of "cities of refuge" as towns to which perpetrators of manslaughter could claim the right of asylum to avoid blood vengeance from their victims families. The Torah names six cities as being a city of refuge: Golan, Ramoth, Bosor, Kedesh, Shechem (Nablus), and Hebron
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Ehud Banai and the Refugees album: Ehud Banai and the Refugees (Ehud Banai ve HaPlitim), 1987 Ehud Banai and the Refugees
Before the trickle turns into a deluge
I have to find a gate which is not locked
Because again the "blues" have returned to me
I have to get out, I have to move

On the road which twists between Acco [Acre] and Tzfat [Safed]
In Tiberias on the pier I go down to Eilat
Spit out, escaped, seeking a city of refuge
Spit out, escaped, seeking a city of refuge

City of refuge, city of refuge, city of refuge

On the horizon sparkle the faraway lights
There I arrived with my final ounce of strength
[to a female:] And you will wait in the entrance and turn on the light
A man comes back to you from the freezing cold

Take me to the altar before I break
And until the truth comes out I will hide inside of you
Because you, yes you, will be for me

A city of refuge, city of refuge, city of refuge

Yes until the truth comes out I will hide inside of you
Until the storm passes over and the ice breaks
Until a flowing stream develops and breaks forth
Until the judge comes and us pardons
You, yes you, will be for me

A city of refuge, city of refuge, city of refuge

Until a dry streams develops and breaks forth
Until the judge comes and us pardons
You, yes you, will be for me

A city of refuge, city of refuge, city of refuge

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Song Title: The Golden Calf ("Egel HaZahav")
Musician: Ehud Banai and the Refugees (Ehud Banai ve HaPlitim)
Video: pulled from Channel 1; a performance for a program.
Year Released: 1987
Credits: lyrics by Ehud Banai; music by Ehud Banai
Website: www.ehudbanai.co.il
Comments:
Hear the song!


Ehud Banai and the Refugees album: Ehud Banai and the Refugees (Ehud Banai ve HaPlitim), 1987 Ehud Banai and the Refugees
We're here in the heart of the desert
Thirsting for waters of life
And you are on the mountain top
Above the clouds
There is no omen
There is no sign
So many days
In a closed circle we turn
Around a golden calf

There is no one who will strike the rock
Someone who will give direction
In the darkness here we fight over every crumb
Around the golden calf

He does not descend from the mountain top
He does not come down towards the people
They turn out in a wild dance
Dancing around the golden calf
Around the golden calf

They beg him, don't leave us now
Be our father
An abandoned herd, dancing around it
Call to him in vain
Golden calf
Golden calf

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Song Title: "Starter" ("Starter")
Musician: Ehud Banai
Year Released: 2004
Credits: lyrics by Yosi Elifant; music by Ehud Banai
Website: www.ehudbanai.co.il
Comments:
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Ehud Banai album: Answer Me (Aneh Li), 2004
I sat at Starter's place with Micha "the quiet one"
Like every Tuesday, after noontime
"Starter" had a certain kind of look
"There's something to discuss" said his eyes
Between the children and us, Gila moves around
Caresses "Starter" and smiles quietly
She loves him like crazy
She would give her eyes for him

"Starter" opened up and said that "basically
Our lives are neither here nor there
True, we're not lacking for anything
But to live in small style is not to the point
The idea is to rob some safes
A one-time hit now and forever
And I have a man on the inside, the watchman,
It's indeed smooth to get in with a key"

And time moves on, because that's what time is supposed to do
The time moves on, because time is time, and there are no stops

"That the watchman is not one of our crew", I said
"It will cause problems, it was make a mess".
"You have to admit" Gila cut in
"That 'Starter's' a genius and this is a good plan"

A day before the mission, my wife's a little tense
She's not calm, she says, and I get angry
"Look at Gila" I tell her "Look at Gila -
Boy, 'Starter' the genius knew who to get married to"

And time moves on, because that's what time is supposed to do
The time moves on, because time is time, and there are no stops

The burglary was carried out precisely like a watch, without any hitches
All the way home we didn't stop laughing
I told my wife to start packing
In two to three days we're flying to New York

An hour before the flight, there's a knock at the door
They arrest the three of us and there's an investigation
"It's your watchman!" I shout at "Starter"
"I told you he'd bring the police!"

And time moves on, because that's what time is supposed to do
The time moves on, because time is time, and there are no stops

Ten years inside I didn't see "Starter"
I didn't hear from Gila and also not from the quiet one [Micha]
Who came to me a day after my release and told me
What had really happened there:
"The cop who arrested the three of us
Got ahead in life, today he's a station chief
And his beautiful wife, you won't believe, is called Gila
We were the wedding present..."

And the time stopped for nearly two minutes
The time stopped and so did the heart
I went outside, caught a taxi
And flew off to visit "Starter" the hurt

In the beginning he didn't dare look me in the eyes
Afterwards he lifted his head and smiled
"The money and Gila went", he said,
"But where's the time that went, where's the time that is going..."

And time moves on, because that's what time is supposed to do
The time moves on, because time is time, and there are no stops

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Mashina

Song Name Genre Song # in Jukebox
"Certified Optician" Pop / rock Song #4
"Sweet Future" (live) Pop / rock Song #55
"She Argued With Him for Hours" Pop / rock Song #62
"Ballad for a Double Agent" Pop / rock Song #91
"Girls of The Sea" (live) Pop / rock Song #94
"Danny" (live) Pop / rock Song #97
"Because She Doesn't Want To" Pop / rock Song #125
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Song Title: Certified Optician ("Optikai Meduplam")
Musician: Mashina
Year Released: 1985
Credits: lyrics and music by Shlomi Brakha
Website: www.mashina.com
Comments: Mashina's first song, released in July 1985 and independently recorded. It was originally supposed to be called "Hardship in Agriculture" with slightly different lyrics.
Hear the song!


Mashina album: Ladies and Gentlemen - The Best of (Gvirotai Ve Rabotai), 1989
Even a certified optician
Goes to the beach in summer
But in the winter it's cold
The sea is so ruthless

Yes, yes the winter's frustrating
No sun, just rain and shade
Perhaps there was a mistake
Hardship in agriculture. A mistake?

He wants to conquer the world
He wants to run away like everyone else
To Rome or Morocco
Perhaps to Tokyo, too

I continue to live just like that
And the world always seems so nice
So why is this worthwhile
Enough with this and stop

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Song Title: Sweet Future [live] ("Atid Matok")
Musician: Mashina
Video: original music video pulled from educational TV Channel 23
Year Released: (1984) 1995
Credits: lyrics by Yuval Banai and Shlomi Brakha; music by Shlomi Brakha
Website: www.mashina.com
Comments:
Hear the song!


Mashina album: Time Machine - Live 1995 (Mekhonat Ha Zman), 1995
Everyone, everyone is driving far
Looking for a sweet future
And only I, in the morning rise
And on Line 5 drive towards the sea

The bus is full of smoke
Two old ladies and the conductor
One wrote on a concrete wall
Where is the nation and where is the vision
Where is the nation and where is the concrete

The birds sing me good morning
Perhaps I can fly with them far, far away
To fly and not to fall

Everyone is driving, far away they're driving
Searching and trying
Okay, perhaps I'm exaggerating

The birds sing me good morning
Perhaps I can fly with them far, far away
To fly and not to fall

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Song Title: She Argued With Him for Hours ("Hee Hitvak'kha Ito Sha'ot")
Musician: Mashina
Year Released: 1985
Credits: lyrics and music by Shlomi Brakha
Website: www.mashina.com
Comments:
Hear the song!


Mashina album: Ladies and Gentlemen - The Best of (Gvirotai Ve Rabotai), 1989
She argued with him for hours
Almost on the verge of tears
It all happened so quickly, she felt the need to tell
They sat the two of them in the salon
He slowly pushed open the curtain
Immediately turned off the light
He was intoxicated, was intoxicated

Yes, resistance he did not feel
Intelligent and sensitive
Both of them were born Cancers
It's dangerous, it's dangerous

Everything went so smoothly
They were in the middle of the game
Yes, him and her and her and him
La-li la-lu, la-li la-lu...

She said "find a way, I want you"
She said "find a way, I want you"

He was forced to make an effort
Suddenly the phone rang
Immediately he picked up and apologised
Said that he has to go
Very brief sexual encounter, very hasty

So they postponed everything for tomorrow
A reasonable hour, not too late
The telephone remained indifferent
It didn't feel anything, it was apathetic

He didn't know how to behave
Towards everyone he would poke fun
But worked very hard
He was doing business, a registered business

In the phone he changed the number
So they wouldn't disturb him tomorrow
The business turned sensitive
He already felt, it's a rotten deal

She said "find a way out, I want you"
She said "find a way out, I want you"

He had to be careful

She didn't get the right care
She had a mediterranean temperament
She just wanted to get even
To twist the guy up a little

After a short visit to the bank
She changed the car for a tank
Stole ammunition from a base
It's just a trick, just a tactic

Her manning [of the tank] punctured the sky
A shell stole into the hall
And crashed into the wall
Quick death, a cautious future
The police sent rescue forces
To sort out the meaning of the explosion
He disappeared in a tougue of fire
Yes, that's the power of love

There's no sun or rain, just shade

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Song Title: Ballad For a Double Agent ("Balada Le Sokhen Kaful")
Musician: Mashina
Year Released: 1985
Credits: lyrics and music by Shlomi Brakha
Website: www.mashina.com
Comments: www.Mima.co.il writes that the basis for this song is a childhood memory of Mashina's bassist, Michael Benson, who when he was young, didn't know what his father did for a living and invented a story that he was a secret agent. He told the story to the band's guitarist, Shlomi Brakha, who wrote the song.
Hear the song!


Mashina album: Ladies and Gentlemen - The Best of (Gvirotai Ve Rabotai), 1989
He arrived in the country [i.e. Eretz Israel] through crooked [i.e. underhanded] paths
He was a secret agent, didn't want to be discovered
He had a habit of residing in opulent hotels
He always lived off other people's bills

He fought the Muslims and hid in Istanbul
He led the Russians astray, he was a double agent
On a slave ship, to the land of Canaan did he row
The Turks ruled the land, to Egypt did he return

He rode to Palestine
On a two-humped camel
He reached Rosh Pina [town in the far north]
Disguised as a Turkish sheikh

Within three and a half days he met with the Sultan
He took him away by trickery and murdered him in the garden
He burned houses by night, the Turks suffered by day
They called him "Zero Zero [i.e. "double-0"] Yosef Yosef the Terrible"

He rode to Palestine
On a two-humped camel
He reached Rosh Pina
Disguised as a Turkish sheikh

He rode to Palestine
On a three-dimensional donkey
He reached Rosh Pina
Disguised as a young-carrot

And his wife told him, Yosef
Change your style
He told her, Be quiet
And changed the wife

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Song Title: Girls of the Sea [live] ("Bnot Ha'Yam")
Musician: Mashina
Year Released: (1992) 1995
Credits: lyrics and music by Yuval Banai
Website: www.mashina.com
Comments:
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Mashina album: Time Machine - Live 1995 (Mekhonat Ha Zman), 1995
I think
And don't remember where to
The horsemen rode
And girls of the seas are none
Love
Is like a pain on the side [i.e. marginal]
I think
And don't recall right away
Don't recall immediately
G-d
His face from above is pale
Accompany me
Some day
And G-d
Rises the light
Falls to the depths
To the girls of the sea
Falls to the depths

Falls to the depths

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Song Title: Danny [live] ("Danny")
Musician: Mashina
Video: From September 2003 concert in Caesaria (Yuval Banai - vocals, Shlomi Brakha - lead guitar, Avner Khodorov - keyboards/sax/accordion, Michael Benson - bass, Iggy Dayan - drums)
Year Released: (1992) 2003
Credits: lyrics and music by Shlomi Brakha
Website: www.mashina.com
Comments: From www.mima.co.il: this song was written about a friend of Shlomi and Yuval who used to surf with them at the Hilton Hotel beach in Tel Aviv, and was caught and imprisoned in France for drug smuggling. He has since been released, gave one interview to a weekend edition of the paper and is now becoming more religious.
Hear the song!


Mashina album: Mashina Live, 2003
You said that life
Goes forth and gets longer
And when you searched for a short-cut
Then you fell, that's the story

The story, it's about a friend
Who tried to get himself set up [i.e. established]
He smuggled cocaine
Satan - he's white like a [cloth] sheet
Ohhh...

Amsterdam, on the route to Brazil
First class, flowing money
De Janeiro, in the yard he buys, soon he will sell
Be careful so as not to fall
Because the eye of the Interpol
Looks out, all the time alert
And at home, it's your mother [waiting]...
Ohhh...

In prison they captured him, in Paris when they changed planes
Cuffs, dogs, cops, [finger] nails getting nibbled
Already two years until the bitter trial
He sits and suddenly remembers

How we used to surf on the waves
And the sea was so blue
The wild sunrise when the wind is southernly
And the sun is a huge round ball
And the waters are made of clear crystal
So that you can see the stones
And the sunset...
And afterwards we go out to have a good time

I'm sorry
Life goes forth and gets longer
When you searched for a short-cut
you then fell, that's the story

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Song Title: Because She Doesn't Want To ("Ki Lo Ba La")
Musician: Mashina
Video:
Year Released: 1984
Credits: lyrics and music by Shlomi Brakha
Website: www.mashina.com
Comments:
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He was known
His card got lost
He sat for hours
Scratched his nose
Was pale, not happy
Because she doesn't want to

She would laugh
She would cry
She'd go down to the pool
She won't open the door for him
Because she doesn't want to

She didn't know what to do
She would dance at night
She wasn't like that
Because she doesn't want to

After years of depression
She again played the accordion
He just wanted to sleep with her
And she didn't want to

And in the end on judgment day
An excessive amount of 'Khamin' [aka "cholent" - Jewish east-European heavy potato-meat meal]
She didn't stop gaining weight
It happened to her

He didn't forget her quickly
Not happy and also pale
Above her grave he shook dirt
He called to her

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80's and 90's Hits

Song Name Artist Name Genre Song # in Jukebox
"Goodbye Adolescence Hello Love" (live) Mashina Pop / Rock Song #1-2
"In The Spring" Micha Shitreet Pop / Rock Song #29
"In the Society for the Protection of Nature" Ariel Zilber Pop / Rock Song #30
"The Scrub's Song" Meir Banai Pop / Rock Song #31
"She Walks on the Streets" Alon Olearchik Pop / Rock Song #32
"Saturdays and Holidays" Yehudit Ravitz Pop / Rock Song #33
"Joint Apartment" Benzine Pop / Rock Song #54
"Sparks" Fortis / Sakharof Pop / Rock Song #66
"There's no End to Childhood" Fortis / Sakharof Pop / Rock Song #67
"Heatwave in the Morning" Menny Beger Pop Song #74
"Game of Tears" Revenge of the Tractor Pop / Rock Song #81
"The Anger" Rockfour Pop / Rock Song #89
"Restless Night" Shlomo Artzi Pop / Rock Song #100
"Beneath a Mediterranean Sky" Shlomo Artzi Pop / Rock Song #108
"A Room of my Own" Arkadi Duchin Rock Song #121
"Thorns (part A)" Meir Ariel Rock Song #126
"A Thousand Firemen" Doda (Gidi Gov & Danny Sanderson) Good-Time Rock 'n Roll Song #138
"Violets" David Broza Latin-Spanish Song #147
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Song Title: Goodbye Adolescence Hello Love [live] ("Lehitraot Neurim Shalom Ahava")
Musician: Mashina
Video: original music video of the studio recording from the 1994 album "Goodbye Adolescence, Hello Love" - a very good original version of the live piece here on mp3
Year Released: (1994) 1995
Credits: lyrics and music by Yuval Banai and Shlomi Brakha
Website: www.mashina.com
Comments: Originally released during the Oslo peace process, when the new and unexpected process brought an avowed enemy to be a sudden peace partner, and was still accompanied by terror attacks. The song captures modern mores of the '90's, with the aura of exuberance punctuated by mourning. This live version was recorded during the band's announced final concerts before breaking up - and just a few months short of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination. The opening is delivered in the style of a newscast, with similar figures of speech, by Yosi Banai - the lead singer's (Yuval) father.
Hear the song!


Mashina album: Time Machine - Live 1995 (Mekhonat Ha Zman), 1995
[Opening]: It was a very rainy day and the team lost
"He was crazy", said an experienced politician
"Tens of people were killed - tens of people", concluded the television announcer
"Let's hope there will be quiet. And now the commercials."
A woman, very pretty, I close with the switch
With an arrow in the heart begins the black night
I can't stop moving even when the music's over
Something in my life is going to change
Above the neon lights, above the concrete city, I see an angel
And he says to me "Take the 1990s"

It was a very rainy day and the team lost
"He was crazy", said an experienced politician
"Tens of people were killed", concluded the television announcer
"Let's hope there will be quite. And now the commercials."
A woman, very pretty, I close with the switch
With an arrow in the heart begins the black night
I can't stop moving even when the music's over
Something in my life is going to change
Above the neon lights, above the concrete city, I see an angel
And he says to me "Take the 1990s"

We returned from Haifa with our faces in our hands
The enemy's no longer frightening, he's just dependent on mercy
Tomorrow will be clear, hoped the forecasts
"The closure will continue. This is the end of the news."
A metal drink can rolls in the street
This is a strange winter and the wind begins to blow
I feel like I've been in an accident but continue behaving normally
I feel like I've been in an accident but continue behaving normally
Above the neon lights, above the concrete city, I see an angel
And he says to me "Take"

Lie down, relax, just close your eyes

The craziness continues all the way
"We live", he said "from Sabbath to Sabbath"
Ideology and money don't go together
And the facts of life are slim like a knife
The call me "Mister Love", the false romantic
Who sinks little by little in to a large testicle
I beg on my knees that there won't be another time
Goodbye adolescence, hello love

Above the neon lights, above the concrete city, I see an angel
And he says to me "Take the 1990s"

Lie down, relax, just close your eyes

It was a very rainy day and the team lost
"He was crazy", said an experienced politician
"Tens of people were killed", concluded the television announcer
"Let's hope there will be quite. And now the commercials."
A woman, very pretty, I close with the switch
With an arrow in the heart begins the black night
I can't stop moving even when the music's over
Something in my life is going to change

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Song Title: In the Spring ("Ba'Aviv")
Musician: Micha Shitreet (pronounced "Shetreet")
Year Released: 1998
Credits: lyrics and music by Micha Shitreet
Website:
Comments:
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We'll get through the winter and afterwards we'll see
In the spring, in the spring
In the meantime, sit under the clementine tree
It's seasonable, seasonable
Accept the judgement which falls from above
Think that it's rain, think that's winter, and afterwards we'll see

We'll get through the winter and afterwards we'll see
In the spring, in the spring, in the spring

In the spring I'll wear a shite shirt
And cross the street like a king...
In the sping, in a white shirt like a king, like a king...
We'll get through the winter and afterwards we'll see
In the spring, in the spring

Accept the judgement which falls from above
Think that it's rain, think that's winter, and afterwards we'll see

We'll get through the winter and afterwards we'll see
In the spring, in the spring, in the spring

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Song Title: In the Society for the Protection of Nature ("Ba'Khevra Le'Haganat Ha'Teva")
Musician: Ariel Zilber
Video: original music video aired on a Channel 1 retrospective program
Year Released: 1982
Credits: lyrics by Shmuel Chisik; music by Ariel Zilber
Website: www.arielzilber.com
Comments:
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various artists album: The 80s - A Decade of Israeli Pop (Lehitei Shnot HaShmonim), 1990
Danny has sympathies for older women
A sexual attraction, an internal attraction
Sits in the bathtub, drawing on the walls
An impulse unknown, really just a permanant habit

Rina invited me to her her room
I thought to myself - this must be serious
Her father's well known and accepted in society
Perhaps there's a chance here to get some kind of appointment

But what a pity, what rotten luck
Sitting here on the bench next to the Supersal [supermarket]

I want to be a permanent member
of the Society for the Protection of Nature
To protect the animals
That are slowly disappearing from the world

I want to be a permanent member
of the Society for the Protection of Nature
To water the flowers
To plant some trees, like everyone

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Song Title: The Scrub's [Chafed-mans] Song ("Shiro Shel Shafshaf")
Musician: Meir Banai
Video: performance pulled from the "Zehu-Ze" ("This is It") program on Educational TV Channel 23
Year Released: 1984
Credits: lyrics by Yair Nitzani; music by Meir Banai
Website:
Comments:
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various artists album: The 80s - A Decade of Israeli Pop (Lehitei Shnot HaShmonim), 1990
What am I, I'm just a man
I live and work like everybody
And see a future and always think
That conviction gives belief

I don't understand what's happening and think
Who listens to what's inside the heart
And sees a future and always thinks
That conviction gives belief

And if we just look, and not be shocked
And we'll show the world that together everyone
So together, yes go together
Yes go together towards the light
Together, this is the time together
And with you together to love

I have no fear and I have a feeling
That my path will be difficult
I see a future, I always think
That conviction gives belief

I see a future, I always think
That conviction gives belief

And if we just look, and not be shocked
And we'll show the world that together everyone
So together, yes go together
Yes go together towards the light
Together, this is the time together
And with you together to love

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Song Title: She Walks on the Streets ("He Holokhet Ba'Drakhim")
Musician: Alon Olearchik
Year Released: 1984
Credits: lyrics and music by Alon Olearchik
Website: www.oleartchik.com
Comments:
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various artists album: The 80s - A Decade of Israeli Pop (Lehitei Shnot HaShmonim), 1990
And on Sunday morning
She wakes up to a dream
And on Friday morning
With a childish personal memory

Her breath escapes away
To touch the gloom
And wraps itself in it
She's a princess without a kingdom

She walks on the streets
She walks on the streets
Above the sea in large planes
Where to will her face turn
Where to will her face turn
Where to will you go Miriam
Wanders around the world
Where to will you go Miriam

And the night's without a star
And the magic is in his hands
And the lights of the strange city
Stroke her hair

A day will come perhaps you'll know
What is hidden in the palm of her hand
What conceals her destiny
In its gray sack

She walks on the streets
She walks on the streets
Above the sea in large planes
Where to will her face turn
Where to will her face turn
Where to will you go Miriam
Wanders around the world
Where to will you go Miriam

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Song Title: Saturdays and Holidays ("Shabatot ve'Khagim")
Musician: Yehudit Ravitz
Video: live performance in Caesaria 1994, featuring Gidi Gov and Rami Kleinstein, pulled from Channel 2
Year Released: 1986
Credits: lyrics by Ya'akov Rotblit; music by Yehudit Ravitz
Website:
Comments:
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Now you're at hom, now you're there
The children jump on you, they're the lovliest things in the world
You melt, spreading out you're hands, you're very happy
And soon you'll read a story from the new book

A model family man you are - a perfect father
At the end you always return, you never leave
Everytime you travel you don't forget presents for everyone
And now you're at home, now you're there

And I'm a hidden partner
I'm in the shadows when the light rises
I'm a mute child witness
Who remains behind

Alone on the roof, Saturdays and holidays
Alone, alone Saturdays and holidays

And you'd be surprised to know that I know you
I know exactly where everything is laid
And perhaps you already know, perhaps you heard my name
Or you slept in silence, not fearing my existence
But I'm always with you
I see you but I'm not seen
When you're there, what remains for you of me now

Alone on the roof, Saturdays and holidays
Alone, alone Saturdays and holidays

You know how I felt
When I saw you on the street not long ago
I was fine, I didn't reveal any sign
But at night how I cried
How I wet the pillow
Why do I always fall in love in what's not possible

Alone on the roof, Saturdays and holidays
Alone, alone Saturdays and holidays

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Song Title: Joint Apartment Building ("Bayt Meshutaf")
Musician: Benzine
Year Released: 1984
Credits: lyrics by Ya'akov Gilad; music by Yehuda Poliker
Website:
Comments: Together with the band "T-Slam", Benzine is touted as one of Israel's first rock bands. It shares a similar early '80s pop-rock sound to Mashina. Benzine was fronted by Yehuda Poliker before he launched his successful solo career.
Hear the song!


Benzeen album: Benzeen (Greatest Hits), 1993
A joint apartment building, so many neighbors
I'm always surrounded by buildings in every direction
I never have a quiet moment
I get no rest
Always there's a door closing
A baby that it crying

Everything starts and ends at the same moment
Because here there's no border - no dividing areas

I turn on the radio
Tune into a station
Run away to the radio
I want to be alone
I turn to the radio
It can be nice
Now everyone's on the radio
They tune into a station

We live inside a box for so many years
We hang the laundry, make problems and issues
I go out, a neighbor enters
Apartment next to apartment
Living balcony across from balcony
As if there's no choice

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Song Title: Sparks ("Nitzutzot")
Musician: Fortis / Sakharof
Year Released: 1990
Credits: lyrics by Rami Fortis; music by Rami Fortis and Berry Sakharof ("FortiSakharof")
Website:
Comments: Berry Sakharof has been one of the country's leading guitarists for the last 25 years; he and Rami Fortis orginially belonged to the popular new-wave English-language Israeli lineup called "Minimal Compact" before they started to perform alone as a duo (and finally as soloists, only to come back together now in the last year). Although quite an old piece now, this song hasn't disappeared from the radio long enough to truly be "classic" (instead of contemporary) rock.
Hear the song!


Fortis & Sakharof album: 1900? (Elef Tsha-meot), 1990
Yes we're both together, the enemy who is a friend
I'm a costume and inside is someone else
Shouting to the moon, crying and cursing
Twisting around like a dog, beaten and wailing

It's like a shock of electricity, and it flows and distorts
The sense of time - to where? I go and get into trouble

Sparks of understanding, passing again like a running movie
Like a stormy wind, they're skinning off more pieces of the peel

The fear drips like poison and gets absorbed like a kiss
I'm the trap, imprisoned without hope
Wanting to open a door, but closed inside and don't go out
Trying to run away and always, always returning

It's like dancing with a ghost who hugs and never lets go
Yes, he's always hungry. I go and distance myself

Sparks of understanding, passing again like a running movie
Like a stormy wind, they're skinning off more pieces of the peel

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Song Title: There's no End to Childhood ("Ein Ketz le Yaldut")
Musician: Fortis / Sakharof
Year Released: 1990
Credits: lyrics by Rami Fortis; music by Rami Fortis and Berry Sakharof ("FortiSakharof")
Website:
Comments:
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Fortis & Sakharof album: 1900? (Elef Tsha-meot), 1990
Come and give me your hand firmly
And we'll go out on a journey, mysterious and pleasant
We'll hug the teddy bear, we'll draw clouds
We'll take a gun and fight like grown-ups
And at night, we'll go together to sleep
You'll be the lady and me the gentleman

At the day's noon everything is colored red
And there's no end to childhood, which passed by so suddenly
At the day's noon everything returns like a dream
Moments and hours which got frozen in place
At the day's noon

Come lets play the same game
The one which time covered in dust
We'll hug the teddy bear and you'll blush
Tell me more, and get so excited
And at night we'll go together to sleep
You'll be the little girl and me the little boy

At the day's noon everything is colored red
And there's no end to childhood, which passed by so suddenly
At the day's noon everything returns like a dream
Moments and hours which got frozen in place
At the day's noon

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Song Title: Heatwave in the Morning ("Boker Shel Khamsin")
Musician: Menny Beger
Video: performance pulled from the "Zehu-Ze" ("This is It") program on Educational TV Channel 23
Year Released: 1985
Credits: lyrics and music by Menny Beger
Website:
Comments:
Hear the song!


Menny Beger album: That Was My Home (Ze Haya Beiti), 1993
Heatwave in the morning
A girl in sandles
Gave me her hand
Took me to the sea

We got into the car
Drove in silence
We saw a beach with
Weeds and seashells

Heatwave in the morning
A girl in sandles
Gave me her hand
Took me to the sea

Heatwave in the morning
A girl in sandles
With sparkling eyes
She's all a dream

Heatwave in the morning
I sat on the sand
A red flame
Burst forth from the sea

The heat is covered in blood
Suddenly the summer ends
I saw people
And everyone was running to the sea

Heatwave in the morning
A girl in sandles
Gave me her hand
Took me to the sea

Heatwave in the morning
A girl in sandles
With sparkling eyes
She's all a dream

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Song Title: Game of Tears ("Miskhak Shel Dma'ot")
Musician: Revenge of the Tractor (also "The Tractor's Revenge"; "Nikmat Ha'Traktor" in Hebrew)
Video: original music video pulled from Channel 24 music TV
Year Released: 1990
Credits: lyrics and music by Avi Balali
Website: www.tractor.co.il
Comments:
Hear the song!


Revenge of the Tractor (Nikmat HaTraktor) album: Tractor's Revenge (Nikmat HaTraktor), 1990
In the hours of quiet
Sweaty from your body
I feel you disappearing
Slipping away inside yourself

Into clouds of silence
You drip saltiness of departure
And strangeness gets scattered

It's all just a game of tears
I fly to another place
It's all just a game of tears
I fly to another place

And in the day's morning
You stood before me silent
And a game of tears began
With the noise of the train

It's all just a game of tears
I fly to another place
It's all just a game of tears
I fly to another place

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Song Title: The Anger ("Ha Kaas")
Musician: Rockfour
Video: performance pulled from the "Zehu-Ze" ("This is It") program on Educational TV Channel 23
Year Released: 1991
Credits: lyrics by Tal Gordon / music by Amir Tzoref
Website: www.rockfour.com and Rockfour @ MySpace.com
Comments:
Hear the song!


Album: Green Airwave 2 - Songs Which Soldiers Love (Gal Yarok 2: Shirim ShKhayalim Ohavim), 2002
My ears are blocked, your smile a dim memory
I push away thoughts and throw, like into a gaping hole,
Seals on contracts of agreements which have passed their time
I see everything get interrupted and left on the side

The anger is already locked in, but still shaking
Between the exposed corners I need to be careful
When you come there won't be anything left
It's like a different place
I run away and call to you, I cannot release myself

If there are still more reasons they're no longer important now
A diver disappears and buries his head in the sand
A collection of questions still burns inside
Afraid to rise up, and always falls afresh

The anger is already locked in, but still shaking
Between the exposed corners I need to be careful
When you come there won't be anything left
It's like a different place
I run away and call to you, I cannot release myself

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Song Title: Restless Night ("Laila Lo Shaket")
Musician: Shlomo Artzi
Year Released: 1986
Credits: lyrics and music by Shlomo Artzi
Website:
Comments: According to mima.co.il the song is about a good friend of Arzti's, Miron Granot, a helicopter pilot killed in the Yom Kippur war.
Hear the song!


Shlomo Artzi album: Restless Night (Laila Lo Shaket), 1986
Again at night I dream about you
In the military uniform which was yours
A helicopter flies around the hot desert
And you're scared
And she already has a child here
She phones that I should come
And I try to get out of it and make an effort
But she's not like everyone else

I tell her it's coming back
Yes, it doesn't go away
She pours me a hot coffee
And caresses my whole being
Then she asks does it help
Go smoke and come back
She gets undressed even when it's not hot
And tempts me

But at night I dream of you
With the same face which was yours
And the same small stubbles which back then
You didn't manage to shave away
And I get down from the bed
And unite, but not with her
Yes I shirk away
Yes I make an effort
But, she watches

I tell her it's coming back
Yes, it doesn't go away
She pours me a hot coffee
And caresses my whole being
Then she asks does it help
Go smoke and come back
She gets undressed even when it's not hot
And tempts me

Again at night I dream about you
And wake up from dreaming about how they are
They're shooting at you and striking you
And you cry
Perhaps you found rest
Among soldiers you're permitted to
Yes I console and sleep with her, yes
As if in your stead

I tell her it's coming back
Yes, it doesn't go away
She pours me a hot coffee
And caresses my whole being
Then she asks does it help
Go smoke and come back
She gets undressed even when it's not hot
And tempts me

I tell her it's coming back
Yes, it doesn't go away
She pours me a hot coffee
And caresses my whole being
Again she asks does it help
Go smoke and come back
Again she gets undressed even when it's not hot
Again she tempts me

A night, a restless night
And you're dead...

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Song Title: Beneath a Mediterranean Sky ("Takhat Shmey Yam HaTikhon")
Musician: Shlomo Artzi
Year Released: 1988
Video: Original music video with English subtitles; features Artzi's son, Ben, who has also launched a music career.
Credits: lyrics and music by Shlomo Artzi
Website: www.shlomoartzi.com
Comments:
Hear the song!


Shlomo Artzi album: August-July Heat (Khom Yuli August), 1988
Beneath a Mediterranean sky
The moon takes a break and packs up
A man with a paintbrush tells me his worries
And paints you similarly - or not, or so
Now we have the time to lie supinely
Half the world takes drugs
In my body passes a shiver, the song "Roxanne"
A shiver I have too, from deprivation

Beneath a Mediterranean sky
You had time to put on makeup and enchant
You go out with a trace of self confidence
You return with your tail folded between your legs
Half the world barely survives
Half the world hates the other half
In my body passes a shiver, me betting
Who is the enemy and who is the friend

Beneath a Mediterranean sky
An evening of watermelons descends
Sweet delusions
Gold links on your neck, and it throws
You from here to there, and me from there to here
Like a ballet melody
Until the sea will return from its fury
No, we won't know
It costs, it costs, it costs us
How much it costs us

Beneath a Mediterranean sky
Your hand strokes me a rare caress
Soon there will be elections
You're a political animal who identifies with minorities
Now we have a an eastern time
Half the world already sings for Greece
In my body passes a shiver, anyway it's
From terror and love

Beneath a Mediterranean sky
An evening of watermelons descends
Sweet delusions
Gold links on your neck, and it throws
You from here to there, and me from there to here
Like a ballet melody
Until the sea will return from its fury
No, we won't know
It costs, it costs, it costs us
How much it costs us

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Song Title: A Room of my Own ("Kheder miSheli")
Musician: Arkady Duchin
Year Released: 1995
Video:
Credits: lyrics and music by Arkadi Duchin
Website: www.arkadi-music.com
Comments:
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I have a room of my own
And in the room there is light
At the moment it's not me
Or me in black

It's continued almost a week
Or at least a few days now
If you ask me why
It's deep inside

Get over it, overcome it
Says a voice to me
To get hit and to fall
Is something everyone can do
All of us are permitted to be weak
Don't plug your ears
Don't close your eyes
Don't raise your hands
Even on difficult days
Even on difficult days

I have a room of my own
In which I relax
How long will all this take
As long as it must

In the meantime it's been a week
Or at least a few days
If you ask me why
It's deep inside

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Song Title: Thorns (part A) ("Kotzim Alef")
Musician: Meir Ariel
Video:
Year Released: 1993
Credits: lyrics and music by Meir Ariel
Website: www.meirariel.org.il and www.meirariel.net
Comments: Meir Ariel chose to name this song and another from the same album as "Thorns A" and "Thorns B", to distinguish them as critical songs from among many of a more pleasant nature on the same album - the notion being that these were "thorns" surrounding the fruits. "Thorns A" mocks the culture of mass television, permanently on, mixing disasters with advertisements and leading in the end of apathy and mindlessness.
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Meir Ariel album: The Best of (HaMeitav), 2004
The naked king rides again under pressure from the masses
The naked king rides again under pressure from the masses
Thrusts out his right shoulder
Sticks out his tongue

My easy chair opens to the back, facing the [television] screen
My easy chair opens to the back, facing the screen
I had a gray day, if not a terrible one altogether
I'm facing the screen

They're showing a little girl stuck in the mud, and there's nothing to be done
I've got a little girl stuck in the mud and there's nothing to do
I, in my easy chair, will continue to lie around
Because I have nothing to do

Those guys who are shooting there in the street - is that real?
Those guys who are shooting there in the street - is that real?
Is that a piece of live news - or a quality movie?

A plane taking off dives and crashes into the bottom of my belly
A plane taking off dives and crashes into the bottom of my belly
A news presenter busies himself a bit in papers - above the peak of my belly

And all the disasters indeed in the end go to the dairy delicacy
Yes all the disasters in the end go to the dairy delicacy
Struck by hunger and quick noise they turn into natural juice now

Above the belly's dome here I am with lurching jaw and tongue
Above the peak of the belly here I am with lurching jaw and toungue
Someone there tried hard and here I am knocking myself down to sleep

With my awakenings they present the national anthem* - perhaps I would get up
With my awakenings they present the national anthem - certainly no one gets up
Our flag flutters in every salon - and nobody gets up
[*Channel 1, back in '93 the only channel, used to play the national anthem at midnight at the close of programming]

The naked king rides again under pressure from the masses
The naked king rides again under pressure from the masses
Thrusts out his right shoulder
Sticks out his tongue

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Song Title: A Thousand Firemen ("Elef Kabayim")
Musician: Doda (Gidi Gov & Danny Sanderson) ["Doda" means 'Auntie']
Video: Danny Sanderson's live version, from Channel 24
Year Released: 1980
Credits: lyrics by Gidi Gov & Danny Sanderson / music by Danny Sanderson
Website: Danny Sanderson @ MySpace and www.dannysanderson.net; www.GidiGov.co.il
Comments: Gidi Gov (lead vocals) and Danny Sanderson, the original "bad boys" of Israeli "good-time rock 'n roll" in one of their early incarnations, with Yehuda Eder on guitars.
Hear the song!


A thousand firemen won't succeed in putting me out
A thousand firemen won't succeed in putting me out
From below the ladder rises
It gets closer and tries...
It reaches...
It doesn't reach, it doesn't reach

A thousand doctors won't succeed in hospitalizing me
A thousand doctors won't succeed in hospitalizing me
Here, there the doctor shouts
He gets closer to me with a needle
Gets closer...
He doesn't reach, he doesn't reach

A thousand barbers won't succeed in cutting my hair
A thousand barbers won't succeed in cutting my hair
Scissors get closer to the head
My ears, he wants to cut
He reaches...
He doesn't reach, he doesn't reach

A thousand firemen won't succeed in putting me out
A thousand firemen won't succeed in putting me out
To put me out
A thousand firemen won't succeed in putting me out
To put me out
Oh oh oh, oh oh eee...
Won't succeed in putting me out
Oh oh oh, oh oh eee...
Won't succeed in putting me out
Oh oh oh, oh oh eee...
Won't succeed in putting me out

A thousand firemen
- Won't succeed in putting [me] out
Two thousand painters
- Won't succeed in putting [me] out
Four hundred thousand cavalrymen
- Won't succeed in putting [me] out
A million nine-hundred and ninety
- Won't succeed in putting [me] out

A thousand firemen won't succeed in putting me out

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Song Title: Violets ("Sigaliyot")
Musician: David Broza
Video: live performace pulled from Channel 3 (probably early 1990's)
Year Released: 1983
Credits: original lyrics and music: A. Sobredo / Hebrew adaptation: Yonatan Geffen / Musical adaptation: Louis Lahav and David Broza
Website: www.davidbroza.net and David Broza @ MySpace
Comments: A Hebrew version of the original "Cecilia" by Sobredo, one of Broza's favorite musicians, who died prematurely in a car accident. This song featured on Broza's 1983 album "The Woman With Me" ("HaIsha She Iti"), which has been for years Israel's best selling album ever. Bearing certain hallmarks of Julio Iglesias of that time, the whole album was dedicated to contemporary Spanish/Latin music of that time; 9 of 10 songs were Hebraicized covers of original Spanish songs. If memory serves me correctly, prior to being released, the record company "Hed Artzi" turned down the chance to produce this album feeling it would not be financially viable and missed out on the country's best selling album ever.
Hear the song!


She got married and she's in bliss
Even though her husband was a sort of ghost and mule
All the time ill-tempered permanently
And he doesn't even say why
It's three years that she receives
From a stranger, under the door
Letters of song to her
They brighten her world

Tell me who is it that writes to you little girl, tell me who sends
A wreath of purple flowers when spring blooms
Who on the ninth of every November
Without greeting, without name or riddle
Send you violets in a wreath tied with a ribbon

Whole nights that she doesn't sleep
About him, while awake, she dreams
He must be a guy with a romantic heart
A good soul and a pleasant smile
Three years he suffers in silence
Yes, sometimes she almost shouts
And what if her husband knows
She hides her letters

Tell me who is it that writes to you little girl, tell me who sends
A wreath of purple flowers when spring blooms
Who on the ninth of every November
Without greeting, without name or riddle
Send you violets in a wreath tied with a ribbon

When her husband returns home
Tired from work, casts downward a questioning glance
He doesn't say yes he knows
If she knows she'd definitely go crazy
Yes, it's he who writes to her
He the beloved, he her dream
And what if her husband knows
She hides her letters

Tell me who is it that writes to you little girl, tell me who sends
A wreath of purple flowers when spring blooms
Who on the ninth of every November
Without greeting, without name or riddle
Send you violets in a wreath tied with a ribbon

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Contemporary Female

Song Name Artist Name Genre Song # in Jukebox
"Kiss Me" Sivan Shavit Indie Song #77
"(Through) Foreign Eyes" Rona Kenan (Keinan) Folk / Rock Song #104
"Angels (Incitement)" Metropolin (featuring Efrat Gosh) Electronica Song #105
"Sleeping Without Dreaming" Metropolin (featuring Dana Berger) Electronica Song #106
"Take Me There" Sharon Haziz Pop / Rock Song #107
"She Doesn't Say Anything" Metropolin (featuring Sharona Nastovich) Electronica Song #109
"They'll Always Wait for You" Leah Shabat Pop / Rock Song #114
"If They Will be Locked (remix)" Ofra Haza Electronica Song #118
"To See the Light" Efrat Gosh Electronica / Indie Song #128
"Boxing Match" Efrat Gosh Electronica / Indie Song #132
"Just Like it Was" Efrat Gosh Electronica / Indie Song #133
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Song Title: Kiss Me ("Nashki Oti")
Musician: Sivan Shavit
Year Released: 1996
Credits: lyrics by Sivan Shavit; music by Sivan Shavit and Amir Tzoref
Website: www.sivanshavit.com and Sivan Shavit @ myspace.com
Comments:
Hear the song!


Sivan Shavit album: In This Blue Gray Light (HaKakhol HaAfor Hazeh), 1996
We're both traveling in the car
I don't know where we'll get to
When the wheel is in your hands
You always have to surprise
I can't stop looking at your face in the mirror
And you feel every move
Send a caress to my lips

We're both traveling in the car
You tell me the way will be long
And that I can fall asleep
Afterwards tell me everything that happened
I don't sleep
I count stars through the holes in the blanket
And you, with a cigarette in your mouth,
Sing to me a love song with the radio

[said to a female]: "Kiss me strongly
Kiss me until it hurts
And the sun won't set
You're the one and only
My wonderful love
And I love you"

We're both traveling in the car
If only we could drive forever
You think that I've already fallen sleep and am not listening
How you, with a cigarette in your mouth,
Sing to me a love song with the radio

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Song Title: (Through) Foreign Eyes ("Einayim Zarot")
Musician: Rona Kenan (or Keinan)
Video: live performance of the "Israeli Song Festival" on Channel 2 in 2006 - an excellent performance
Year Released: 2007
Credits: lyrics and music by Rona Kenan
Website: www.ronakenan.com and Rona Kenan @ myspace.com
Comments: Rona is the daughter of a well known Israeli writer and journalist, Amos Keinan (whose credits include the lyrics for "Why Didn't You Tell Me" on this page). She wrote her first song at the age of 11, spent seven years preparing her first album and just three days writing and three days recording her second, from where this song is taken. Her songs also include pieces written and sung in English. Produced by Yizhar Ashdot, whose music I also hope to have here soon.
Hear the song!


Rona Kenan album: [Through] Foreign Eyes (Einayim Zarot), 2007
Darkness
I didn't see anything
Foreign eyes processed information
I tried to turn my skin over
But the skin inside is too similar to mine
I tried to push back the years
Which stand between us
Without understanding
That there is no weapon in the world
Which by virtue of my love will defeat time

I will not stop wanting
I will not stop wanting
I will not give in to this idea
That it's not possible, and it's impossible because it's not possible
It's a matter of survival
Even if you [said to a female] tell me enough already, it's over
I have no choice but to want the possible

Days
Days into nights
A hug which never ends
And suddenly in a moment it's over
And when this emptiness reveals its face
It seems that all I wanted
Will never come (but)

I will not stop wanting
I will not stop wanting
I will not give in to this idea
That it's not possible, and it's impossible because it's not possible
It's a matter of survival
Even if you [said to a female] tell me enough already, it's over
I have no choice but to want the possible

Silence
Silence in the living room
Silence in the kitchen
Silence also on the phone
All I wanted was to sleep
But the frightening noise penetrated into my dream
And finally, the end of the story
I sign without desire on the release form

I will not stop wanting
I will not stop wanting
I will not give in to this idea
That it's not possible, and it's impossible because it's not possible
It's a matter of survival
Even if you [said to a female] tell me enough already, it's over
I have no choice but to want the possible

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Song Title: Angels (Incitement) ("Malakhim")
Musician: Metropolin (featuring Efrat Gosh)
Video: not the actual video but an interesting interweave of a nature documentary with the song.
Year Released: 2005
Credits: lyrics by Ofer Meiri; music by Ofer Meiri and Barak Gabizon
Website: www.metropolin.net and Metropolin @ myspace.com
Comments: Metropolin is a music project founded by Ofer Meiri, whose tracks feature different vocalists, and has released two albums to date. Efrat Gosh (pronounced "Gosch") is a successful singer in her own right now with two albums released.
Hear the song!


Metropolin album: Metropolin, 2005 Metropolin members at Dizengoff cinema: Dana Berger (far right), Ofer Meiri (3rd right), Efrat Gosh (6th right)
[female:]
There are no angels at all in the sky
I'm here with just in the meantime
To hold the head above the water
To see everything and close the eyes

[male:]
How much concern and how much danger you bring
And how much love
How pretty you are and how much passion you reveal
And what an incitement it is

[female:]
There are no angels at all in the sky
I'm here with just in the meantime
To hold the head above the water
To see everything and close the eyes
There are no such people with wings

[male:]
How much concern and how much danger you bring
And how much love
How pretty you are and how much passion you reveal
And what an incitement it is
And what a disappointment it is
And what a disappointment it is

There are no angels at all in the sky

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Song Title: Sleeping Without Dreaming ("Lishon Bli Lakhlom")
Musician: Metropolin (featuring Dana Berger)
Video: Original music video.
Year Released: 2005
Credits: lyrics by Ofer Meiri; music by Ofer Meiri and Barak Gabizon
Website: www.metropolin.net and Metropolin @ myspace.com
Comments: Metropolin is a music project founded by Ofer Meiri, whose tracks feature different vocalists, and has released two albums to date. Dana Berger is a successful singer in her own right, formerly with a band called "Balagan", then solo and on collaboration with Metropolin. This piece may have to do with the experience of foreign workers in Israel, among whom there are many Philippinos.
Hear the song!


Metropolin album: Metropolin, 2005 Metropolin members at Dizengoff cinema: Dana Berger (far right), Ofer Meiri (3rd right), Efrat Gosh (6th right)
To sleep without dreaming, to sleep without knowing
To lie without thinking, to love without touching
Going to have a conversation without hearing
To whisper from afar, to whisper and run away
Airplanes fly low above
Taxis return at night
From north to south
And I'm always below
Below

To sleep without dreaming, to sleep without knowing
To lie without thinking, to love without touching
Airplanes fly low above
Taxis return at night
From north to south
And I'm always below
Below

[A Philippina speaks of working in the central bus station]
[Another Philippina compares the winter and summer in Israel to that in the Philippines]

To sleep without dreaming, to sleep without knowing
To sleep without dreaming
To sleep without dreaming
To sleep without dreaming
To sleep without dreaming

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Song Title: Take Me There ("Kakh Oti LeSham")
Musician: Sharon Khaziz
Video: Original music video.
Year Released: 1994
Credits: lyrics by Meir Goldberg and Shai Lahav; music by Shai Lahav
Website: www.sharonhaziz.com
Comments:
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Sharon Haziz album: Collection of Songs (Osef Shirim), 2007
Sometimes
I think you're crazy
Looking at the moon
Like an enchanted cat
Drumming on a garbage can
Breathing the sea
Do you know what
Take me there

You came from a dream
Time stopped, the clock hands moved
I don't have much now
The greatest love
Is all I'll be able to give

When I wake up
The dream doesn't go to sleep
It has a smell, it has a taste of the sea
Perhaps one day you'll tell me what you dreamt about
And perhaps
You'll take me there

You came from a dream
Time stopped, the clock hands moved
I don't have much now
The greatest love
Is all I'll be able to give

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Song Title: She Doesn't Say Anything ("Hee Lo Omeret Klum")
Musician: Metropolin (featuring Sharona Nastovich)
Video: Original music video pulled off Israeli music station Channel 24.
Year Released: 1997
Credits: lyrics by Ofer Meiri and Erez Berzolik; music by Ofer Meiri
Website: www.metropolin.net and Metropolin @ myspace.com. Sites for Sharona Nastovich: www.sharona-nastovich.co.il and Sharona Nastovich @ myspace.com.
Comments:
Hear the song!


Metropolin album: Metropolin, 2005 Metropolin members at Dizengoff cinema: Ofer Meiri (3rd right), Efrat Gosh (6th right), Sharona Nastovich (3rd left, standing)
She doesn't say anything
Doesn't tell anything
Just sometimes at night, she cries a little
But she doesn't say anything

We spoke all day long
We told her everything
And she's closed up in a room, silent
And doesn't say anything

And all day long, all day long
People congregate, ask, speak a lot
And all day long, all day long
They try stories and players, they try everything

But she doesn't hear anything
Perhaps she doesn't know anything
And even when they get close and... whisper to her
It doesn't do anything to her

[said to a male]: We wanted you to remember
That there is a reason to return
And she's alone in a room, lying down
And doesn't say anything

And all day long, all day long
People congregate, ask, speak a lot
And all day long, all day long
They try stories and players, they try everything

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Song Title: They'll Always Wait for You ("Tamid Yekhaku Lekha")
Musician: Leah Shabat
Year Released: 1997
Credits: lyrics and music by Leah Shabat
Website: www.leahshabat.com
Comments:
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Leah Shabat album: The Shadow of the Heart (Tzel HaLev Takin), 1997
Oh, my boy the time has passed
You left to search far from here
And I've waited for you

Oh, my boy in this world
A bird-man like everyone
Searching for the horizon

Every plane that flies in the skies
Every star that lights the eyes
Reminds me of you
A wagtail [a bird] before the rain
Cricket chirps at evening-time
Will always wait for you

Oh, my boy when it's quiet
I sit on the porch to play [an instrument]
Songs of longing

Oh, my boy make an effort
To get here fast
That's what I ask quietly

Every plane that flies in the skies
Every star that lights the eyes
Reminds me of you
A wagtail [a bird] before the rain
Cricket chirps at evening-time
Will always wait for you

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Song Title: If They Will be Locked [remix] ("Im Ninalu")
Musician: Ofra Haza
Video: Original music video of the remix and the original 1978 recording
Year Released: (1978) 1988
Credits: words by Rabbi Shalom Shabazi (circa. 17th Century)
Website: www.ofra.haza.co.il and Ofra Haza @ Myspace
Comments: The words of the song come from a poem written by the Yemenite Rabbi, Shalom Shabazi, in the 1600's; the poem is much longer than the opening lines translated below, but the remix of the song is mostly in English and Yemenite, hence a mercifully short translation/butchering of the original.
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various artists album: The 80s - A Decade of Israeli Pop (Lehitei Shnot HaShmonim), 1990
[Even] if the doors of the charitable will be locked
The doors of heaven will never be closed
A living G-d rises above cherubs
Everyone in His spirit will rise
A living G-d

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Song Title: To See the Light ("Lirot Et Ha Or")
Musician: Efrat Gosh
Video: Original music video.
Year Released: 2007
Credits: lyrics by Barak Feldman; music by Assaf Amdursky
Website: Efrat Gosh on MySpace and Wikipedia
Comments:
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Because I saw my path disappear
In a tangled forest
Between thickets of walls
And in the bleeding ground
My legs got embedded
And struck root

And for a moment I could hear
Leaves teaching their poetry
And I wanted to rise up high
To blossom with them

I became familiar with the drops of the rain
Pools inside me
Falling beneath me
and the wind is cold and desperate
it froze me
it burdened me

And for a moment I could touch
The edge of the gray pain
And I wanted to rise up high
To see the light
To see the light

They say
There are blue skies
Above us
Full of light.
Perhaps one day
I too will be able to see
to see

And I fell to the ground quietly
I closed my eyes
I sealed my heart
And felt how I'm breaking apart
From all my pains
From all my loneliness

And for a moment I could run away
Like a feather on the wing of a bird
And I managed to rise up high
To see the light
To see the light

And for a moment I could run away
Like a feather on the wing of a bird
And I managed to rise up high
To see the light
To see the light

To see the light
To see the light

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Song Title: Boxing Match ("Krav Egroof")
Musician: Efrat Gosh
Video: Original music video.
Year Released: 2007
Credits: lyrics and music by Efrat Gosh
Website: Efrat Gosh on MySpace and Wikipedia
Comments:
Hear the song!


(sung to a female)

First of all, defend the body
So that no one from outside can enter you
The hands hold close to the face
This is the first place, they see what happens to you

Cover well every wound which is exposed
There he will try to strike
Balance
So you don't fall into madness
Your body can handle it, a boxing match

With all your strength...
Laugh, roar, hit
Wound, tear out, punch
So that you don't be silent ever again
Fight, strike, shout
Drive them crazy, demand, conquer
So that you don't be ashamed ever again

Stand straight, eyes open
You can hold on for at least three more rounds
Don't surrender, dammit
Now, without waiting, boxing match

With all your strength...
Laugh, roar, hit
Wound, tear out, punch
So that you don't be silent ever again
Fight, strike, shout
Drive them crazy, demand, conquer
So that you don't be ashamed ever again

With all your strength...
Laugh, roar, hit
Wound, tear out, punch
So that you don't be silent ever again
Fight, strike, shout
Drive them crazy, demand, conquer
So that you don't be ashamed ever again

First of all, defend the body

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Song Title: Just Like it Was ("Kmo Sheh Ze Haya")
Musician: Efrat Gosh
Video: Original music video.
Year Released: 2007
Credits: lyrics by Barak Feldman; music by Yoni Bloch
Website: Efrat Gosh on MySpace and Wikipedia
Comments: Oh, nothing...
Hear the song!


Just like it was, that's how it will be
Without us interfering, without us changing things
You weren't here
I didn't speak over there
Just like it was
That way it's perfect

Sit and smile
Get enthusiastic
say how good things are now
how good things are forever.
Let's sleep together now
Let's wake up tomorrow
Just like it was
Bingo the same thing

Nothing affects me
Nothing happens to me
Nothing passes me
Ahhh...

Sun overhead
Peace and quiet
Love and warmth
Heat and love
You don't have to think
Beyond...
Sun overhead
Peace and quiet
Love and warmth
Heat and love
Without saying hello
Without giving a hug
Just like it was
Exactly like that

Just like it was, that's how it will remain
I don't want less
And I don't want more
Without saying hello
Without giving a hug
Just like it was
Exactly like that

So we don't need to sit
And we don't need conversation
And without being sad
Without saying sorry
Not into my eyes
Not with all the heart
Without "tomorrow perhaps"
Without "I love..."

Nothing affects me
Nothing happens to me
Nothing passes me
Ahhh...

Sun overhead
Peace and quiet
Love and warmth
Heat and love
You don't have to think
Beyond...
Sun overhead
Peace and quiet
Love and warmth
Heat and love
Without saying hello
Without giving a hug
Just like it was
Exactly like that

Sun overhead
Peace and quiet
Love and warmth
Heat and love
You don't have to think
Beyond...
Sun overhead
Peace and quiet
Love and warmth
Heat and love
Without saying hello
Without giving a hug
Just like it was
Exactly like that

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Covers of Foreign Songs

Song Name Artist Name Genre Song # in Jukebox
"I Feel Like a King (Mellow Yellow)" Arik Einstein Classic Rock Song #14
"Shooting Star" Yehuda Eder Classic Rock Song #131
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Song Title: I Feel Like a King (Mellow Yellow) ("Ani Margish Kmo Melekh")
Musician: Arik Einstein
Year Released: 1968
Credits: lyrics by Donovan; Adapted to Hebrew by Arik Einstein
Website: arik220.tripod.com
Comments: Israeli lyrics and arrangement for a song originally performed by Donovan.
Hear the song!


It's good to lie on the grass
It's good to run on the sand
It's good to listen to some Mozart
And to forget everything
I feel like a king
I feel like a king
I feel like a king

You want to win
I'm willing to lose
Come, come, come already the night
You're mine for ever
I feel like a king
I feel like a king
I feel like a king

Yes, yes, a king
Yes, yes, a king
Yes, yes, a king

It's good to see the gang
Who came from afar
It's good to see the sadness change to laughter
I feel like a king
I feel like a king
I feel like a king

It's good to lie on the grass
It's good to run on the sand
It's good to listen to some Mozart
And to forget everything
I feel like a king
Yes, yes, a king
I feel like a king
Yes, yes, a king
Yes, yes, a king
Yes, yes, a king

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Song Title: Shooting Star ("Kokhav Shavit")
Musician: Yehuda Eder
Year Released: 2007
Credits: lyrics and music by Bob Dylan; adapted to Hebrew by Yehuda Eder
Website:
Comments:
Hear the song!


Shooting Star 4... one, two, three, four...

I see a shooting star on a cold night
And you're with me
You draw away into your own world
Far from my world
And if things were good for you
And if things will be bad for you
Now that you've already chosen a target for yourself
I see a shooting star on a cold night

I see a shooting star on a cold night
I'm by myself
When you see me, my life
Accomplishing my dreams
Did I miss an opportunity, make a mistake
Through you I know who I am
I see a shooting star on a cold night

Listen to the engine, they rang the bell
The train is rolling though fires of hell
Rolling, prayers and moans
Last thoughts, a quick self examination
A reverberation rises above the city
And the radio broadcasts announcements

I see a shooting star on a cold night
And draw away
Tomorrow will be too late, so I keep quiet
I wanted just to tell you tonight
What you really needed to hear
I see a shooting star on a cold night
And draw away

Listen to the engine, they rang the bell
The train is rolling though fires of hell
Rolling, prayers and moans
Last thoughts, a quick self examination
A reverberation rises above the city
And the radio broadcasts announcements

Tomorrow will be too late, so I keep quiet
I wanted just to tell you tonight
What you really needed to hear
I see a shooting star on a cold night
And draw away

a shooting star on a cold night
I see a shooting star on a cold night

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Israeli Soul Music

Song Name Artist Name Genre Song # in Jukebox
"Delusions" Nisim Sarousi Soul / Rock Song #136
"That's How We Parted" Avner Gadassi Soul / Rock Song #137
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Song Title: Delusions ("Ashlayot")
Musician: Nisim Sarusi
Year Released: 1973
Credits: lyrics by David Halfon; music by Nisim Sarousi
Website:
Comments: Unfortunately not the original recording (I winded up with some awful '90s remix). I'll post the original once I get my hands on it.
Hear the song!


To live in a luxury apartment
To think that you're a millionaire
To wake up in the afternoon
Next to a girl or two

A car in red
To sing songs of love and peace
To wander in the outskirts of town
To declare I'm the mayor ["king of the city"]

Never to work
Never to serve anyone
Only the head is in the skies
Rising up there in deceptions
Delusions

To set sail out to the yonders
To float into every port
To travel in Paris or Rome
To live like a Casanova

Delusions, many delusions
But most never come to pass
There, perhaps in dreams
The sweetest delusions are fulfilled

Never to work
Never to serve anyone
Only the head is in the skies
Rising up there in deceptions
Delusions

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Song Title: That's How We Parted ("Nifradnu Kakh")
Musician: Avner Gadassi
Year Released: 1972
Credits: lyrics by Smadar Shir; music by Avner Gadassi
Website:
Comments:
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That's how we broke up
There was a silence
There was nothing left to say
The street was full of emotion
The street was full of people
As if nothing had happened

All this was yesterday
And it seems like a year has already passed
From moments of a large dream
Remains only a tune

You said goodbye
Perhaps you thought
That everything can be changed
It was sad
That it's not so
I simply said goodbye ["see you later"]

All this was yesterday
And it seems like a year has already passed
From moments of a large dream
Remains only a tune

I remember
There was a silence
And we looked one at the other
It was sad
The heart was full of vitality
And we parted with hope

All this was yesterday
And it seems like a year has already passed
From moments of a large dream
Remains only a tune

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