El-Al in-flight music
Nobody told me there’d be days like these / Strange days indeed. -John Lennon
Yeah, the ’70s, that happy and upbeat time when we could forget about a few wars, stop lamenting the demise of the Left and, well, you know, bungle in the jungle. To think that I was hardly born. And what better way for American Jews to soak in the revelry than with some in-flight entertainment slapped onto vinyl by El-Al airlines. One can only hope that the poor folks on Flight 219 that day had this piped in until Leila Khaled was overpowered– I’m sure they wouldn’t have been concerned in the slightest. In fact, upon my initial listen a few weeks ago, I haven’t felt a thing at all beyond a glazed-over, ambiguous sense of well-being.
There are a whole series of these El Al albums– put out in the States by CBS!– featuring popular Israeli artists of the day (Irv. Goodman, Geula Gill, Helena Hendel, Yehoram Gaon, Yaffa Yarkoni…). The material consists of all your standard Zionist and traditional classics, plus some original hits. Between this and your aunt Sylvia, there ain’t no way you’re not gonna make aliyah now…
RIP Grace Paley
August 23, 2007, 5:29 pm
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jews Grace Paley, short story writer and poet, and anarchist and anti-nuclear activist died yesterday.
NPR put together a bunch of clips of her today. The New York Times has a nice article on her too. They also have a collection of older articles on her here.
I first saw Grace Paley read at Sarah Lawrence and immediately fell in love.
Al Tijuana & His Jewish Brass
I’ve been looking for this one for a while, and, mah rabu ma-asecha Hashem (yep, Her creations clearly are wondrous), it appeared on the WFMU blog Sunday night (obviously sleep was a bad idea). It appeared along with a score of other Tijuana Brass wannabe bands. No, I did not realize there were so many. Al Tijuana, pictured, is none other than comedian Lou Jacobi, arguably known best for his role as a transvestite husband in Woody Allen’s Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask).
The album is a mix of TJB standards (”The Yellow Rose of Texas,” “Malaguena”), 50s and 60s popular songs, and Jewish classics (”Tsena, Tsena”), interspersed with periodic un-funny quips from Jacobi– “Never on a Sunday? Well we say never on a Saturday!” Compare with Mickey Katz, brilliant parodist and actual musician– admit it, David, you hate it.
Well, okay, but a few shining moments– the theme to Peter Gunn, “A Taste of Honey,” “It’s Not Unusual.” Not, it’s not.
n.b. Lest you be deterred by the spate of easy listening posts these past few weeks, please remember that I can and do rock. (youtube link)
Not kosher, just delicious
August 19, 2007, 1:20 pm
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goys Hopefully the first of many trayf posts..
At this point it may occur to some of you to think, “What the fuck? David is only into Jewish music.” Not so! In fact I’m only discovering most of it now… The reality is that I have been a full on nerdy music enthusiast since I was a wee lad, pretty much devouring everything, from my early love of the Beatles onward.
Yesterday, my friend Taylor and I went to see the amazing folk-psych duo Christy & Emily at Permanent Records in Greenpoint. There are a lot of cool little record stores in Greenpoint, though I had never been to Permanent. Cool selection of used vinyl (I head straight to the dollar bins and generally stay put) and a thoughtful offering of new indie CD’s somewhat beyond the usual.
Upon ringing up with perhaps a regrettably large armload, I noticed a counter display of the latest Sundazed reissues. There on top was a re-release of Smokey and his Sister’s Columbia lp (not to be confused with their later Warner release, also eponymous). It goes without saying that I got a little giddy and school-girly, having first read about them/heard them here (this link refers to the Warner lp).
It’s up-beat in a different way than the Warner recordings (if you could even use that adjective to describe them at all), with really strong song writing and lush orchestration. Hebrew School particularly likes the opening track, “Losing,” as well as “Creators of Rain” and “A Far Better Thing (Alternate Version).” More here.
Other finds from yesterday:
(It’s all about the cover, the record is from 1985 and is crap.)
And…
Tonight I play a wedding with astounding guitarist and good friend the Jar, aka Jeremy Parzen, aka Calvino di Maggio. Befriend this man at your own risk– you may never drink Turning Leaf again!
