Motti Rodan - Again

♥

mottirodan.bandcamp.com

Gaya Shaki - Oh My Love

♥ 

Lyrics by John Lennon & Yoko Ono:

Oh my love for the first time in my life

My eyes are wide open

Oh my lover for the first time in my life

My eyes can see

I see the wind

Oh, I see the trees

Everything is clear in my heart

I see the clouds

Oh, I see the sky

Everything is clear in our world

Oh my love for the first time in my life

My mind is wide open

Oh my lover for the first time in my life

My mind can feel

I feel the sorrow

Oh, I feel dreams

Everything is clear in my heart

I feel life

Oh, I feel love

Everything is clear in our world

Shai Nehaisi - Tunis

A song that enters your heart and refuses to leave.

In Shai Nehaisi's words: My grandparents made Aliyah from Tunis in the 1960s. They were the last ones to come from their city because my grandfather was a Jewish Agency emissary and made sure that all the jews in his city immigrated safely to Israel. When they arrived in Israel with their seven children they were housed in a small three-room apartment in Netanya. Even though they experienced difficulties they never complained, they were always grateful for the right to live in the Holy Land. My grandmother belonged to a different generation, a generation of simplicity, human love, giving, innocent faith in God, and gratefulness for every small thing. My grandmother lived in that same old apartment until the day she died. The song "Tunis" tells her story and the story of an entire generation that is slowly disappearing from our country.

Tunis' sun shines

Hands join in prayer

In the silence of the house, this is how the day begins

Who is there with her?

Squeaks of a wobbly table

Knocks on a single mug

The doors of the house have for long been unopened

To voices

And there she sits in the same corner

And the kids are running around her again

Pots filled with love

The old apartment in the Aliyah housing

She looks out to the window, God give joy

Family

All of the pictures of tzadikim 

Memories in a bookcase

How he would sit with her

And bless at length

And there she sits in the same corner

And the kids are running around her again

Pots filled with love

The old apartment in the Aliyah housing

She looks out to the window, God give joy

Family

Tunis' sun has already set

Where are you, madam?

shainehaisi.bandcamp.com

Lior Yeini - Come to Eilat

In loving memory of Lior Yeini, who passed away earlier this week at age 84. A timeless classic.

Let's escape the asphalt

And from the wrinkled cities

Let's escape to the quiet lagoons

Come to Eilat, to Eilat

In the capital of the sun

With freckles all over

In front of the skies, we'll grab a nap

And the wind that will settle

Will allow us to not think

About a thing

Eyes closed

We'll escape as a pair

To the water to the coral gardens

Between blue and green

We'll throw away the swimsuits

We'll toss them into the waves

With wild hair

Blown by the wind

I'm lying around like a lizard

Like a dolphin who escaped 

From the depths of the Gulf of Eilat

Like a surprise

Give me just two months

On the skis

And I won't trip on the waves of the water

Between green and blue

Man I can

I can live forever

Let's escape the asphalt

Let's discover 

The wondrous places

And the magic in the bays

Like Colombus so suddenly

In a light sailboat

If you came this time

You'll again return to Eilat

Because the city is enchanted

And the hiding place is under a spell

And you will arrive at it

You will arrive at it younger

Let's escape the asphalt

Hagal Hasheni, Rotem Bar Or, Orel Tamuz - The Firefly Rebellion

2020 was a challenging year, to say the least, but it made way for musical collaborations that would probably never have happened otherwise like Roy Rieck's project Hagal Hasheni (The second wave). The project began at the beginning of the first lockdown and a double album was released in September, just in time for the actual second wave. The idea behind the project is playful and brilliant: Rieck asked artists to send him unfinished drafts that they had lying around-lyrics without music, or music without lyrics, and then he would send it to other artists to work on. Rotem Bar Or from the Angelcy said in an interview that Rieck was bugging him to send his part so one morning he came up with the lyrics from the top of his head and sent them to Rieck in a WhatsApp voice message. Orel Tamuz took the reins from there and the result is one of the most beautiful songs I've heard this year.

The flowers bloom

And the convoy passes

And the melody returns

To the umbilical cord

The dead walk

To search for another peace

She goes down to the underground

She goes down to the essence

The world falls

Into a dark pit

Inside a dark pit

The lights play all night, yes

Suddenly lost

In an untitled moment

Suddenly children in a movie

Children without direction

She says to tell the

Story which connects

The ocean to the pinky

The sun to nothing

The world falls

Into a dark pit

Inside a dark pit

The lights play all night, yes

Rasco - Flowers

♥

What do I want

To be with you

I'm on the floor

A dream or an illusion

rascoband.bandcamp.com

Ktzat Acheret - The Little Prince

In the past I would always associate this song with Memorial Day and other quiet songs about fallen soldiers. But after seeing "Valley of Tears" I understand a bit better the context of the song and the mood of the country when it was released in 1974, a year after the Yom Kippur War. Yehonatan Geffen wrote the lyrics based on a soldier who served with him and was tragically killed by "friendly fire" during training. The song was released on Ktzat Acheret's first and only album, which is well worth digging into (most of the songs are available here). The members of Ktzat Acheret ('A little different' in Hebrew) were Shlomo Gronich, Shem Tov Levi, and Shlomo Idov. Here's a bit about the band from an article in Mitkadem, a progressive rock site: "Shlomo Idov defined Ktzat Acheret as the antithesis of the music of the period, which was expressed in military bands and successful groups like Kaveret. Shlomo Gronich defined his writing in Ktzat Acheret as a kind of rebellion, crossing borders, and an expression of a lot of anger after the results of the Yom Kippur War ... Ktzat Acheret broke up, unfortunately, when Gronich decided to leave the country and go to Europe in the middle of 1975. It's possible that one of the reasons for Shlomo Gronich's decision to leave Israel was related to the fact that his brother, Yaron Gronich, who was also a talented musician, was killed in the Yom Kippur War."

"Valley of Tears" was more of an event than just another TV show. Each episode was followed by a quiet panel to help decompress after violent scenes and discussions about the show continued on the official Facebook page where war veterans shared stories from the battlefield and families of fallen soldiers shared personal stories of their loved ones. For many, the show was difficult to watch and there was a steep rise in calls to Natal, an organization that specializes in the field of war and terror-related trauma. There was also a lot of criticism towards the show from those who didn't like the fabricated storylines, those who felt uncomfortable seeing a traumatic event being shown as entertainment, and those who took issue with the show itself. I guess I belong in the latter group because even though I was glued to the screen every week, the show had many flaws and the end result felt too rushed and incomplete. But the show did succeed in capturing the chaos of the war and the ultimate loss of innocence.

I met him in the heart of the desert

How pretty the sunset is to a sad heart

I drew for him a tree and a sheep on paper

And he promised me he would return

The little prince from unit B

He won't see another sheep eating a flower

And all his roses are now thorns

And his little heart froze like ice

And if you ever come here

Know that here he fell silently

And the sound of the fall was never heard

Because of the soft sand

And if a boy should appear there

With a weary face and golden hair

Know that it's him, and offer him a hand

And wipe the desert sand from his eyes

And then do me a small favor

Please write quickly to all of our mothers

To relieve them a little and alleviate their sadness

The little prince came back to us

The little prince from unit B

He won't see another sheep eating a flower

And all his roses are now thorns

And his little heart froze like ice

I met him in the heart of the desert

(translation with the help of Hebrewsongs.com)