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P»*> U THE SOUTHERN ISRAEUTE December 23, 1977
Lunch:
Mon.-Sat.
11 a.m.-3 p.m.
THE BRASS KEY
OINNEA RESERVATIONS RECOMMENOFO
2355 PEACHTREE RD. J5S*
6 p.m -Midnight
^3 AGGRESSIVE! EXCITIRG!' ACTION!
Thursday, December 29
The Atlanta Flames
vs.
The SL Louis Blues
Monday, December 26
The Atlanta
Flames
vs.
Chicago
Black Hawks
OMNI |
MONDAY 8:05
Israeli rock rolls on
by Walter Ruby
Israeli rock and roll has had its
first truly creative blossoming in
the past few years. After a long
period during which Israeli
performers gave inept imitations
of American styles, a number of
top-flight local talents came
together in groups like Poogy,
well as I can in my music.”
Litani, Danny Sanderson of
Poogy, and the bad boy of Israeli
rock, Ariel Zilber, are all
remarkably open, honest, and
unaffected by the star complexes
one finds in the U.S.
The common preoccupation of
all three is to get in touch with their
musical cores, and not to
compromise their artistic integrity,
says Litani, “My music has more
simplicity now. If I really like a
song, I’ll record it. I don’t worry
anymore what other people are
going to think about it.”
Says Sanderson, “I’m taking my
time now, and won't rush into
anything until I really feel good
with it. The whole trip of being a
rock and roll star is on a much
smaller scale in Israel than it is in
the U.S. There isn’t much glory in
being a successful musician here; a
lot of it is hours of hard work."
Litani grew up on Kibbutz Sh’ar
Ha'emekim, where he was quickly
recognized as a musical
wunderkind. He began playing the
piano in a conservatory at the age
of seven, and took up the guitar as
a youth. After completing his
military service, he came to Tel
Aviv, and tried to make it as a ’
Danny Sanderson
night-club musician, but had much
greater success as an actor.
Litani met Bob Dylan on the last
night of the latter’s 1969 visit to
Israel. “An old army buddy of
mine called me late one night and
said that Bob Dylan was at his
apartment and wanted to meet
some Israeli musicians,” Litani
recalls.
1 didn't believe him until he put
Dylan on the line. When I got
there. Bob looked like a trapped
animal. There was a large group of
army officers in white shirts,
clapping their hands and
demanding that he sing. I got out
my guitar and played with him to
make him less nervous."
When Litani went to New York
a year later as part of the cast of
“There was a Righteous Man” he
was surprised one night to find
Dylan waiting for him in the lobby.
The two became good friends.
In the years following his return
from the U.S., Litani became one
of Israel's best-known and
critically acclaimed pop musicians.
But he ran into a lot of criticism
after his 1976 tour with Yonatan
Gefen. “Many people assumed we
were just out to knock Israel. We
did a song about the riots called
“An Arab Remains an Arab,”
based on the fact that the soldiers
claimed to be firing in the air, but
Arabs kept falling down dead.
“The next thing we knew, there
were angry speeches being made
against us in the Knesset. It
became a very heavy scene, and the
irony was that the Arabs
complained too, because they
thought the song was against
them.”
The experience tempered
Litdfni’s interest in protest music.
Ariel Zilber comes from a family
with musical background. His
mother sings Yemenite songs, and
one of his grandfathers played
violin in the Israel Philharmonic.
Ariel spent his childhood on
Kibbutz Gan Shmuel, but says
kibbutz folk music had no
influence on his musical
development.
When he was 16, Ariel left the
kibbutz in Tel Aviv. He started
playing trumpet, and got involved
with jazz groups in small clubs.
“I now play rock piano instead
of jazz piano. I don't have any
message to give or anything to say.
I write the music to my songs and
then give them to songwriters.”
“You live only once, habibi, so
make a lot of noise,” says Danny
Sanderson, late of Poogy, who has
recently been involved in a number
of new departures. “I’m involved in
the labor pains of creating my new
music, and detaching myself from
the past. “My music is becoming
more personal and introspective.”
But Sanderson has lost none of
the puckish humor that made
Poogy so unique. He has just
finished writing “a very funny
book,” is working on a musical
(“my grandson may get to see it”),
and is thinking about going on
stage as a comedian.
Sanderson is that rare creature:
an artist totally at ease in two
cultures and two languages. He
can be howlingly funny in both
English and Hebrew. He spent his
teen years in the Bronx, attending
the High School of Music and Art,
and he played in two rock bands,
one of which was featured in Life
magazine.
He came back to Israel in 1968,
and found himself in the Army
Entertainment Corps. “What a
scene," he recalls, “living three
Ariel Zilber
years of your life on a bus, and
doing a show every day. We were
18 boys and girls having a great
time, dancing, doing skits, and
singing.”
With first-class talents like
Litani, Zilber, and Sanderson
reaching the peak of their creative
powers, Israeli rock and roll may
be entering its period of greatest
expression.
Jewish Digest i
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Or taste our excellent cuisine for lunch or dinner at
the Brass Key Restaurant conveniently located In the
Peachtree Battle Shopping Center.
Danny Litani
Tamuz, and Shamiyim to create a
wide spectrum of rock music
forms.
The music was vital, if
sometimes ragged, and the lyrics
were remarkably literate, often full
of savage satire about conditions
in the country.
Then, within a short period last
year, all three groups broke up. In
each case, there was a feeling that
the very different personalities
within the groups were pulling in
different Erections, and that the
musical egos involved were
becoming too large and
demanding to be contained within
one entity.
Today with the break-up of the
groups, the top Israeli rock artists
are recording their own albums.
The focus of their music has
changed, too; the songs deal less
with politics and the state of life in
Israel, and more with personal
themes.
Last year Danny Litani toured
the country with poet Yonatan
Gefen, singing angry songs
attacking the political establish
ment. Today he says, “1 don’t think
we achieved much by fighting.
Now I want to concentrate on my
own life and express my feelings as
H/4VI€ YOU €M€R D€GH OITGRGD
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