Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Jerusalem style

Ever since I first saw these guys perform a Beatles tune this year, I have been curious if they had anything else in them.

Well, it's clear they do.  Roger Waters, Syd Barrett:  look out.  Here are two Breslovers covering Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" in the heart of Jerusalem.  Zion Square, affectionately know in Hebrew as Kikar Tzion, has never looked this shiny, and, dare I say it, sanitized!  With the light rail that passes by on Jaffa Road, you'd think this was a shmancy European city. What I want to know is where is the Kent Stand we all used to visit to exchange currency?

What a wild, wacky, beautiful sight. Just love the motley of people surrounding Reb Arye and Reb Gil, young to old, secular to religious, male, female, and who knows maybe something in between. Just people listening to great tunes in the holy city, albeit the new part.

We need to check our preconceived notions at the door in case you thought "what are these payos-clad guys doing singing these beautiful tunes."  Good music is good music.

If you love 'em so much, email 'em and let 'em know!
BreslevBrothers@gmail.com

Just last night I wore my Cream t-shirt (also my brother's recommendation) to an Amy Helm show, the daughter of Levon Helm, who has already been gone for a year and half.

And now I see that the brothers performed a classic Clapton Tune "Tears in Heaven."  (for those not musically-literate, just Google the band Cream and you'll see the connection).





As Dustin Hoffman said in Tootsie, "Joy. Sheer joy."

Here's Amy Helm & The Handsome Strangers from last night







Buried at the bottom:

Here's my little Floyd story.  They are my brother's favorite band, so in high school he suggested some tapes of theirs I should get. "Dark Side of the Moon," the album on which "Shine On" appears, ended up being one of the few I did actually buy. Probably at Sam Goody or Record World (where I bought tapes not records) in the mall.  Being a suburban kid we didn't have Tower Records...my visits there in 1988 and '89 in Manhattan are a whole other story that involved skipping the Columbus Day journalism seminars at Columbia University. Maybe if I didn't skip those seminars I would actually know how to write instead of my gabbable run-ons.

I brought my Floyd tapes on my teen tour, and one of the girls on the trip was excited to see I listened to them. I liked the music:  who doesn't relate to the lyric "two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl year after year?"  But I knew nothing of the band itself.  So when she started waxing poetic over Roger Waters I felt like a real poseur and shied away.

I have learned a bit more about modern rock since then, but I imagine kids these days wouldn't have that type of experience since we live in a wiki, Googled out society. Surely it was a more innocent time. I miss my Sony Walkman and looking out onto the Montana landscape while dozing off to the sounds of cash registers churning and falling bricks in a wall.

Reason #127 Why My Favorite Band Should Play in Israel

It has taken his entire career to make it to Israel, but former Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart will be playing in Jerusalem this August.  He is performing as part of the Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival.  He is the only Jewish member of the Grateful Dead.

Mickey Hart  photo from Jpost.com

No doubt, Jewish Deadheads worldwide are kvelling.

I have said it before and I will say it again:  changes a' comin'.  This gives me hope that one day, my favorite band will make it to Israel.  (this isn't the time and place to say how the Grateful Dead leads me to Phish.  For just one convo on that topic, go here)

And despite that my sort of silly sort of not silly calculations that led me to predict that Phish would play there last December didn't come true, it still gives me hope.

Phish is celebrating 30 years this year...the time is now.

If not now, when?  -Hillel

Jerusalem City of Gold: It Is For the Best

"Just nod if you can hear me"  -Pink Floyd

Click to 23:51 on the below video or even this link   for a 1994 Phish performance of Yerushalayim Shel Zahav.  Phish mavens really ate up that one in the 90s whenever they played this old school Israeli song written by Naomi Shemer.  Those days are over, but we can always listen and remember.  And think towards what could be in the future.




Thank you to Phish.net for debuting this video this week.  Quite an intricate jam, though I don't expect most of you to listen to the whole thing.

As far as I know, Phish has never played a show in Israel.  I think they should.

This child might be grown, but the dream is never gone.




"If you will it, it is no dream."  -Theodor Herzl

I try to maintain optimism, but if a show in Israel never happens, I will keep in mind the following:

"When a person knows that everything that happens to him is for the best, this is a taste of the world to come."  -R' Nachman of Breslov