1974 revisited (believe me, it's worth it) (you'll thank me)

It occurred to me tonight that there is one more song which my father loves to take out of his vinyl record collection every so often...and I started humming that tune and wondering if it too was...perhaps...a Eurovision song.

Well, wouldn't you know it, it is indeed. It apparently came 3rd that year, you know...that year that ABBA won for Waterloo. So I was just about to post the song for your listening pleasure (and believe me, I GUARANTEE laughter) when I thought, "Hmmm...but which song came 2nd?" Well, wouldn't you know it, ITALY...Paola's Italy. So I look up the Italian '74 song and lo and behold it is actually quite beautiful, and there are comments from a mere week or two ago showing that people are STILL, NOW, in 2009, STILL upset that it didn't win first place.

So I present you with the Italian "Si":




Lovely, no?



What, are you still holding out hope to get a glimpse of the '74 3rd place?

You want a good laugh, don't you? I know I do......

But be warned.

If you thought that "Kisses for me" song was addictive, you ain't heard nothing yet:

Eleanor proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is way past her bedtime:

My final Eurovision dedication goes out to dear Alice in England. "Save all your kisses for me" is considered an absolute CLASSIC in my family, and my father often sings it to me on special occasions. You will immediately note the crazy-cool dance moves as well!

Getting completely carried away now...

This is dedicated to Eurolush. Perhaps your next little video will feature a song and dance?!

I was seven years old when I watched this.

I definitely see a sing-off in our future E, featuring this little beauty. I think we might need a beer or two to get us started.

Blogging cheers me up!

If you look at the first post of the day (this is my all-time record for number of posts published in one day) you will see that I was in a somewhat melancholy mood.

A few commentboxes later, and look at me! I'm giggling at the thought of my blogging buddies all over the world watching classic Eurovision videos. You cheered me up!!

This one is dedicated to Anna, my Swedish blogging buddy. I was 5 years old when I watched this on our little black and white television in our apartment in Israel. You, Anna, were probably sitting beside your grandma and singing along while sewing or knitting or crocheting...no?

I just love that image.

For Kim, because I can't resist showing her that my mind REALLY does work this way:

So Kim mentioned in her commentbox on my latest post that she would never in a million years have believed that I could draw a connection between our road trip to Mary's home and an Israeli song (and the Eurovision no less!).

I know! I know! Mr. Commentbox can often be found staring at me and shaking his head in wonder as I describe my thought processes.

Of course, now I have to post about what song I was humming on my way back from visiting YOU, dear Kim. Also Israeli, and I think the composer and singer (Achinoam Nini) did sing in a Eurovision or too. Here is her song "Uri," the lyrics are a poem by the great Rachel Bluwstein, a wondrous poet whose book was sent to me by my grandfather among the many boxes of his library.

In our crazy world, full of the rushing rushing rushing, it often helps me to ground myself in such poetry and music. Seeing you with your beautiful boys I couldn't help but feel Rachel smiling from far away, so very happy for you.

I am also attaching a rough translation I found of the poem, which is far more beautiful in its original Hebrew, of course.



BARREN

If only I had a son, a little child, bright, with black curls,
To hold his hand and to walk slowly,
Down the paths of the garden,
A child.
A little one.

I would call him Uri, my Uri,
The short name is soft and pure,
A fragment of brightness,
I'll call out to my dark little boy,
"Uri."

I will yet become as bitter as the mother Rachel.
I will still pray like Hannah at Shilo.
I will yet long
For him.



By the way...and you'll LOVE this...as I was listening to this song just now my son (working on the computer next to me) turned to me and said "Could you please make it lower? What IS that song???!!! Ugh..."

Second childhood

I drove up with Duyvken to the mountains on Moday to visit Mary. I sat in the front of Duyvken's van and listened to her three children talking, singing, crying, arguing, explaining, asking, giggling, laughing and much much more. They are a special cache of jewels that Duyvken gang. Still haven't met Garnet (she's at school these days), but Gem, Charm and Jewel certainly kept me entertained.

After a hug with Mary and a cup of tea in her beautiful home Kim arrived with her two youngest lovies - Jasper and Grover. A couple of dimpled darlings those boys are, scrumptious vanilla puddings. Yum.

Being surrounded by these little ones made me reminisce about my own children's earlier days, and also about my own childhood. I had a very happy childhood, and many of my best memories are from the years I spent in Israel (until I was 8 years old). I had the good luck to have been a child during the years that Ehud Manor was writing songs for and about his own children. In fact, most of the greatest popular Israeli musicians of the 1970s wrote for children as well as for adults, without bright colours or branding or cutesy names, they simply wrote and performed from their heart and captured the essence of childhood, thereby entertaining young and old alike. I had an extraordinarily innocent childhood.

Ehud Manor wrote many songs about his daughters and son - Gali, Libby and Yehuda. I couldn't find many of my favourites, but I did find this one titled "Son." This was a song which I remember loving and singing when I was probably under 10 years old, and yet now I listen to the words and I marvel at the adult beauty of the lyrics. The song is sung directly by a parent to his/her son, who is up in the middle of the night, explaining to him why he mustn't wake the girls up and why he must understand that he won't always be able to get his own way, and then giving up and saying "All right, let's go look at the sunrise together." Ehud Manor wrote "Ben" for his son decades ago, and yet it is still such a beautiful part of my parenting psyche.



Anybody still watch the Eurovision? Well...I clearly remember a time when the Eurivision was the highlight of my year, when the songs spoke to me and made me happy...even as a young girl. Ehud Manor wrote this song ("Abanibi") and I think it may have won that year. The chorus is made up of a type of Hebrew pig latin and means "I love you." That was my favourite song for an entire year.



Ehud Manor was also famous for his collaboration with another Israeli musician - Matti Caspi. Many of the most-loved songs of the 70s and 80s were a combination of Caspi's music and Manor's lyrics. "Binyamina" is a song which I found myself humming on the way back home from the mountains on Monday. Binyamina is the village where Ehud Manor grew up, and the song is a love song to his "barefoot days" there - where people said hello, where a friend was a friend, where someone would invite you in to taste some of their home-made jam (hello Kim!). In this clip I think Caspi was overseas so he sang the song for Manor long-distance. These two men wrote this song together, and here one is performing it for the other. I think that the look on Manor's face sums up everything I feel about the magic of childhood and the hold it has on one's adult life.



When Ehud Manor died 4 years ago he was buried in Binyamina and his fellow musicians played his songs for him.