Monday, January 09, 2006
klezmerized
about a week ago I heard this story on NPR. The basic details are as follows: Somebody made recordings this old Rabbi singing prayers and songs which had long been forgotten. Kind of like the old recordings of early blues and folk music which are some of the only remaining evidence that these songs ever existed. And the singer’s grandson is now trying to get these recordings released to the public. Standard NPR story really, about the potential loss of a unique piece of cultural heritage. Yeah, yeah. Vote democrat, save unique cultural artifacts, we get it.
As I was half listening to this typical piece of liberal NPR propaganda, something caught my attention, and through the wonders of the NPR website and streaming audio, I can share it with you. If you follow the link above and then click on the Listen button (just above the photo) and after the add plays, the main story will come up. Listen to 4:13-4:52 and you’ll hear the part that got my attention. Go ahead and try it if you want to avoid reading the details which I have below.
What got my attention was that I recognized this little snippet of music from the recordings. This seemed odd because I’m not well versed in much of the sacred Jewish musics. But here is this old recording of a guy singing in Hebrew and I know the tune from somewhere. Eventually I was able recall that I knew the song from a movie. With a bit of googleing, I found that I knew the song from Pulp Fiction and it was called Misirlou and was recorded in the 60’s by Dick Dale and his Del-Tones.
Lo and behold I’m in the car again this Sunday and hear that NPR got a bunch of people writing in who also recognized the song. And so the folks on NPR did a follow up story about how this melody could be part of a sacred religious music and also make such a large impression as a part of modern pop-culture.
The story is worth listening to, but the short version is that the melody originated from Greece and Turkey and became a staple in the folk music in the Middle East. Dick Dale’s grandparents were from Lebanon and he first heard the melody as a child from his relatives.
If you do listen to the story, the most interesting part for me was listening to Dick Dale talk about how and why he ended up putting this tune from his childhood into his modern repertoire when he was an up and coming musician.
about a week ago I heard this story on NPR. The basic details are as follows: Somebody made recordings this old Rabbi singing prayers and songs which had long been forgotten. Kind of like the old recordings of early blues and folk music which are some of the only remaining evidence that these songs ever existed. And the singer’s grandson is now trying to get these recordings released to the public. Standard NPR story really, about the potential loss of a unique piece of cultural heritage. Yeah, yeah. Vote democrat, save unique cultural artifacts, we get it.
As I was half listening to this typical piece of liberal NPR propaganda, something caught my attention, and through the wonders of the NPR website and streaming audio, I can share it with you. If you follow the link above and then click on the Listen button (just above the photo) and after the add plays, the main story will come up. Listen to 4:13-4:52 and you’ll hear the part that got my attention. Go ahead and try it if you want to avoid reading the details which I have below.
What got my attention was that I recognized this little snippet of music from the recordings. This seemed odd because I’m not well versed in much of the sacred Jewish musics. But here is this old recording of a guy singing in Hebrew and I know the tune from somewhere. Eventually I was able recall that I knew the song from a movie. With a bit of googleing, I found that I knew the song from Pulp Fiction and it was called Misirlou and was recorded in the 60’s by Dick Dale and his Del-Tones.
Lo and behold I’m in the car again this Sunday and hear that NPR got a bunch of people writing in who also recognized the song. And so the folks on NPR did a follow up story about how this melody could be part of a sacred religious music and also make such a large impression as a part of modern pop-culture.
The story is worth listening to, but the short version is that the melody originated from Greece and Turkey and became a staple in the folk music in the Middle East. Dick Dale’s grandparents were from Lebanon and he first heard the melody as a child from his relatives.
If you do listen to the story, the most interesting part for me was listening to Dick Dale talk about how and why he ended up putting this tune from his childhood into his modern repertoire when he was an up and coming musician.
