[HANASHIR:14769] Re: Jewish reggae(?)

[Carol Boyd Leon <cbleon...>]

Dear Robin and others,

I think there's a time and place for parodies.  (Purim comes instantly to 
mind.)  Parodies can be lots of fun to sin and when they use a familiar 
melody they elicit instant participation, they can make people smile and 
laugh, they add a freshness to lyrics that are ages old, etc.

But with all the music that's being written speciifically as Jewish music 
with melodies shaped by liturgical words and their meanings, I would much 
rather introduce congregants to a new Adon Olam composition written to be a 
new Adon Olam composition than to a song which was written with a far 
different intent but which happens to work well with the words of the 
prayer.

My 2 cents, respectfully submitted:  I see Jewish music as a spiritual art 
form.  The words and the melody shouldn't coincidentally fit together.  They 
should be purposely fit together.

Shabbat shalom.

-- Carol

Carol Boyd Leon, Burke VA
E-mail:  CBLeon (at) hotmail(dot)com
Please see www.geocities.com/CBoydLeon/cd.html for my Jewish "Songs From The 
Heart"




----Original Message Follows----
From: SELINGER (at) cua(dot)edu
Reply-To: hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org
To: hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org
CC: selinger (at) cua(dot)edu
Subject: [HANASHIR:14764] Beth Hamon's music online; plus...Jewish reggae(?)
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2003 02:43:39 -0400 (EDT)

New on hotshabbat.com... *three full tracks* from Beth Hamon's new CD,
"city of love." These will only be posted for the next few months so
enjoy them while ye may. Here are the links:

City of Love  http://www.hotshabbat.com/BHamon-CityOfLove.ram
Hashkiveynu   http://www.hotshabbat.com/BHamon-Hashkiveynu.ram
May God Bless http://www.hotshabbat.com/BHamon-MayGodBless.ram
  -sheet music http://www.hotshabbat.com/BHamon-MayGodBless.pdf

On another subject...Flipping through radio stations today I came across a
reggae song with raunchy lyrics but a hypnotic beat and melody. It's
called "Shake that thing," recorded by Sean Paul who sounds
Jamaican. If you ignore the lyrics-- which I can barely make out anyway--
it sounds extremely Jewish and would make a powerful and prayerful
syncopated chant melody.

If you can stop laughing long enough to consider it, the beat would work
great with the lyrics of Adon Olam, which goes with just about any song
anyway. The first part could be adapted like this:

ADON OLAM asher malach
ADON OLAM b'terem kol
ADON OLAM y'tzir nivra.
  (Michamocha Adonai?)
Adon olam asher malach,
B'terem kol y'tzir nivra.
L'et na'asah v'cheftzo kol,
azai melech sh'mo nikra.
V'acharey kichlot hakol,
l'vado yimloch nora.
V'hu haya, v'hu hoveh,
v'hu yih'yeh b'tifara.
...etc....

You could select different melodic variations from the verses of "Shake
that thing" as you like to match the number of lines in Adon Olam.

Anyone at camp want to give it a try??? Or do you have other ideas for
Jewish lyrics for this tune, in Hebrew or English?

If you think that's funny, here's a website listing dozens more tunes
that also fit the lyrics of Adon Olam:

http://www.rahul.net/figmo/Olamni/

-Robin Selinger
  robin (at) totshabbat(dot)com



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