Hello. I hope you are well. I am surprised at the difficulty I am having in finding information about this song and the group in English. I am having to use Hebrew sources and use an automatic translator. And I am surprised because I see that the song has many versions and it sounds very familiar to me.

The melody is wonderful. But also in those days, the singers sounded authentic and the whole thing conveys to me a mixture of Eastern inspiration and also some Hasidic things, as if there is no line between the two, because obviously there is not. As if it was a sample of musical syncretism, but I think it’s all more natural than all this because what has never been separated, can’t be put together.

I hope you enjoy it.

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So she continues: “In his new-found homeland, the Jew could choose to live on a kibbutz, Moshav or in the city, unlike in the European Diaspora, where freedom of choice was by and large unknown for the Jews. On the soil of his own homeland (note Alterman was born and lived 15 years in Poland), however, he will voice his own opinions and demands. No longer is he, nor the other pioneers, ‘set apart’: an alienated people. […] In Palestine, the transformed Jewish archetype is ‘a living man’, who can achieve his full potential in a rural or urban setting, in whatever way he or she wishes.” 

Nathan Alterman was born in Warsaw in 1910. At that time, Poland was part of the Russian Empire. The family moved to Moscow in 1914, to Kiev in 1919, to Chisinau in 1920 and finally to Tel Aviv in 1925. Nathan studied in Paris and Nancy (he studied agriculture). He soon began to write and publish and became very popular. He translated, wrote poetry, songs and was a journalist. His first poems were published in 1931 and his first book, Stars Outside, was published in 1938. He died in 1970 of an illness. On the website of The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature you can find a brief bio and a list of books in Hebrew and translated.

According to Discogs, “Lehakat Tzliley Ha’oud was an Israeli band founded in the mid 1970s playing a fusion of Yemenite, North African, Greek, and Mizrahi styles with elements of funk and rock. The guitarist was Yehuda Caesar and the vocalist was Rami Danoch.”

I learned about Rami Danoch (רמי דנוך) when I made the edition dedicated to Daklon, which you have here. I like them both very much as singers. In this recent video they are both absolutely wonderful. If you want to listen some more of then together, click here.

I have found an interview with Rami Danoch from 2017 in the newspaper Maariv, that you can find here. Blessed are the automatic translators. I will take some ideas from that source. The first phrase that is quoted from Danoch is “I have no value on Google, the heritage is going to perish“. It is true that there is not a lot of information but if you look for him on Youtube, there are many videos with his music and if you search on Google in Hebrew, there is a lot. He has a biography on Wikipedia in Hebrew which is quite extensive.

I continue reading and I understand some things have changed since 2017. He says that: “It is very important to me to take care and preserve, as much as I can, those songs that shaped the soundtrack of an entire country. If we don’t preserve it, it will disappear.” What a catastrophic vision, which I cannot share, because I see how many of these songs have many versions, are freely available on the internet and are performed by young artists. But the journalist goes on to say: “While I was talking to Danoch, I wandered around on Google looking for a Wikipedia entry about him or his legendary band. Unfortunately, I didn’t find it.” Indeed, Danoch’s bio on Wikipedia started in 2018 (it is here) and the band’s site on Wikipedia started in 2020.

Danoch explains that at the time, there was only one hour-long program that played Mizrahi music and that they were the first Oriental band to appear on television, referring to their appearance on the state channel in 1977, when he performed the song we have selected for today, in the Independence Day show, and invaded the mainstream overnight.

About their begginning, the band “Sounds of Oud” was founded by Danoch in 1974, just after the Yom Kippur War, with the aim of creating authentic Eastern music. “”I was a discharged soldier and until then I mainly sang songs in Yemeni and songs that I had absorbed in my childhood neighborhood, the HaTikva neighborhood,” he recalls. “And then I had the idea to start a band that would play these songs with an innovative and contemporary sound. I approached Yehuda Kiser, who at the time was a regular soldier who played acoustic guitar mainly songs by Beehive. I offered him to join and he agreed. At the same time, I included my canon player, David Gazela, who was a virtuoso, and then the other musicians.“” They recorded a demo in a cassette (the songs included were “Ayelet Chen”, “Hasida Tschora”, “Bozochari Mimim Yamima”, “Laner Valbshemim”, “Shalom Levan Dodi” and ” Hanal’a Hatbalabla”), and the company Azulai Brothers received one and hired them to release their first album, that achieved an extraordinary success and granted them many more appearances in the TV. Here you can watch one. Sounds of Oud has never stopped, but only Danoch continues from the initial line up.

A fierce rivalry

In the meantime, Daklon launched another band, “Sounds of the Vineyard”, and recorded four of the same songs and released an album with the company Reuveni Brothers. Danoch says they released their album 3 months before, but there is a controversy open until nowadays, about who invented the concept of a band performing mizrahi songs with that sound typical of the Western sound from the 70s.

Above I told about their recordings together with Daklon. About this, Danoch explains that:
“The truth is that we don’t talk that much. A few months ago, after mediating between us, I was contacted by his office about putting on a joint show for the two of us. I expressed willingness and came to the meeting, but then they told me that the show would be called: ‘Daklon and Sagiv Cohen host Rami Danoch,’ I felt humiliated and hurt because with all due respect, I’m not a guest, Sagiv Cohen should be the guest. It’s supposed to be an equal union of forces between Daklon and me, but he always has his head against the wall. I wish him good health, but I have some self-respect. It’s a shame that he don’t appreciate me.” 

This is Sagiv Cohen. As Danoch say, “with all due respect”, I understand Danoch’s insight, as the milestone he is.