54 years ago, give or take a day or two, I and my cohort went to see a performance of the Nahal army entertainment group. As I wrote1 19 years ago, On the Sunday, we all collected in the cafeteria. This was my 16th birthday, and I felt like I was holding court. After lunch, we travelled to Kibbutz Mevo Chama, which is on the Golan Heights, overlooking the Sea of Galilee: a magical view. In the evening, we had a short "get to meet the kibbutz and its people" as well as a birthday party for me. A wonderful evening.... On the penultimate day of our stay, I arranged for us to go and see the Army entertainment troupe who were appearing not far away. In those far off days, these troupes were the best entertainment in Israel, and we saw the best of those troupes, in one of its best line ups. Not that we understood a word of what they said! But the songs were great.
Over the past month or so, I've been listening to several of the songs from that performance and thinking about them. The opening song was one that was played frequently on the radio and we were all familiar with it at the time. As the record had applause between songs, and as the sparse sleeve notes said that the show was recorded at Kibbutz Givat HaShlosha in recognition of 30 years of the Palmach, I presumed that the record was a live recording. It's only been in the past month that I noticed that several of the vocals were double tracked and that there were no visible microphones. Slowly it dawned on me that this was a studio recording with applause added at a later date - a fake live recording.
There is another song from a bit later in the show, a song from the heady days of 1948, called 'comradeship'; this begins with a duet between a male soldier playing the mandolin and a female soldier playing the flute. The mandolinist is a recognised top guitarist in Israel, although his active playing days seem to be over. I wondered who was playing the flute; CoPilot told me that it was probably a professional flautist and not one of the performers as one might imagine. Again no microphones are visible.
I remember years ago trying to match the names of the songs as listed on the sleeve with the songs listed on the record's central label and with those that were playing. It seemed to me that there was one extra song that played but was not listed; this was a real shame as the song was beautifully arranged, played and sung. It was only in the last month that again I became interested in what this song could be. Someone uploaded to YouTube all the songs and skits of the double record, and this mysterious song can be found: 'Emek', aka the Jezreel Valley. Here is a link to the song, but this is not the only one on YouTube. Here is another, and the uploader's comments are very interesting.
From a hidden bonus track on "Palnach"nik", 1972: A typical Sanderson arrangement (+ Hendrix and Clapton hints) of a sweeping hymn full of love for the land, the human soul and life in full drive; Amazing solo: Gideon Gov; background musicians: Yardena Arazi, Ephraim Shamir and more of the best of the Palmach production of the time. The audience - in ecstasy! (and rightly so). Recorded at a public performance at Kibbutz Givat Hashlosha to mark the 30th anniversary of the Palmach.
There are two very interesting factoids in that paragraph: the first is that the song was indeed a hidden bonus track, partially explaining why the title didn't appear on the sleeve. The other is that Gidi Gov played the guitar solo (especially at around the 3:58 mark); I hadn't considered Gov to have been more than a capable guitarist (what The Band would have called 'a strummer') but CoPilot assures me that Gov really did know how to play the guitar but he stopped playing in public when he concentrated more on his vocals.
There is even a third, albeit truncated, video available on YouTube that is most interesting; this mixes shots of the original settlers working the land spliced together with shots of the Nahal group performing. The direction of the filming could have been improved. This recording is definitely different from that on the record - and singers can be seen singing into microphones.
According to CoPilot, the reason why this song was a hidden bonus track is that it was part of the 30th anniversary show but not part of the regular show. Most if not all of the performances on the records were studio recordings, documenting the show. The third video makes me wonder whether this was the actual live recording from the 30th anniversary and that what appears on the record is a studio recording. Gidi Gov is clearly not playing a guitar in that third video.
Going back to our stay in Israel: I was part of the 'cultural committee' that arranged activities from the group. I don't know who else was with me - if anyone - as I remember three events that I proposed. The army show was one; when in Jerusalem, we went to a nearby cinema to see the original version of 'Far from the madding crowd', and at some stage we went to hear some chamber music at the old railway station which wasn't far from where we stayed. The only piece that I remember from that show was ' 'Introduction and Allegro' by Ravel; I found this in one of the classical records in my school's collection and recorded it to cassetter whilst reading a newspaper in the background (I can be heard turning a page). In the pre-YouTube days of the 1990s , I looked for this and eventually found it on a cd. This is considered one of Ravel's minor works, but I like it all the same.
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| Title | Tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 616 | Puzzle | Puzzles | |
| 750 | Robin Williams, RIP | Films, Obituary | |
| 1655 | Eli, continued | ERP, Obituary | |
| 1656 | Walk exactly 3,967 steps in a day | Walking | |
| 1801 | Genesis of a new song | Song writing | |
| 1984 | Yet another excision | Health, BCC |
