Sometimes, you just need a fix of this guy. I apologize to any of you cool dudes who listen to stuff that’s hipper.

Here’s a brief history in pictures.

Here is a list of all of his albums. Yes, you can buy them.

He used to belong to this band, for one great album anyway. The High Windows.

Okay, and here are the lyrics to the songs. Like, many, if not all of them, I think.

So this dates me a bit, but this an oldie and a goodie: Avshalom by Shalom Chanoch. You can find a clip here, second song from the top.

And

Hachaim od lo chazru lemaslulam (The days have not yet returned to their routine). You can find the clip second from the top.

And a song about dreaming about Prague with its smells of the ghetto and the dawn that will rise again. You can find the clip 3rd from the top. Don’t ask, it’s just one of those songs I’ve heard 2 zillion times.

Yeah, I’m a sap for this old stuff. Sue me.

About the author

themiddle

25 Comments

  • Arik Einstein will always be cool, no matter what his age. Many of his songs have entered the canon of ageless Israeli pop music. They’re sung and quoted constantly by Israelis of all ages.

  • No offense TM, D, and especially the lovely Lisa. I f*cking hate Arik Einstein. He’s like Israel’s Billy Joel. The sound of his voice makes me cringe. What can I say? Must be a cultural thing, something to do with Time cigarettes I’m sure.

  • ????? ????? ??? ????? isnt Arik Einstein, its Yoram Gaon.
    Hes pretty cheezy, but I kinda know alot of his stuff since my pops plays it all the time.

    Also, don’t go knockin BJ. Billy Joel rocks!

  • ck, dahling, you’re never gonna let me live down the Gauloises Blondes taste test, are you? 😉 They were fakes, damn it! Fakes! We’re going to have a replay when you return to the holy land with a carton of the real stuff from duty free.

    I will let the dastardly insult to Arik Einstein’s music go. For now.

  • Defending Billy Joel should be a capital crime. Muffti doesn’t much like AE either. For once him and CK agree on something music related.

  • Billy Joel?!

    Man, you suck at analogies.

    Einstein is the marrow of Israel’s bone; the breastmilk on which israelis are nourished; the pillar on which the building of Israel rests; the Friday-afternoon-music show that rides with us all week.

    Did you look at the page with all of his albums and collaborations?!

    Having said that, I wonder whom he resembles in American or pop culture? It’s definitely not Billy Joel because he hasn’t had anywhere near the impact.

  • Yeah its pretty much Billy Joel. Or maybe Bruce Springsteen if you must. But any way you cut it, I really have no stomach for either of those gentlemen and the same goes for Arik. As far as your last comment goes, I say take the breast-milk (there goes google) paragraph, translate it into hebrew, and there ya have a nice Arik Einstein song. Trust me TM, not ALL Israelis like Arik Einstein.

  • Ck, it matters not whether they think they like Arik Einstein, or breast milk for that matter, because his music permeates their consciousness when they simply walk through the streets of Israel.

    And ck, even those who say they don’t like his music…just send them to live in another country for several months, and then watch the tears come streaming when they hear one of his songs.

  • You know there are entire identifiable segments of Israeli society that don’t give a rat’s ass about Arik Einstein and resond with gagging whenever they hear his sappy-ass music, wherever they may be. Just sayin. And muffti agrees with me. Can the apoccalypse be far behind?

  • You know ck, they may tell you these things, but then they run into the bathroom, lock themselves in and play those “sappy” songs on their Walkman/Ipod/transistor radio. Zohar Argov, my ass. 😉

  • T_M: I also have ears ya know. Arik Einstein, in my humble opinion, sucks. Thats all. You go and lock yourself in the bathroom and cry like a little girlie over some of the most insipid hebrew lyrics ever written this side of Bialik street.

  • I happen to like Arik and Billy. And I have a special comedy-shaped place in my heart for Gidi Gov. (“Lama libeich k’mo kerach?!!”) Recently I was introduced to Lola’s Yamim Shel Sheket, which sounds like a kid’s album until you listen to the words; one of my favorites, “B’karov Etzlechem,” transfers the endless noodging of parents that their kids just get married already and makes it the chorus–I think that’s genius, even before they use the fancy Hebrew phrase “fool-time jobe.”

    But Rami’s da man. Sings songs so soothingly and croontastically that silly Americans don’t realize he’s singing about having a quickie with his girlfriend in the bathroom at the movie theater…

  • Well, I guess I don’t have to worry about you guys stealing my MP3 player anytime soon. What a relief.

  • Yo, are you aware that Israeli Pink Floyd rip offs, Rockfour, has covered ‘Shablool’ in its entirety? It’s pretty rad – check it out…

  • For me, Arik is the epitome of cool and being natural at that, too. He was just a cabaret-singer but, when the tidewaves swept –say, from England he transformed himself intelligently into an avant-gardiste and a progger of the first calibre.
    My fave-est song? HayoHaya.
    What else can I say?

    —;

  • shablul is the best israeli album there is. period. the hebrew songs, not the cracked out english wannabe Beatles song. and i think Arik would be offended to be compared to Billy Joel. i’m offended for him. zohar argov is repulsive. was repulsive. his music continues to be repulsive.

  • As a Jazzer, I would say the best Israeli album ever recorder is Avishai Cohen’s “The Trumpet Player”. As an Argentine-born Israeli, I would say “Semitas” by Marcelo Moguilevsky (Jewish Argentinian) and Juan Falu (Argentinian of Syrian descent). As an Italian citizen and resident in Italy, I would say Herbert (Avraham Hagihag) Pagani’s four songs “Méditerranée”, “Plaidoyer Pour Ma Terre”, “Le Condanné” and “L’Etoile D’Or”. Herbert Pagani, an Italianized Lybian Jew and outrageous sculptor, painter and songwriter, who grew up in Rome and left Italy for France in the ’70s because of the Soviet-driven anti-Zionism and anti-Semistism inside the Italian Communist Party. He, Alav Ha’Shalom, died in 1988 at Palm Springs/CA. Well, as an Israeli and as a Jazzer, I really enjoy a lot Gidi Gov’s jazzy album “B’Ktze Ha’Har”, especially “Shir Ha’Tembel” (the Caspar Milktoast’s Song). Another really good Jewish Jazz album is Emily Remler’s, Aleyha Ha’Shalom, “From East To Wes (Montgomery)”. Emily Remler left a huge fan-club when she suddenly died at the age of 33 years in 1990. very noteworthy is her virtuous interpretation of Antonio (Tom) Jobim’s tune “How Insensitive” (Insensatez) together with Pat Metheney. Other high carate Israeli and/or Jewish musicians in Jazz are: Eli Digibri, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Yoni Rechter, Maurice El-Medioni, Martial Solal, Attila Zoller (Alav Ha’Shalom), Lilli Boniche, Pablo Ziegler, Gustavo Beytelmann,Avishai Cohen (not the “Trumpet Player”, but the bass player), Max Roach, Victor Feldman (Alav Ha’Shalom), Steve Reich, Erran Baron Cohen, Gabriel Jakovkis, Sammy Davis Junior (Alav Ha’Shalom), Marcelo Nisimbaum and so many others, just google or eMule them up to get yourself an idea.