November 26

Our birthday star for today is singer-songwriter Shlomo Artzi; he is, from what I can tell, the Bruce Springsteen of Israel. He's been one of Israel's biggest music acts of the last 30 years, singing stripped-down and downbeat song-stories about life. Okay, maybe he's more like Bryan Adams. Seriously, probably the only reason he isn't a bigger star is that he only sings in Hebrew. But it's still easy to hear the beauty and longing in a song like "Moon":



His career also needs little translation: he started in the 70's, achieving middling chart success singing the kind of cheesy pop songs you'd expect in the 70's. In 1977, ready to give up singing, he recorded a farewell album, "He Lost His Way", writing and recording the kind of songs he wanted to sing. So of course, it became the album that resurrected his career. [Apparently, that album was the beginning of a long-standing collaboration with Louis Lahav, a record producer who cut his teeth as a technician on... Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" album.]

Here's 'Talpeni Talpeni', from 1988:


It's times like this that I'm thankful for this blog; it's a way to sift through everything this world has to offer, a forum to share it - and a way to crassly and publicly send my gratitude and love to my family on this Thanksgiving holiday. Hope you've got plenty to be thankful for...