Shlomo Artzi - A Heart Broken to Pieces
Just like the two major cable companies in Israel (HOT and YES), there are the two major Israeli muicians that have survived until today: Shalom Hanoch and Shlomo Artzi. They're oldies - they've both got to be over 60 now - classic folk/rock Israeli music. You either like one or the other. Just like the world might be divided into two groups of people according to whether they like pickles in brine or in vinegar, Israel is divided according to whether you like Shalom Hanoch or Shlomo Artzi. (It's not like they're everybody's favorite, absolutely speaking. Of course some peolpe don't like either of them at all. But everybody likes one better than the other, to some degree.)
My favorite is in fact Shalom Hanoch. There's a specific album of his that I like most, 20 songs perhaps. He's still active and has been voted the most popular Israeli artist currently played on the radio for several years running. I've been to his live shows twice, and his all-time most-famous song "Waiting for Messiah" is on my top 5 list.
During my army service, my unit was given a treat and taken to a live performance by Shlomo Artzi. Since I wasn't exactly familiar with his songs, I stole my parents' CDs by him and listened to a few songs, trying to get the feel of him so I'd be able to recognize something at the live show. Only a few songs stuck with me, and one of the seriously underrated songs became my favorite: A Heart Broken to Pieces.
The Hebrew lyrics don't always rhyme, although some do; it's subtle, and sounds right, but the focus seems to be much more on the meaning rather than the sounds. This is my free translation:
And week after week, they played by a schedule
Once in a foreign city and once in the countryside
They took the stage, swept like the ocean, blew like the wind
A single spark lights a fiery success
And that year, I bought you a record
Men do the strangest things
The band filled a basement at the central station
We filled our heads with big ideas
I’m not even sure that really happened once upon a time
Everything is like a movie, like a fantastical creature
We had, in our love, some forgettable moments
We had, in our wars, some condemned men
Only on Friday did we feel the need to dance, but
“Where can we dance?” you asked me
In the central station, in a fucking basement
We’ll hear them play and our hearts will break into pieces
They played, that’s all
We learned the rhythm
Three days in a basement, destroyed like a battlefield
We learned to dance there
Because at school it was forbidden
We danced until someone fell to their knees
Until someone felt pain
Until someone said, “That’s it, I’m leaving.”
The sixties flew by, like your ponytail in the wind
From high-school to the battlefield, from there to some obscure bar
I sit and count twenty years, an injured dancer
Full of despair, full of riddles, full of nobody
And year after year, I bought you records
Like a little gift, instead of speaking words
The band played there until the cops said “Enough”
Until our heart broke into pieces
They played, that’s all
We learned the rhythm
Three days in a basement, destroyed like a battlefield
We learned to dance there
Because at school it was forbidden
We danced until someone fell to their knees
Until someone felt pain
Until someone said, “That’s it, I’m leaving.”
I leave in the night, bound in my pajamas
Even kitsch has its grain of truth, anything goes
I leave you the house, I left my heart there too
Broken to pieces, cast down next to yours
They played, that’s all
We learned the rhythm
Three days in a basement, destroyed like a battlefield
We learned to dance there
Because at school it was forbidden
We danced until someone fell to their knees
Until someone felt pain
Until someone said, “That’s it, I’m leaving.”
“That’s it, I’m leaving.”
They played, that’s all, three days in a row...
That’s it, I’m leaving... in the night.
The lyrics strike something inside me - a sort of feeling of "you haven't done this, you haven't felt this," whether what happens in the song is literal or metaphorical. I've obviously never fought in a battlefield, my army service being entirely office-work, and I've never felt so pationately about something like the band or the dancers in the song feel. I've never felt the tiredness, loneliness or confusion the song's narrator feels, never felt love, never felt old age or real nostalgia. I've never had my heart broken to pieces.
Lyrics aside, the music of the song is also very good - it begins with a single piano note, and then the drum beat comes in, constant, with synthesizer and occasional electric guitar riffs. In live shows nowadays, there's a girl who plays electric violin too. The piano joins again mostly in the chorus, not constantly playing but rather as an added flourish at the ends of the lines. There's something frantic about the music, it's almost like ecstasy - it sounds exactly how the dancers in the underground club feel dancing to the sounds of this crazily successful band playing in basements in Tel-Aviv's Central Station (which is a very scary place - it's HUGE and crowded and full of dark hallways and weird shops and homeless people and foreign workers. I wouldn't be surprised to find underground dance clubs there nowadays too.)
... I'm no musical genius, I can't describe it in proper musical terms... all I can say is that I like it.
Also - I doubt anyone's interested, but here's a link to the song on YT.
My favorite is in fact Shalom Hanoch. There's a specific album of his that I like most, 20 songs perhaps. He's still active and has been voted the most popular Israeli artist currently played on the radio for several years running. I've been to his live shows twice, and his all-time most-famous song "Waiting for Messiah" is on my top 5 list.
During my army service, my unit was given a treat and taken to a live performance by Shlomo Artzi. Since I wasn't exactly familiar with his songs, I stole my parents' CDs by him and listened to a few songs, trying to get the feel of him so I'd be able to recognize something at the live show. Only a few songs stuck with me, and one of the seriously underrated songs became my favorite: A Heart Broken to Pieces.
The Hebrew lyrics don't always rhyme, although some do; it's subtle, and sounds right, but the focus seems to be much more on the meaning rather than the sounds. This is my free translation:
And week after week, they played by a schedule
Once in a foreign city and once in the countryside
They took the stage, swept like the ocean, blew like the wind
A single spark lights a fiery success
And that year, I bought you a record
Men do the strangest things
The band filled a basement at the central station
We filled our heads with big ideas
I’m not even sure that really happened once upon a time
Everything is like a movie, like a fantastical creature
We had, in our love, some forgettable moments
We had, in our wars, some condemned men
Only on Friday did we feel the need to dance, but
“Where can we dance?” you asked me
In the central station, in a fucking basement
We’ll hear them play and our hearts will break into pieces
They played, that’s all
We learned the rhythm
Three days in a basement, destroyed like a battlefield
We learned to dance there
Because at school it was forbidden
We danced until someone fell to their knees
Until someone felt pain
Until someone said, “That’s it, I’m leaving.”
The sixties flew by, like your ponytail in the wind
From high-school to the battlefield, from there to some obscure bar
I sit and count twenty years, an injured dancer
Full of despair, full of riddles, full of nobody
And year after year, I bought you records
Like a little gift, instead of speaking words
The band played there until the cops said “Enough”
Until our heart broke into pieces
They played, that’s all
We learned the rhythm
Three days in a basement, destroyed like a battlefield
We learned to dance there
Because at school it was forbidden
We danced until someone fell to their knees
Until someone felt pain
Until someone said, “That’s it, I’m leaving.”
I leave in the night, bound in my pajamas
Even kitsch has its grain of truth, anything goes
I leave you the house, I left my heart there too
Broken to pieces, cast down next to yours
They played, that’s all
We learned the rhythm
Three days in a basement, destroyed like a battlefield
We learned to dance there
Because at school it was forbidden
We danced until someone fell to their knees
Until someone felt pain
Until someone said, “That’s it, I’m leaving.”
“That’s it, I’m leaving.”
They played, that’s all, three days in a row...
That’s it, I’m leaving... in the night.
The lyrics strike something inside me - a sort of feeling of "you haven't done this, you haven't felt this," whether what happens in the song is literal or metaphorical. I've obviously never fought in a battlefield, my army service being entirely office-work, and I've never felt so pationately about something like the band or the dancers in the song feel. I've never felt the tiredness, loneliness or confusion the song's narrator feels, never felt love, never felt old age or real nostalgia. I've never had my heart broken to pieces.
Lyrics aside, the music of the song is also very good - it begins with a single piano note, and then the drum beat comes in, constant, with synthesizer and occasional electric guitar riffs. In live shows nowadays, there's a girl who plays electric violin too. The piano joins again mostly in the chorus, not constantly playing but rather as an added flourish at the ends of the lines. There's something frantic about the music, it's almost like ecstasy - it sounds exactly how the dancers in the underground club feel dancing to the sounds of this crazily successful band playing in basements in Tel-Aviv's Central Station (which is a very scary place - it's HUGE and crowded and full of dark hallways and weird shops and homeless people and foreign workers. I wouldn't be surprised to find underground dance clubs there nowadays too.)
... I'm no musical genius, I can't describe it in proper musical terms... all I can say is that I like it.
Also - I doubt anyone's interested, but here's a link to the song on YT.