Jews Rock

Jewsrock.org is a fun site about -- take a guess. It's a new site, and very much a work in progress (where are Jonathan Richman's Bar Mitzvah photos? Get them, dammit!) but there are already plenty of essays and factoids to chew on. I thought that I'd read my books and knew who was Jewish in rock and roll, but it turns out that I hadn't. Now, far be it from me to complain that some of the writing is, er, "too Jewish", but I can understand that they wanted the site's writing to appeal to the broadest possible age group. Hmmm ... here are some things I learned from the "Challah Fame" portion of their site, AKA the RNR Jewish roll call. (I'm also including some passages that I felt like excerpting for the hell of it -- all excerpts are from jewsrock.org):

Er, I didn't know they were Jewish!

Robbie Robertson! MC Paul Barman! Jack Black!

Chris Blackwell!!! This one really blew my mind. His family started the first synagogue in Jamaica.

Gavin Rossdale (half)! I'm just on the "B"'s here!

"Family Portrait" makes a bit more sense now

I wouldn't have guessed that someone named Alecia Moore was Jewish, but she (Pink) is indeed. Her completely non-revelatory family exposé (ooooh, her parents argued, she wasn't happy, how -- NORMAL) made her parents cry when they first heard it. This whole scenario is very Jewish.

This is stretching it a bit

From their early days in the San Francisco psychedelic scene to their one radio hit, 1987’s "Touch of Grey," the Grateful Dead have always had a large Jewish following. Deadheadism is a lot like Judiasm. Fans of the Grateful Dead, like observant Jews, glean spiritual meaning from the intensive study of their chosen texts: in this case, song lyrics. They view themselves as misfits in the greater world but draw incredible strength from their own communities.

I'm cool with the first sentence. I raise an eyebrow with the second. By the third, I'm trying to contain laughter. By the fourth, I'm merely trying to quantify how much acid the writer took at Grateful Dead concerts in the 80's and 90's. Somebody had a good time in college, I'll tell you that.

They mention that the band's manager was Jewish (no name given). I'm not sure if they had more than one Jewish manager, but one of their first was Hank Harrison, who is a) half-Jewish, b) wrote one of the first Dead bios, c) Courtney Love's father. Strangely, none of this is mentioned in the entry about Love.

See what I mean? Too Jewish

On the Yeah Yeah Yeahs: The jury is still out on lead singer Karen O (does that stand for "Oy"?) and guitarist Nick Zinner, but drummer Brian Chase definitely qualifies as a Jewish rocker.

Who says that?

On Yo La Tengo: Every Hanukkah, Yo La Tengo puts on an eight-day show at Maxwell’s, the veteran rock club in Hoboken. Frontman Ira Kaplan, who has been called "the Jewish Jimi Hendrix," brings his Jersey hometown covers by Jews ranging from Neil Diamond to the Ramones.

I think they made up the "Jewish Hendrix" bit. I've never heard anybody say that. I can't imagine that anyone would think that. If Ira Kaplan ressembles anybody, it's the Jewish Lou Reed ... oh, redundant. If anyone is the Jewish Hendrix, it's Lenny Kravitz :)

See what I mean? Too Jewish

On Lou Reed: As they say at seder, if he’d only founded the most influential band of all time, it would have been enough. But after his run with the Velvet Underground, once he’d made it OK to sing about heroin and S&M and to use feedback and soundscapes in rock songs, Lou Reed went on to release Transformer in 1972. If he had only added New York grit to glam rock with an album produced by David Bowie and featuring the Top 20 hit "Walk on the Wild Side," dayenu.

He did sing about heroin, but I wouldn't say that he made it acceptable to sing about it. Funny how people always use that song to support the notion that Reed kicked down a lyrical barrier. Did he also make it OK to sing about orgies involving sailors and transvestites? I've never heard anybody argue that.

Oh, if he'd only utilized a silly pun on the song title "Original Wrapper", outdone Depeche Mode in the "WTF? World events? Why? What is this?" song contest of 1986, and written an album ("Mistrial") that even his most devoted fans won't defend -- it would have been enough for us!

That lawsuit is making a bit more sense now

Richard Blum, aka Handsome Dick Manitoba, senselessly sued Dan Snaith for ownership of the name Manitoba.

This might be all you ever need to know about Phish

Like the Grateful Dead, Phish play unstructured, jammy, jazz-inflected music, tour incessantly, and occupy a special place in the hearts of many a Jewish hippie.

A perfect summation. Oh, half of the band was Jewish.