Judah and the Maccabees by groovy duo Damon and Naomi

Judah and the Maccabees is a groovy, mellow song by the American rock duo Damon and Naomi. Here’s what Damon Krukowski says about the song in the liner notes:

Track Three: Judah & the Maccabees
Judah Maccabee led an uprising in ancient Israel, recapturing the Temple for the Jews. Damon says, “The song was physically inspired by renovations to the new Exact Change office, in the course of which we did a lot of poking into formerly closed up spaces. That connected to something haunting I saw at the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side — walled up spaces — and a metaphoric connection to my family's history. We're hoping
for heavy rotation on Tel Aviv soft rock radio.”

For more info visit here: http://www.damonandnaomi.com/albums/withghost/withghost.html

Subminal's hardcore hip hop Chanukah song

Banu Choshech Legaresh is a classic children's Chanukah song. But for some reason, I never heard of it until 2002 when it was covered by the Israeli hip-hop duo Subliminal and the Shadow. The throbbing, heavy, ominous beats are mixed with rapid fire raps. I am including are the lyrics courtesy of Hebrewsongs.com. Here is a video someone made for the song on YouTube, as well as a rock version with what looks like long haired religious Israeli teenagers. If you know of any more cool Chankuah songs, email me.

We Came to Drive Away the Darkness
 
We came to drive away the darkness
in our hands is light and fire.
Everyone's a small light,
and all of us are a firm light.

Fight darkness, further blackness!
Fight because of the light!

Tzil-tzil-tzil in the bells,
who are we? - spinning tops.
We have one leg,
if we fall - we still won't fear.

Fight darkness, further blackness!
Fight because of the light!

Don McLean of American Pie fame lived in Israel

Don McLean, famous for his song American Pie has a song called Dreidel. It doesn't have much to do with Chanukah. The chorus goes "I feel like a spinning top or a dreidel."

When my friend Binyamin from the radio station heard it, he told me the connection is that Don McLean lived on a kibbutz in Israel. He said he met a journalist who had met Don McLean.

So I went on the internet and spent a long time both on Google and on Dogpile looking it up, both in Hebrew and in English. I found very little except for these two excerpts from the official Don McLean web site.

"Don McLean played his first professional gig in 1962 at an Israeli coffee house in Manhattan."

Fans interview Don McLean:

Janet: "I love your song 'Sea Man'. I would love to know where you got the idea from."
Don: "The song is actually a true story of a man who lived by the sea in Heifer, Israel. It’s all true and everything in the song is what he told me about his life. He even lives in a house shaped like a fish."

So maybe one day I will interview this journalist or I will interview Don McLean and learn more. Until then, enjoy this video clip of Don McLean singing Dreidel.