We were on the first day of a two week car trip through Europe. My wife Jody and I and our three kids had packed the rented Nissan Almera full of our gear and were settling in for the three hour drive from the Milan airport to our bed and breakfast in Italy’s picturesque Lake Garda area.
We hit the Autostrada and, after the initial excitement of all those “foreign” road signs (“What does ‘Uscita’ mean?” and “Can we really go 120 on this road?”), everyone quieted down as we realized that a highway is a highway…even in Italian.
“Can you turn on the radio?” fourteen-year-old Amir commanded and I readily complied.
Now I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to listen to the radio in Europe, but it is a truly dreadful experience. Nothing but station after station of Euro disco crap, pardon my snooty American/Israeli attitude.
“Does this car have a CD player?” Amir asked. “Because I have a disc that Safta gave us. Some guy named…” (he looked at the disc)…“Matisyahu.”
Amir and his twelve-year-old sister Merav had spent the summer in California with their grandparents before meeting the rest of the family in Italy for our vacation together. The Matisyahu disc had been a parting gift from Jody’s mom.
“Hand it over,” I said excitedly. But as I took a look at the cover of “Live at Stubb’s,” I quickly lost my optimism.
The man going by the very Ashkenazi-sounding name “Matisyahu” (with the “s” in the middle rather than the more Israeli pronunciation of “Matitayu” with a “t”) was decked out in traditional ultra-orthodox attire: black hat, black coat, bushy beard. A little experience told me that the music on this CD would more likely lean towards old world cantorial-style or the type of bubbly “simcha” music heard at weddings and bar mitzvahs rather than the hipper, more modern Israeli world music we generally favor: Idan Raichel and HaDag Nachash, that sort of thing.
I steeled myself for an hour of “oy va voys” and “we want Moshiach now.”
Imagine my surprise as the first track started to play: a reggae and rap-influenced number inspired more by Bob Marley and 50 Cent than Dudu Fisher or Tevye the milkman. The next track, “Chop ‘Em Down,” had us rocking in our seats with its mix of religious lyrics and kick-ass jam band riffs. Matisyahu, it seems, has traded in the “oys” for some authentic reggae “yo’s”
Or as Matisyahu might say, “yiggy-ay-ay-yo.”
By track five – “King without a Crown” (which I later learned had been released as one of the singles from the CD) we were hooked.
“One more time,” Merav begged when the disc concluded.
Why not, I figured. We still had another hour until we got to our destination.
Over the course of the next two weeks, we must have listened to that Matisyahu CD at least 35 times. Through three European countries, past the craggy peaks surrounding Lake Como and the snow-covered Alps towering above Grindelwald, over more than 600 miles of road tripping from Venice Italy to Freiberg Germany, we had the continuously repeating soundtrack of Matisyahu innovative rhymes:
“If you’re cup’s already full then it’s bound to overflow
If you’re drowning in the waters and you can’t stay afloat
Ask Hashem for mercy and he’ll throw you a rope”
and…
“Exaltation, my G-d of salvation
The field and there in will be filled with jubilation
The lord’s name will be proclaimed amongst the Nations
We don’t have no time for patience”
Not surprisingly, when we got back home to Israel, I felt like I had a very intimate relationship with this mystery man. But who was he? I only knew his lyrics and the one black and white stencil drawing on the album cover. Was he frum – that is, religious – from birth? If so, where’d he learn his rock and roll chops?
For the rest of this story and a review of Matisyahu’s concert last week in Israel, please visit the This Normal Life website.
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Brian Blum is a journalist and entrepreneur. His latest startup Bloggerce offers publishing services to budding bloggers. He lives in the Baka neighborhood of Jerusalem with his wife and three children.
December 13th, 2005 at 8:57 pm
Matisyahu is definitely in a league of his own. I’m hoping this will open the door to other Jewish artists
December 14th, 2005 at 5:14 am
Matisyahu seems to be everywhere now. When I started listening to him, everyone said just that… “Matisya-WHO?”
And now everyone says, “DUH! Who doesn’t know who he is??!!?”
Good for him.