Latest / In the Valley of Giants / The Modern-Day David's Lyre | Lenny Solomon | ITVOG #36

Transcript

The Modern-Day David's Lyre | Lenny Solomon | ITVOG #36 · In the Valley of Giants

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Rabbi called me in and said, Lenny, you're a great guy, but
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your music is novel versus Satori.
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You are an abomination in the name of the Torah.
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I went into his office and said. You know how I'm starting to
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interrupt you, and I want you to finish this story.
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But everyone who's watching, just because you're a doctor
0:13
doesn't mean you're a good doctor.
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Just because you're a musician doesn't mean you're a good
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musician. And just because you're a rabbi
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doesn't always mean that you're a good rabbi.
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Hello everyone. Today we're joined by Lenny
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Solomon. He is the king of modern Jewish
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music. We discuss adaptation versus
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assimilation using gentile tunes and songs in order to give a
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Jewish message over. He has a saying, which is music
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is raw power. We take that apart.
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Why is it so powerful? What makes music so spiritual
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and influential? We then discussed AI art.
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Is AI art indeed art? And what's the future of the
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music industry going to look like with all of the easy access
0:59
of artificial intelligence and easy access for us now to pretty
1:03
much get on Spotify with the snap of our fingers.
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It was a great episode. Enjoy.
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Lenny Solomon, thanks so much for joining with us today.
1:13
My pleasure, it's great to be here.
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Yeah, there's so much. I got to ask you.
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You are in my head, the adapter versus the assimilator.
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And I'm going to tell you what that means, that it's very
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important to me. You know, there's two ways a
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culture can interact with another.
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They can assimilate. And Jews are not pro
1:33
assimilation, as everyone knows. Hellenism is a great idea of
1:39
assimilation. A lot of secularism.
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That's bad, but what's not bad is adaptation.
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So what's an example of adaptation?
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So I don't know who created the T-shirt.
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I doubt it was a Jew. OK, so I don't think a Jew is
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assimilating if they wear AT shirt.
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That's adapting. A good idea, you know, for our
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own cultural needs. What you have done is you are in
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my mind and you can tell me if you disagree.
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You are the father of modern Jewish music.
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What you did is you were the first person that said, listen,
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you don't have to assimilate to have a different sound, right?
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We can adapt. We can take, we can take, you
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know, what, what the gentiles have in their styles of music
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and we can use that as our own art processes as well.
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Now, the truth is, is the Hasidim came before you because
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there are definitely a lot of Negunum tunes that we have that
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are actually Ukrainian drinking songs.
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But I'm sure no one told you that at the time.
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But would you agree that you are the that you were the first one
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that really kind of at least in the public sphere, did a an
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adapting move and try to be modern in your music?
2:53
Well, I certainly was one of the first.
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There was country Yessie and the steeplehoppers before me.
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Before them there was reckless or rejects.
3:01
So those two people. And then and then there was
3:05
also, if you go into the secular world, there's Alan Sherman,
3:08
there's Mickey Katz. Mickey Katz is the grandfather
3:11
of who's the father of Joel Grey, who's an actor and on
3:16
Broadway. So in other words, but they then
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they were not, they were not doing anything Jewish.
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They were just doing comedy, right.
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And Mickey Ketz was all in the Yiddish sphere.
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And then Alan Sherman was was in the regular secular music where
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he, you know, he took Kava Nagila and he changed it to
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Harvey and Sheila and it, and it went so big that JFK would
3:44
listen to it. You know, the president, John F
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Kennedy would listen to it. Yeah.
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So he was, he was. And and he, by the way, he put
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out three albums and sold in one year and sold more albums than
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The Beatles did back in 1961. So just to give you an idea now,
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schlock rock or which is my creation from a cottage bar who
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was not I, I never, I never tried to do anything per SE.
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It wasn't like I didn't go out and say, OK, I'm going to go and
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do this and this and this and this and this.
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It was a process every everything developed.
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You know, like I, I was the band for NCSY back in the early 80s,
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nineteen 81 and they would use secular music to get the kids to
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stay interested in Shabbat and Shabbos, right.
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And I said I could do that and I started writing my own.
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So by 1986 I had around 15 songs, 12/12/15 songs.
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I said let's put out an album and I put in an album and I
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called it schlock rock. A lot of people gave me push
4:54
back, but they didn't like the name.
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Why either the name? Because schlock means junk or it
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means garbage or it means second hand.
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I, I prefer the, the, the definition second hand rock,
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where we take rock songs, we're reusing them.
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We changed the lyrics, but I knew nothing about the halachos
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of parody, of song parody, which is what I was doing.
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I was writing legal song parodies and there was, there
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are there, there are laws on how you write them.
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You can't just write your own lyric having nothing to do with
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the original song. So for instance, when I took
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under the Boardwalk and I made it under the Hoopa, that was a
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parody. Why?
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Because you hear there's a, there's a, there's a bond, call
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it a Zika if you want to use Gemara terminology.
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There's a, there's a bond between the original song and
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what I'm doing. All time rock'n'roll became old
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time Taurus scroll. Every breath you take became
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every bite you take talked about kosher food.
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And so, and, and it got more and more complicated.
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Every song, every album became more and more complicated.
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And on top of that, I, I'm a musician trained and I liked
6:08
writing my own material. So I did, you know, I wrote my
6:12
own material. And for every parody album that
6:14
came out and original music album came out.
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So right now there's 43 albums, right?
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Whoever would have thought that? And did I think it would ever be
6:23
a living? No, I didn't think it would be a
6:25
living. I didn't think it would be
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anything more than one album. I thought Schlock Rock was going
6:29
to be a comedy tape because we didn't even make ACD.
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There were no CDs back then in 1986.
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Let. Me, let me slow down a little
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bit, Lenny, hold on. So you said at the first because
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you're saying you're dropping lots of great bombs, but I want
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so at first you're not trying to necessarily revolutionize, you
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know, the music and the total roll.
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However, even the first album, and it sounds like every
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subsequent project you did after that was, or I shouldn't say
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every single one, but the ones you mentioned, at least you
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know, we're spinning. We're spinning the secular sound
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and and making it, making a kosher right, as was that.
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Yes, but I never thought, I never wasn't the plan.
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It wasn't I I would, I'd be lying to you if I said, oh, now
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I'm going to go and I'm going to revolutionize what I'm going to
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do. Really what I was doing was
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having fun. I was a modern Orthodox Jew from
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Queens. I went to MTA before that, you
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know, I grew up religious. I never, I didn't have a non, I
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didn't have a non shomer Shabbos week in, in, you know, Shabbos
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in my life. I, I had a great, great, great
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parents. I had a great neighborhood, Kew
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Gardens, where they were where they taught me.
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Not only did they, just to let you guys know, I, I'm, I'm an
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expert in Nusaktvila. I could dive at any NUSA.
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When I hear the wrong college, it it drives me crazy, you know,
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as a matter of fact, it's something country as you could
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write the wrong Kaddish, you know, but so so I'm.
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Plan, but you just it just kind of it just kind of came out,
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meaning you were just you don't you don't come out with a
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crusade. You're just like, well, this is
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great, I'm going to do this. Well, this is great.
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I'm going to do this. And then at some point you look
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back at your career and you're like, oh wow, I guess I did do
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that. Right.
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And also, yes, and, and I was there and I was directed by a
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Kaddish boy. God directed me because
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everything that happened kept going.
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In other words, it wasn't that first album that I told you
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about learning is good. The album was was supposed to be
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one album that was I never planned on making a second.
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And then I got this letter, the letter from from a lady in Fort
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in Fort Lauderdale. And she writes, dear Lenny, my,
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my brother hates Judaism and is listening to your cassette
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around the clock. Keep up the good work I mean.
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Music. Music is everything.
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Music is power. Music is power.
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Anyway. But the And then I got another
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letter known. That second letter was not so
9:01
positive. It was, dear Mr. Solomon, if the
9:06
Barbanel would know what you did to his name, he'd be rolling in
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his grave now. They didn't.
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That song, by the way, as a kid, I love that.
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Song right, and they didn't sign it their name.
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They just started their initials.
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Now I never wrote back to, to either one of those people, but
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I, but more, I got more of the 1st letter, which was, this is
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amazing stuff. You have to keep going.
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And so because I got that stuff that's to me, these are messages
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where Hashem is saying keep going.
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You just, you know, and then after the, the second or third
9:42
album, then I get a call for a concert.
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And I thought I was with a band before Schlock Rock.
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It was called Cashier. So that was like we were, I was
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a partner in that band that was Hasidic.
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We put out three albums and I said, do you want to catch a
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concert? They said, no, we want a schlock
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rock concert. And I said, but of course you
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want a schlock concert. It was at that time when I put
10:06
together the band. It was 1987.
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And then I I put together the band and, and all of a sudden
10:12
now by 88, by January 88, it's a full time living.
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That's it blows your, it blows your mind if you think about it,
10:21
because you know, today if you, if you go, if you, if you look
10:24
around today, you have to have what's your analytics?
10:27
Who's your market? Who are you playing to?
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What? Why are they listening?
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Why are they buying? Where are you going with this?
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I never did any of that. All I did was put this thing out
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and then little by little the phone started ringing and it
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never stopped for till 2009. It never really stopped and I
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made aliyah in 1996, moved to Israel in 1996.
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But we, you know, I did 100 shows a year from 88 to 1996, a
11:00
hundred shows a year. I am the only Jewish musician to
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play all 50 states played. I've been to Australia 8 times,
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to South Africa 9 times to, to, to England dozens of times
11:14
Canada, all the I've played every NHL city except for
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Winnipeg. I've played every NBA city.
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I've played, you know who, who would have thought, You know,
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it's like a, it's like I said, we were a rock band.
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We were a, we were an Organism. We were a, we were a rock band.
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Now other piece, but I got a lot of pushback in the beginning.
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People said, what are you doing? What is this?
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What, what, what is this? You know, and I'd say, well,
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this is fun. We're having fun.
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It's it's good and it's, and it's helping people get closer
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to Judaism through music. You know, if I was, if I was
11:50
smart enough to be able to answer that, But really, it was
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fun. It was, it was me.
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It was. With this pushback, did it come
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from rabbanim? Who'd it come from?
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Yeah, heads of organizations, sometimes rabbanim.
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Definitely robundum. Can I make a guess?
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I'm going to try to rub my crystal ball.
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And yeah, yeah, I bet you, I bet you that you got kickback from
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certain robundum. I bet you got some pluses from
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robundum also. But I bet you got some kickback
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from robundum. And they were like, what are you
12:22
doing? And you got to stop.
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And then lo and behold, once it took off, they're like, Lenny,
12:26
that was a great idea. Yes, that's exactly what
12:30
happened. Yep, Rabbi called me in and
12:32
said, Lenny, you're a great guy, but your music is novel.
12:34
Bursus satori, you are an abomination in the name of the
12:37
Torah. 10 years later he imitated me with a disc I.
12:41
Love it 10 years later. And I went into his office and
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said, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm starting.
12:45
To interrupt you, and I want you to finish this story, but
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everyone who's watching, just because you're a doctor doesn't
12:50
mean you're a good doctor. Just because you're a musician
12:53
doesn't mean you're a good musician.
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And just because you're a rabbi doesn't always mean that you're
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a good rabbi. True.
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Well, go. Ahead.
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Yeah. What?
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The I I went into his office and I said, Rabbi, you called me
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Novel Bushes Satora, and now you're imitating me.
13:11
No, Lenny, this is different. That's yeshivish.
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That OK? Hey, it's Yeshivish.
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I love. That I love that.
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Yeshivish. So who's who?
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You know who's buying it? They're lapping it up.
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They're lapping it up. OK, So they're lapping it up.
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OK, I listen. By that time, yeah, You develop
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a thick skin, you develop, you know, you develop a thick skin.
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You did. You have.
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Did you have, did you have her band that you were leaning on?
13:37
Like did you get nervous? Yes.
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There were there were there were some Rebeam that understood
13:42
immediately, immediately power. Can you name some of them?
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Yes. I could so the, the rabbi who
13:49
was amazing, Rabbi Yitzhak Lowenbrown Zecharz, he's not
13:53
alone anymore, but he, he, he was Seaboard Regent NCSY.
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He understood what the music was about.
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And he, he hired me and, and most of NCSY, actually all,
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pretty much all of NCSY hired me at that time, at that time.
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Now by 88 already, I'm 27 years old and I'm out of NCSY pretty
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much. So, you know, I'll get hired to,
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to play a concert, but I'm not doing Shabbatoms anymore because
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it's a, it's an age thing. There was another, you know, the
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one of the rabbi's who, who's responsible for schlock is Rabbi
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David Orlovsky. Now, Rabbi David Orlovsky, I
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would watch him, you know, get up on chairs and entertain kids
14:43
on Shabbat. And he, of course, had let's go
14:46
to the shul that he finally agreed to let me put on which
14:50
lock I would came out in 1995. But I I had seen him do it for
14:54
many years and he had he had done tons of he had done tons of
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parodies. Who else?
15:03
Who else were were big? Big Did you have like that?
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Like when? I'm sure when things got tough,
15:09
I'm sure you asked yourself, wait a minute, am I doing the
15:11
right thing? Who did you have someone you're
15:13
Rebbe that that you went to? Eventually I developed 3 or 4
15:18
rabbis that I went to, but no, not at that time I didn't.
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But you still. Knew like you knew it in your
15:22
kish cuz that it was just inside.
15:24
You knew it was the right thing to do.
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There was. Nothing wrong.
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I knew there was nothing wrong with it.
15:28
Music is. Listen, if you're trained in
15:30
music and you follow the the whole history, the the going
15:35
back to classical music, to to jazz, to big band, to
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rock'n'roll, right. And then rap.
15:46
Forget about that. How why is rap a thing?
15:49
It's just advanced. Grameen.
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Well, it is, you know, and I just, you know, you do, you
15:58
know, it's music. It's a it's a tool.
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It's a tool. It's not it can't be bad.
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Now, the there, there. OK, so there is a there is a
16:09
line of thinking that it's a there's something known as a bad
16:13
beat, a bad beat. And I hear that, I hear that it
16:19
could be a bad beat. It could be a bad a bass line
16:23
that that that that's almost you know what, because it's.
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Sensual. Like I don't even know it's
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sensual. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Really. And then we have to be that way.
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And. There is no, I don't know if it
16:34
has to be that way, but but whatever, whatever the the
16:38
music, what I did was I would change it.
16:44
I would make somehow it became simple with me.
16:47
It became simple. It became educational, but why?
16:50
Why did you have to change the beat meaning to me?
16:52
I didn't. Change anything.
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I didn't change anything. I just changed the words right.
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The words were the The words were made a tummy, but.
17:01
Exactly. Meaning I would think you'll
17:03
you'll correct me, but I think I think you're agreeing that music
17:07
is a vehicle. I should say, yeah, even if it's
17:10
advanced gram and AK the way you you talk about, right?
17:12
I mean, anything can be used in music as a power, as a power
17:17
tool in order to accomplish something.
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And you could make that message tar.
17:20
You can make it pure or you can make a tummy.
17:22
You can defile it. And it's and it's up to the
17:24
user. It's up to the producer to
17:26
decide what that's going to be. Would you agree with that or, or
17:29
do you think there's certain beats that are just out of out
17:32
of bounds? I, I think that on rare occasion
17:37
there are songs that are so dirty in, in, in their mokar,
17:42
not music, not the music, the words, the words that it's very
17:46
hard to, to make it to let, to put it into the mikvah.
17:50
Let's, let's call it the purify it, you know, an ACDC song pops
17:56
into my head. You know, now I'm not I, I, by
17:59
the way, I didn't grow up listening to Goish music.
18:02
I grew up listening to Jewish music. 1974 Toronto boys choir
18:08
called Salonica Jepp Ruach. I, I have those records.
18:13
I got them for my bar mitzvah. I was 13 in in 1974.
18:18
So you know, I, I love Jewish music and what I just considered
18:24
this more of the same. It was Jewish music and, and I,
18:27
and then, you know, when I was 13, we, we, I discovered The
18:31
Beatles. My, my whole class.
18:34
They were the ones, they were my, you know, MTA class of M you
18:37
know what? I went from yeshiva central
18:39
Queens to MTA and MTA. They, I discovered The Beatles
18:43
through my classmates and, and then I started listening to non
18:48
Jewish music as well. And the music of the 70s and 80s
18:54
were amazing. The music was amazing, the
18:56
harmonies, the chords, really fantastic.
19:04
And I just used it, you know, you, you used it, it made you
19:09
feel good, made you want to, it made you feel good.
19:13
Music can make you feel good. It could make you feel sad,
19:16
right? I find, you know, I'm going to,
19:18
I'm going to say things. People who are into non Jewish
19:21
music might get upset, but any friends of mine that listen to
19:25
the Grateful Dead and Led Zeppelin and Metallica all were
19:30
depressed. I shouldn't say that's a this
19:33
that's that's a very controversial statement.
19:37
I, I listened, I listened to pop, the pop music.
19:41
It made you happy. You know the the the other the.
19:47
Do you think? Do you?
19:48
Think is, do you think there's a utility at all for listening to
19:51
that sort of music if it makes you depressed?
19:52
Sounds like not, but do you see a utility for it?
19:55
No, no, I don't. I don't know what I and he is
20:00
it. Is it is it because, is it
20:01
because of the lyrics or is it because of the style of music?
20:04
I don't. Even know the lyric, to be
20:05
honest with you, I don't even know the lyrics.
20:07
I don't even know the lyrics. I do know that Metallica is so
20:10
dark. Metallica is very dark, but I
20:15
already, it's nothing compared to what's out there now.
20:19
They've gone, they've gone way past that.
20:26
Pink Floyd is another group. You know, I actually schlock
20:32
what's. What's what's schlock that?
20:33
You think would song so. So, so I hear what you're
20:37
saying. So you could you can, there are
20:41
songs that you could be metire and you think you could probably
20:44
metire almost all of them. But now because of what you're
20:46
saying, some songs maybe shouldn't be metired.
20:49
Some songs are are depressive or the beats are depressive.
20:54
So what? What's in that box of things
20:56
that you don't want to be Metar So we have depressive music.
20:59
What about what about rap? But is that something?
21:03
No, I've. Done rap.
21:04
I've done. I've done rap.
21:05
OK, how? About how about you can have.
21:07
Upbeat rap? How about?
21:09
How about metal? No metal.
21:12
Metal would go into the category of like.
21:14
Like, like angry metal. You know it's not.
21:16
Yeah, I don't. Want to touch it.
21:18
I don't want to touch it because.
21:18
Because of the media, because of the the attribute that it's yes.
21:22
Yes, yes, I'm. Understanding what you're
21:25
saying, I'm understanding what you're saying, OK.
21:27
Do you think there's a utility in any of those Like they're,
21:30
you know? There must be because there were
21:32
groups today that use that stuff.
21:35
You know, the, I don't know if you're familiar with the
21:39
groggers. The groggers are dark.
21:42
And then, and then there was the, and then the Water Berry
21:45
Yeshiva. I don't know much of their
21:48
music, but they're harder I. Think so.
21:52
They're harder. Yeah, I think sometimes.
21:54
Well, at least what I experienced, There's some people
21:55
that need to feel that way. Yeah.
21:57
They're, you know, that's, that's part of the place in
22:00
which they live. And so it needs to be tar.
22:04
It needs to be pure for them. That's my that's my impression.
22:09
Yeah, yeah. OK.
22:10
Yeah, Yeah. So.
22:12
Yeah, no, go ahead. Yeah.
22:13
So then. To to summarize what we're, what
22:15
we've said is that the basically, there are there
22:19
really might not be a music that's not touchable,
22:22
untouchable. You, you because people need
22:25
need it to be to, to feel better.
22:29
They need it right? Right.
22:31
Have have you ever been thrown into Fareham for what you've
22:34
been done? Have you been excommunicated by
22:35
anyone? It's a very.
22:36
Funny story, No, the answer's no.
22:39
And I got very upset about that. That's so weird to me because so
22:42
many people have been excommunicated for this sort of
22:44
stuff. You're the father of it.
22:45
And you've been. Yeah.
22:46
Do you remember the? 99 You remember when the the
22:48
cold Corey came out and they excommunicated 99 people,
22:52
including more of heaven? David and Avraham flee.
22:53
Yeah, I thought that. Yeah, and Nacham.
22:55
Siegel Nacham Sigley. So I called up Nacham.
22:58
I said, Nacham, why am I that not on this list?
23:00
And you know what he said to me? Because you're Hazard Traif.
23:05
You don't need to excommunicate Hazard Traif.
23:10
And it was a it was a brilliant line because the truth is that's
23:15
the way that rabbi who called me another Bushes Sutura felt.
23:18
He felt this was Drake. You can't use this 26 years
23:20
later just to close that chapter.
23:23
He was in Israel and I called up the rabbi because I'm friendly
23:25
with everybody. I don't burn bridges.
23:27
I'm friendly with everybody. It's a rabbi.
23:29
You've seen what I've done. I've played 2000 shows.
23:33
I've released 43 albums. Countless number of people have
23:35
become closer to Kurtzberg. Who through this music are you
23:39
willing to say you made a mistake?
23:42
What do you say you don't? Need my hash scammer.
23:45
Lenny, you don't need my hash scammer.
23:47
How do you come to me and said, is this the way to do Kirov?
23:49
I still believe it's not. He doubled down and what I said,
23:56
OK, So am I friendly with him? Yes.
23:58
If I see him on the street, I'll say hello.
24:00
I'll give him a hug. But he he's wrong.
24:04
He's wrong. Yeah.
24:06
OK, You said before that music, I'm shifting gears a little bit.
24:09
Music is power. It's raw power, yes.
24:10
What did you mean? What did you mean by that music?
24:13
Is power meaning music controls music gets into your soul.
24:17
You don't even need words sometimes, right?
24:20
You just have the niggin. The niggin is there's certainly
24:23
gonna take you to do it to a different place.
24:27
Why is that? It's a great question.
24:31
I I think it's just. Well, let's go.
24:35
Let's go back. David and Melech played the
24:36
harp, right? The liar.
24:40
The liar. Was there anybody else who
24:42
played in a musical instrument back then?
24:44
Sure. Well, Miriam.
24:46
Miriam the prophet Toll. Flipped drums.
24:48
That's drums, right? The.
24:49
Drums. Yeah, right.
24:54
I don't know. I don't know what, what, what it
24:56
is. It's it's just that, you know, I
25:00
when I was 8 years old, my father took me for accordion
25:04
lessons. That was my first instrument for
25:07
10 years and 01 of my first experiences is watching the
25:16
effect of playing background music at a Shabbat tone.
25:20
And while the regional director is giving Advaitura above it,
25:25
words of Hizuk giving, you know, and what it did to the kids,
25:30
like the music was was equal to whatever he was saying.
25:36
Because if he was saying something and I wanted to mess
25:39
him up. You said to play it in the tune.
25:41
I could. I could play something that
25:43
would make everybody laugh. They won't get anything.
25:47
So this problem. You know what I think it is?
25:50
I mean, you're again, you're, you're, this is, you're the
25:52
master. I'm not even a novice, but I
25:55
think what music is, and This is why we have different, you know,
25:59
genres of music is just playing with pattern versus random.
26:05
In other words, you know, what you want in music is the perfect
26:09
balance for you, the listener to have just as much of A pattern
26:12
that you can follow along, but enough of a break of that
26:16
pattern that you feel that there's a story being told.
26:18
So, so, and there are certain, there's certain music that, that
26:22
that rides more one line versus the other.
26:24
For example, jazz. Jazz is a pretty random, random
26:28
pattern, right? But but if you do, if it's too
26:31
much, then it just sounds. It just it's not something that
26:34
you can find for me. For me, jazz doesn't do
26:37
anything. For me, it's like, you know,
26:39
what goes into the into the heart and it's doesn't go into
26:43
the heart, it stops. So I think.
26:45
It depends on the person, right? Like some people, some people
26:48
love jazz, but in classical music is a lot more the other
26:51
side of the spectrum. It's classical music can be OK,
26:54
I'm I'm over generalizing, but quite cold, right.
26:56
So it depends. It really depends.
26:58
It happens to be that classical music speaks to me tremendously.
27:02
But really. Yeah, yeah, it does.
27:04
Which? Like who?
27:04
Like who? Which?
27:05
Which is your. Chopenheim Wagner.
27:10
So I like I. Like Bach, I like, Mozart I
27:13
like, but I like the pop tunes, you know, the tunes, the tunes
27:18
that the tunes that are musical. So you know, what does pop music
27:24
mean really? It means music for the masses.
27:29
Jazz is not music for the masses.
27:31
Jazz is worse. It's, I think classical.
27:36
Could be, could be. Look, when you hear, right,
27:44
Beethoven's Ninth, Fourth Symphony, right?
27:50
It's a melody, that melody. No, you know.
27:53
You can use no. You could use the melody for
27:55
anything. The point of it's more than just
27:57
the melody. Obviously there's so many layers
27:59
to the music. I'm not saying that melodies
28:01
can't be used across, but the style of jazz is to be as random
28:04
as we can. You know, with having structure,
28:07
if you're classical, it's more not always, but it's more like
28:10
how how we can what's add as much structure and lay on the
28:13
structure as possible. I think pop is kind of in the
28:15
middle and maybe that's why it's so appropriate for the masses.
28:18
Well. Pop is syrup.
28:20
It's it's musical syrup. It's if you if you learn theory,
28:25
you learn that each each song has got adna, you know, so it
28:30
starts off in in a key and it ends up back in that same key.
28:34
And in between it goes to the 5th and the 5th is what the 5th
28:39
is a, a, a climax or, or what's it a, what's the word?
28:48
An argument? And then it resolves.
28:49
It resolves back to the 11 to the five to the one.
28:52
And then there's ways to get to the five.
28:54
You can go 1625. These are all theory.
28:58
This is all music theory, But but it, it's really that's so
29:04
pop music, pop music. If you listen to 50s music, for
29:08
instance, this is the simplest of all rock'n'roll, right?
29:11
You know, Baruch Hagever, let's take Baruch Hagever because
29:15
that's the song that if you took Jewish music, Baruch Hagever,
29:19
that represents the 50s, right? And so you have no, no, no, no,
29:29
no, no, no, no, right. That's it's chords, it's chords,
29:39
it's 1645, right? And that's, that's basic stuff.
29:45
Then you start getting into a little bit more complicated
29:48
music, which was the the 60s. You have The Beach Boys, you
29:51
have The Beatles. And then you have the 70s and
29:55
you have Billy Joel and you have Elton John and you have, you
30:00
know, music of Kansas, of Boston, of Chicago, of ELO.
30:04
And then you have the 80s and it's all gets a little bit more
30:09
complicated and more complicated, and then it starts
30:11
sampling out again, 90s and thousands.
30:14
The music of today is so simple as I can't even begin to tell
30:18
you some of the hit songs that come out.
30:21
And I say, what? What is this?
30:24
It's nothing, you know, it's two chords.
30:26
It's two chords over a base you know well.
30:31
OK, but who? Cares, right?
30:33
It's no, I mean, I mean I. Mean.
30:35
Well, actually, who cares? Is is pretty intense and I want
30:39
to talk to you more about that. But before that is so, but just
30:42
to finish the thought that I had before in terms of why it's it's
30:44
power, that balance. I think that we find when we
30:49
when we like music is it's it's kind of our soul.
30:52
Everyone has a soul and every single soul is unique.
30:55
It's our souls finding balance between pattern and non pattern.
30:59
There are certain people that they hate being spontaneous.
31:02
There's some people that love being spontaneous.
31:04
There's some people that love chaos.
31:05
There's some people that that that need structure.
31:08
I think that the reason why music speaks to someone so much
31:11
is because it is. If you take down a personal
31:13
personality on the, you know, the lowest resolution, if you
31:17
had to encapsulate it in one particular data point, it's
31:21
their music because it is their personality.
31:23
Their personality is their music.
31:25
How much pattern do you need in your life?
31:28
I think that's why music really gets people because it touches
31:30
that chord. It touches exactly who you are
31:32
and like you said, without necessarily saying the word.
31:35
Right, I agree with that. And, and also power is also
31:40
energy, right? So you say, he said, what's
31:43
their music? What's their song?
31:44
It encapsulates when I used to go and do concerts and we would
31:49
play the song Akash Feros, Akash Feros, Akash Feros in the 80s
31:53
and 90s, people would jump out of their chairs.
31:57
And that was the goal by the way of, of a Schlacker concert for
32:00
me and for the band. You want by song 6 for them to
32:04
jump out of their chairs, because once they jumped out of
32:07
their chairs, they had let go and they were in, they were in
32:11
the room. Now, sometimes if you're really
32:15
good or if you're not really good, it doesn't matter if
32:19
they're, if they're into it, they'll do it in song one and
32:22
then you don't. But energy is the key.
32:24
Energy you're, you're taking energy, you're throwing it back.
32:27
They're throwing it back to you, you're throwing it back to them.
32:29
And it it's a game of catch and it never ends.
32:33
So the thing that you said before that it that it doesn't
32:36
matter. So I'll ask you something that I
32:39
think musicians hate getting the question.
32:41
So we'll see what? Happens.
32:42
Because so then AI art should be the same to you, AI music should
32:46
be the same to you. So that's a.
32:47
Great question. Because, you know, I've heard
32:49
AI. I've heard AI number of times.
32:53
We even had a on my podcast, We even had a friend of mine who's
32:57
a drummer we brought in. He had his AI on his computer
33:01
setup and we wrote a couple of songs right with me being there
33:08
and in the beginning it's it sounded great and after the
33:12
first listen I didn't want to listen anymore and I don't know
33:17
why Interesting, but I I find AI to be.
33:22
Is that is that a lack in the in how far AI has gone?
33:26
Meaning let let's let me ask it a slightly different way, 20
33:29
years from now, let's say AI music is really, really
33:32
advanced. I mean, what they have now in
33:34
comparison to what was out five years ago is, is just, it
33:37
boggles the entire mind. But so we don't even have to go
33:41
20 years. Let's go five years in the
33:42
future and AI now is really zeroed in and it can make
33:45
something quite powerful to you. I guess you wouldn't care.
33:48
Some people do. But you as an artist, would you
33:50
care or, or would you say no? If that's what's speaking to the
33:52
people? Art is in the eye of the
33:54
beholder. Be very disappointed.
33:58
Why? Because because it really
34:01
denigrates everything I've done. It does.
34:06
It does. Why?
34:07
Why is that so? Because the.
34:08
Computer just replaced me, but but you see, let's let's look at
34:13
music and see in 1998 Napster appeared.
34:17
What was Napster? It was a file sharing program
34:21
that enabled people to take oh, you have Beatles revolver, I
34:26
want the and then they would swap files and they didn't have
34:31
to pay for anything. Right.
34:33
OK. That was the the beginning of
34:34
the end for the merchandise industry, which we would need.
34:40
We'd need you. You put on an album, you want to
34:43
make money off of it. You don't want to.
34:44
Yeah, No, you. Keep stealing as bad, always
34:46
having. OK, but they wouldn't call it
34:49
stealing. They'd say it's file sharing and
34:52
and there were a lot of socks that came out that said it
34:55
wasn't stealing. Once it's out there, it's like,
34:58
it's like healthcare. It's it's available.
35:01
But I'm not even getting into that so much.
35:03
Then you had then you had COVID that came along in 2019 that
35:07
stopped people from performing. You couldn't perform anymore
35:11
because you couldn't be in the same room.
35:12
Nobody could be in the same room.
35:13
You had to wear masks. You had to be separated.
35:16
Now you have AI. What is AI doing?
35:19
It's taking away writing you. I what?
35:25
What is what do I do? I love creating.
35:28
Creating is everything. You you're getting an
35:31
inspiration from a Kurdish bar Who?
35:32
It's up in the Shamaya business, Sinori, it's Sirati.
35:36
It's called a spiritual pipeline, creative pipeline that
35:40
everybody has access to. It doesn't matter if you're
35:42
Jewish or not Jewish and whatever you're learning,
35:45
whatever goes in comes out. So if you're learning about
35:49
Truma, you could write a song about Truma.
35:51
If you're learning about baseball, you could write a song
35:54
about baseball, right? But AI now says I'm going to
35:59
study this artist. So you could say the AI write a
36:05
song in the style of schlock. Rock on this and they'll do it.
36:13
Take them two seconds. What does that bother you?
36:16
Yes, but why? But why?
36:20
Because it means that you don't need me anymore, but.
36:24
No, I so number OK, two things. Number one, to be blunt, I'm not
36:28
sure that matters. Meaning like everyone serves
36:32
their purpose. Maybe there's a new age in where
36:34
a lot of humanity isn't needed, and I'm not sure I see a problem
36:37
with that. But I want you to push back in a
36:39
second. But don't you?
36:41
Yeah. I want you to push back to this,
36:42
I do. But the second thing is that I
36:45
also think that what you're saying is impossible because
36:47
antithetical to what you just put forward is a belief, which
36:51
is that you have, every person has a direct pipeline to God.
36:54
What that means is that AI can mimic your pipeline really well,
36:59
but it can't. But you're going to have an
37:01
original thought and it's reserved almost for you.
37:05
Like God is like you can copy but you can't get the direct,
37:10
you know, source and that will always be yours.
37:13
I'd love you to love for you to respond to both points.
37:16
OK, so the first thing is I want to go to.
37:18
I've been getting a lot of commercials for these glasses.
37:22
I wear trifocals. Trifocals means you have the
37:26
lower half is for reading. The middle is for distance, not
37:30
distance for I think computer or and then the upper is for
37:35
driving right for long distance. Now there's a they're coming out
37:41
with these commercials for glasses that automatically
37:46
change your prescription on the fly right now.
37:54
I went to my ophthalmologist to to my optometrist, the one who
37:58
does the glasses and I said, tell me, what do you think about
38:04
this? And he said, let me tell you
38:08
something. He said, it's it, it doesn't
38:10
work. It doesn't work.
38:11
It's that it, it, it, it there are flaws to this and it doesn't
38:15
work. And I thought to myself, you're
38:17
making a mistake. It does work and it's going to
38:20
take away your career, just like music took away my career.
38:23
I was one of my rebeum. You asked me, do I have Rebeum?
38:26
One of my Rebeum said to me back in 2010, Lenny, what if, what
38:30
would you, what would you tell me if I told you you're going to
38:33
be making music and giving it away, meaning you're not going
38:37
to be selling it? And I looked at him and go, I
38:39
don't like that I don't like that I want to be able to sell
38:42
it. One of the one of the of the
38:45
things about selling music is it is a mark of do people like your
38:49
stuff? Are you still popular?
38:51
Do people like your stuff? Do they want this product?
38:54
So he's telling me no. And that's exactly what I'm
38:57
doing now. Everything that I write,
39:00
everything that I record is given away.
39:02
I put it right on the streaming services.
39:05
The only money I get is if if the song is streamed a lot now,
39:11
unless you're Taylor Swift, that's not a lot of streams.
39:14
Unless you're Bruno Mars, you're Bruno Mars.
39:17
You know, you, you're OK. And all these other artists that
39:20
are big, but the, the, the Jewish music, you know, the, the
39:25
amount of money that I'm making on a stream is, is pitiful.
39:29
OK, so so that's so I, so I don't like it.
39:32
I don't like, I don't like the concept.
39:35
You're right. I could have an original
39:36
thought. If I, I do believe that I still
39:39
write better than AI, but that doesn't matter.
39:41
The people, the people are going to hear it and they'll say, oh,
39:44
that's Lenny Solomon. You know that, You know that you
39:46
could get the AI to even put my voice on on their thing.
39:51
Now you could put out a song with me singing it, even though
39:54
I've never wrote it, never saw the lyrics.
39:58
I actually, I told my kids one day he said it.
40:00
You know, it's possible that somebody will come out with a
40:02
commercial of me doing something that's not allowed.
40:07
And it's not me. It's not me.
40:11
Yeah, but I, I would differentiate there the
40:13
difference between and, and I think I, I think I'm, I'm pretty
40:17
look, there's someone stealing your likeness and your image to
40:21
do something that you don't condone and your voice, that's
40:24
part of your likeness that I'm pretty sure.
40:26
I can't think of a reason why that would be good.
40:30
OK, unless they're, unless they're doing that for, to show
40:32
you, you know, doing myths, you know, good deeds or whatever.
40:36
And even that I'm not I, I need to think more about that.
40:37
I've never thought about that to use it for good.
40:40
But that the, the thing that I was focusing more on is just the
40:43
ability to make art. Like why is the ability for more
40:47
art to be made, generated by a computer a negative thing?
40:50
You know, I had a discussion with a with a really big artist.
40:53
He's a video artist in the in the beginning of season 1.
40:57
And he's he's definitely famous and he's worked in the industry
41:02
for like 50 years. Michael Bielski.
41:06
And he was telling me how sad it was that in certain parts of the
41:11
world that in Far East that they're going to be creating
41:15
these robots that have basically artificial intelligence, you
41:19
know, minds that are running them and they're going to be
41:21
taking care of the elderly and they're going to push out there
41:23
a whole bunch of of workers. They're not going to be able to
41:26
have jobs. And I told him, I said, look,
41:27
that's sad for those people that no longer have jobs.
41:30
And I, I'm, I'm pathetic. I feel for them.
41:32
I do, But I think this is a great thing.
41:34
And the reason is because what it does is that for now, a need
41:37
can be fulfilled in an easier way.
41:40
So all all all I'm saying is, is it is it so bad to have the
41:44
propagation of more art even if it's made by a computer?
41:50
I, I, oh, I can't handle it. I can't handle it.
41:54
I don't like it. I don't like it.
41:56
I don't want other people to, I don't want robots to make music.
41:59
I want people to make music. But, but you're right.
42:04
And, and in terms of, in terms of the AI being cares for older
42:09
elderly people, what it probably means is there's not enough
42:12
people in that industry and then you need them, right?
42:18
Which is true. We've seen that elderly people,
42:22
especially now, thank God, people are living much longer
42:26
than they did back in the day. You know, when they, you know,
42:30
when people at 70 was a big thing.
42:33
Now, now people get to 70 and they say, oh, it was so young,
42:37
you know. So I think it's all part of it's
42:43
all part of the new intended. What?
42:46
It looks like I struck A chord there, no pun intended.
42:48
With that, you definitely. Did and it's part of the ghoul.
42:51
It's all part of the Ghoula process.
42:53
This is all part of what's supposed to happen.
42:56
You know, I, but you have to, you have to be able to, you have
43:04
to be able to deal with change. And that's hard.
43:10
And let's go back to Noah, right?
43:12
Noah comes off of the boat, makes a Karem and he and he gets
43:20
himself gets drunk. So how did how does that happen?
43:25
It happened because he couldn't deal.
43:26
He couldn't deal with what you know, no more.
43:30
His friends weren't around anymore.
43:31
Maybe he had friends, maybe he didn't.
43:33
The odds are he didn't Took 120 years to build that boat and he
43:38
couldn't get anybody to come on with him, right?
43:43
Think about it. No, but everything.
43:46
He knew was dead that that's true, you know, and he couldn't.
43:49
Deal. And and that's change, right?
43:51
It's a change. We're dealing with change right
43:54
now. Listen, I have been lucky to to
44:03
write 600 songs, 620 songs and record and perform and travel.
44:10
And I'm really in at A at a time in my life where I'm trying to
44:16
get used to change, trying to get used to change where I'm not
44:20
going to be traveling so much anymore, where I'm not going to
44:22
be doing tours like I used to, you know?
44:26
And that's hard to do for me. Yeah.
44:30
No, I, I definitely. That'd be hard for anyone.
44:33
That'd be hard for anyone. Well, especially if.
44:36
You, especially if you're people, if you love people,
44:40
people are to me, one of the things right, one of one of the
44:47
I love being around people. I love talking to them and
44:50
hearing them and hearing their stories and you know, now you
44:58
know, but, but. I don't know.
45:00
It has to be so bleak. I think the world's going to
45:02
change. I think there's going to be a
45:03
lot more entertainment. It's going to be a lot more
45:07
regulated work, and it's just going to change the way that we
45:11
interact with each other. But it's not going to take it
45:13
away. There's always going to be the
45:14
ability of what we're doing right now.
45:17
OK. By the way, when this episode
45:19
comes out, so, you know, there are editors, part of the editing
45:22
process is using an artificial intelligence that we have for
45:25
their studio. OK.
45:27
Like, you know, so, so it's the future is coming really fast,
45:32
but it doesn't have to lock people out.
45:34
I'm always going to be able to pick up the phone or whatever
45:37
magic device I'm going to have and call Lenny Solomon.
45:39
Like you're no one's going to take that away from me unless
45:42
you know someone's at war, you know what I mean?
45:44
Humanity will always. Be there.
45:46
We're just getting more tools. I don't see this so different,
45:49
so different, at least at the core.
45:51
So like the, the the.com movement, like the Internet, you
45:55
know, I'm significantly younger than you, but I even I remember
45:59
before the Internet, it was a different planet.
46:02
I mean, it was a different planet.
46:03
It was, it was a totally different planet.
46:05
And, and then when it came out, what was the huge concern by the
46:07
Ribonim also? And, and they, there's good
46:09
reason for, you know, concern. There's going to be all this
46:12
horrible stuff and people are going to get sucked into the
46:14
Internet and, and, you know, all those things are true and
46:17
they've happened. But what's also happened is
46:19
there's so much propagation of good and clear information and
46:22
transparency and the ability to do work and the ability to do,
46:26
you know, kindness and all this other stuff.
46:27
So I don't, I don't know if the future has to be bleak.
46:30
It doesn't have to be absent of humans.
46:32
Is it going to be harder to get serious connections?
46:35
Perhaps, but it will always be there.
46:38
People that love people will always have the ability to sit
46:40
down and have a conversation. OK.
46:44
I'll go for that. All right.
46:46
But I. I'll just tell you that the
46:48
rabbi's were right, because the Internet is totally a Tahayam
46:52
Yoda tovara. It's eights, you know.
46:56
It's the tree of life, of good and bad.
46:59
It's bad. There's bad and there's good,
47:02
right? Right, right, 100% and.
47:05
Every day. Every day you could get good and
47:08
you can get bad. You have to choose, right?
47:12
That's hard. It is.
47:13
Very hard, but that that lots of risk, lots of reward.
47:18
What is the what is your process in creating music?
47:21
I'm assuming you still create music, but yeah.
47:24
I'm in the middle of ending finishing this one album that
47:28
I'm working on. I've got 4 songs left.
47:29
I'm going into America in August and to I'm going to be doing
47:33
those four songs there. Sometimes I record here,
47:36
sometimes I record there. It depends.
47:39
Then, yeah, the creative process continues for me.
47:44
If I get inspired, I write. What does what does it look like
47:47
for you? What?
47:47
What? What is your creative process?
47:49
What has it been all these years?
47:51
Just a sham puts this idea in my head and then I and then I go
47:54
for it. You know how many?
47:56
How many are we going to write? About I can.
47:58
Give you any name So listen to this 2012 I'm in Phoenix, AZ.
48:03
I'm about to do a show for the 2 for the Phoenix Hebrew Academy.
48:07
The the head of Jewish studies at that time was Rama Avi Chai
48:10
Pepper great guy. I'm staying at his house and he
48:13
says to me money have you ever studied the book of Daniel?
48:17
Daniel safer. Daniel said no.
48:21
He said well I just finished teaching Daniel to my 6th, 7th
48:25
and 8th grade. Why don't you take a look at
48:26
this. There's some great stories here
48:28
and I read Safer Danielle, the 1st 6 chapters in English
48:32
because it's in Aramaic, most of it.
48:35
And I looked at him and I go, wow, this is drama, it's action,
48:43
it's amazing. And I got this, I got this, this
48:50
this inspiration to write a musical on the book of Daniel.
48:54
And I started on March 29th, end of March and May 31st I
49:03
finished. I had written 29 songs.
49:06
The songs came down like water from heaven.
49:08
They came down and they came down when I least expected it.
49:12
I'm on the way to Heathrow after doing the show at Yomatsuma Hood
49:17
in England. And my father-in-law, Oliver
49:20
Shalom is driving me to the airport and he and, and all of a
49:23
sudden the song comes into my head.
49:24
I go not now I say it. What shit?
49:27
Where am I putting this? And it came down and I
49:31
remembered it and I wrote it down and, and, and then every
49:36
week and I I worked my way through the book of Daniel, the
49:38
first six chapters of Daniel and Daniel in Babylon was created.
49:43
That was the creative process. I have written 11 songs in six
49:47
days. I've written 15 songs or 12
49:51
songs in eight days. It it, it just, it just comes
49:56
when it comes from this. Captivate you?
49:57
Because it sounds to me it's like yes.
49:59
I'm in another planet, my wife can't talk to me.
50:02
I'm on another planet and. Just disappear for 9 hours
50:05
because you're just writing the whole time, no?
50:07
I'm in. I'm in the piano in the living
50:09
room. I'm not disappearing.
50:10
I'm just mentally I'm not there, but physically I'm here.
50:14
Is it is? It is.
50:15
It so you have this idea you're captivated by it.
50:18
Are you, do you grapple with it like, 'cause I'm sure there's
50:21
the progression of the song. However, you're just like, no,
50:23
that's not quite right, you know, Or is like, oh, I'm really
50:26
stuck or is it just like I'm getting some sort of vision?
50:29
No, that's not what I'm seeing. I'm seeing this like what, what,
50:31
what, what does it look like? Just.
50:32
Comes down? No, usually it comes down
50:35
perfect, really. It's the song is ready to go.
50:40
Yeah, yeah. I look, I might need a tweaking
50:42
here and there, but but it doesn't.
50:45
I don't, I don't come down and say, no, that's not right,
50:49
that's not right. You know what?
50:50
Basically what will happen is the first version will come
50:53
down. I'll take a look at it.
50:54
And I go, I don't like this lyric, let's change this lyric.
50:57
I'll change a lyric or two. The music, music I don't usually
51:04
change now for Daniel, which by the way, does Daniel in Babylon
51:07
is this musical that I I'm still trying to launch.
51:09
I haven't launched it. It's been 14 years.
51:11
Why not? Because I need money.
51:14
I need $460,000. That's what I need.
51:17
I've I've raised two. I've raised 260 and I need 460.
51:25
Budget is 720. OK, Why?
51:27
Not do half of it. Because you don't want to do
51:30
that. You want to.
51:31
You want to do it. You want to do the project you
51:32
want the project has to be done. And now, granted, this is more
51:35
than anything has ever cost. Usually when I do an album,
51:38
it'll cost you anywhere from 10 to $20,000.
51:40
It's not nothing will cost as much as this does.
51:43
And you're right, maybe I should have just put out give people a.
51:47
Taste maybe? I should have the taste.
51:49
Maybe I should have done that. I haven't done that, but maybe I
51:52
should. I'll think about it.
51:54
I will think about it actually. But in the meantime, in the
51:59
meantime, so the, the you know, when, when the so, so when it
52:09
came down and was finished on May 31st, I, I said to Hashem,
52:16
Hashem, please don't let this be for naughty because I knew this
52:22
wasn't just the project that was.
52:25
But meanwhile, for 14 years, I haven't been able to.
52:27
I haven't been able to see it fulfilled yet, but I do believe
52:33
it. It sounds like you're getting
52:34
close. 260 grand is nothing to sneeze at.
52:37
No. And I believe it will get there.
52:39
It will get there and who knows? Maybe I'm the one that gave you
52:41
the idea to put that one track out and everyone listens to it
52:43
and they're like, Oh my gosh, this is it.
52:46
Yeah, maybe it could be. Maybe, maybe I've got a, I've
52:50
got a director, choreographer who's waiting to go.
52:53
And by the way, this isn't only for Jews.
52:55
This is for the whole world, which is another thing that, you
52:58
know, people have said to me, Lenny Hashem is saying it's not
53:01
the right time yet. It's not the right time yet.
53:02
I think now it's the right time. But I do because I think the
53:05
world is is awfully is the world is off it's mind right now.
53:11
And we need, we need Daniel. Daniel.
53:14
You know how much we learned from Daniel?
53:16
We learned so much from Daniel. Oh my gosh, it's unbelievable.
53:20
What are other than, other than this project, other future
53:23
projects that you're working on right now?
53:25
I have some ideas I haven't. I haven't really, you know, like
53:30
I want to do a whole album of Lenny Solomon's Me wrote.
53:34
And I don't mean parodies, I mean like, but but songs that
53:39
I've written. So that's one idea.
53:42
And I've got another idea for Schlac Capella 2 where, you
53:47
know, I put out a Schlac Capella album.
53:50
Now let's start for a second one.
53:52
You know, that means no music, just voices.
53:58
I've got. What else do I have?
54:02
I don't really right now, I don't really have.
54:05
There's there's. There's it's OK if nothing is
54:07
burning at at the well, right? Now that's what's burning right
54:10
now. I don't have, you know, I, I
54:13
have three or four other musical projects in my file cabinet that
54:18
I have not worked on yet. Some good stuff, but.
54:26
You said in 2006 that you that you stopped or something?
54:29
I'm not. What did you mean?
54:32
No, I. Didn't stop.
54:33
Oh 2008 No, no, the the workload started to wind down already
54:40
2008 Why? Do you think that happened
54:42
because of? So many because other other
54:45
groups started coming in. I think it was partly because I
54:48
was successful at what I did. And now you have next first
54:52
thing is I became the father of acapella music.
54:55
If you, if you, if you, every, every hog that comes out,
54:59
there's 613 and, and the Maccabees and all these groups
55:05
and they come out with their parodies, right?
55:09
Every, every hog, every, every Jewish holiday.
55:13
So that's, that comes from me. It came.
55:17
It came from me. OK, so let me let me ask you a
55:20
crazy question then. Ready.
55:21
Yeah, I can tell you what the young people are saying today.
55:25
A lot of young people are saying today that Jewish music is just
55:28
boring and it doesn't sound good anymore.
55:30
Yeah, that's true. And if so, why?
55:33
I do. I think it's not that it's
55:36
boring, it's it's can't even listen to it.
55:43
I can't even listen to it. I have.
55:45
A theory, but I want to know why you what's what's?
55:47
Why does it bother you? Think the soul there's no soul.
55:52
No soul. There's no, there's a lot of
55:56
there's a lot of production, too much production.
56:00
It's overproduced. And also you have all these.
56:06
I'm going to use the word eyes, eyes, eyes, eyes.
56:09
Everybody's eyeing eye and I, I can't I, I don't like it, I
56:19
don't like it. I, I don't want, I don't want
56:24
eyes. I want, I want melody, harmony,
56:33
chords, a good groove. And then and then that song
56:39
makes it. So let's go back to Scar
56:43
mitzvah. Mitzvah for Mordecai Shapiro,
56:45
right? I don't really have any other
56:49
songs from him that I've heard that I liked, but maybe I
56:52
haven't really listened to him enough.
56:57
Benny Friedman, Simple liner, simple liners, amazing.
57:05
These are amazing musicians, by the way, amazing voices.
57:09
And yet. The music doesn't touch you.
57:11
I don't even know. I don't know any of their songs.
57:15
Maybe that's my. Maybe that's my fault.
57:18
Maybe that's my. But it sounds to me like.
57:22
But it sounds to me like a lot of your youth saying they're
57:26
saying the same thing. Yeah.
57:27
But I. Think I know why it's it's not
57:30
to to put a blunt link, you know, and I think Mordecai's
57:35
doing great stuff, but scar mitzvah mitzvah and the devra
57:38
kitzvah, like where's the where's the artistic flair?
57:41
Where's, you know, sometimes, you know, you can say a puzzle
57:45
and you can just sing it a million times.
57:47
OK, but even the Gundam don't do that right?
57:50
Like Karibone. Oh my gosh, what a vision, What
57:54
a what a what AI to call the song I almost think is an
57:58
insult. It's it's a it's a prophecy or
58:00
something. You know, it's the but what the
58:03
beauty of it is that every single letter in that song is
58:07
calculated and it has meaning. Every single word is a
58:10
reference. Like, and it, and it's not a
58:13
it's not, you know, so, so point in your face like, oh, this is
58:18
the puzzle that I mean, I think that there's like, like you
58:20
said, so much production, like to make sound or to make like a
58:24
popping sound or to like try to get your attention of, hey,
58:26
there's supposed to be music playing here.
58:28
And then you listen and it's either the same thing over and
58:30
over and over and over again. Everything bonds together.
58:32
But at the core, which is 1 big problem, but at the core of it
58:36
is that the lyrics are meaningless.
58:38
It's not I know the puzzle. It's I know the puzzle already.
58:41
It's OK. Like you don't need to tell me
58:42
the puzzle. Share with me the message.
58:45
Write me a song about Shimshon, right?
58:47
And and make it interesting. Meaning, meaning.
58:49
Don't say Pasuk Aleph was Shimshon did this puzzle like
58:53
tell me, tell me a story. And you know who gets this?
58:56
You know who gets this A lot havd of dolls.
58:58
The Christians get this. There's some really great
59:00
Christian music out there. I know because they're, because
59:03
they're not blunt, they're not saying.
59:04
And by the way, Yeshua then walked on the water and that is
59:08
it. The reason why, in my humble
59:11
opinion, you could tell them to disagree, why Jewish music is
59:13
not catching people anymore is because they're not trying to
59:16
say anything. You're just trying to play
59:19
something. But that's not what music is.
59:21
As we shared before, music is a spiritual thing.
59:23
You have to catch that balance. And once you have that balance,
59:26
then you can send a message. What's the message that you want
59:29
to send? We already have a hummus.
59:30
You're not going to write the hummus better than Moshe,
59:32
Ebeniel and of course, Barack, who did.
59:34
They got that right. You need to give over the
59:36
message in a different way, way that they don't have access to.
59:41
That's my opinion. And I agree with that.
59:43
And Rob, I know Weinberg said that to me.
59:45
By the way, he said I once brought an album of mine to him
59:50
for his opinion. And he said, he said, you're
59:54
preaching too much. Stop preaching.
59:58
Stop saying you, you, you say we, we, we say I, I, I don't say
1:00:02
you, you, you, right. And I learned that through
1:00:08
through him. So the next time I wrote an
1:00:11
original music album in English, I tried to I tried to follow
1:00:17
those those directions. But you're right, it's you.
1:00:24
You want to get a message across.
1:00:25
How do you get a message across? If you're just repeating the
1:00:30
same Hebrew phrase over and over and over and over again, doesn't
1:00:33
do. It be a poet.
1:00:35
Part of writing lyrics is being a poet.
1:00:37
Yeah, Yeah. OK.
1:00:39
Yeah, I don't. I don't disagree with you.
1:00:44
I don't disagree with you. I don't know enough about
1:00:46
today's Jewish music to say it's all bad, because it's not all
1:00:49
bad. I didn't say it can't be.
1:00:52
It can't be a little bad, but it's just not they're.
1:00:54
Saying it's not. Hitting me, it's not, it's not
1:00:57
staying to sticking to me right either.
1:01:01
Well. Lenny, is there any closing
1:01:05
remarks that you'd like to share with our audience, questions you
1:01:09
may have? I, I want, I, I will just say
1:01:18
this, that thank God I knew better than to listen to people
1:01:27
who criticized because the music that I wrote came straight from
1:01:35
Hashem. Write into me, write to you.
1:01:39
And it was the best Schlocklack was the greatest Jewish
1:01:44
educational tool. We never even got into the
1:01:47
educational value of those parodies, but you you start off
1:01:51
with simple stuff and you can end up the the the my later
1:01:54
material. You could teach a commercial
1:01:57
with. It's that good.
1:01:59
You know, just you know, tuba of is I have a song called tuba of
1:02:05
teaches all the six things that happened on tuba of you.
1:02:10
You could give a class on it and then play the song, you know, or
1:02:16
play the song and then teach the give this year either way.
1:02:19
And the only thing I could tell you is, is that I, I love it.
1:02:24
I loved writing my own materials more than I loved making the
1:02:28
parodies. But the parodies were what were
1:02:32
what Creek gave the the audience, gave me the audience,
1:02:35
the parodies or gave me the audience.
1:02:37
And even today when I go and I perform, they really only want
1:02:41
to hear stuff from 1995 and before.
1:02:45
But everybody's got that. All the groups have got that
1:02:47
that are big. The Rolling Stones and, you
1:02:50
know, the Eagles, they want to hear the hits.
1:02:52
You want to hear the hits, OK, want to hear the hits?
1:02:55
I got to give them the hits. Even even Metallica's like that.
1:02:59
Yes, 100% Metallica is. Lenny Solomon, thank you so much
1:03:05
for joining us today and sharing your wisdom.
1:03:07
My pleasure, thank you for having me.
1:03:10
Take care everyone.