Yiddish Curiosities: a library of wonderful but forgotten Yiddish songs from the late 1920s and after (includes Polish Jewish Cabaret). Have a listen!

I've been moaning for years about how Yiddish language performers keep singing the same songs (Tumbalalaika and Bay mir bistu sheyn being two of the most egregious examples) and wishing they would branch out a bit.

Just today when I was getting ready to put In a hoyz vu men veynt un men lakht on Instagram, I looked for my old recording on Youtube and found that classical Hila Baggio recorded it with the Jerusalem Quartet - in a very different style!

... and she has also recorded

• Ikh vel shoyn mer nit ganvenen
• Yosl un Sore Dvoshe
• Ikh ganve in der nakht
• Varshe

... all of which you can find on this site. Thank you, Hila, for giving these songs a new life and a new audience!

Poking through the Library of Congress Yiddish sheet music collection I found this one. It was published (and copyrighted) in 1922, and it says Abe Schwartz wrote the words and music, but it sure sounds like a folk song to me. Maybe he stole it, or maybe he wrote it in a folk style. I'm 72 now and my voice is shot but there is still music in me so I will still share it with whoever is interested. I did this in my living room with my concertina.

Ven ikh bin fuftsn yor alt gevorn

Ven ikh bin fuftsn yor alt gevorn
Geshtorbn iz mayn foter, dan oy dan
Far mayn mamen hob ikh keyn moyre gehat
Bin ikh gevorn nisht keyn fayner man
Far mayn mamen hob ikh nisht keyn moyre gehat
Bin ikh gevorn nisht keyn fayner man

Di ershte tsayt iz mir gevezn shlekht
Fir monatn iz dos gevezn shver, oy shver
Az Got vet helfn, az ikh vel af der fray aroys
Ganvenen vel ikh shoyn nisht mer
Az Got vet helfn, az ikh vel af der fray aroys
Keynem vel ikh shoyn nisht ton keyn shlekhts

Ven ikh bin tsvantsik yor alt gevorn
Hot mikh Fonye gemakht far eyn soldat, oy vey
Di dinst iz mir gevorn tsugegesn
Hob ikh mir a pleytele gemakht

Ven ikh bin keyn Amerike gekumen
Tsu der arbet hob ikh mir gegebn a nem
Ikh hob fargesn in ale mayne tsores
Yetst hob ikh shoyn do a guter shem

When I was 15 years old my father died
I didn't worry about my mother
I became a bad man

The first time things went badly for me
I did four hard months
If God helps me, if I get free
I won't do any more stealing
If God helps me, if I get free
I won't do anything bad to anybody again

When I was twenty years old the Russians made me a soldier
Serving in the army was tiresome so I ran away

When I came to America I took to [honest] work
I forgot all my troubles, now I have a good reputation here

UPDATE: I first heard this song long, long ago when I was recording for Sheva Zucker's set of Yiddish language cassettes. I did half the songs and Sender did the other half and he sang this song, but I really liked it, so in 2014 I recorded it in my living room and put it on this blog.

This blog was recently hacked and I spent spent a couple days going through all the posts to extinguish links to the Malaysian gaming site that had gotten hold of it. So when I got to this song, it turned out the soundcloud link was dead. Why? I don't know. So then I thought, no problem, I'll just find it on my computer and put it up on youtube. Except I couldn't find my recording. It wasn't on my computer, or on my hard drives or flash drives. It was just gone.

So, I recorded it again a couple weeks ago. I asked Sheva where she had gotten the song, and she said it was at Josh and Reyzl's wedding, and I wrote to Josh to ask him where HE found it, but he didn't answer, so I can't tell you.


Back in the old days, the crying at weddings was not just from joy. Marriage wasn't easy, especially for the new wife. The wedding entertainer or Master of Ceremonies, the badkhn, was tasked with reminding the assembled multitude that with life as well as with dinner, it's often not very good and the portions are always too small.



English translation of the Yiddish after the jump:

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Labels: battle between the sexes, making a living (poverty), nostalgia, weddings

UPDATED to include a link to the Olga Mieleszczuk I just found on youtube: Heyliker mame.

And here is my singalong video (with the transliterated Yiddish text and translation):


Or click on the long-suffering mother (right) to listen to and/or buy this track from our Lebedik Yankel cd.

In Itzik Zhelonek's collection he references this song as being from BenZion Witler's show "Bandit Gentleman" - I couldn't find the recording by Benzion Witler until I wrote to Karsten Troyke, who has recorded the song as "Ver ken di libe," and he kindly pointed me to the Witler 78 - it's hiding on Youtube under the name Der ken di libeh.

Since I hadn't been able to find that version, I had already transcribed the song from a Herman Fenigstein recording found at europeana.eu - and here's our version of the song and the sheet music with translation, transcription, chords, etc:

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Here's our Yiddish music video with captions from a 2013 concert:


Troyke's version is faster and has the authentic rhythm from the Witler recording. Ours is more like the slower Fenigstein version. It's a great song either way. Note bene, the song has also been found under these transliterations: Ver ken du liebe and Wer, ken du liebe.

Lyrics and translation after the jump:

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Labels: mother, nostalgia, songs for sale, tango

UPDATE: Reposting to add the animated video I did today. Nobody ever listens to the automatic videos created by Routenote of the songs from our cds so I thought I'd make one today and see if it gets some listeners:

 

Here's something very interesting about the fellow I called here (in the second verse) "Vayzote" but who, it seems, is called in Yiddish Vayzuse and whose name is also used for "idiot." He was Haman's youngest son. You can read a great blog article about him, from the Mayrent Institute blog, here: Vayzuso. And there is a wonderful recording from way back in 1901 made by Dave Franklin, "the king of comic singers." A great song and a great read!

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Click the picture to listen to and/or buy this track, Di naye lo lanu, from our Lebedik Yankel cd. Aviva Enoch plays the piano on the cd.

(Picture: Mordechai on his horse, as mentioned in the song!)

And here is a live concert version with Roger Lynn Spears playing piano:


This song was printed twice in the collection (once in 1929 and once in 1934) which indicates it must have been pretty popular! As with "Di Naye Al Chet" and "Me Shoklt Zikh," the song begins in a religious setting (pious Jews praying at Sukkot and waving their lulavs). It plays with the line from the Halleluja, "Lo Lanu" (not for us but for you, God) and the similar "lo eleinu" which means more or less, "let it not happen to me/us!" Having set the proper context, it then wanders off and applies the concept in a more secular context.

Aviva and Roger both do a great job of interpreting the accompaniment as heard on the Herman Fenigstein 78 found at Harvard's Judaica Collection. (Fenigstein sings the same first verse as noted in Zhelonek's book, but his second and third verses are different.) Although ordinarily I adapt lyrics to standard Yiddish (because that's what I know), in this case many of the rhymes won't work unless one sings "Lo lani" (what he sings sometimes sounds more like "Loy lani") so that's what I did.

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Labels: battle between the sexes, der rebbe, humor & satire, love, making a living (poverty), modernity, nostalgia, religion, songs for sale