Rant #2,259: Hanukah Rocks

How was your weekend?

Mine was pretty good, celebrating both veterans and my wife's birthday.

I honored my father this weekend, and for my wife's special day, my son and I took her out to a new Italian restaurant in our area, which she--being half Italian herself--found to be very, very good.

But what about the rest of the weekend?

Please let me digress.

Now that Veterans Day is over--well, it is kind of over, although today is the official day, being on a Monday, and lots of people have off, none of which are myself or my wife--the holiday season is really kicking into high gear.

Oh, maybe it is still too early for you, but retailers have made it plain that now is the time to start shopping for all the holiday goodies on your list.

Last week, many announced their Black Friday lists of bargains--heck, Black Friday is next Friday you know!--and all the Halloween stuff has been gotten rid of, replaced by lots of tinsel.

We have been told by retailers that even before Black Friday, NOW is the time to shop, shop and shop some more, and then do it all over again on the day after Thanksgiving--or in some cases, on Thanksgiving itself.

Me, I'm buying people gift cards, and that is that. The days of shopping like a fool are over and done for me, for sure.

But yesterday was a relatively quiet day for me, so I went to my local record store to see what was doing there.

I find shopping in that store to be quite relaxing, and the fact of the matter is that I don't have to buy too much to make me feel satisfied and happy at the same time.

Record stores are also preparing for their own shopping marathon, Black Friday Record Store Day, and yes, that is a place that I will visit on that day to see exactly what is enticing enough to buy.

But all in all, I just wanted to visit my local record store yesterday to see what was around--pre-Black Friday--and maybe prospect for what I might want to buy a little more than a week from now.

Anyway, I did find a few things to buy yesterday--a Johnny Nash album, a compilation album of hits of the 1960s tied into an old top-40 radio station of yore, an Everly Brothers single I did not have with a picture sleeve too, an old Yardbirds picture disk that came out in the late 1970s that I did not have in my collection--but nearly done with my search, I came across something that I had wanted since, well, seemingly forever, although it is really since it came out in the late 1970s or early 1980s or so.

I found the very elusive--to me at least--"Hanukah Rocks" extended play record from Gefilte Joe and the Fish.

This particular record has an interesting history, coming out when there really was absolutely no current music related to Hanukkah that anyone was releasing.

Hey, good Jews Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow and others were releasing Christmas music, "White Christmas" and "The Christmas Song" were at least partially written by Jews, and there was a void in the world of holiday music, because there was no current music back then celebrating Hanukkah, and I do mean nothing.

Back then, I heard of this record, and had always wanted to have it my collection. I later found it on a compilation, so I do have it in my collection, but to have the actual record, no, I didn't have it.

What also makes the record unique is that it is on blue vinyl with a white label--get it, the colors of the flag of Israel--and, get this, it is shaped like a Jewish star! Yes, the six-pointed star that Jews have worn around their necks on a chain for centuries was now also the shape of an actual record!

I mean, can you beat that?

I don't know much about Gefilte Joe and the Fish, but I believe they were simply another one of those studio conglomerations that Rhino Records used to put together with regularity during its early days as a West Coast-based record label, a group which included the Kazoo Brothers, who played current hits on the kazoo.

As for Gefilte Joe and the Fish, of course it is a play on the name of Country Joe and the Fish, the popular band from the late 1960s.

But while Country Joe and the Fish were protesting the Vietnam War with their music, Gefilte Joe and the Fish were saluting Hanukkah and the entire Jewish experience.

On this recording is not only "Hanukah Rock" (yes, one "k" only), but also "Walk on the Kosher Side"--a play on Jewish Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side"--"Matzoh Man" and "Rapper's Delight."

Yes, perhaps for the first time on record, the modern Jewish experience of the late 1970s and early 1980s was being explored, and this is one of these records I just had to have, but never did find.

But yesterday, I found it--finally--and right before Hanukkah, which this year begins its eight-day celebration after sundown on Sunday, December 2.

So I finally have the record, and my life, as they say, is complete (not really, but I guess I can check off another entry on my personal bucket list).

And by the way, "Hanukah Rocks" is an excellent song that anybody would like, and it really does rock out! It is the perfect song to put between "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and "Jingle Bell Rock" if you are creating a holiday playlist, and if you play it in the background during your holiday get together, people will say "What the heck is that?" and you then can tell them about Gefilte Joe and the Fish being the trailblazers that they were and still are.

So yes, I enjoy Christmas music--I just bought the Monkees' new "Christmas Party" CD in two versions, its regular and expanded editions--but when I hear a song about MY holiday, my ears perk up a bit.

And "Hanukah Rocks" it is.

Finally.