The story of how a Rosh Hashana prayer became part of regular set-list of one of the most popular bands in the country is exactly the kind that I was talking about last month when I wrote about the 'Jewish fringe' bands The Jewish Legend, A Silver Mt. Zion, and The Silver Jews. The Phish bass player, Mike Gordon, is Jewish and willing to connect his and the band's public identity with Judaism. According to an article written by Jacob Horowitz for JVibe, Gordon grew up in Newton, Mass attending a Conservative synagouge and a Solomon Schechter day school. Later on, he introduces his Phish bandmates to Avinu Malkenu and other Jewish and Hebrew songs. And this introduction was not just because he was fond of the music. According to the JVibe article, Gordon has an "effortless spirituality" and a deep connection with Judaism.
"Music," he explains, "fills many of the holes that religion leaves open. The philosophical feeling behind religion, a religious upbringing, and even the notion of praying to God is very abstract. This transfers directly to my relationship with music. While you cannot necessarily touch music, you can feel it and it is something to believe in." "I've always compared my movements on stage to davening [praying]," he added. "To me, music has always served as that type of religious release."
Phish 1999-10-03TMWSIY Avenu Malkenu
5 comments:
Great blog. I always thought Gordon and the other boys from Phish were from VT. I guess that's just where they went to college. Don't think you mentioned this in the writeup, but they're broken up so if you want to see more Phish live you'll have to wait for the nostalgia reunion tour in 2015!
Huh. I didn't know that they'd broken up. I missed that. But they've been at it since the early 80's, so I guess it's reasonable for them to take a break.
For all you Jewish Phishheads out there... http://kosherphish.blogspot.com/
J...awesome. thanks!
J- I just realized how brand new your blog is. Mazel tov for getting it started. Other than this post, I don't think I've got much to offer you but let me know if I can help out in any way.
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