Debbie Friedman—who she? / Mue [sic] recommendations

[lethargic_man]

I read all over Facebook today that Debbie Friedman has died. I heard her perform at Limmud a few weeks ago. She gently poked fun then at the fact she was older than the last time she performed at Limmud, fifteen or so years ago; I don't think anyone was expecting this to be perhaps the last time she performed anywhere.

She was introduced as being the writer of loads of songs we'd all know, and everyone else in the audience was singing along with them, but the only song she performed that I knew was a tune to Psalm 150 that I know she didn't write, because we were told at Limmud last year that it was originally a Sufi tune. (Later, someone told me that she wrote one of the other tunes to Psalm 150 I know.)

Possibly her tunes are more widely known in the Reform movement, but I think this article was overstating it to say "She is the voice of the Jewish people of the 20th century."

So, nu, what songs of hers might I have known that she didn't perform at Limmud?

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Whilst I'm at it, what other bands/singers should I know about, that I didn't before, like Gogol Bordello. (I haven't listened to music radio since 2000, so anyone new since then who's not ultra-massive the chances are I don't know... but what little pop I have heard, hasn't impressed me much, which is why what someone (I forget who) termed the "weirdo" section of my music collection (Taraf de Haïdouks, Los Desterrados, Kočani Orkestar, Gogol Bordello, etc) is growing at present faster than the pop/rock section.)

Comments

[liv]

Statistically speaking, the Jewish people of the 20th century is a group so overwhelmingly dominated by American Reform Jews that you might as well ignore everyone else. It's not just that her tunes are more widely known in the Reform movement, it's that she completely redefined what liturgical music was for, well, basically the Reform world. Basically she is the reason why most Reform shuls these days use music vaguely like contemporary American soft-rock, rather than music vaguely like 19^th century Protestant church music. So I don't think the article is over-stating things, but I also don't think it's surprising that you haven't really come across her much.

Songs of hers that come to mind: she has a version of that children's prayer about the angels guarding you on all sides:

May our right hands bring us closer to our Godliness
May our left hands bring us strength to face each day
Before us may God's vision light the path ahead
Behind us may wellbeing heal our way
All around us is Shekhinah, all around is Shekhinah

There's a version of Eliyahu haNavi with Miriam, and you might have heard her Lo yisa goy which she combines with a slight misquote from Albert Camus, viz:

Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead
Just walk beside me and be my friend
And together we shall walk in the paths of Hashem

I must admit I'm not a huge fan of Friedman's musical style or lyrics, I find it schmaltzy, but I can't deny how influential she was.

[awful-dynne.livejournal.com]

She has a version of a Misheberach which some congregations use, the lyrics to part of it which might ring a bell are "May the source of blessing, who healed the ones before us help us find the courage to make our lives a blessing and let us say aah-mayn*"

*the amen is usually really drawn out, I tried to write it as it would sound in the song