‘Doing Bob’ in Tel Aviv

May 22, 2011 - 10:13 AM by David

Like many places in the world, Israel is set to celebrate Bob Dylan’s 70th birthday on Tuesday. Of course, we have more of a reason to celebrate than most, with the iconic legend’s Ramat Gan Stadium show less than a month away on June 20.

But Israeli artists are getting a head start by putting their own particular spins on their favorite Dylan tracks at a special tribute concert called ‘Doing Bob’ taking place this week in Tel Aviv at the Barby Club on Tuesday night.

Even though many of the performer – ranging from Yuval Banai and Hemi Rodner to Tamar Eisenman and Maya Isacowitz – were either toddlers or not even embryos when Dylan was along with The Beatles changing the language of popular music in the 1960s, his influence on all generations of Israeli singer/songwriters has been vast.

Benny Dudkevitch, a veteran Israeli musicologist and a reporter for Israel Radio who rightfully boasts one of the best rock LP and memorabilia collections in the country, said that his imprint on Israeli popular music can’t be underestimated.

“There was a time when all popular music here was based on army troupes and bands – it was establishment music,” he told me during a conversation last week. When the first generation of long-haired Israeli musicians like Shalom Hanoch and Arik Einstein began to emerge, it was Dylan they looked to for direction, Dudkevitch pointed out. And that elder statesman role has remained ever since.

“Every Israeli artist who claims to be a singer/songwriter has been profoundly affected by Dylan, whether they know it or not,” said Dudkevitch.

Isacowitz, a 23-year-old singer/songwriter, who’s peforming at the tribute this week and who impressed over the weekend during her performance at the Jacob’s Ladder Folk Festival, agreed with that assessment even though she’s still getting around to uncovering many of Dylan’s musical gems.

“The experience of looking for songs for this show and digging for material that catch me has been amazing… a song like ‘I Want You’ – I’d never really listened carefully to the lyrics, but they are so incredible and poetic. It makes you imagine and think, like good music should. The melodies too, people call them simple but they’re simple in a way that really goes deep.”

Isacowitz will be performing that song at the show, and there will de a couple dozen other classics, some sung in English and some in translated Hebrew versions. One of the most famous adapted Dylan songs in Hebrew is Aviv Gefen’s version of “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.”

I don’t know if someone’s going to tackle it, but if not, here it is in all its Irish-tinged glory.