Nostalgia Sunday

July 27, 2008 - 5:55 PM by Rachel Neiman · 3 Comments
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Music, Pop Culture

Probably it’s because “Mamma Mia!” starring Meryl Streep is coming to town but I can’t stop singing songs from the 1974 Eurovision contest. That’s the year ABBA won for “Waterloo” and changed the world’s musical landscape forever, providing a human face to Europop – and a very attractive one, too. Benny, Bjorn, Anni-Frid and Agnetha absolutely blew the crowd away with their glam-rock gear and flying-V guitars – not to mention tuneful vocals and a killer hook – so much so that some of the other amazing things that happened in that same competition have been forgotten.

For example, another singer who would later attain major pop star status in the US, Olivia Newton-John, represented the UK – what do you think of that?! Mouth and MacNeil, who’d already had a minor US chart hit with “How Do You Do?”, represented the Netherlands – who knew they were Dutch? The Italian entry, “Si“, was banned from broadcast in that country because of an upcoming referendum on divorce, and the Portuguese song was also a political hot potato – if you can believe it.

Plus, Kaveret, also known as Poogy, represented Israel.

That last one was so important to die-hard Kaveret fans such as my sisters and myself that our parents actually allowed us to skip out on the last part of the Passover seder to watch the competition. Unfortunately, their entry “I Gave Her My Life”, was lackluster both musically and visually.

Even I could tell that my beloved Gidi Gov in his knit wool vest was no match for the ABBA girls’ satin, silver and spangles, despite my severe romatic crush and undying loyalty (this still holds true so call me, Gidi!). Plus, they just stood in a line, singing and strumming, so the world never had a chance to find out neither what amazing musical technicians Yitzhak Klepter, Alon Oleartchick, Yoni Rechter, Danny Sanderson and Ephraim Shamir were, nor how exciting and funny was their onstage camraderie.

Only three years later, Israel would find the key to becoming a Eurovision hit-maker with “Abanibi” and “Hallelujah” (not to mention “Diva“) but those were still pre-formula, pre-Eurovision-as-Gay-funland days. And while Kaveret’s loss was pretty disappointing for the schoolyard set, it didn’t affect any band member adversely. They’ve all gone on to varying degrees of success (most in music, some in TV and drummer Meir Fenigstein founded the Israeli Film Festivals in New York and LA). Most importantly, Poogy’s place in Israeli pop culture history is assured, with taking 7th place in Eurovision just a footnote in their Wikipedia entry.

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