Metal Hava Nagila

I was alerted last week to a cover of Hava Nagila by the Polish metal band Rootwater. I don't have much info about why they covered the song. It seems like they added to the lyrics in some way. Not sure whether I like it or not but it is at least interesting:

Comments

[Savage Freedom]

I looked up some info about this, some of which you may already know. It appears that the lead singer (or whoever wrote this cover) is a descendant of holocaust survivors. The song appears to be about being an outcast in Poland as a child because people knew his origins. A Last.fm user explained it this way: " It's bout anti-semitism of Poles. The boy's mum was threw out of the ghetto during WWII (as a baby), she survived and changed her name to a polish one. The boy was borned as a Christian, wasn't circumcised etc. Though his colleagues knew about his jewish origin and intimidated him. This song is a calling to his grandmother, a holocaust victim, he says that he knows his legacy, the legacy of his ancestors. A son of Jews, victims of holocaust."

The lyrics can be found translated on YouTube and are as follows:

Hava nagila, hava nagila, hava nagila, hava hej! / x2
The mother of my mother lied, lied
Her mother lived like that, you live in silence
The father of my mother didn't say anything
He was sparing her pain, sparing her blood
They died, died with a last name ending in "ski"
They changed it to "ski", last names ending in "ski"
They hit me for this secret
They hit me for the wrong eyes
n the bottom of the street, between the lights
I meet your eyes, gene-filled
Don't say anything, in the silence we'll pass without a sign/ word
We are holo-, holo-, holo- grandchildren
Hava nagila, hava nagila, hava nagila, hava hej! / x 2
Miriam, mother of my mother, Miriam
The ashes of your body have been in the ground for years

Granted... my sources are Last.fm and YouTube so things could be slightly inaccurate. But if this is all accurate, that's pretty cool and gives the cover a lot of meaning.

[Savage Freedom]

There is actually another verse, and then the lines in Hebrew. It's a pain to find a full translation. The band did an English version but honestly it may as well still be Polish, I can't understand a word of it.

Given what I DO understand of it though, I find it to be a very moving song.

[Keith Kahn-Harris]

Wow thanks for digging this up! Fascinating stuff...