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Daily Lyric: O.Y. CLASS OF ‘83

Updated: Oct 9, 2023

I’m not much good at introductions to songs about memories

But when I walk through the old neighborhood time seems to freeze

And then rolls back slowly to our high-school years

The scenes play back between the laughs and the tears

Do you remember Chaim’s party and getting lost in the snow

And Langer at Masada, he didn’t know which way to go

Remember David K. and his top-secret stash

Remember Yossi the ZZ Top sneeze looking for a place to crash

Or how about the time when BT threw me out of school

All the guys went on strike for me and made ol’ BT play the fool

Remember Mitch and David, Room 440, Delta House

Or going to the disco and blowing our energy out

There were places like the Tea House, the Little Pub, and Richie’s

Our late-night parties made the authorities itchy

But not because we’d all really get a little wild

They’d let that all pass with a wink and a smile

Just be on time for minyan, that was their concern

And sure enough, like good boys, the next day we’d sit and learn


Remember Emil and Gedaliah and Reality Shock Band

And our secret basement where our strategy was planned

There was JBR and Tel-Or where we’d try to make it big

And that trip down to Yeroham where we played that disastrous gig

Remember the Peter Gunn theme and the way we played it out

Me and Sugy and a cap gun in one of the many blackouts

Remember the band’s rehearsals in the dining room

With all the perfect harmony of a sonic boom

Independence Day fireworks, silly string, and shaving cream

Bopping college sneezes’ heads until we’d make them scream

Isser with his camera shouting Two More Months!

Two more months and it’s over you can only live it once

No more rabbis and no more Judaism

But no more carefree good times ‘cause that’s what life isn’t

So why worry about the future now

The present only comes once anyhow

Tomorrow is tomorrow and today is today

And we aren’t always gonna be this way


Remember all those trips in the back of the bus

We’d blast the music so loud and get the counselors mad at us

Remember Sheisa de-Moicha was preaching from the hill

Or going down the Ouja getting bruised and getting thrills

When we visited Rothschild’s crypt and “cried”, oh Eddie, WHY?!?

We turned the rabbis’ faces white and made them want to die

Breaking the dishes cleaning up at Shavei Shomron

And drunken Tevy trying to walk back to Netanya all alone


Remember all the good music they played that year

Rock The Casbah, Shadows Of The Night

Workin’ In a Coal Mine, I Ran, Green Onions

Nothing like that to make us feel all right

Remember all those crazy classes

Rabbi Fox would take his time and we’d snooze

And Schrader would devote two whole hours

To dating and girls in his mussar shmooze


Oh, how they tried to wash our brain

And how their efforts went down the drain

I remember Fruitcake telling me man-to-man

“It’s wrong for a yeshiva bochur to be in a rock’n’roll band”

But those were the risks I had to take

And despite it all my faith wouldn’t shake

Remember Susie and Jeff, and Betty and Scott

And how about Lizzy, all the guys thought she was hot

Remember how we’d sneak the girls up to the dorm

Despite all the rules and the many times we were warned

Remember Eric and Ateret and Saturday in the park

Or me and Ari biking past the girls’ dorm after dark

That vicious waterfight we had, I can’t forget

And then me calling Judy and asking her if she wanted to get wet

There was Sara and Martin who told her I Love You

During that insane drunken Purim rendezvous

Remember Michael and Lisa who swore they’d never part

Lost love betrayal broken dates and broken hearts

There was so much more so much to tell

Like about Mark the karate man and Judas Priest as well

Like Weiser and Ian and Hal-PERT! (YOooo!)

These were all good guys it was worthwhile to know

It was so cool but now it’s gone

We left our mark and carried on

The past is the past and today is today

But we can always remember our glory days


They’re what made us this way …

©2023 The Hesh Inc.

Hameiri 11 - original photo by The Hesh Inc.
11 Hameiri Blvd, Kiryat Moshe, Jerusalem ... where it all happened.

One evening somewhere toward the end of my army service, in 1988, I found myself wandering through the neighborhood where my high school used to be, and in spite of myself, began feeling all maudlin and moody, thinking about the times I had there and wondering where all my friends from that era had spread out to. That little walk produced several songs, including this one, which is a detailed (if mawkish) reminiscence of what I considered my greatest year up to that point. The music is like a slowed-down version of Pat Benatar's "Shadows of the Night," one of the songs that was popular that year and referenced in the fourth verse. Banged out on the piano several times but never recorded or performed.


DISCLAIMER: Any resemblance of the characters mentioned in the lyrics to actual persons, living or dead, is 100% intentional, not coincidental! These were my actual classmates, schoolmates, bandmates, and other assorted characters during my senior year. Most last names, though, have been omitted to protect the guilty.

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