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Writer's pictureHeshy R

Daily Lyric: אני מאמין (I BELIEVE)

Updated: Sep 13, 2023

The stars were barely shining and the moon was just a dull disk in the sky

The heat was rising and the air was anything but mild

Bob Seger was playing "Night Moves" on the radio and I gave a heavy sigh

These Jerusalem nights in the summer sometimes they get real wild

The tourists were discussing the deals they made in the Old City

Though after ten minutes walking they had to get back to the hotel

Take a picture, Harry! It’s so ethnic! Well ain’t it all pretty?

Enjoy it now ‘cause one day your fools’ paradise will be gone

Only time and politics will tell

And everything you took for granted will be swept away

But I can feel it something big is gonna hit any day

The Messiah never showed his face

The Messiah never telephoned

The Messiah must have lost his tokens somewhere along the line

Well I believe with a full belief

That The Messiah will put in an appearance soon

And I’ll sit tight and wait for him though he might take his time

Well he might be the class clown or the four-eyed nebbish next door

For all I know he’s just another exile from the Jersey Shore

He might be the old rebbe in the long white beard and black hat

Or the ex-premier of Israel at that

He could be anyone here you see

But wouldn’t it be dangerous

If he would be me …

The Messiah never showed his face ...

Now people are thinking that families are a bore

And others don’t know the difference between dark and light anymore

When our “cousins” feed the world a line and the world eats it up

And we can barely afford to keep from getting beaten up

But no one really feels it and the world keeps on turning

And the nightlife in Jerusalem keeps on burning

And everything we held onto will be swept away

But I can feel it something big is gonna hit any day

And when that day comes

They’re all gonna face up to the truth

The Messiah never showed his face ...

©2023 The Hesh Inc.

Obsolete Israeli telephone token
The Messiah never calls.

This was one of my "piano power pop" tunes that I wrote in 1985, during the first part of my service in the IDF. It is based on a lot of social-political observations I made during my time hanging around Jerusalem; all the bullshit that I saw going on around me led me to the conclusion that there is to be one final cataclysm culminating in what I believe to be an era of final redemption ... an idea not lost on the Jewish prophets of old. They were not wrong; I saw it all playing out in front of me every day in the Holy City and Holy Land.

The chorus is based on two elements: the Shalom Hanoch hit of early 1985, in which he tells the story of the Israel financial crash of the year before, expecting some redemption to come from somewhere but which never arrives ... and Maimonides' 12th Principle of the Faith, that of believing in the eventual arrival of the messiah, no matter how long it may seem to take.

Musically, the song goes back and forth between Bob Seger's "Night Moves" (name-checked in the first verse) and Laura Branigan's "Spanish Eddie," by way of the Pretenders' "Back on the Chain Gang." If none of this makes sense, well, hopefully I'll put it out soon in a collection of my piano-power-pop tunes from the pre–Soul In Exile era. And when I do, I'll be sure to update the chorus so that it no longer reflects the obsolete Israeli telephone technology of the 1980s (which itself was little changed from the early days of the state).

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