Greg wants to be a stockbroker
And Jake wants to teach in school
Allen wants to be a big-time joker
And Chaim wants to deal in jewels
Scott wants to be the local bum
And Ian wants to straighten people’s teeth
Isser wants to act and play the drums
And Heshy wants to be a Moses Freak
Well, they got their hopes
They got their dreams
They got their plans and well-laid schemes
They got their desire
With a fire that’s true
‘Cause you can bet they’re gonna pursue
Their ambitions
Bernie wants to fix people’s noses
And Mark he wants to teach karate
Eric wants to cure people’s neuroses
And Jon wants to be the Belzer Rebbe
Mitch wants to be a race car driver
And Dave, a gynecologist
Avi wants to be a Knesset member
And Erez wants to be a terrorist
Well, they got their hopes ...
Yoss the Boss is gonna be a lawyer
And Noah’s gonna be a CPA
Joe is gonna weave baskets underwater
And Adam will decide one of these days
Ari’s gonna run his very own zoo
And Stud’s gonna play his guitar
Well wish them luck in whatever they do
‘Cause with G-d’s help they’ll all get very far
Well, they got their hopes ...
Their ambitions
Their blind ambitions
Their driving ambitions
©2023 The Hesh Inc.
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. The lyrics' theme and prosody are drawn from "Almost Summer" by Mike Love/Celebration (which had done double duty as New York radio station 99X's summer theme song in 1978, when I was still living in the States), but the music was one of my own tunes that I banged out on the piano when I was home on a weekend pass.
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 and schoolmates during my senior year. Last names, though, have been omitted to protect the guilty. (The photo, however, is from four years earlier, when I graduated junior high.)