It’s raining
And I’m walking in Tel Aviv
They call this Little New York In The Middle East
What the hell am I doing here?
Dizengoff is all wet and slippery
And the only characters I see
Are the art rockers who sit at the sidewalk cafes
Seeing the whole world from the back seat
I flag down a cab
Driver asks me where I want to go
I tell him Take me out of this city
Anywhere else but here
I don’t understand! Somebody please tell me
Why things tear at my mind and every tear is fear
All my nightmares explode all around me
Don’t know shice from pishachs anymore
It’s raining
And I’m walking in New York City
They say this is the greatest city in the whole world
What the hell am I doing here?
West Street is soaked and lonely
And the only characters I see
Are the hookers winos and junkies
Seeing the whole world through keyholes
I flag down a cab
Eighteen empty ones go by but the nineteenth stops
I tell him Take me out of this city
Anywhere else but here
©2023 The Hesh Inc.
Hard as it is to believe now, Tel Aviv, Israel's metropolis and first modern Jewish-founded city and current hip international/cosmopolitan hotspot, was once little more than a dusty backwater by the sea. In the 1980s it was starting to reach for higher heights but it still had the air of a NYC wannabe. I generally did not enjoy going there (I would call it "Smell Aviv") and did my best to avoid spending any time there. Of course, being the commercial and transportation hub of the whole country, passing through there was all but unavoidable, especially during my army service when I would often need to catch my ride back to base from there (don't get me started on the city's bus station, ugh). One such day, a rainy Sunday in early spring of 1986, I found myself there, procrastinating about catching my bus and wishing I could be in the real New York and not its cheap Middle Eastern imitation. A slow blues groove rolled through my head as I mumbled these words to myself (what a sight I must have been). I never recorded or performed this beyond noodling at the piano.