From 'Born in the U.S.A.' to 'Making Aliya Today'

By Daphna Berman
February 13, 2004
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/393875.html

Lenny Solomon was working as an accountant in Queens for three 
years and playing music on the side, until one day in 1985 
when his boss gave him an ultimatum: It's either me or the 
music. Solomon chose rock 'n' roll, and hasn't really looked 
back since.

Solomon, who met with Anglo File earlier this week before his 
string of weekend performances around Jerusalem, realizes that 
his name is hardly as recognizable here as in the Jewish 
communities in his native U.S. But that doesn't really bother 
him - the recent immigrant to Israel is convinced that he's 
still got time.

For English-speaking Jewish music fans, Solomon's band - Shlock 
Rock - is legendary. They became a household name in Orthodox 
circles in North America by the late 1980s, and spread rapidly 
to the U.K., South Africa, and Australia. Though Solomon likes 
to think he hasn't peaked yet, he will admit that 1991 was a 
particularly successful year, with the release of an album, 
since unparalleled, that sold 15,000 copies - "solid gold in 
religious music standards," he says.

Shlock Rock consists of Solomon and whoever happens to be 
playing with him at the time. The Yiddish word shlock refers 
to the fact that his music is, for the most part, second hand. 
The word, seen as offensive by some, has probably created 
the most controversy the band has encountered in nearly two 
decades.

Solomon's music parodies familiar rock tunes and replaces the 
original writers' lyrics with Jewish-themed ones. The process 
is completely legal, as long as the new lyrics mirror the 
original piece in their musical structure. "It's a fine line, 
because if the lyrics aren't similar, then you are stealing," 
he says.

Bruce Springstein's song, "Born in the U.S.A" was renamed 
"Making Aliya Today," and in a ringing impression of Billy 
Joel's "We didn't start the fire," Solomon tries to trace 
Jewish history through Adam and Eve to the outbreak of the 
first intifada. One CD is dedicated completely to lessons 
from the Ethics of our Fathers, while another is based on 
the experiences of Jewish prophets.

For Solomon, writing music became a way to informally advance 
Jewish education. He says he doesn't have the patience to sit 
in front of a classroom for days at a time, but performing 
on a stage allows him to teach "Jewish concepts" in short 
spurts. Success, he insists, stems from the band's approach: 
"We never preached or stuffed our message down anyone's 
throat," he says.

In the meantime, Solomon is trying to use music as a way to 
link people with their Jewish heritage. But for the resident 
of Beit Shemesh whose Hebrew, by his own admission, is hardly 
flawless, creating that link has been difficult. Solomon's 
lyrics are almost exclusively in English and so his local 
fan base is mostly Anglo immigrants and their children.

"The whole concept of my music is that there is an instant 
gratification in the song, but also a deeper message in the 
lyrics," he says. "Israelis don't understand the subtlety 
in the language." Solomon has played to Anglo communities 
in Ra'anana, Beit Shemesh, and Gush Etzion, and recent 
immigrants from the U.S. have also hired him to play for 
Bar Mitzvah parties. But for the aging Jewish rock star who 
used to play 100 concerts a year for nearly a decade, all the 
bar mitzvah parties in the world pale in comparison.

Solomon has 23 CDS and a total of 250 songs - three of which 
are in Hebrew, and two of which have made top 10 lists for 
Jewish music in Israel. But writing lyrics in Hebrew, he admits, 
is difficult. "I'm an American in Israel," he says melodically, 
in a subtle reference to Sting's "I'm an Englishman in New York." 
"It's not easy to come here as an American rock 'n' roll player 
and get into this field."

Solomon spends a quarter of any given year touring the U.S., 
England, South Africa and Australia. He plays at synagogues, 
community centers, summer camps, and the occasional bar mitzvah. 
He leaves next week for a 10-day tour of the west coast in the 
U.S. and continues to the U.K., for an additional week of 
performances. He says he wishes work would allow him to stay 
in Beit Shemesh full time with his wife and three daughters, 
but in the meantime, that just hasn't worked out. "I would 
have loved to come here and become king of music in Israel," 
he shrugs. "And maybe I still will."