Oy gevalt! What kind of cockamamy shtick is this?
Mel Waldorf has been playing surf guitar for almost two decades, in bands such as Los Mel-tones and The Mach IV. He's also been a Jew his whole life! Mel's original surf music compositions have been featured in TV shows and movies, including episodes of Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants, MTV's Real World, and Walt Disney's My Favorite Martian. Oy, it makes his mother so proud!
So, how did he come to make Meshugga Beach Party? Mel tells it in his own words:
It was quite a confluence of events. It was the year I got my first guitar. Hawaii Five-Oh was on TV in the afternoons before the Mets games. And I had just over-indulged in the syrupy-sweet Manischewitz wine at the Passover seder. Let my people go, indeed.
Somehow, in the post-seder haze induced by an excess of wine, matzoh, potato kugel and geflite fish, it all came together. The parting of the Red Sea and the curl of the Banzai Pipeline. The sands of the Sinai and the waves at Waikiki. The Diamond District and Diamond Head. The songs of the Jews and the sound of the surf guitar!
At first it did seem a little odd. Aren't beach parties and ocean sports for the goyim? But something in these melodies, the moods that range from boisterous to melancholy, from somber to shmaltz, seem to transition so well from the bar mitzvah to the beach. Two for the price of one. What is there to kvetch about really?
SO, WANT TO SEE MESHUGGA BEACH PARTY LIVE?
Check out these videos on YouTube!
Sherele
Zemer Atik
Shalom Alechem
