Disturbed Covers The Sound of Silence. Perfect Antidote to Hanukkah Saccharine!
We are now on the 4th night of Hanukkah and we have been verily inundated with all manner of crap holiday videos. It gets a little much after a while. If I hear one more Yeshiva University based a capella group do a parody of an already asinine pop ditty, I swear I’ll go mental. If you’re like me, then by now you need an antidote – but in order for it to be effective, it has to be a Jewish antidote – because you have to fight fire with fire. Luckily heavy metal band Disturbed comes to the rescue with their epic cover of Simon an Garfunkle’s “The Sound of Silence.”
Now we know that Simon and Garfunkle were a popular 1960s era folk music duo and that both were Jewish. “The Sound of Silence” is also a song that pretty much every Jewish camper everywhere knows due to its near ubiquity around every Jewish campfire everywhere. I dare say that more Jewish millennials know the lyrics to this cornball song than know the first line of birkat hamazon – grace after meal. Or when the modern State of Israel was created. So yeah. Pretty darn Jewish. But it gets better.
This cover of “The Sound of Silence” is off of Disturbed’s latest album Immortalized. It is their fifth album in a row to debut at no. 1. The band is fronted by lead singer and song writer David Draiman. Draiman was born in Brooklyn to Miriam and Yehuda “Y. J.” Draiman, an American-Israeli couple. His Grandmother lives in Israel, as does his brother Ben who lives in Jerusalem and is an ambient/folk rock musician. Pretty Jewy, am I right?
Is this cover an attempt by David Draiman to exorcise the demons that might be haunting him after years of Jew camp provided shitty 60s folk music? Did he even go to camp? We don’t know. But we do know that this video has been released just in the nick of time. Disturbed’s cover transcends the original and while the video is dark and moody, it is still a ray of light in the darkness of horrible Hanukkah videos. Thanks David! If I ever run into your brother Ben I will buy him a fucking beer in gratitude.
H/T: Jewlicious
(834)
