In the early 70s I went to a concert of Randy Newman in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, where I heard him perform the song Political Science. Although he portrays America in it, every Israeli knows this feeling that ‘no one likes us’, and that it’s better to throw the big one on the world. You grow up with this doctrine, which creates a fatalistic society that doesn’t know any different. The feeling of failure when you don’t succeed in getting everyone to like you, in this case as a country, and the resolution to ‘take those who didn’t support us down with us’.
The booklet with the lyrics of that concert stayed with me for many years, popping up every now and from a box as I moved from one place to another. Until one day, in the tropics, it dissolved in the non-stop rain.
Even if not everyone would get hurt directly, everyone of us would get hurt and the lights will go out, so don’t let it happen.
Hagar
Visuals - Hagar Abramson
Instrumental composition and performance - Pals Bleeksma
With thanks to Randy Newman for his song, lyrics and music
