Abi Gezunt: Molly's Cautionary Tale

from Yiddish Silver Screen by ISLE of KLEZBOS & Friends

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    Our physical "Yiddish Silver Screen" CD comes in a beautiful six-panel illustrated gate-fold case, with cover art by Anya Ulinich and disc design by Lisa M. Kelsey. The eminently legible twenty-page booklet fits smoothly into notched tube insert, complete with detailed descriptions as well as full lyrics for all vocal tracks including original Yiddish plus both transliteration and complete English translations. Booklet and artwork layouts by Yiddish publications expert Yankl Salant, graphic designer for "Yiddish Silver Screen" (aka "zilberner kino" / זילבערנער קינאָ ). Illustrations include band photos as well as archival frame stills from numerous Yiddish cinematic works.

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about

The 1938 film Mamele (Little Mother), following up Joseph Green’s 1936 box office musical bonanaza Yidl mitn fidl (Yiddle with His Fiddle), again starred performer/lyricist Molly Picon on location in Poland. However, now the setting was the industrial city of Lodz, with its depression-era economy and criminal underworld heavily influencing the story. So while the sunny theme song “Abi Gezunt” (So Long as You’re Healthy), which Molly Picon used for the rest of her career, emerged from this movie soundtrack—complete with on-camera kitchen choreography that casts it as Yiddish cinema’s live-action “Whistle While You Work”—our musical adaptation focuses on a verse that never made it onto her Maxwell House Radio Hour, nor anywhere else besides the original screen version of this tune. Picon’s extra piquant lyrics, sung as she finally stands still for a medium closeup ironing board shot, take on the literal topic at hand: Health, and respiratory scourges that threaten to ruin it. The golden age of Yiddish cinema between the world wars was still an era before antibiotics could treat tuberculosis, and the topic of TB contagion is perhaps also implied in Molly’s comedy bit as she spits expertly downward to steam her laundry while ironing. According to Yiddish scholar Michael Wex, the verse’s opening reference to “gloz” may allude as well to lung disease prevalent among glass industry workers. Guest
duo Annie Cohen and Rachel Weston take a jaunt with Abe Ellstein’s melody to highlight these languishing lines with lively contextualization.

lyrics

Gloz iz gloz un es git a kling op.
Ven men iz farlibt shpayt men oys der ling [lung].
Abi gezunt, ken men gliklekh zayn.

Heys iz heys, nit oystsihaltn.
Ven men iz farlibt blozt men op oyf kaltn.
Abi gezunt, ken men gliklekh zayn.

Oy vey mir, vaser iz dokh nas.
Hayntike yinglekh iz tsu gleybn vi a hint af
der gas.

Eyner zukht ashires,
Eyner zukht gvires, aynnemen di gantse velt.
Eyner meynt dos gantse glik hengt nor op in gelt.
Zoln ale zukhn, zoln ale krikhn,
Nor ikh trakht bay mir,
Ikh darf dos oyf kapores
Vayl dos glik shteyt bay mayn tir.

Tinkl, tinkl [tunkl] vi a keyler.
Az men iz farlibt, krigt men lingen-feyler.
Abi gezunt, ken men gliklekh zayn.

TRANSLATION:
Glass is glass and it makes a sound. / When you’re in love, you spit out your lungs.
As long as you’re healthy, you can be happy.

Heat is heat—unbearable! / If you’re in love, you blow on cold [instead of hot].
As long as you’re healthy, you can be happy.

Oy vey mir, water is still wet.
You can trust today’s boys like a dog on the street.

Some look for riches, / Some look for power to conquer the whole world. Some think that all happiness depends only on money.
Let them all search, / Let them all scrounge,
But I think to myself that I have no use for such things,
Since happiness is waiting at my doorstep.

Dark, dark, like a cellar.
If you’re in love, you get lung sickness [tuberculosis].
As long as you’re healthy, you can be happy.

credits

from Yiddish Silver Screen, track released November 24, 2023
music by Abraham Ellstein, lyrics by Molly Picon: Ethnic Music c/o Music Sales Corp | ASCAP, arranged by Eve Sicular

Vocals: Annie Cohen & Rachel Weston
Trumpet: Pam Fleming
Piano: Rachel Weston
Double Bass: Dave Hofstra
Drums: Eve Sicular

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Isle of Klezbos New York, New York

NYC-based ISLE of KLEZBOS approaches tradition with irreverence and respect. The soulful, fun-loving powerhouse all-women’s klezmer sextet has toured from Vienna to Vancouver since 1998. Repertoire ranges from rambunctious to entrancing: neo-traditional folk dance, mystical melodies,Yiddish swing & retro tango, late Soviet-era Jewish drinking song, re-grooved standards, & genre-defying originals. ... more

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