And the rest more than lives up to this promising start. “Way on the other side of the Hudson, deep in the bosom of suburbia….” To launch a pop song with that scene-setting description is pure genius.
We could easily have populated the entire list with Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen songs, so many of which touch on Jewishness that entire books have been written about them, so we tried to limit those entries in the spirit of inclusiveness. We then culled the replies down to a somewhat manageable list of 150, with annotations and links. We got back from them an astonishing list of 300 songs in all, as diverse as the contributors themselves, not all of whom are Jewish – at least we don’t think so we didn’t ask. We then sent out invitations to a couple dozen writers, musicians, and writer/musicians, asking them to share their lists and thoughts about their favorite rock songs that address Jewish culture, ideas, themes, history, or religion. You can find the whole list and accompanying essays here.Īfter Rolling Stone magazine published its list of the 500 Greatest Albums last September, we started asking ourselves what are the greatest Jewish songs of the rock era? We began drawing up lists of our own, but soon realized that were we to be serious about it, this was a task that required input from a larger cohort. Inspired in part by all the Jewish artists on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs, the Forward decided it was time to rank the best Jewish pop songs of all time.
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