Even without the Pookie connection I would have been tempted by the cover which features a black and white photo of seven groovy dudes with big collars, striped tank-tops and the like superimposed on colour photos of pita bread and assorted vegetables. Apart from the name "Poogy" and the song titles, most of the writing was in Hebrew. Just like this, in fact:
A little research revealed that the album is called "Poogy In A Pita". Released in 1974 it is the second album by a band known as Kaveret in Israel but known as Poogy when performing or releasing records in other countries. I must confess to being slightly baffled by this. What marketing genius sat down with the band and said "Look, lads, with a name like Kaveret you will never crack the US or Europe. Now if you call yourself Poogy on the other hand..."
The lead-off track on the album is "I Gave Her My Life", which was Israel's Eurovision entry that year, finishing a plucky seventh. On first listen it and most of the other tracks are pleasant but fairly unexciting. The two exceptions are an instrumental called "Left Handed Octopus", which features "the Oriental Music Orchestra conducted by Zuzu Musa", and the final track. This is a six and a half minutes pop-psych magnum opus called "The Ballad of Arriverderchi", and here it is. Apologies for the sound quality at the beginning - it gets better.
"The Ballad Of Arrivederchi" - Poogy (or Kaveret is you are reading this in Israel)
All in all though, judging by this clip, the first album "Poogy Tales" is the one to get:
I saw Poogy perform in Tel Aviv in the fall of 1975. I had only been in the country for a few days (I am Canadian). They were preparing to tour the US and so did the entire concert in English - until the last song, Yo Ya (from the first album) which they did in Hebrew, and the difference was monumental.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the name... Poogy wasn't actually the band's name; that was an error on the part of DJs who announced it. Kaveret used to do stand-up comedy as well as music, and "Poogy" was a recurring character in their live skits, voiced by the drummer, Meir Fenigstein (who was also known as Poogy).
ReplyDeleteMeir sang lead on "Arrivaderchi", in character as Poogy. The weird voice in the spoken intro was how he usually performed the character; the rest of the song, or the first verse at least, is a rare example of his normal singing voice.