Techiya's Dreidel Song (and new album)

[chanaleh]

In honor of the last day of Chanukah (*snif*!), I am posting something I meant to put up last year, which is the highly enjoyable set of extra bonus lyrics to the Dreidel Song written some years ago by MIT's Techiya, then including my esteemed ex-spouse.

Their version starts off with the well-known first verse and chorus ("OHHHH, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel..."), and then goes on:

I have a little dreidel,
I made it out of plastic;
With latkes, gelt, and presents,
This holiday's fantastic. OHHHH...

I hate my little dreidel,
It never lets me win;
No matter how I spin it,
It always comes down shin. OHHHH...

I lost my little dreidel
'Cause of Heisenberg's limitation:
I know its speed precisely --
No idea of its location. OHHHH...

Oh, Christmas decorations
For us are quite extraneous,
For Christmas isn't Chanukah,
Although they're simultaneous. OHHHH...

Oh, Judas Maccabeus,
He fought against the Greeks;
A drop of oil lasted
For 1.14285714285714285714285714285-- *slap*
... weeks. OHHHH...

Note: This recording appears on their first CD, Half-Life (2002; scroll down to bottom). If you click on the link, you'll also see that they have a new album, Techiya Sunrise (2010), which I picked up at their concert this past Sunday night.

(Hey, sen_ichi_rei, I had been thinking you had a solo on here somewhere? You're not listed anywhere! Bah!)

While I have a total voice-crush on timmypowg *waves*, the solo work here unfortunately doesn't showcase him well at all. Alas. :-/ I was happier with the cover of "Yonatan Shapira", which is kind of a dumb song in the first place, but this performance has way more warmth and charm than the admittedly slicker version on Manginah's new CD (which I also picked up last Sunday at their performance with Honorable Menschen, making the day a Chanukah trifecta of Jewish a cappella goodness). Anyway, but the absolute highlight -- I recall being just as delighted by it in concert last year -- is the utterly delightful "Rumania Rumania," featuring the deceptively non-Jewish Martin Frankland channeling the great Aaron Lebedeff. So you should all go buy it for that alone. Or at least listen to it.

Oh, and, note to self: In "Die Moorsoldaten," the English chorus does not in fact go "We are the beatbox soldiers." kthx.

Comments

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Those lyrics are a delight, and I'll have to give these cds a listen!

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I lost my little dreidel
'Cause of Heisenberg's limitation:
I know its speed precisely --
No idea of its location. OHHHH...

Word.

[trowa-barton.livejournal.com]

I would pay real money to hear them sing South Park's version of the Dreidel Song.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

I loved reading this--thanks for posting@

[sen-ichi-rei.livejournal.com]

The CD was done my first semester in Techiya. I didn't start having solos until my second semester. But we have studio time at the end of IEP, so depending on what we decide to record, I should probably have a solo/duet of some sort.

Also, having no solos then meant I got a lot of breaks during an intense 2 day recording session of doom.

[muffyjo]

I LOVE this! I've forwarded it onto my friends who do a "carolling for the tone deaf" party each year. I thought they might enjoy adding this to their list. :) Honestly, it's pretty fantastic!

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

*gigglesnort* Awesome.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Love the extra verses!

[cycon.livejournal.com]

I am familiar with the basic tune to the Dreidel Song, but for some reason, as I read those lyrics, my brain sets them to the verse of the Llama Song instead...