Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Theodore Bikel Is Gone

When I got to Germany in 1964 for a year at the University of Göttingen, I had a number of record albums, including one with Guela Gill and Theodore Bikel.  During that year I became good friends with a married doctoral student and his wife who lived in the student housing I was assigned to.  When Jurgen heard the Bikel album he went crazy.  He loved it and we played it over and over again.  And, of course, I left the album with them when i went back home.

Years later when we visited Jurgen and Inge, Jurgen had gotten every album Bikel had ever put out and could sing all the songs - particularly those in Yiddish.

So, it is with a heavy heart that I learn about Bikel's death today.  But like my mom, he was in his 90s and has had a good life. 

Here's the only Youtube I could find of a song from my old album.  It's been forever since I heard this.  It's in Spanish, not Yiddish.



[sorry, this is another reposting because Feedburner didn't pick the original up]

3 comments:

  1. A great loss. Singer, composer, musicologist, linguist...can you name the TWO submarine movies in which he performed?

    --Bill Butler

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good obit in today's Chronicle:

    http://www.pressreader.com/usa/san-francisco-chronicle/20150723/282192239680675/TextView

    He actually had a considerable naval "career", as the original Capt. von Trapp, Leutnant Swoffer in "The Enemy Below", and the sub commander in"The Russians are Coming"

    Be well, Steve,

    Bill Butler
    Ashland, OR

    ReplyDelete

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