By Michelle Broder Van Dyke
The records highlighted in Roger Bennett and former Guardian music columnist Josh Kun's 2008 book, And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Vinyl (Crown, 240 pages), are delectable nuggets and kernels of history that, chronologically compiled together, tell the story of five generations of Jews in America. And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Vinyl - the inspiration for a new exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco - anecdotally informs the reader of a massive and swift movement from tradition to modernity, city to suburb, and poverty to affluence, through the music and album art of 12-inches rediscovered in the basement bins of thrift stores in Boca - as Bennett puts it, "the place Jewish vinyl goes to die" - and other parts of the U.S.A.
The text reflects what one might expect from a coffee-table book yet contains a wealth of information dealing with important shifts in Jewish American history, complemented by the ridiculous to awe-inspiring images that adorn more than 400 LP covers: cantorial images of beards and flowing robes of yore morph into visions of Israeli disco fever and mambo interludes at Bar Mitzvahs. Pointing to the permeability of communities and the fluidity of identity, the authors look to, for instance, a Jewish Latin craze with such gems as Bagels and Bongos (Decca, 1959) and Mazel Tov, Mis Amigos (Riverside, 1961).
Language evolution is illuminated as Instant Yiddish (Tikva, 1966) and Sing-Along in Yiddish (Golden Crest, 1962) wane in popularity and are replaced by English-language albums, such as Some Like It Yiddish (United Artists, 1959), which are interspersed with "oy veys" and appeal to a dual audience of bilingual parents and phrase-proficient children. Eventually Yiddish became a defunct language, leaving behind these 12-inch licorice pizzas as cultural artifacts.
JEWS ON VINYL: AND YOU SHALL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF OUR VINYL
Feb. 6-June 9
Fri.-Tues., 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thurs., 1-8 p.m., $10-$8
Opening Feb. 5, 7 p.m., $5
Contemporary Jewish Museum
736 Mission, SF
(415) 655-7800
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