‘The real reason we reunited and that we are here is that for over a year now, the people of Israel have not slept at night,” said singer Gidi Gov on Wednesday night at one in the series of The Sixteenth Sheep (aka HaKeves HaShisha Asar) reunion concerts at Heichal HaTarbut in Tel Aviv. Gov performed along with Yoni Rechter, Yehudit Ravitz, and David Broza.
If you know the HaKeves HaShisha Asar songs, this makes perfect sense because the title track, which closes the album, is about a child who counts sheep to get to sleep, and how the 16th sheep decides to stick around. The crowd cheered wildly as they made other jokes following the iconic opening song, “How a Song is Born,” the lyrics of which, along with all the other songs on the HaKeves album, were written by Yehonatan Geffen, an Israeli poet who died in 2023.
They originated from a book of children’s poems of the same name that Geffen published in 1978, which were made into songs for the album came that out the same year.
Gov, Rechter, Ravitz, and Broza sang on the original album, with Geffen adding some key spoken-word moments. Most of the extraordinary music, which may seem simple but which masterfully sets the mood for each song, was composed by Rechter, who also sings and plays piano with the group. During the event, Rechter said that once Geffen gave him the poems, he wrote each song in about three minutes.
As soon as the reunion was announced last year, the concert’s became the hottest tickets in Israel, with the shows selling out in minutes. More shows were added and most of those sold out, too.
If you grew up in Israel or raised children here, you’re likely not surprised at all because the songs are so wonderful, witty, and just plain fun. They provide a child’s eye view of life that truly reflects the emotions and concerns of the very young. Children and adults alike love the songs passionately, and you can hear them on the radio every day.
Whereas abroad adult performers sometimes consider it slumming to make music for children, here the very best musicians and songwriters give it their all. The audience with whom I experienced the concert on Wednesday night was of an average age of about 45, which makes sense because the songs were new when they were kids. They were the first “Sixteenth Sheep generation.” But there were also people of all ages, from those in their 80s to young children.
The first tune on the album, “How a Song is Born,” which opened the concert, is as meaningful a description of the creative process as anything you will ever hear, but so funny and engaging that kids adore it.
As they launched into the opening bars, it was clear that Gov, Ravitz, Broza, and Rechter, all of whom are around 70 years old, were still going strong. Time has been more than kind to these four performers who are still filled with the talent and energy they have always had, even if they look a little different these days.
Greater depth over time
At moments, it seemed they brought even greater depth to the songs as they sang them now, older these days and part of a country reeling from wartime losses.
The loss of Geffen was in the background of the show, with Gov reciting the lines that Geffen delivered on the album. Broza recounted a story about how Geffen impulsively tried to buy a sheep from a Bedouin shepherd to be used as a prop for the first performance back in the 1970s.
The four singers performed with backup musicians as images of sheep and various other designs reflecting the songs were projected on a screen behind them. The screen also showed photos of Geffen, as well as clips of some of the first performances of the album.
Nearly every other song was greeted by a standing ovation, until the crowd stayed on its feet, swaying and dancing. With some concerts, you can write about the highlights, but this one was all highlights and many songs took on new meanings in light of the war.
The song “Lightning and Thunder,” with Broza performing the lead tells about how thunder and lightning at night can sometimes be far and sometimes close, sometimes scary and sometimes not. “Occasionally, you run into nice thunder,” said Gov, speaking Geffen’s line, and it made me think that this would be a perfect song for parents trying to find a way to soothe children through the thousands of bombings they have lived through this year.
All the songs are, in a sense, about a child grappling with the wish to grow up but not fully understanding what that means.
“I Love,” is about a child listing what he loves, including chocolate, of course, but also his friends, family, and himself. In, “We Went to the City to Visit Uncle Efraim,” a boy looks at shoe stores and imagines the shoes getting up and walking out by themselves, asks for a bike from the toy store and is told he must wait a year, and looks at a disheveled old man even though his mother tells him not to.
There are fanciful songs about imagining being a giraffe and about seeing a green family. The different kinds of fathers are the subjects of another song, while several examine the reality of friendships, which involve fighting and one-upmanship, but also a shared love of adventure. “Hey, I’m Not a Baby Anymore,” a child’s cry of independence, can put anyone back in touch with their childhood self.
One of the most beautiful songs is “The Prettiest Girl in the Kindergarten,” in which Ravitz sang the lead. It’s about wondering how the prettiest girl in her class can ever be sad, and it’s the least preachy and most insightful children’s song about empathy I’ve ever heard.
The rocking, “Whoever Looks At Me,” with the line, “Whoever looks at me from behind doesn’t know who I am,” is a child’s poignant plea to be taken seriously, and it got the crowd clapping along and dancing. “Closed Kindergarten” featured one of Rechter’s most beautiful piano riffs.
But the Keves songs are not long enough for an entire concert, and the group added songs from their own solo careers, as well as some songs by Kaveret, the Israeli supergroup, of which Gov and Rechter were members.
There was also a tribute to the children’s music of the late Arik Einstein, with such fitting songs as “What Do the Deer Do?” by Lea Goldberg, “Saturday Morning,” “Lady with Shopping Bags,” “Mr. Chocolate,” and others.
BROZA PERFORMED his biggest hit, “It Will Be Good,” written by Geffen, a song he has played often to console evacuees since the war began.
Ravitz performed a number of her upbeat hits, joined by the others. But it was one of her quieter songs that most moved me, “A Kind Word,” a soft, sweet song that she said she had been asked to play often in the past year.
At the end, a video of Geffen reading the title song to a group of children was projected, about a boy counting sheep when he can’t sleep and “the thoughts come in and out,” until the 16th sheep stays in his room with him. Then the four artists joined in on the song, setting the scene and describing the sounds that gradually send the narrator to sleep.
The performers took a bow and walked off. The audience didn’t keep clapping, angling for an encore, because they knew it had come to the end.
It was a magical evening, and Tel Aviv seemed especially quiet afterward. It was as if the concert had cast a spell on the city and beyond, lulling even the Houthis into HaKeves’s peaceful spell.