This Week's Song: To My Friends

I wrote "To My Friends (dedicated to Tzahal)" in 1989.

The premise behind it, lay in my thinking about a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces (which to my eternal shame, I have never been) who finds himself entrenched in a solitary outpost, in the middle of the night, alone, frightened and depressed - thinking about his fellow soldiers, whom he wishes were there with him at that very moment. It is a song of about comradeship at the most difficult of times and how friendship can sometimes be the only source of hope when nothing else appears to exist any more.

This was written at the height of the Lebanon War when our young boys were being killed in their hundreds. Putting aside the politics of whether the Army should have been there in the first place, this was a song about young men who really should have been at University, enjoying life instead of wondering whether they would be live to see the next morning.

I entered the song into competition and although it didn't win, I gained a much greater sense of achievement as, seated in the audience were some IDF soldiers whom I am told were very moved by the piece. This song was written for them and to this day, it remains one my favourite compositions and certainly, the one I am most proud of.

To my friends,
I dedicate this song to you.
To my pals,
Who helped me get along.
For those times,
you helped me wipe away those tears,
To my friends,
This song is just for you.

For those days,
You held back all your words,
For those nights
Of counsels in the dark.

You know I sat,
So many nights alone,
Without a light,
To help me see you.
You heard the screams,
That broke the chilly air,
But yet you held your head up,
Sky high.

To those friends,
The ones who didn't say goodbye,
For those friends,
I love you for yourselves.
For those times,
You helped me wipe away the tears
To my friends,
This song is just for you...