In the middle of the interview Limor Bio, a close friend of the late Yitzhak Klefter, asked us to stop the conversation for a moment. "Yitzhak, you are being played on the radio," she announced. Klefter, one of the greatest creators and performers in Israeli music, seemed to have received a serious burst of oxygen to his damaged lungs.
Suddenly his eyes woke up, his body straightened and his hands began to strum an imaginary guitar, knowing by heart the wonderful solo in the song "I and you then".
"Turn up the volume a little", he asked, then his eyes closed for a moment, as if they wandered for a distant and beautiful moment in his life, and then he opened them and said to me with a smile: "What fun, immortalize this moment".
That captivating moment, and many others immortalized in the recording of the mobile device, were in retrospect part of the last interview of the artist whose soundtrack he created during his career accompanied our lives like a movie, which is here before you.
In studying for the matriculation exams, in the guard tower in the army, in the car on the way to work, he was always there with the clean, heavenly guitar sounds, which few knew how to produce like him from the electric instrument.
At that time in his apartment I already understood that the end was getting closer.
At the age of 72, Clifter looks light years away from that large player, whose presence conquered the stages.
About a week before his death he mostly sat on the sofa.
His lungs had difficulty functioning, and he sometimes needed the help of oxygen cylinders to which he was connected during the conversation.
More than once during the interview he was breathing heavily, signaling Limor to measure the oxygen level in his blood.
Only when the situation stabilized did she signal to him that he could continue.
"I was a better athlete than a student."
Clifter, 10 years old, at school, photo: Private
"We played wherever they gave us."
Clifter and his band at the age of 15, photo: Private
"Hear my phlegm? Look what it is," he said after coughing heavily and calming down a bit.
"The doctors say, 'Live with it, it is what it is.' When I left, I said that if I lasted three months, I could stop completely. I would die if I continued smoking. Inside, everything is burnt. The doctors said it was from the cigarettes. I used to smoke two packs a day. My lungs look like two lumps of coal."
Clifter recently released his book "Tuneful Sound".
42 of his greatest songs are combined there with words, notes and images from a long and glorious career.
Among other things, you can find there the "Bedouin love song" that he composed to the words of Itzik Weingarten, "Sitting on the fence" that he composed for his good friend Eric Einstein, "She's so beautiful" that became one of the biggest hits of the mythical Beehive band of which Clifton was one of its members. Free imagination" he wrote, composed and performed.
"People are welcome to buy the book," he asked, "I leave a memory for everyone about everything I've done in my life."
Meir Banai, Clifter and Danny Litani, 1990, photo: Moshe Shay
"This is what I wanted to be"
Clifter lives in the center of Tel Aviv, not far from Madina Square.
I chose to go to the interview at his house by bicycle, because go move the car in the crowded city, probably late at night.
Yes, the interview was conducted at night, because Clifter was a man of the late evening hours, he remembered the years when he starred on the stages and got into bed just before dawn.
On the way to his house, I passed by Hovavi Zion Street, where Eric Einstein lived, and from there I drove by Ibn Gvirol past the Keter HaMizrah restaurant, where the famous parliament used to sit, and by the Herzliya Gymnasium, which is right next to his apartment.
This is the same face of rough Tel Aviv, which the sounds of Clifter's guitar accompanied for decades.
"I grew up near Moghrabi Square, Allenby Street, the Carmel Market, the Yemeni Vineyard, the beach," he gave a general direction.
"I was a better athlete than a student. The school champion in the 60-meter run, with a time of 7.7 seconds. I studied at Kibbutz Kiryat Anavim's boarding school, I was there for six months until they kicked me out. They had no choice, they gave me a penalty and I violated it. I finished Eighth grade studies. I studied at a school in Jaffa in a class of those who must graduate. I wasn't a badass, I just didn't like it."
How did you get into music?
"Everyone in my family was a musician, so when I was 7 years old they bought me an accordion so I could play too. I was hooked on this instrument until I was 13, then I got to know The Beatles and the electric guitar revolution began. My mother bought me a cheap guitar from Italy for a few lira. The simplest thing" .
"Mom bought me a cheap guitar."
Right: Yitzhak's mother, his older brother Chaim and his aunt Miriam, photo: Private
Did your parents get to see you succeed?
"No. They both died at a relatively young age. My mother died in 1973, at the age of 60, and my father died about two years after her. They were old people by nature, they were not interested in such things. They had their troubles. As far as I know, they immigrated from Poland And they weren't in the extermination camps, managed to escape the Nazis, but they belonged to the same generation of survivors. I also have an older brother, Haim, who has lived in South Africa for 40 years."
So who did you learn to play the guitar from?
"I was mostly self-taught. If you ask me, everyone taught me - George Harrison from the Beatles, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix. They were my world, and Harrison for me was the best in the world at the time, and to this day I admire him. He mainly excelled Playing a melodic solo, and he wasn't a technician like the other players, see what I'm saying? He had soul. A song like 'Something' no one wrote. The guitar solo is an amazing name, a solo that people sing. And the Beatles song 'While my guitar gently weeps'? It's the song with the greatest guitar solo of all time. You know who plays it? Eric Clapton."
What music have you always wanted to make?
"The truth - to this day I don't know. Things have unfolded with me over the years. When I was 13 years old I had my first guitar, I saw a picture of the Beatles driving in a Rolls Royce and receiving a title from the Queen, and that's what I wanted to be."
At the age of 15, Clifter founded the Churchill Band in its first incarnation, which included, among others, Mickey Gabrielov on the bass and Chaim Romano on the guitar.
The band was named after the nickname given to Clifter by friends at school.
"We played covers at first," he says, "I sang 'Give me a ticket for an airplane' by Jefferson Airplane and another song by the Beatles. We played wherever we were given. In the Calypso and Harish clubs in Ramla, in Ringos in Bat Yam, also in some clubs in the station The main one in Tel Aviv. Four times a week we would go on stage to perform in places full of crowds, when outside there were murderous beatings between those who wanted to enter and the guards. I retired when I joined the army and I was glad it was over. I didn't like the severe violence in those days."
When he enlisted, Clifter wanted to be a combat soldier in the Armored Corps, but his commanding officer told him that "there's no shortage of fighters, there's a shortage of artists," and that's how he ended up in the Howey Armored Team Band.
"He told me, 'You go be an artist, on command,'" Clafter recalled.
"I sang and did skits. You ask if I know how to play? What am I, an idiot? If I'm such a genius on the guitar, then I can play too."
Clifton, with the Fender Stratocaster guitar, began to gain a reputation as a super guitarist.
One who controls the instrument and manages to produce exactly the right riffs from it at the right time.
"In 1972, there was a Bar-Bar club on Ben Avigdor Street, near Hamsgar Street," he recalled.
"On Sundays they would do jazz evenings there, and mainly the drummer Aharleh Kaminsky played there. One day Aharleh came and suggested, 'Come join the Platinum Band.' Guys, where is there a club where you can play a little bit. They brought him to bars and that night I played there with the band. King, the big one, came with his guitar, and people there said to me 'Yitzhak, come up and play with him'. I was so embarrassed that I sat down behind the amplifier , but I played anyway. After the evening was over, King came to me and said that although he lived very far away from me, but still - through the blues we were able to communicate. I felt fantastic. He was the world champion, the greatest blueser,
There is a lot of sadness in the blues.
"I won't say I'm Job, but I do make blues. In the end, I liked to write songs to heal myself. Listen, there are two categories in music - music that comes from emotion and music that comes from the head. I came from emotion, and today, at my age, I operate more with the head and I have a few more ideas for the coming years. OK, right now I'm sick, but I believe I'll get better and get back to functioning."
"Go be an artist, on command!".
Clifter (second from the left) in his military service, photo: Private
crowded in the ear
In 1973, something arose in Israeli music.
The veterans of the Nahal band Danny Sanderson, Gidi Gov, Ephraim Shamir, Alon Olarchik and Meir Penigstein founded the Hive Band. Klefter was brought in because he was already known as a leading guitarist. "Danny Sanderson knew me from the military bands since he was in the Nahal, Whereas I was in the armor band and my name went ahead of me. When he started a band, he wanted me. I came to the audition and I liked it. I was accepted into the band, but I didn't have much room to express myself in it. I got a small role in Hive, because they were everything, guitarists, singers, They write. Although I somehow managed to fit in when I played the guitar and wrote a little, but it was very crowded there."
Did you ask them to give you a bigger part?
"There were talks about it."
Did you like that period?
"So many people loved the period. I can say that I liked and didn't like. I liked the success, but I didn't like the politics around it. To this day I don't like, and politics is everywhere you go. Things like who gets positions and who gets more space All of a sudden I have to compete with Yoni Rechter, do you understand? So with playing I was more successful, but not with singing. It was precisely in the band reunions, which were in the later years, that I was treated better and had a bigger role than in the first years, because I already had a name in my own right There was also a lot of money back then, huge shows."
Clifter managed to introduce songs into the rich repertoire of Beehive such as "The Fool's Song", and of course "She is so beautiful" which he composed to the words of Danny Sanderson and to this day it is a hit that is played with high frequency.
"They didn't want to sing my songs, only 'She's so beautiful', and today it's the most played song of Hive's songs," he boasts, "It has 8 million views on YouTube. But it's not 200 million like in America."
Do you also think it is the most beautiful song?
"It might be the most beautiful I've composed. You see, the success of the band surprised us. No one thought it would be so big. After all, at the beginning, a month after we started, the halls were empty. No audience came, they didn't know us, they didn't even know who we were. As soon as 'The Dog Is Buried' came out on the radio, we started blowing up halls."
"I was more successful with playing, but not with singing."
Beehive, mid-1970s, photo: Monty Abramson
Did you earn money?
"There was money to live, but I'm not a banker, so leave me out of money. I don't want to talk about money, don't force me."
How did you feel when the band broke up?
"It was difficult, suddenly there was no band, I had no home. There was no work. It fell apart, because the members wanted to play their songs, and suddenly Danny and Gidi took over and we didn't want them to manage us anymore. I wanted to play my songs, no I was interested in playing Sanderson's songs until the end of my life. If I had stayed in the beehive, there would not have been an 'intentional sound' nor a 'bedouin love song'."
Maybe you were more organized in life?
"I might have had another guitar solo, and apart from that, nothing would have happened. The songs are my face, not the guitar. In my opinion, this dissolution also did better for Israeli music, because from it everyone blossomed to higher musical levels than a beehive that was humorous, Sanderson's head, and less I connected with it."
Last Saturday evening, two days after the artist's passing, Sanderson was a guest at the Enav Center in Tel Aviv at the performance of the guitarist and singer Tamar Eisenman and asked to dedicate to Clifter the "Octopus Hater", an instrumental piece of a beehive that the two played many times.
The audience responded with long applause to the beautiful gesture.
"There was also a lot of money back then, huge shows."
Ihud Kvorat, 2013, photo: Moshe Shay
"I'm probably very talented"
It was not easy for Clifter to find himself after the success of Beehive.
The economic situation was difficult, but precisely during the challenging days he suddenly stood out as a great creator in his own right.
"Bedouin Love Song", which he also performed, was a huge success when performed by Yael Levy and David Broza in 1978.
Anyone who lived in those years will agree that this is a song that represented an era.
"Is it a mistake on my part? I'm actually glad that David Broza sang it, because he made it a huge hit," Clifter managed to sneak a small smile.
"His success later helped me with the following songs, because they recognized me. I remember that Gael Mosinzon, the writer of Hasamba, came to me one day and from the height of his old age said that 'A Bedouin love song' is the most beautiful song written in Hebrew.
This is a huge compliment from the man whose books I admired as a child."
Did you learn composition?
"I took private lessons with the director of the academy at home, I was interested in composition. At the age of 16, I wrote my first song which was never recorded, but from which the song 'Silil Me'un' was later released. The ideas were similar. I may have been influenced during my career by other artists, but neither I never stole."
"Four times a week we would go on stage."
With the Churchills, 1966, photo: Private
"If I'm such a genius on the guitar, then I can also play."
Clifter at the age of 17, photo: Private
Were you satisfied with what you created?
"I never thought I was good enough. I don't play well and I don't sing well and I don't write good songs. This low self-esteem went with me until recently, and only now do I really feel the success, but when I was young I was very critical. I suppressed myself. Today I Horizontal".
But you had huge hits.
"True, but inside I didn't feel good enough. It was a personal criticism, to the point of denying myself. Only now, when the book summarizing my activities came out and I remember the albums I released and the bands I played in, I'm beginning to understand that I'm probably especially talented. I remember that earlier we heard Me and you? When he came out I thought he wasn't good enough, even though he succeeded."
As a guitarist you have always been characterized as a lifter.
"And I didn't realize it. You see, when I ran 7.7 seconds for 60 meters in elementary school, I was running easy, not too fast, and I saw the kids behind me panting and panting. I came in first with no effort. Same with the guitar. You have to play effortlessly. It It's not an effort, it's a matter of concentration."
"My Best Friend"
Clifter has played with quite a few great artists during his long career, but when you talk to him about Eric Einstein something in his voice cracks.
He stopped for a moment in his speech, and not because of a lack of oxygen.
The collaboration of the two began in the early 1970s, when Clifter accompanied the legendary singer, and continued in the iconic albums "Sitting on the Fence" (1982) and "Shabir" (1983), which they wrote together.
In 2011, about two years before Einstein's death, they released a joint compilation album called "Eric Einstein Sings Yitzchak Kleftar", for which Einstein re-recorded one of the favorite songs in Israeli music, "Tsilil Ma'im'in".
"Anything Eric would want from me, I would give for him," Clifter said honestly.
"I love Eric, he was my best friend, and we did wonderful things together. He was the best man in the world, and I'm so sad that he's gone. He was wonderful, people have no idea how much. One and unique in all the surrounding countries. Eric Einstein was In the Israeli top of all time. We got along great, he loved me. We communicated perfectly."
You must have many experiences in common.
"In the early 1970s, when I was just a guitarist, I accompanied Eric in a concert in the national park in Ramat Gan. The audience there threw objects on the stage, shouted at us and cursed. I guess Eric was offended, because they killed him there. For me, it was one of the lowest moments in my career , because he was so good then. I think Eric stopped performing because he wanted to stop drinking. He would drink to go on stage, and it was a great loss for all of us. We were in touch until his last days, talking, meeting. Me and him."
"We did wonderful things together. He was the best man in the world.",
Klefter thought until his last day that the greatest song they both created was "Fragile", which was written following a serious car accident that Einstein had in August 1982. Einstein was injured, but the more traumatic thing for him was that in the same accident his friend the painter Rebecca Rubinstein was killed.
Einstein rarely went out and performed after the accident, and in the song "Fragile" the words he wrote describe a particularly fragile state of mind.
"Fragile, crumbles easily
looking for himself, searching all the time
takes a heavy, thinks it's the end of the world.
In short fragile, crumbles easily."
"I was three cars away from them," Clifter recalled.
"I arrived at the Frishman-Rains intersection in Tel Aviv, and suddenly I saw a crushed car and Eric sitting inside it. I arrived maybe a minute after the accident. I remember that a fire brigade vehicle appeared, sawed the car and took it out. It was a threat, because that day we were at a party in a club in Dizengoff And it happened on our way home. I think the accident affected him a lot, made him shut himself in the house. It hurts me to this day. Understand, nine years after his death, Eric is very much missed. His death was a market for me."
"the best in the world".
Clifter's guitar next to his coffin at the funeral ceremony, photo: Gideon Markovich
"My lungs are like coals"
The walls in the living room of Clifter's house are filled with items from successful career changes.
Gold records, selections of newspaper sets.
In 2008, he won an award on behalf of Ekoum for a lifetime achievement for a composer in the field of the Hebrew singer.
The judges' reasoning reads: "Yitzhak Klepter is a gifted musician who only writes from the heart. He is a creator who has never pursued fashions. His melodies are very simple, original and exciting. They border on naivety, and that is actually the whole charm because only through naivety can you really penetrate into people's hearts. The guitar Clifter's sounds just like a man singing. He is a true blues artist, and his works never exhaust themselves. Each of his songs can be heard over and over again and enjoyed every time."
"Who knows, maybe one day I will receive the Israel Prize", hinted at a hidden hope, which will no longer come to fruition.
"I reached the level of the greatest guitarists, and if I had lived in England I would probably have been very successful, but you know what they say - 'the absence of the signature indicates its pulp'. Whoever loves me, loves."
A beautiful black Gretsch guitar continued to be placed in the corner of the room even in his last moments.
Over the years, it replaced the legendary Fender Stratocaster, which accompanied Clifton throughout his career.
"This is the best guitar in the world," he says of the Fender, "the first good guitar I bought was just after the army. Today I do play a Gretsch, but it seems that I will soon return to the old Fender. The problem is that today I am not as active as I used to be."
Too bad, there are guitarists older than you who still play.
Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Brian May.
"Number two, three, four. What are you talking about? The majority are no longer active, and it won't be long until it's over, because they'll all die. Oh-too-too."
Do you still play sometimes?
"Very little. I would like to, but my health prevents me. When I get well, I will return. They don't let me. They want to hear more of my music. They want me to play and perform because I bring a lot of audience. I recently received a request from Aviv Gefen to perform with him at Yarakon Park this coming May . There was also talk of another Beehive reunion, which probably won't come to fruition. If I'm healthy, I'll appear with Aviv."
A loud cough stopped the flow of his speech for a moment.
"Hear? In May."
Clifter had previously been in a life-threatening situation.
In 2011 he was hospitalized for a long period, and in March 2018 he was in the intensive care unit of the Ichilov Medical Center due to severe pneumonia, and the doctors had to fight for his life for many days.
"I went through quite a few health problems that made me afraid of what was going to happen," Clafter admitted.
"I was afraid that this was going to be the end. I'm afraid of death. I don't know about others, but I was definitely scared. It's not easy growing up, but we keep going, until one day it ends. It will happen to each of us, there's nothing we can do. My lungs are like coals."
While he is speaking, the song of Yaakov Orland and Mordechai Zaira "Happy Song" began to play in the background: "Arise and burn like fire/ And we have ignited strength!/ Woe to the discouraged/ Tonight is the time to rejoice!"
It is hard to say that in those minutes there was great joy in the room, or hope for a dramatic change.
On the contrary, something in Clifter's tone of voice became a little harsh and aggressive, perhaps because of the great effort and difficulty he put into the conversation.
"Made it a hit."
Broza performs the "Bedouin love song" at the funeral ceremony, photo: Gideon Markovich
A sudden turn
"I talk to you openly and you talk like a good friend, but you are not a friend," he suddenly clarified to me.
"You are a journalist interviewing me. Let's not play it friends, we don't. You represent an audience and I have to deal with you. I have to remember who is sitting in front of me. There was a time in the media that I was slandered. For example, they once wrote that I burned down the judges' pub, that I threw a cigarette in the garbage and set fire to The pub. A twisted lie, understand?"
The press generally cheered you on.
"Not true. We praised special people in the media who are experts in their field, but there were those who slandered. Someone once suggested that maybe the Autonobank was a clutter with his motorcycle, someone who intended to smear me on purpose. I am some kind of icon, both for better and for worse. Cholera is the one who slandered me, and there are enough such".
Clifter did not like to talk about his personal life, not even about the financial crises that caused his friends to rally for him more than once.
In the past he had short relationships with the actress Mona Zilberstein and the late poet Yona Wallach.
He was married to the singer and composer Verd Clifter, from whom he divorced in the mid-1980s.
He has a son, Oriya, from a relationship he had with Dorit Peled.
Uriah is also a musician.
"I have housing, food and transportation, so that's enough for me. I'm satisfied," he said stiffly.
"I also had difficult years, I was up and down. I would be lying if I said that everything is good. There is also bad in life, but I don't want to talk about it. Talk to me about music."
Do you have any friends left?
"I will answer this question like this - I'm not a youth guide, so what are you asking me about friends? Ask me about guitars, music. Are you asking me about people's morality? I'm not from the morality department. Talk to me about art, people don't interest me ".
But you have known many during life.
"Don't you understand? I'm not interested in people."
מעניין אותך מה שקורה במדינה?
"מעט מאוד".
אתה לא מוטרד?
"אתה מכוון אותי לפוליטיקה? אני לא רוצה להתעסק בפוליטיקה. יש לי קהל שמגיע מכל המפלגות, גם מהשמאל וגם מהימין וכולם אוהבים אותי, אז אני לא בוחר צד. אני מהאו"ם. מה אכפת לי? אני לא מוצא את עצמי במקום נכון כשאני מתעסק בפוליטיקה".
רגע לפני שהערב ייהרס, החזרתי את קלפטר לימים אחרים ויפים. שאלתי אותו אם הוא פעם הגדיר את עצמו כחיית רוקנרול אמיתית, כמו האמנים הגדולים שהעריץ, כמו ג'ימי הנדריקס. האמן שאל למה אני מתכוון, ואמרתי לו את השילוש הקדוש "סקס, סמים ורוקנרול".
"היו קצת עישונים, אבל לא היה אלכוהול", אמר, והנוקשות שהפגין כלפיי התחלפה בהתלהבות. "מה זה רוקנרול? כבר בגיל 16 היתה לי וספה, ובשנת 1990 היה לי אופנוע גדול ומרושע כזה. סוזוקי אינטרודר, 750 סמ"ק, ששימש אותי במשך לא מעט שנים. מאוד אהבתי אופנועים. נסעתי איתו בלילה להופעה באילת, עליתי איתו לירושלים. באיחוד של כוורת בשנות ה־90 הם נסעו עם ההסעה, ואני דהרתי מאחוריהם עם האופנוע".
גיטרה ראשונה בגיל 13, להקה ראשונה בגיל 15. קלפטר בגיל 70, 2020, צילום: כפיר זיו
"זה הניצחון. הגעתי אליכם"
איזה רגע תמסגר כהצלחה הכי גדולה שלך במוזיקה?
קלפטר חשב לרגע ואז חזר לחודש יוני 2019, למופע "דמיון חופשי" בהיכל התרבות בתל אביב, שבו הצטרפו אליו לבמה דני סנדרסון, ברי סחרוף, דויד ברוזה, דודו טסה ועוד. "יש לי תמונה מההופעה, שבה אני עומד ומרים ידיים ואולם שלם מוחא לי כפיים בעמידה. מאוד אהבתי. זה מראה את ההכרה שלהם, זה הניצחון, 'הגעתי אליכם'".
מתגעגע לרוק של פעם?
"אצלי אין פעם. גם היום טוב".
אתה מתחבר למוזיקה העכשווית?
"מוזיקה היא מוזיקה, אותה גברת בשינוי אדרת. כמו שפעם אמרו שמוצרט גדול יותר מפול מקרטני. כל אחד בזמנו. כל דור והאמנים שלו".
לפני שנפרדנו, קלפטר ביקש לתת לי את ספר שיריו "צליל מכוון", שבדברי ההקדמה שלו כתב שדר הרדיו המיתולוגי יואב קוטנר: "כשיצחק התחיל להתפרסם בתחילת שנות ה־70 היו כבר בארץ גיטריסטים גדולים, אבל הוא הפך לאגדה חיה עוד לפני שהגיע לגיל 25, גם בקרב להקות הקצב וגם במוזיקה הישראלית הממוסדת. הוא ניגן עם הטובים ביותר וסייע להם להיות עוד יותר טובים. נגינתו נעה בין עדינות מופלאה להתפרצויות אנרגיה, וכמעט מתחילת דרכו הוא יצר צליל שאופייני לו ורק לו".
לימור ביאו, ידידתו של יצחק שגם סייעה לו להוציא את ספר השירים, כתבה על הדף הראשון את ההקדשה "לאייל ברכות" ונתנה לאמן לחתום. יצחק לקח את העט, ובמאמץ רב שנראה בכל אות כתב "י. קלפטר". עברתי לא מעט דברים במהלך עבודתי העיתונאית, אבל זו בטח אחת המזכרות המרגשות שיישארו אצלי.
החתימה של קלפטר לאייל לוי, 29.11.22,
I didn't want to burden him too much, so as a final question I asked Clifter if he was satisfied with what he had achieved in his long career.
The artist caught his breath and said decisively: "Today, yes. It ended in my favor. You can write it down, 'It ended in my favor'."
Limor was quick to intervene: "It's not over, he has a lot more to offer."
Clifter immediately made a motion with his hand and signaled to Lemur that he was managing alone this time.
"Please don't get involved in this," he asked, then said: "Write 'it ended in my favor', that's how you write it."
"They didn't want to sing my songs, only 'She is so beautiful', and today it is the most played song of Hive's songs."
Yitzhak Klefter, photo: Eric Sultan
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