Matti Caspi - The First Solo Album (NMC 1974)

Matti Caspi’s first album isn’t just a milestone in his career, but also in Israeli music. Almost all the album’s songs became classics right after its release. Caspi, who was already a known character in Israeli pop after writing for others and performing in the military band, with the “They Don’t Care” trio, and “Behind the Sounds”, became overnight one of the most popular and well-known artists in Israel.

The commercial and artistic success of the album may have come as no surprise to Caspi - until its release in the end of 1974, Caspi has worked as a composer, a singer and a musician for more than five years. He recorded his first album only when he was more mature.

The song collection Caspi has chosen carefully, depict him as a mature artist at the peak of his career, from the touching compositions, the original arrangements and the carefully produced music, to the highlight of the album in the eyes of many: his playing of all the instruments (piano, acoustic guitar, fuzz guitar, electric guitar, leslie guitar, bass, organ, mellotron, percussion, synthesizer, and vibraphone). Even today, three decades after the album was recorded, Caspi’s decision to play all instruments in his albums is still recognizable. Apart from the wonderous musical ability which the album reflects, the will to play all instruments shows the level of confidence of young Caspi in his abilities as a musician. In hindsight, even though in later albums he combined other musicians, it seems the decision was right - the playing in the album sounds accurate and well played. Caspi has done well to emphasize his strong points as a musician and arranged his compositions in a way that will better serve his advantages as a musician. His playing of all the instruments also shows the confidence and trust CBS - the record company, had in Caspi. It was interesting to be present in a conversation where Caspi presented the company with a somewhat short list of musicians who were supposed to play in the album…

“The main reason for my decision to play all instruments is lack of budget to cover the expenses of my first album. That’s why I played everything, and it shows… in the next album I did it out of choice and much better. There’s an effect on the general sound of the recording but not on the musical arrangement. Meaning: I would work in a studio far longer with musicians until I’m fully satisfied with the performance. However, I achieve better results and faster when I play alone, since I don’t have any remarks to make for myself. Plus, the timing is always perfect when I play by myself”.

There is a real difficulty when it comes to mentioning the notable songs in the album: from the powerful “When God First Said”, to the ironic last song “I Know I’ll Die in Summer”. The songs are all perfect, or at least close to perfection. Maybe the only song which appeared in the album’s first edition and was later removed from it following the request of lyricist T. Karmi, “Condition”, is the only song that was in a way unclear, but it was actually a short intro for the song “A Colonel on Reserve”.

I recorded the song “When God First Said” without piano, only with guitars, because I had tuned them in F# plus (plus a quarter tone up), which can’t be done with a piano, in order to make it sound fresher”.

“The drums bridge intro in the song ‘Always Change’ was done on the top of the cymbal. In the two quarters before the first bar of the song I played 7/16 on that cymbal instead of playing a normal drum bridge on the tam tam drums or the snare, which would’ve had a massive sound effect of drums. Instead it’s played only on the cymbal and therefore gives a different effect, more like listening to the triangle announcing dinner at the kibbutz, something from my childhood”.

The song “And You” has a most interesting story: many years ago, before the show “Clearing Head” there was another show broadcasted called: “Anything Goes my Friend”, which scripts were written by Dan Almagor. Matti Caspi was asked to write a song to lyrics about a chimney at Ridding: “The smoke in the chimney, is approaching, everything around is smelly, I can’t breathe anymore…” and the melody was of the song we know today as “And You”.
When Shlomo Gronich heard the song he cried: “How can you write such a beautiful love song about stench”? in response Matti asked him to write different lyrics to the song and he did, and it became what we all know today as one of the most known and beloved love songs there are.

As such, Caspi didn’t hurry with releasing his first solo album. The experience of releasing “Behind the Sounds” (which included early performances of two of the songs in this album, “And You” and “When God First Said”), and the recording of some of the songs as singles which were released to the radio, has allowed Caspi to make changes in the arrangements and bring the songs, which were written over several years, into perfection.

Even before performing “And You” and “When God First Said” in the show “Behind the Sounds”, Matti had performed them in the number one evening of lyricists on Galatz, and in the 1972 music and lyrics festival (respectively). The song “My Balloon” was first performed by Roman Sharon in the play “Lilly Too”, the songs “Little Dog” and “How Come a Star” were first performed by Tikki Dayan, and the song “Noah” was written for and first performed in the 1974 music and lyrics festival.

Many of the album’s melodies express Caspi’s unique genre, which combines unusual harmonic movements and catchy melodic lines. These compositions and Caspi’s imaginative production have brought his creation medium, the pop song, to new artistic records. Caspi’s future albums are destined to prove that his talent, as shown in the first album, was far from being just a passing spark of youth.