Years ago, inspired by Shantel´s "Buccovina" smash hit, the Jewish Monkeys covered the original "Black but Sweet" by Wilmoth Hudini now used by the video-clip's directors to commit some easy-going sacrilege regarding Jewish religious rites and clichés of universal sanctity. In elegant suits, vests, coats and a Borsalino hat, they fulfill the Afro-American or Italian Mafia stereotype, but, above all, resemble religious conservative Jews on their way to Temple.
They chant their refrain like a male choir, in Houdini's Trinidad English: "She's black and only and that is all, when men meet her they bound to fall, until her Mammy doesn't sleep, oh Lord", while bound by leather straps all over their bodies and their heads. This is a humorous hint at the morning prayer of religious Jews, performed with phylacteries wound around arms, hands, fingers and fore-head, symbolizing man's bonding with God.
By releasing this esthetic and provocative piece of art, a must-see of contemporary video-clip culture and a new milestone in the portfolio of the Jewish Monkeys, Joe Fleisch signals not only another video-release and the album-debut by the Jewish Monkeys in 2013, but, firstly, his own album debut as solo artist and singer-performer: in "Joe Fleisch sings songs. 9 in Yiddish, 1 in English", coming out towards Christmas, he collaborates with a whole bunch of musicians, each celebrating a different style. Besides the klezmatic-manic rock from the clip, listeners will be furthermore enchanted by party-drunken electro-dub, sexy ice-cold electro-pop and solemn-spaceship-Italo-disco euphoria. Especially when Joe Fleisch sings in Yiddish, his message goes:
"Look, this is how Jewish pop-music would have sounded today, had the Holocaust never happened."