Shlock Rock/Shlock Rock 1/Minyan Man

Track: 6

Running Length:

Additional Information
Minyan Man is an original song. The lyrics and melody were composed by Victor Shine as a ballad in 1982. Lenny Solomon reworked it as a pop hit with a chorus, and Gershon Veroba sang vocals. This fictional account of a man experiencing a minyan in a far corner of Jewish life has entered Jewish Friday night kumzitz culture. It was re-recorded as a music video, and also interpreted by Yidcore, an Australian punk rock Jewish group.

Jewish Pride - (1987) Shlock Rock Videos Volume 1 (1990) Shlock Rock 10: Greatest Hits Volume 1 1986-1990 (1997) Shlock Rock Music Videos DVD

Yidcore (2001)

Lyrics
I stepped off the bus in Mobile, Alabama

The sun was slowly setting on the bay

It was six o'clock on a summer Friday afternoon,

Shabbos was an hour away.

I walked around the town wondering what to do

'Cause Shabbos is no time to be feeling blue

Then I saw a man who looked the same way too

I was quite relieved to find a fellow Jew

Chorus:

I asked the man I saw, "How many Jews in this town?"

He said to me, "There used to be a Minyan around

But one of us passed away and we've been feeling down

Yet now it seems as though another Jew has been found

Won't you stay with us for Shabbos, Minyan man?"

We walked down Winston Avenue, a block then two more

And went into a shop that read 'Closed' on the door

There was a Minyan in the back of a hardware store,

Nine men waiting for one more

We ushered in the Shabbos with a beautiful song

The Chazan had a voice that was clear and strong

We sang out as one all Shabbos long

Then Maariv came again; I had to be moving on

(Chorus)

Now that was twenty years ago, but the vision is clear

And I think about it now and then, cuz the place is still dear

And when I make this trip through Mobile once every year

I remember the men who prayed here

Now the Minyan is gone, a few died, some moved on

But the back of the store still remembers this song

The nine men who waited, the one came along...

How Shabbos was carried on a song

(Chorus)