talking after our sessions for Facing Future. Well, I took all of those stories, cut out specific pieces from them and fit them in the space where the verses of “Hawaii ’78” would normally go.
WC: And that’s where the intro comes from?
JM: That’s where the intro comes from. But he hadn’t heard it yet. I did that all on my own. So late that night I turned it on for him. And he
needed to hear it then because we had to move quickly to get the album finished on time.
So I pushed the green button and then put my head down to let him have his space while he heard this for the first time. During the last few bars I turned and looked up at him sitting in his chair, and he’s kind of trembling. And at first I thought I had freaked him out—or worse, that he was having some kind of a stroke or heart attack—and how are we going to get an ambulance up here at this time of night? Then all of a sudden he looked up at me and he was sobbing. He was wiped out by it, and he said, “Yoda, play it again. I want to hear it again.” I must have played it over and over until the sun came up. He was blown away by it.
But it is a very popular song and a very moving song. It has a real mystic aspect to it and makes you really think what the aliʻi would think if they came back and saw our current way of life.
WC: It’s sort of become the anthem for Hawaiian culture and also for Hawaiian sovereignty. Israel’s influence on the Hawaiian renaissance was both musical and political. What did preserving Hawaiian culture mean to him? How important was that?
JM: Very important. We tended to keep politics and religion separate from music when we talked, but he did feel very strongly about both. Now because of his size and his mobility issues, he couldn’t really go out there and demonstrate with the other Hawaiians that felt similarly in ’93, like when they had the Onipaʻa events at ʻIolani Palace to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the overthrow.
But there were lots of people that he would talk on the phone to try to inspire and encourage to stand their ground on protecting Hawaiian culture. Those people, and Israel too, wanted a say in their own future. I think that’s really what Israel was about. Protecting the depth of what Hawaiian people have to offer. And they do have a lot to offer the world.
I don’t know that he really thought in terms of sovereignty—actually pulling away from the United States. That was still a fairly new idea. I think Israel, and Hawaiians in general at that time really just wanted a say in the ceded lands and other things that had been taken away from them.
But he was never nasty toward anyone. He never blamed Caucasians living here for the missionaries coming and throwing Hawaiians into the church system. He wasn’t bitter about that—to him that was a part of his history too.
WC: Yeah. That comes through very strongly in his music.
JM: It does. He really was one of a kind. A major question I get asked all the time is who do I see as the next Israel and, honestly, I don’t know that there ever will be someone else like him. He would say, “I’m full Hawaiian, except for a skoshi bit Japanese.” But he was the closest thing to a pure Hawaiian giving a pure Hawaiian message to the world in a simple but powerful way. And 20 years later, the world is still responding to the message he presented through his music on this album.
the past two decades. We get cards and letters from Third-World countries that are still discovering him. For a long time people abroad didn’t realize he had passed.
WC: Really?
JM: We’d get letters from people about to come vacation here asking how they could make sure to get a chance to watch Israel perform live. And we’d have to write back telling them that he wasn’t with us anymore.
But it’s been in all kinds of movies and commercials all around the world. People hear that opening strumming and they instantly know it’s Israel. It’s the all-time biggest carrier of Hawaiian music across the globe. It’s also the golden goose for the music publisher in New York, EMI Music [founded in 1931 as Electric and Musical Industries Ltd]. At one time it was the most popular song in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records. And we met the lady that takes care of the music for that song in New York, and she told us that Israel’s version of the song was, by far, the most requested piece of music for licensing in movies and commercials that EMI has ever had. She said that in one more generation, no one will remember Judy Garland. Everyone will think that Israel did it first.
WC: “Hawaii ’78” is probably his most popular song today in Hawaiʻi. It’s still capable of bringing on fits of chicken skin as well as tight throats and teary eyes with its powerful lyrics, which include the state motto, and Israel’s commanding delivery. What did people think when they first heard that song?
10
Perspective:
"It has a real mystic quality to it and makes you really think what the aliʻi would think if they came back and saw our current way of life."
ambulance up here at this time of night? Then all of a sudden he looked up at me and he was sobbing. He was wiped out by it, and he said, “Yoda, play it again. I want to hear it again.” I must have played it over and over until the sun came up. He was blown away by it.
But it is a very popular song and a very moving song. It has a real mystic aspect to it and makes you really think what the aliʻi would think if they came back and saw
our current way of life.
WC: It’s sort of become the anthem for Hawaiian culture and also for Hawaiian sovereignty. Israel’s influence on the Hawaiian renaissance was both musical and political. What did preserving Hawaiian culture mean to him? How important was that?
JM: Very important. We tended to keep politics and religion separate from music when we talked, but he did feel very strongly about both. Now because of his size and his mobility issues, he couldn’t really go out there and demonstrate with the other Hawaiians that felt similarly in ’93, like when they had the Onipaʻa events at ʻIolani Palace to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the overthrow.
But there were lots of people that he would talk on the phone to try to inspire and encourage to stand their ground on protecting Hawaiian culture. Those people, and Israel too, wanted a say in their own future. I think that’s really what Israel was about. Protecting the depth of what Hawaiian people have to offer. And they do have a lot to offer the world.
I don’t know that he really thought in terms of sovereignty—actually pulling away from the United States. That was still a fairly new idea. I think Israel, and Hawaiians in general at that time really just wanted a say in the ceded lands and other things that had been taken away from them.
But he was never nasty toward anyone. He never blamed Caucasians living here for the missionaries coming and throwing Hawaiians into the church system. He wasn’t bitter about that—to him that was a part of his history too.
WC: Yeah. That comes through very strongly in his music.
JM: It does. He really was one of a kind. A major question I get asked all the time is who do I see as the next Israel and, honestly, I don’t know that there ever will be someone else like him. He would say, “I’m full Hawaiian, except for a skoshi bit Japanese.” But he was the closest thing to a pure Hawaiian giving a pure Hawaiian message to the world in a simple but powerful way. And 20 years later, the world is still responding to the message he presented through his music on this album.
WC: In the past 20 years, how far has that song spread across the world?
JM: It really took about a year for it to catch on at first. His initial big hit from the album was “Maui, Hawaiian Sup’pa Man,” and then there were a few others too that got radio play before “Over the Rainbow” did. But it’s gone completely around the world in the past two decades. We get cards and letters from Third-World countries that are still discovering him. For a long time people abroad didn’t realize he had passed.
WC: Really?
JM: We’d get letters from people about to come vacation here asking how they could make sure to get a chance to watch Israel perform live. And we’d have to write back telling them that he wasn’t with us anymore.
But it’s been in all kinds of movies and commercials all around the world. People hear that opening strumming and they instantly know it’s Israel. It’s the all-time biggest carrier of Hawaiian music across the globe. It’s also the golden goose for the music publisher in New York, EMI Music [founded in 1931 as Electric and Musical Industries Ltd]. At one time it was the most popular song in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records. And we met the lady that takes care of the music for that song in New York, and she told us that Israel’s version of the song was, by far, the most requested piece of music for licensing in movies and commercials that EMI has ever had. She said that in one more generation, no one will remember Judy Garland. Everyone will think that Israel did it first.
WC: “Hawaii ’78” is probably his most popular song today in Hawaiʻi. It’s still capable of bringing on fits of chicken skin as well as tight throats and teary eyes with its powerful lyrics, which include the state motto, and Israel’s commanding delivery. What did people think when they first heard that song?