Talk:If I Were a Rich Man (song)

Untitled
Massive Attack have a song called Daydreaming which has the lines "If I were a Rich Man dadadadadada etc" use it, don't use it. LegoTrip (talk) 08:55, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

splinty cell
in splinter cell most the georgian guards sing the lines ' if i was a rich man dur dur dur dur dum' when not alerted —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.154.127.20 (talk) 10:24, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

Which wall?
At one point in the song, Tevye sings "maybe have a seat by the Eastern Wall". Is this just a mistake on his part or what? I know the Western Wall is pretty significant in Judaism, but I'd never heard any reference to an Eastern Wall. Wikipedia doesn't have an article on it, and the only even remotely-relevant references I could find in a Google search were epithets from pro-Palestinian sites protesting the wall being built between Israel and Palestine. Tevye couldn't be talking about this wall, of course, because A.) Nobody in Israel, and by extension no Jews anywhere in the world would be likely to use the term to refer to this wall, given that it's WEST of Israel, not east. The term only makes sense if you're in Palestine.  And B.) This wall didn't exist at the time Fiddler was written, much less at the time in which it's set. Is it maybe meant to be an indication that Tevye is not very well-educated, and he meant to say the Western Wall? (There are certainly other indications in the song that he's not exactly the sharpest cookie, but this would be a pretty big mistake for anyone who knows anything about Judaism.) Or is there actually a genuine Eastern Wall of actual significance for Jews? And if so - why isn't there an article about it? Lurlock (talk) 19:30, 22 September 2008 (UTC)


 * The interiors of European synagogues face east. The eastern wall of a synagogue is the front. AJD (talk) 20:52, 23 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Oh, so he's referring just to some local synagogue? I'd always taken the line to mean he was considering a pilgrimage to Jerusalem or something - the kind of thing he could do if he were a rich man, but not something he could easily do otherwise.  I guess it's really just a matter of "having the time that he likes" to do so, rather than it being the expense of the trip? Lurlock (talk) 03:41, 26 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Right. If he were rich, he wouldn't have to work, so he would go to his local synagogue instead, and sit in front. AJD (talk) 04:27, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Bidi Bidi Bum?
Ok, site your sources. Sounds to me like Tevye wants to lay around all day. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.204.73.193 (talk) 14:04, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

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Swain
This article needs more depth. Apparently Joseph Swain wrote 10 pages on this song in his book on Broadway Musicals. We should try and pull some of this out.. Secretlondon (talk) 20:44, 2 November 2017 (UTC)

Plagiarized melody?
The second theme ("I'd build a big, tall house with rooms by the dozen...") is uncannily similar to the a theme in the second movement of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's First Guitar Concerto (1939). As Castelnuovo-Tedesco was also Jewish (albeit Italian rather than Russian) one wonders whether the theme in question is a traditional one or whether Jerry Bock just cribbed it from C-T. Death Bredon (talk) 21:05, 5 December 2023 (UTC)