Clifter started playing at the age of 12, and was mainly influenced by the playing of Hank Marvin ( N ) from the Shadows[6]. When he was 16 he formed his first band, ” The Churchills “, with Haim Romano , Miki Gabrielov and others, and became the pioneer of Israeli rock . The band was named after Clifter’s school nickname – Churchill. Due to his enlistment in the IDF , Clifter retired from the band[5]. He did his military service first as a soldier in the Armored Corps , but later transferred by order of his commanders to the Armored Corps . At the same time he played in the rhythm band “The Styles”. The Churchills stayed with the name and later became one of the most important Israeli rhythm bands.
Creating and making music
The early 1970s: the beginning of the road
After the release from the IDF
After his release from the IDF, he participated in a number of recordings as a musician, some without credit . Clifter played in Eric Einstein ‘s backing band , and arranged several songs for his album ” Yasmin “[7]. The most famous part of his participation from that period is Eric Lavie ‘s “Autumn Song” , arranged by David Kribushi , who encouraged Clifter to play an electric solo , which became a milestone in the history of Israeli rock.
In 1971 , he joined the band ” Acharit Haimim “, founded by the drummer and composer Zohar Levy , and Gabi Shoshan , Eli Magen and Miri Aloni also participated in it .[5]The band combined rock music with Hebrew texts. In 1972 , the only album of “The Last Days” was released, which includes some of Clifter’s most famous guitar solos: “The Tree is Tall”, “Under the Eucalyptus Tree”, “It’s My Birthday” and “Open the Door for Me”. Despite the artistic success, the David Kinor Prize and the praise of the critics, the latter was a commercial failure and disbanded after less than a year of activity. In the same year, Clifter played the electric guitar in the song “Signs” from Zvika Pick ‘s second album and also in Eric Einstein’s ” How Good You Came Home “.
1973-1976: “Beehive” band
In 1973 , Clifter was invited to join the ” Beehive ” band. The band marked a turning point in his musical and professional career. Most of the members of “Hive” came from the Nahal band and not from rhythm bands, and the repertoire, although it was still based on rock, turned to more accessible directions than those of “Acharit HaYamim” and made a lot of use of humor[9]. Clifter quickly integrated into the Hive, and wrote some of his first compositions for it. For her first album, ” Foggy Stories “, he composed the song “Yo Ya” together with Danny Sanderson . In her third album, ” Crowded in the Ear “, he received a solo singing role for the first time, in “The Fool’s Song”, which he also composed. Another song he composed for the album is “She is so beautiful”. In several other songs, he signed the melody along with other band members: “Tango Frogs”, “That’s how she is in the middle” and “Go Tell Grandma”.
The late 1970s: “living room conversations” and “directed sound”
The liquidation of “Beehive” in 1976 put Clifter into a difficult period of economic difficulty and uncertainty. In addition, he ran into legal difficulties and lost his home. Clifter’s difficult period lasted for about two years, until he received an offer from Yonatan Gefen to participate in the “Living Room Conversations” show. For this show, Clifter composed one of his most beloved songs – ” Shir Ahava Bedouin ” (lyrics: Itzik Weingarten ) – which he first performed himself with Yael Levy and then also performed by David Broza , with Yael Levy. Other compositions by Clifter in the show were the song “Green Island in the Sea”, the song “I will wait till the end” which he performed in a duet with Levy. and the vocal piece “Photo” that he wrote as an assignment while studying composition with Yitzhak Sadai , which serves as the opening theme of the IDF Gali program[6]. After a hundred performances, Clifter left the show at the end of 1977 , and was replaced by Rosa[11]. The album that recorded the show included the songs performed by Broza, and not by Clifter.
In 1979 he teamed up with Shlomo Yadov and Shem Tov Levy to create the trio ” Tslivi Memusin “. To the album of “Intentional Sound” Klefter contributed his compositions to the songs ” Taking the Time ” (lyrics: Yonatan Gefen ), ” Bedouin Love Song ” (lyrics: Itzik Weingarten ) and “Intentional Sound”, which he wrote himself[13]. The song ” Intentional Sound ” was one of the band’s most prominent hits (the song itself appeared on the soundtrack of the movie ” Dizengoff 99 “, although in a different version)[14]. In the same year, he participated in the recording of Zvika Pick’s album – “Hamir'”, and composed several songs for the show “They call it happiness” by Yonatan Gefen and Esther Shamir[15].
