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Fair Freeporter Steve Lieberman breaks Guinness record
"Gangsta Rabbi" achieves milestone despite cancer
When the idea first came to him in mid-2020, it was daunting. “I looked at the current record of longest officially released song,” said Lieberman, “and I saw it was 13 hours. I thought, I can’t do 13 hours!”
Nonetheless, he got started and he made it happen, with the can-do attitude he has shown ever since he was in elementary school.
“In 1968, I got a clarinet,” Lieberman said. “I was not playing it too well, and the teacher said, if you don’t play it better by next week, you won’t play it [anymore]. I got good at it.”
He didn’t stop with the clarinet. In early 1970, he learned trombone, followed by bass guitar in 1971. He added one instrument after another while exploring heavy metal and punk.
Few would associate punk with an observant Jewish youth who graduated college in 1980 and became Freeport’s comptroller in 1984. But as the 1980s progressed, Lieberman created his own long-haired persona, the Gangsta Rabbi, developed a one-man show using his bass guitar and a beat machine, and played gigs at music clubs.
In 1991 he constructed a studio in his Freeport house and recorded one album after another on cassette tapes. As technology changed, he switched to CDs and released singles to SoundCloud, Spotify, and YouTube.
Always, he coordinated his music with his faith, as reflected in works like his 2009 album, “Diaspora: A Folk-Punk History of the Hebrew Nation.”
JDub Records signed him to a recording deal in 2009, releasing “DiKtatoR 17” in 2010 and “The Rabbi Is Dead” in summer 2011. The second title refers to Lieberman having been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia shortly before his 53rd birthday.
“They give you 5 years and you die,” said Lieberman. “And I’m on 11 years now. And I think my God is taking pleasure in this. He says, ‘Steve is doing this and as long as he does it I’m going to take care of him.’”
The idea for recording the record-breaking song came after Lieberman’s wife of 27 years, Linda, passed away unexpectedly in 2019, followed by the COVID-19 death of Lieberman’s 34-year-old daughter Heidi Rachel in April 2020.
“It’s like, I don’t feel good, but my God gives me the strength to do it,” Lieberman. “I’m playing maybe two hours a day, recording.”
The song he ultimately submitted to Guinness World Records involves 18 instruments, including guitars, trombones, a French horn, a euphonium, a saxophone, and yes, a clarinet -- all of which he plays himself, in addition to writing and singing the lyrics. The song’s title, “The Noise Militia (#38/76),” reflects the total of 38 cassette albums plus 38 CDs that Lieberman has released.
While Lieberman awaited word from Guinness, his website, GangstaRabbi.com, proclaimed, “'The Noise Militia (#38/76)' is now the LONGEST SONG IN HISTORY! at 35 hours 41 minutes and 48 opuses --Guinness World Record for longest song released is pending! G-d granted me the strength to do this. Blessed be His Name.”
Official confirmation came from Guinness in April 2021.
“It was a milestone,” said daughter Rebekah Lieberman, who lives with her father. A paramedic, she works 13-hour shifts Monday through Wednesday and helps her father as needed the rest of the week.
“His recording studio is in the house, so I hear it when I’m home,” Rebekah said. “I did a music video that had to be sent to Guinness documenting the recording of the longest song. The whole process went from September 10, 2020, to April 20, 2021 -- 8 months.”
Lieberman was already into more projects by the time Guinness notified him, like extending “The Noise Militia” to 60 hours, and producing “Post Militia Pogo Batallion (#39/77),” a 70-minute piece comprising a dozen or so arias.
Lieberman turned 63 on June 21. The leukemia causes bouts of pain and nausea, he said, “but I get sick and then I pray to my God for comfort. It’s within seconds that I’m playing the bass or whatever. There’s no doubt this is a miracle.”
“He lived to accomplish what he wanted to do,” said Rebekah, “so he’s joyful.”
