t last some action. We had been presenting and translating all these songs without a word about the instruments or the conditions under which they were originally performed. This is mainly because most videos we can find are either of low quality (like the recordings) or aestheticly bad (you know, these youtube videos with silly photostreams) and our description skills in stuff you have never seen are not good enough.
The video below is dragged from the movie "Rembetiko"(1983) written and directed by Costas Ferris. The movie was awarded in 1984 with the "Berlin Silver Bear" but the soundtrack was proven to be much more popular than the movie itself. Its composers were the poet Nikos Gatsos (Νίκος Γκάτσος) and the conductor Stavros Xarchakos (Σταύρος Ξαρχάκος).
Skip the Greek of the first dialogues, there's nothing important with that, and focus on how this woman (Sotiria Leonardou/ Σωτηρία Λεονάρδου) gains people's attention as she sings with her soul. The theme of the song is the vainess of human nature. And this is a proof that you can better discribe such stuff with that sort of music. Rembetiko is like the imaginary part of complex numbers. A shortcut to simple truths.
I'm on fire, I'm on fire
lyrics: Nikos Gatsos
Music: Stavros Xarchakos
vocals: Sotiria Leonardou
When the man is born
a pain is born too
and when the war flares
you are incapable of counting the blood
I'm on fire I'm on fire
add more oil into the flames
I am drowning I am drowning
throw me in a deep sea
I swore to your eyes
which was like a Gospel's truth to me
the stab you gave me
to turn it into laughter
I am on fire I am on fire
add more oil into the flames
I am drowning I am drowning
throw me in a deep sea
But you deep inside Hell
brake the chains
and if you drag me next to you
bless you to be
I am on fire I am on fire
add more oil into the flames
I am drownig I am drowning
throw me in a deep sea
(translation dragged from stixoi.info - English version credited to dimitris2, available also in Italian)
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