"Is this where we vote?" (Our great circus, 1973)

reece was under a military junta between 1967 and 1974. In June 22, 1973 Tzeni Karezi and Kostas Kazakos started the theater play "To megalo mas tsirko" ("Our great circus") at the downtown Athens theater "Athinaion". Stavros Xarchakos did the music, Iakovos Kampanellis the lyrics, and Nikos Xylouris was the lead singer. The play was a satirical historical flashback of the history of Greece from the Ottoman empire to what was then present time. It quickly became extremely popular, and transformed into an act of political resistance against the dictatorship. People would ask at the register "Is this where we vote?".

It wasn't easy to get through the government's censorship. The play was marketed as a comedy to do so. Here is how the play started:

"One final word, ladies and gentlemen. We told you that our play is a comedy, but it is not a comedy because we say so, or because it was written as such. It is a comedy for a much more serious reason. We declared it as a comedy. We submitted it to the control committee as a comedy, and it was approved as a comedy by state decision number 195. By no means I wish to tell you that you are obligated to laugh by law. I am just noting that every similarity of our comedy to a drama is purely coincidental."

The censorship office soon realized their mistake, detained the producers, and shut down the play. But history had already been made. 500000 people are estimated to have seen the play. In 1974, the music of the play was released as an LP, and in 2003 as a CD. Here is one song of the album.

Our great circus [Το μεγάλο μας τσίρκο]

Music: Stavros Xarchakos

Lyrics: Iakovos Kampanellis

Voices: Nikos Xylouris, Tzeni Karezi, and actors

Great news I bring from up there

give me a moment to catch my breath

and think whether I should laugh,

cry, shout, or be silent.

The kings have fled

and now at the port down by the shore,

the allies are sending them away.

As they manipulated and fixed things

from the outset they dag their own pit

and close up our great protectors,

slowly became the grave-diggers

and who is to pay the bill again

and how can I start over again

at least if I knew why.

What else does my fortune tell me

three schemers are studying it.

Priests and pen pushers will let us know

with drums, parades and celebrations.

Cops are holding the constitution

and the courtiers in the palace

are waiting for something new to turn up.

The foreign bankers have glammed up,

the Greek real estate brokers have shaved.

Seven the interest five the make-up

forty with the oil and the vinegar

and he who believed and had patience

dumb and drugged he stands and stares

at the freedom being auctioned.

People, do not tighten the belt anymore,

don't take hunger for glory any more

Your fights do not count

unless they make up for the blood that has been shed.

People, do not tighten the belt anymore,

hunger for glory is for the quitter,

it is for the the slave and it will bury him.

Sources for this post (in Greek): link 1, link 2, link 3

Source for English translation

Greek lyrics

Zavarakatranemia (Nikos Xylouris, 1973)

Nikos Xyloyris/ Νίκος Ξυλούρης

evolutionary mood. Tunisia and Egypt recently walked that path with jaw-dropping and extremely massive demonstrations. The last 20 years -that I may say I am capable of such judjement- very few times I had this feeling that something historicly important happens somewhere, right now.

There are some people with the same energy-let's say. They would give you the feeling that they are important, they can change stuff, they simply do. And their way is simple and beautiful. One of them was Nikos Xylouris. We have already introduced his brother on an older post.

We skip the wiki info to go to the main subject: the song.

Zabarakatranemia

Nikos Xylouris

(the song's lyrics contain one repeated phrase of words that mean nothing in Greek. They only remind the phrase "Black flags waved, mother bring me the knife". A call for revolution against the 1967-1974 military junta while it tries to avoid its censorship).

Nikos Xylouris is singing. He is one of the most -if not the most- highly appreciated Greek singers ever to come. He died young, of brain tumor. He comes from Crete, Greeks still call him "the angel" and his voice is pure, wide, strong and sensitive. Diamond.

ps. Look at him singing an other song.

Cretan Zeus (Psarantonis at Idaeon Antro, 1999)

Antonis Xylouris (Psarantonis)

here is a cave named Idaeon Antro. It is up on the highest cretan mountain, Psiloritis. According to the Greek Mythology this is the place where Zeus was born and raised. You know, the god that later on started fooling around with any woman that happened to be on his way and moved to Olympus to be the One of the 12. Quite some thousands of years later, an other man -who in a way looks a lot like Zeus - named an album after this cave. His name: Antonis Xylouris. Info dragged from the wiki article:

Antonis Xylouris (Greek: Αντώνης Ξυλούρης, 1939-), nicknamed Psarantonis (Greek: Ψαραντώνης) is a Greek composer, singer and performer of lyra, the bowed string instrument of Crete and most popular surviving form of the medieval Byzantine lyra. He comes from the mountainous village of Anogeia in Crete and is the younger brother of the late Nikos Xylouris*, a notable Cretan singer/musician as well as the older brother of Yiannis Xylouris, an equally notable Cretan musician. Psarantonis is known for the special timbre of his voice and his lyra** playing style. Apart from the lyra Psarantonis plays various traditional instruments.

He first played the lyre at the age of 13 and recorded his first single in 1964, titled "I Thought of Denying You" (Greek: Εσκέφτηκα να σ' αρνηθώ). He has released many recordings since then and has represented Greece many times in festivals abroad.

In January 2009, Psarantonis gave memorable performances in the rock music festival All tomorrows Parties hosted in Brisbane, Sydney and Mt Buller (in Victoria) and curated by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.

* Nikos Xylouris (1936 - 1980) will definately be mentioned in several future posts since he is not just a "notable Cretan singer/musician". Even now - 30 years after his death- he is extremely famous to all generations. Without a doubt, Xylouris is an important part of Greece's modern music history.

** from wiki: Lyra (Greek: Λύρα, Latin: Lira) is a pear-shaped, three-stringed bowed musical instrument central to the traditional music of Crete and other islands in the Dodecanese and the Aegean Archipelago, in Greece. The lyra of Crete is considered as the most popular surviving form of the medieval Byzantine lyra, an ancestor of most European bowed instruments.

These songs are often very abstract when it comes to lyrics and they have strong connections with Cretan local traditions and history. On the other hand, they are always extremely emotional musically, releasing a perfume of cosmogony and the charm of the rich mythology that accompanies the area. Other great themes often used in Cretan songs are of course love and death. Hundreds of them have never even been recorded and are still played be local musicians when the night is warm and the wine is sweet.

Zeus [Ο Δίας]

Oh, on Psilori-, on Psiloritis' peak

on Psiloritis' peak there's always snow;

Opa, opa there's always snow

Before the old... before the old one melts down

a new one is freezing it again;

Opa, opa a new one is freezing it again.

Zeus was... Zeus was a sheperd

Zeus was a sheperd, up there at the Anogeian paths;

at the Anogeian paths

His home... his home was there too

His home was there, inside the mountain

Opa, opa inside the mountain...

PS. The language that is originally used is always Greek but still the Cretan Idiom is tense and this makes the translation quite tricky. I hope I made it to transfer the feeling appropriately. Have some patience at the first 1.5 minutes of the video that is the introduction. Then comes the real thing.