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[Get Real!]

This is music with DEEP MEANING, the themes are love, pain, rejection, joy, RAW emotions nothing else. A typical GREEK music.

What deep meaning?

You mean extreme self pity and stupid negative exaggerations like…

“Douse my body in spirits so that I may be immolated!”

(Rixe spirto sto kormi mou na birbolitho!)

What stupid lyrics!

[Get Real!]

Come to think of it… the Tibetan Buddhist monks would love that song!

[Hermes]

And why would you make fun of bouzouki?

This is our culture.....all modern Greek laika music has its basis in rembetika. This is music with DEEP MEANING, the themes are love, pain, rejection, joy, RAW emotions nothing else. A typical GREEK music.

That music is a hell of a lot better than the westernised American crap we hear all the time now. Songs about sex and money, what a load of crap. Greek and Cypriot society has lost its roots and been corrupted for years by that crap, I am sorry to say. Give me bouzouki and rembetika any day.

And beyond that rembetika has its roots in Greek folk music and the liturgies of the Greek Orthodox church. Some of our greatest artists are composers in this field from rembetika composers like Vamvakaris and Tsitsanis to modern composers inspired by rembetika like Theodorakis, Hadjidakis and the great Cypriot composer Manos Loizos. And let's not forget the glorious singers in this tradition. We should also respect, as I've hinted, Cyprus's significant contributions to modern Greek music.

[fig head]

Boring, bouzokias are lame excuse for pimping out sluts and selling OVER prized cheap alcohol.... may be once in a blue moon (I mean for the sake of experimenting) but seriously who wanna go to them places other than someone with money to flash out only to go home with a fake blonde !!!

In the end of the day it is a matter of opinion, you say tomatoe I say tomato .

[AEKTZIS]

This is music with DEEP MEANING, the themes are love, pain, rejection, joy, RAW emotions nothing else. A typical GREEK music.

What deep meaning?

You mean extreme self pity and stupid negative exaggerations like…

“Douse my body in spirits so that I may be immolated!”

(Rixe spirto sto kormi mou na birbolitho!)

What stupid lyrics!

Well the song you are refering to is not even a rembetiko. So your argument is immediately made invalid. That song was written in 1992. Katerina Kouka? rembetika? no way....So let me explain to you the deep meaning with an actual rembetiko song



The lyrics are very meaningful and draw upon the lives of normal people, upon the struggles of the working class, upon the emotions ANYBODY can experience, anybody can relate to. A lost love, a fall from grace, the futility of one's efforts, humility, passion.

I actually suggest everyone actively listen to more rembetika, they will help you become a more culturally-refined person, people have been indoctrinated to listen to crap like lil wayne. people my age listen to these lyrics....

“Dear Mr. Toilet/I’m the shit/Got these other haters pissed ‘cause my toilet paper thick”,
“Nice tires on the ‘ghini/You should wanna king me/Brain dead flow/Vegetable zucchini”,
“Damn I hate a shy bitch/Don't you hate a shy bitch?/Yeah I ate a shy bitch/She ain't shy no more, she changed her name to my bitch”

Also Hermes you are actually spot on my friend. Well said indeed. Hermes actually knows something about rembetika so he can make a comment about it. He actually knew that much of rembetika style music draws its inspiration from Byzantine liturgical chants. Greek and Cypriot traditional music. This is the music we originally sang centuries ago. So it is part of our history. And Manos Loizos is regarded one of the best composers of Greek music of all time - a Cypriot, who was absolutely inspired by rembetika. As was Marios Tokas, another legend of Greek msuci - a Cypriot. A shame they both died young.

A final note on rembetika and why this is such a pure art form to be admired and embraced. Look at the rembetes themselves - they lived lives as poor people, they were true artists, humble, and good people. There are countless rembetes who reached astronomical success in Greece, yet never became rich, rejected money, and ultimately died poor, penniless and forgotten by all. It is a sad way to go but they were true rembetes and lived and died that way fittingly. Look at Sotiria Mpellou - she was a huge star for 50 years, she was signing in the 30s to young men and women who adored her songs and knew every word to her songs with Tsitsanis, in the 40s she was mocked and attacked for being a Communist, and 40-50 years later she made a comeback in the 80s, singing to the grandchildren of this same audience, still loved by all and people my age still get up and sing her songs with anatrixila when they play.........And how did she end up? She had to sell her cassettes in Monastiraki on the street to make money by the end of her life, and died forgotten by all in an Athens hospital of cancer.

Look at Kazantzidis - no words even need to be said. A man LOVED by all, a rempeti in his early days, and he sang only songs of purity and true meaning. And he spoke with true heart and soul to the Greeks (+Cypriots) of the diaspora. He was our voice of the diaspora who sang songs about the pain of being away from the place you call home. When his songs play here now, everyone sings and knows all the words and is touched by the music. I still remember the day he died, I was 10 years old.

[yialousa1971]

Aint my thing baby.

A virtually deceased art form, non progressive piece of Greek culture that has never taken off beyond Hellenic shores... of which 'cultural' TV channels like EPT desperately try and promote through hours upon hours of boring, unstimulating rehashed hits from a bygone era.
I dunno what these 'culture' experts are trying to achieve by keeping Greek society in a state of limbo.

Playing bouzouki is like wearing a fustanella in public.
They both belong in a museum.

what are you talking about mate? with respect, none of that is really true if you are refering to people's tastes.

Where I live, 4 new bouzoukia just opened up. Kids aroudn the ages 18-25 pack these places out every weekend. I am in that age group and I live in Londonm, this culture is certainly not dead.

And why would you make fun of bouzouki?

This is our culture.....all modern Greek laika music has its basis in rembetika. This is music with DEEP MEANING, the themes are love, pain, rejection, joy, RAW emotions nothing else. A typical GREEK music.

That music is a hell of a lot better than the westernised American crap we hear all the time now. Songs about sex and money, what a load of crap. Greek and Cypriot society has lost its roots and been corrupted for years by that crap, I am sorry to say. Give me bouzouki and rembetika any day.

Ignore Cap he's a wigger.

[yialousa1971]

[yialousa1971]

This is music with DEEP MEANING, the themes are love, pain, rejection, joy, RAW emotions nothing else. A typical GREEK music.

What deep meaning?

You mean extreme self pity and stupid negative exaggerations like…

“Douse my body in spirits so that I may be immolated!”

(Rixe spirto sto kormi mou na birbolitho!)

What stupid lyrics!

Do you wan't to die?

[yialousa1971]

[bill cobbett]

Must 'fess ... one of my fav tracks, heavyish but melodic with lyrics that relate back to a war-time romance that ends in tragedy... Is that right anyone?