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This satirical song (a repress from Columbia’s Greece record DG 6159) caused one of the biggest scandals of discography. It was considered obscene, the records were banned, withdrawn and destroyed, and the managers of the record label Columbia (Lampropoulos), the singer Stellakis Perpiniadis, the shopkeepers who sold the record and the composer Panagiotis Tountas were all brought to trial (21/12/1936), where the court imposed a penalty payment to the latter.
Numerous articles were published in the press of the time, before and after the trial, demanding the song to be censored; the censorship finally came into force with the adoption of law 1619/14-16/2/1939 (which defined all the details related to the recordings) from the dictatorial regime of August 4, 1936 with Ioannis Metaxas as prime minister.
Panagiotis Kounadis (2010, 7) states on the consequences of the ban and the implementation of censorship:
"Apart from how much the behavior of the dictator or the individuals who participated in the censorship committees may draw laughter today, the results were decisive for the future of rebetiko. After all, censorship was aiming at this as well as at everything it 'conveyed' and expressed. In essence, a cycle of free creation had closed in a climate of generalized authoritarianism that culminated in the dictatorship of Metaxas. The 'blow', which ought to be included in the general framework of control and policing of Greek society and public life, and at the same time be taken into account with the rise of fascism throughout Europe, was not only against lyrics. It was not only their content and subject matter that was to be avoided (anything related to important problems, social or otherwise, was in the microscope of the censors and was off limits), but music was in the spotlight too. It is perhaps the only case in modern world history where melodies and musical scales were being cut to fit to the Procrustean bed. The banning of the amanedes, and, at the same time, the eastern scales, the instruments and the respective orchestras, was the result of a conscious effort to uproot everything that, musically, reminded of the east, and, at the same time, every 'dangerous' memory for a righteous new order. It was an organized method that promoted and sought a musical shift to the West. And for this reason an age-old tradition had to be eradicated in the wider Greek area that influenced over the centuries all the peoples of the region." (for more information see Kounadis 2010, 7).
Three more songs (four in total) with different lyrics were released based on the same melody): “I Marika i daskala" (Columbia DG 6233, Athens 1936), "Manolios kai Dimitroula" (Columbia DG 6414, Athens, 1938) and "Akou Duce mou ta nea" (His Master’s Voice AO 2690, Athens, 1941).
The musical theme of Karots(i)eris, which was extremely popular in the Greek-speaking repertoire, appears as a small transient theme within the recording, as in other songs (see for example: "Fotia kai niata", "I Marika i daskala", "Tampachaniotikos manes" [shift], "To kalokairi tora", "Varvara", "Romaiiko glenti"). Apart from its Romanian origin and its strong ties with the local repertoire, the tune of "Karotsieris" also found in other repertoires, such as Jewish (for more see the recordings of "Karotseris" or "Karotsieri".
Panagiotis Tountas shows his compositional skill, often using themes from other songs, many times coming from a variety of repertoires, and incorporates or uses them as an "occasion" for the birth of new songs.
It seems that this tune is one of the most popular choices not only in the Greek-speaking urban folk-popular repertoire but also in others, something which highlights the cosmopolitanism and syncretism in which popular musicians lived and acted. Like other tunes, which eventually became what we would now call a “hit”, this one also puts emphasis on the interplay between the various repertoires which were discussants in a large geographical area. Thus arises an exciting network that includes repertoires from Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Mediterranean, which, on the one hand, came from three great empires: the Ottoman, the Austrian and the Russian. On the other hand, repertoires from Italy the Canzone Napoletana, the French chansons, the Spanish world and other sub-networks,were also very active, but also repertoires from two large worlds that were constantly on the move: the gypsy and the Jewish (mainly Yiddish) one. Discography is not only embedded in this context, but plays a key role in its transformation..
Research and text by: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis
This satirical song (a repress from Columbia’s Greece record DG 6159) caused one of the biggest scandals of discography. It was considered obscene, the records were banned, withdrawn and destroyed, and the managers of the record label Columbia (Lampropoulos), the singer Stellakis Perpiniadis, the shopkeepers who sold the record and the composer Panagiotis Tountas were all brought to trial (21/12/1936), where the court imposed a penalty payment to the latter.
Numerous articles were published in the press of the time, before and after the trial, demanding the song to be censored; the censorship finally came into force with the adoption of law 1619/14-16/2/1939 (which defined all the details related to the recordings) from the dictatorial regime of August 4, 1936 with Ioannis Metaxas as prime minister.
Panagiotis Kounadis (2010, 7) states on the consequences of the ban and the implementation of censorship:
"Apart from how much the behavior of the dictator or the individuals who participated in the censorship committees may draw laughter today, the results were decisive for the future of rebetiko. After all, censorship was aiming at this as well as at everything it 'conveyed' and expressed. In essence, a cycle of free creation had closed in a climate of generalized authoritarianism that culminated in the dictatorship of Metaxas. The 'blow', which ought to be included in the general framework of control and policing of Greek society and public life, and at the same time be taken into account with the rise of fascism throughout Europe, was not only against lyrics. It was not only their content and subject matter that was to be avoided (anything related to important problems, social or otherwise, was in the microscope of the censors and was off limits), but music was in the spotlight too. It is perhaps the only case in modern world history where melodies and musical scales were being cut to fit to the Procrustean bed. The banning of the amanedes, and, at the same time, the eastern scales, the instruments and the respective orchestras, was the result of a conscious effort to uproot everything that, musically, reminded of the east, and, at the same time, every 'dangerous' memory for a righteous new order. It was an organized method that promoted and sought a musical shift to the West. And for this reason an age-old tradition had to be eradicated in the wider Greek area that influenced over the centuries all the peoples of the region." (for more information see Kounadis 2010, 7).
Three more songs (four in total) with different lyrics were released based on the same melody): “I Marika i daskala" (Columbia DG 6233, Athens 1936), "Manolios kai Dimitroula" (Columbia DG 6414, Athens, 1938) and "Akou Duce mou ta nea" (His Master’s Voice AO 2690, Athens, 1941).
The musical theme of Karots(i)eris, which was extremely popular in the Greek-speaking repertoire, appears as a small transient theme within the recording, as in other songs (see for example: "Fotia kai niata", "I Marika i daskala", "Tampachaniotikos manes" [shift], "To kalokairi tora", "Varvara", "Romaiiko glenti"). Apart from its Romanian origin and its strong ties with the local repertoire, the tune of "Karotsieris" also found in other repertoires, such as Jewish (for more see the recordings of "Karotseris" or "Karotsieri".
Panagiotis Tountas shows his compositional skill, often using themes from other songs, many times coming from a variety of repertoires, and incorporates or uses them as an "occasion" for the birth of new songs.
It seems that this tune is one of the most popular choices not only in the Greek-speaking urban folk-popular repertoire but also in others, something which highlights the cosmopolitanism and syncretism in which popular musicians lived and acted. Like other tunes, which eventually became what we would now call a “hit”, this one also puts emphasis on the interplay between the various repertoires which were discussants in a large geographical area. Thus arises an exciting network that includes repertoires from Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Mediterranean, which, on the one hand, came from three great empires: the Ottoman, the Austrian and the Russian. On the other hand, repertoires from Italy the Canzone Napoletana, the French chansons, the Spanish world and other sub-networks,were also very active, but also repertoires from two large worlds that were constantly on the move: the gypsy and the Jewish (mainly Yiddish) one. Discography is not only embedded in this context, but plays a key role in its transformation..
Research and text by: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis
© 2019 KOUNADIS ARCHIVE
