The Golden Years of Laiko

Featuring Zampetas . O Petheropliktos . Stelios Kazantzidis . Marinella . Gia Mas Pote Min Ksimerosi . Giannis Parios . O Sarantaris . Petros Anagnwstakis . Palio Spanio Laiko Tragoudi . Stelios Kazantzidis . Yparxo . Poly Panou . Apostolos Kaldaras . Ferte Mia Koupa Me Krasi . Manolis Aggelopoulos . O Taxudromos . Giorgos Mitsakis . Anna Marianna . Mitsakis .

Laïkó on Wikipedia : Laïkó emerged after the popularization of rebetiko; but the musical style and lyrical themes of classic laïkó songs were far more orientalized and can be compared with Turkey’s fantezi songs. The influence of oriental music on laïkó can be most strongly seen in 1960s indoyíftika “indian gypsy (songs)” which can be described as filmi with Greek lyrics.

Phantis : Stratos Dionysiou went to work as a tailor and was married, at age 20, to Georgia Laveni. The couple would have four children. While still working as a tailor, he also appeared in night clubs in Thessaloniki where he had moved.

Full and Free : Born of Roma (gypsy) heritage, Manolis Angelopoulos struggled against bigotry for most of his career. Although his recordings were embraced by the Roma community, Angelopoulos had difficulty reaching a larger audience.

Amazon : Between the 1950s and 1990s Stelios Kazantzidis was considered the voice of the Greek diaspora. His death was an emotional event for the Greeks; the obituaries provided a full appreciation of his life and his importance.

Vasilis Tsitsanis on Last.fm : By the shut-down of the Record Companies by the German occupation Forces in 1941, Vasilis Tsitsanis had already recorded about 100 of his own songs and played on many recordings of other composers.

Hellenica : Marinella was born Kyriaki Papadopoulou, in the city of Thessaloniki in northern Greece. She released her first song in 1957, “Nitsa Elenitsa” (Little Helen). Her early career was marked by her collaboration with singer Stelios Kazantzidiss.

Music: Theodorakis : Born in Kokinia, a laborious district of Piraeus, Athens’ main port, George Dalaras shares the tradition of having roots in the folk and blues music of the masses. His father was a traditional musician and a “bouzouki” instrumentalist. George Dalaras’ first musical memories are closely linked to the main forms of Greek music: the “laiko”

Etwinningproject’s Weblog : Many musicians such as Manolis Chiotis and Giorgos Zampetas began using specially designed pickups to achieve a slightly thicker humbucker -like sound in the mid-1960s. These pickups are widely used by several Greek artists today and came in active and (usually) passive versions.