1950's and 1960's Greek Music Videos

 Another subtle but wonderful video!  Fine stage, great band, beautiful singer, good songs... Plus there's dancing, interesting things happening with the cheery crowd, cutaways to boats and much more.  All in all this is a fine use of your precious spare time, even if it does not hit the crazy highs and dismal lows of some of the other featured videos in this blog. Spyros Kalfopoulos was a composer, actor and musician (and that's about all I could find out).  I know even less about Kati Petrakis, except that she is totally awesome!   This seems to be from the 1959 movie I Want a Forceful Man , a title that definitely would not go over well these days.  Here's a description from IMDB Mina is married with Lakis who is too kind and soft,so she tries to make him react somehow, by flirting with another man. His friend Nionios who is a womanizer, advises him to flirt with other women too... Surprisingly, Lakis, who is as meek as a lamb, makes Mina, his wife, furious. And, as a re

It seems a while since we visited a prison, and the prisons in Greece (at least the movie-music-world-variety), what with their ever-present baglamas, are always worth visiting.  I'm not sure if there is another country on God's green earth that has an official-instrument-of-the-penal-system, but the world would be a better place if all countries followed Greece's lead and issued baglamas on arraignment.  See here and here for some other scenes of life in the pokey! This video, more than others, does justice to the baglama by letting it speak for itself - no overdubs here!  This scene from features an unbandaged  Petros Giannakkos as well as another mustachioed fellow trading off some fine picking and singing.  I am almost sure it is  Nikos Stavridis who remains, uncharacteristically, in profile the entire clip.  No idea whether this was from before or after the ill fated craps gam that produced the thrown furniture (to make sense of all this, see last week's post). T

 I have no actual knowledge of the realities of the 1960's taverna scene, but it seems, from viewing lots of videos, that for each joyless watering hole where tormented souls go to dance the zembekiko, there is a sister establishment where everyone is giddy and there are streamers, balloons, and a general air of joyfulness.  While this particular spot lacks balloons, it makes up for it in streamers, dancers and confetti. The chorus of the song, if Google is to be trusted, goes something like this -- I'm going to escape from prison, I'm going to go enjoy life a little.  The lyrics are all about domestic issues so I think it is relationship song, not a jail song. Vassilis Tsitsanis, who had a law degree, was one of the giants of rebetika and laika.  He composed, performed and recorded copiously and is still celebrated and revered. (7/31/24 -- Quick update -- the original for this disappeared along with a number of other videos.  This is the same video from another source)