Songs
of the Greek Underworld
The
Rebetika Tradition
Elias
Petropoulos *
Translation & Introduction: Ed.
Emery
Illustrations: A.
Kanavakis
London, 2000
ISBN 0 86356 368 6
Visit
Ed. Emery's Institute
of Rebetology website
Back cover:
The tradition of rebetika song is at the root of all that is most vibrant and subversive in the popular music of modern Greece. In its origins it is the music of the poor, the dispossessed, the refugees and the migrants who came to Greece from Asia Minor before and after the First World War.
The Greek edition of this book is entitled Rebetology, thus according this musical and social subculture its rightful place in the academic study of Greek culture. Written as a broad-brush introduction to rebetika song, this concise and well-argued hook details the everyday life of the rebetes—who they were, where they came from, how they dressed, their weapons and styles of fighting, their sexual preferences, their culture of hashish and of prison life, all of which form the substance of their songs. Petropoulos flies in the face of traditional Greek academia with his painstaking explanation of how this apparently most Greek of musical cultures has thoroughly cosmopolitan roots; Turkish, Albanian, gypsy and Jewish. By tracing the figure of the rebetes back to the Ottoman empire, he shows how the language and music of rebetika song were imbued with Turkish influences, and how its ethos was one of free love, criminal behaviours and a challenge to established social norms.
Songs of the Greek Underworld is not only a learned and erudite text, accompanied by breakdowns of the rhythms and metric patterns of the different musics and their associated dances, but a salutary reminder of the shared cultural roots of Turkey and Greece. The book includes the text of songs from the tradition, and over ten line drawings by A. Kanavakis and 34 photographs.
Contents
Foreword: The life and times of Elias Petropoulos, by Ed Emery
Introduction, by Ed Emery
Songs of the Greek Underworld: The Rebetika Tradition, by Elias Petropoulos
The State of Rebetika Studies (Appendix A)
The Institute of Rebetology: Websites for Rebetika (Appendix B)
A Note on Xenophon (Appendix C)
A Selection of Songs: Words and Music (Appendix D)
Discography
The Writings of Elias Petropoulos: A Bibliography
Index
Extracts (two songs, three languages)
The
Ship from Persia The Ship from Persia [Refrain] Now all the lads are crying, Mr. Customs officer, [Refrain] They were tipped off, [Refrain] |
El
barco procedente de Persia El barco procedente de Persia [Estribillo] Ahora todos los chicos están llorando, Señor aduanero, [Estribillo] Los denunciaron, [Estribillo] Trad.: L. Laniel |
Le
navire venant de Perse Le navire venant de Perse [Refrain] Et maintenant tous les gars pleurent, M. le douanier, [Refrain] On les a dénoncé, [Refrain] Trad.: L. Laniel |
Ever
since I started... Ever since I started I started with snorting, There is nothing left for me |
Desde
que he empezado... Desde que he empezado Empecé esnifando, No me queda nada Trad.: L. Laniel |
Depuis
que j'ai commencé... Depuis que j'ai commencé J'ai commencé par sniffer, Il ne me reste rien Trad.: L. Laniel |
*Elias Petropoulos was a poet, collector of songs, and a determined documentor of the manners and mores of the Greeks. His free-thinking views on sexuality, criminality, drugs and religion made him anathema to establishment Greece. The publication of Rebetika Songs [Rebetika Traghoudhia] earned him a five-month prison sentence under the Greek junta in 1968. At the age of 70, living in Paris as a self-willed exile, he was a powerhouse of ethnographic and literary activity. His other books include The Manual of the Good Thief, Holy Hashish:18 Texts on the Underworld and The Social History of the Condom. Elias Petropoulos died in Paris in September 2003.
