Thursday, April 10, 2008

1. The syndrome of Markos Vamvakaris adornment and the prolonged puberty of rebetiko lovers...


The following posts are refering to the glorification of certain figures and details in rebetiko. A glorification which causes damage and stagnates a deeper understanding of this music.

Markos Vamvakaris is a flaming star. He is widely accepted and recognized as the main deputy and successor of the "struggled" Mikrasiates (refugee music). To talk or write critically about Markos is equivalent to offend the divine.
I have loved myself Markos and still love him. Not only because of his songs, but even for his bravery to speak open about himself, about his turbulent life. Markos had something that the others did not. He could observe his life both from the inner and the outer side. He was an observer of himself, at least when he got old (as usual). But he dared! On the other hand, everything has a beginning and en end, and in the beginning is the end included... This is something that the majority of human beings cannot accept. We behave like if we were immortals. Markos could not understand that either. He ended hil life quite bitter because he had not get the "permission" to visit the US, because he considered that he was forgotten even that different people showed unthankfulness towards him . He was right, in some way. Unthankfulness is something very usual in Greece, almost a rule...

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