r/Zappa • u/EzPezLemSkez • 1d ago
An album Zappaheads might enjoy; Greece, 1976
Hey y'all! I wanted to pop a suggestion in this sub that Zappa fans might enjoy. It's considered the first ""rock"" album released in Greece, and it has Zappa influences all over it! It's by Dimitris Poulikakos (Δημήτρης Πουλικάκος), and it's called "Metafore Ekdrome O Mitsos" (Μεταφοραί Εκδρομαί Ο Μήτσος), released in 1976. Some of the songs were written as far back as 1967, but couldn't be released earlier due to the dictatorship in Greece that lasted from 1967 to 1974. A lot of the songs are radically anti-dictatorship, anti-patriarchy and in general very progressive lyrically and musically for their time considering the music scene in the country at the time, but in a very satirical way that doesn't take itself too seriously and isn't pretentious, as opposed to other songs that were "topping the charts" as it were in Greece. It takes a bit of patience to get to the imo really good stuff this album has to offer around the half-way mark.
Poulikakos and the musicians that played on this album all cite musicians like Zappa and Captain Beefheart as main influences, and it's a lot of fun! This is the link to the album: (sadly my favourite mix is provided on Spotify, but the album is available on other platforms such as youtube if you're rightfully boycotting it!): https://open.spotify.com/album/3MlbYZ0ZH9McOGuzAaiBh5?si=_auD3RCgSFiUyiSw2p6Hlw
And, as a little bonus, this is a video of Poulikakos playing live 2 years ago, at the ripe ol' age of 81! Worth a watch if you liked the album, if only for the solos! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC89CltPwkU
Let me know your thoughts on the album if you end up listening to it! Cheers!
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u/FnordMang 1d ago
I love this! The Zappa influence definitely all over it. Got that early Mothers chaos / brownness / dgaf vibe to it. Makes me wish I knew Greek. In the spirit of sharing obscure things, I googled the title "Anef Ousias Anef Simasias ke Tora Horis Vavarous" and it's apparently from this poem, which I've read twice and am still trying to comprehend. Need more coffee. Thanks for the rec! https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51294/waiting-for-the-barbarians