So as I sit here and type, I’m streaming Greek Boston’s Zembekika Music playlist and it has me thinking…am I the only one who prefers Greek music to today’s mainstream English music? Honestly I couldn’t tell you who is in today’s Top 40 listing but I can sing you pretty much every word from Μαρινέλλα – Άνοιξε πέτρα which was released in 1968. This came up at New Year’s Day dinner with my father in law who is a joker and said he’d dance a zembekiko if I could find a particular song. So he rattled some song and I didn’t need to look for it, I knew the song and sang the refrain. Now the song from what I can find out first came out in 1978. Needless to say he was a bit stunned that I knew the song and words.
I remember going to see Marinella and Yiannis Parios at the Orpheum Theater in Boston when I was 6 or 7 years old and sitting in the third row thinking this was the best thing since sliced bread. Back in the day, my dad was in a band, so maybe it is in my blood. My uncle was the singer and I remember many a times my xsadelf and I would be driving around Boston, sun roof open, belting out tunes at the top of our lungs. I remember being in Athens in 1997 at an ourdoor nightclub with thousands of people and making my way on stage with Anna Vissi. My friends mortified I’d get us kicked out, but no fear of that, we danced our way into the early morning on stage and all was well in the world. I guess you can say, I like to be surrounded by song. So what about you my Greek peeps, am I the only one like this or do you also like to zone out to your Greek music??
I’m with you on this one!!! Other than my Madonna and George Michael playlists, Greek is all I listen to. But wait… GM was Greek… and Madonna is Italian, which in reality means she’s really Greek too… so I guess all my music is Greek after all.
I had no doubt that we would be in the same category on this one. After all I recall your support on a particular CD that arrived to my house straight from Greece on Christmas morning 1999 because at the time I was obsessed with Elena Paparizou and her group Antique.