NIKOS XYLOURIS: The Archangel of Crete

Nikos Xylouris was born in Anoghia, Crete, on the 7th of July, 1936.  At the age of five he witnessed the burning of his home and village by German soldiers during the Occupation.  As a boy Nikos was very fond of music and he had a gift for singing and playing the mandolin with his friend Giorgo Kalomiris.  Enthralled by the music of a skilled player of the Lyra (Cretan fiddle),  Leonidas Klados, he convinced him to take him on as an apprentice for two years. He began to ply his craft at village weddings, baptisms and other celebrations throughout Crete.

At the age of seventeen he got his first job in a small cabaret in the city of Heraklion named the "Kastro" or Castle.  The adjustment to city life was a difficult but life changing experience. As he later related: “...The changes taking place in the cities could not have been experienced by the people living up in the mountain villages of Crete. In the city, the people were listening to European music and dancing the tango, waltzes, the rumba and samba. We were obliged to learn those tunes so as to play them at weddings and festivals to earn our living. We began to try to make people change, to love Cretan music again, little by little...”

While playing at one of those festivals he meets and later marries Ourania Melampianaki, daughter of a prosperous Heraklion family. On the 21 November 1958 he recorded his  first  78 RPM record, a  song named “Kritikopoula mou” (My Cretan Girl).  Two years later a son is born followed by a daughter six years later.  Xylouris eventually finds himself in Athens cutting 45 singles in order to pay for medical care for his seriously ill child. He is forced to churn out records for a pittance, even by the standards of the time.

In 1966 he has a huge break.  Leaving Greece for the first time in his life, he travels to and participates in a folk festival in San Remo, Italy and wins first prize. He subsequently opens the first Cretan music hall, “Erotokrito."  His popularity rising, he begins to draw huge audiences.  In 1969, a hit record “Anifantou,"  hits the top of the charts and he returns to Athens to sing at the Konaki Music Hall. There he meets Erikos Thalassinos who introduces him to the composer Yiannis  Markopoulos. Signed by Columbia Records,  he agrees to sing popular songs but holds out for two albums, to be composed entirely of Cretan music, which the company agrees to.  As a result Cretan music was introduced throughout Greece, something that his predecessors on the Cretan music scene were unable to accomplish previously.

Xylouris and Markopoulos worked together to create  a series of songs that re-examined the relationship between tradition and the present. These songs,  known as "Rizitika" were released under his personal direction in 1971 and were introduced in a  live performances at “Ledra”, a well-known Athens club of that period.  During this period many Greeks opposed to the military regime in power  adopted songs sung by Xylouris  and they became emblematic of the resistance movement.  In the summer of 1973, Xylouris sang in a landmark performance staged by Jenny Karezi and Costas Kazakos at the Athenaion Theatre. The subject matter of that performance was the recent history of Greece. It was entitled “To megalo mas tsirko” (Our Grand Circus). His songs expressed the tense political climate of that period which culminated in the uprising of the Polytechnic students, the invasion of Cyprus and the fall of the Military Junta.

Throughout the years of tumultuous changes in Greek politics, he interpreted some more songs by other noted composers such as Christos Leondis and  Stavros Xarchakos. At the same time, he recorded the “Antipolemika” (Antiwar songs) by Linos Kokotos and Dimitris Christodoulou as well as George Seferis’ poetry,  set to music by Ilias Andriopoulos.   He was once more engaged in singing folk songs originating from Crete, while he also interpreted popular songs by Stelios Vamvakaris. With songs such as “Argalios”, “Mia padremeni agapo” (Filedem), “Pramatevtis” and “Mesopelaya armenizo”, his voice was back to singing “songs of life”.

Nikos Xylouris' brilliant musical career was cut short by his premature death from cancer at the young age of 44. He died  far from his beloved island, in a Piraeus hospital, on the 8th of February in 1980.  May the example of his life and his haunting voice serve to awaken all Greeks from the slumber of the present to relive the glory of the past in our own lives. Thank God  Hellas gave us Niko and his music. May his memory be eternal

Comments

[demonax]

I like to listen to Xylouris in the car on the way to play football to psyche myself up. Anogia is twinned with the occupied Cypriot village of Yialousa.

Nikos Xylouris’ brother, Antonis – known as Psarantonis – is also a brilliant Cretan musician. Psarantonis plays idiosyncratically and with religious intensity. There’s a profile of him here –
http://www.creternity.com/article.phtml?articleID=3&page=1&catID=1
where it’s revealed that ‘the prefix “Psara” that the Xylourides use in front of their first names (Psarantonis, Psaronikos, Psaroyiannis) originates from their grandfather, who is said to have killed Turks as if they were fish.’

There are good clips of Psarantonis on Youtube, like this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-2KJ9on96o
of Psarantonis singing with his daughter, Niki Xylouris.

Ti oraio na’sai ellinas. Oi xenoi den ehoun idea.

[Stavros]

I had no idea Yialousa and Anogia were sisters. What a coincidence. I have heard Psarantonis before but failed to make the connection.

Ehe yia patrida

[susan bournelis]

My husband remembers Xylouris from his youth.
This was a nice listening experience for us.
Thank you!

[Hermes]

My mother and father never stopped playing Xylouris, Theodorakis and Kaloyiannis in Saturdays and Sundays as we were cleaning the house or relaxed in the afternoon. I have gone on to listen to Xylouris and Theodorakis myself. Kaloyiannis is too sugary.

The Xylouris song on Antipolemika, which I think is called "1944" is absolutely incredible. I still play it every few months.

[Stavros]

Susan and Hermes,

I'm really glad you liked this post. There is a lot more at YouTube. I am curious about your opinion of Ano Kato though.

[susan bournelis]

My husband really likes Rebetika. He thought the first song, by a non-greek group was very good.
There is a group up in Seattle that we went to see. They sang rebetika also. They even wrote a song they sang in English. It was funny!
The group was called Pasatebos.

[Stavros]

What a great name, it translates more or less to "munchies."

[Tony Brown]

As an Englishman who is positive he has lived in Greece in one of his previous lives, or maybe in a later one, I was stopped in my tracks the first time I heard Xylouris. I was waiting for the ferry to Kassos from Pigadia, Karpathos around 5 am and his voice came into my head from a cassette I'd been given by a man in that town. I'm on that quayside every time I play that music.
Stavros, this is a brilliant site. Thank you.
Tony Brown
www.grecofilia.co.uk

[Stavros]

Tony,

Thanks so much. Isn't it funny how a particular tune can immediately summon one's memory of a time and place where they first heard it. I was also impressed with your site, so I decided to link to it.

[Tony Brown]

Thank you Stavros,
Yes, I agree. I know many people think it's corny but even after all these years, whenever I hear the opening bars of Zorba's Theme, I get a lump in my throat. And to hear Anestos Delias (Artemis), it's 1995 and immediately I am in Crete parked in my VW camper, "The Villa Zorbus", in Melambes.
I'll add your link to my site immediately...the ever-widening circle...

[Stavros]

Antoni mou,

It appears that you like me are a refugee from the decade of the 1960s. Only people like us can appreciate a VW enough to christen it "Villa Zorbus." Thank you for the link, I intend to read more of your writing and impressions of Greece. The ever widening circle indeed.

Gia hara.

[Tony Brown]

Stavros,
Yes my friend,
If you look at my website on the page 'about me' you will see I was running wild with all the influences of that magic decade. I used to think my home town of Liverpool was the centre of the universe. Tell me, is that you in the photo of the little boy? And are you from Ithaka? I was there two years ago and have some photos I can send you if you want. Let me know.

I'm listening to that 1920's hit, "Manolis O Hashixlis" by Kostas Nouros. I think it was composed by the famous violinist, Johannis Drahatsis - forgive my memory and I'm not sure of the spelling.
One day we must sit under the same roof and maybe have a little drink.
Have fun,
Antonis

[Stavros]

Yes, that photo was taken when I was much better looking, at the age of nine. I'm not from Ithaka but I am fond of Cavafy's poem.
http://greekodyssey.typepad.com/my_greek_odyssey/2006/12/searching_for_i.html

Sounds like you have found your own Ithaka. My personal Ithaka is a small mountain village named Politsani which I have written about. We have a more than a few things in common although we both come from different backgrounds, we both love Greece and things Greek, particularly Rembetika.
When I am in Greece during the summer I avoid roofs like the plague. I think we should sit outside preferably with the sea lapping at our feet and drink the nectar of the Gods. Na se kala, file.

[Carson Park Ranger]

Nikos Xylouris has a rich, intoxicating voice. I first heard him on a German LP from the '70s.
His voice and the haunting melodies have stayed with me since then.

[Stavros]

Ranger,

You can find more Xylouris songs on YouTube and a blog called Hellenic Antidote on its Radio Akritas:

http://hellenicantidote.blogspot.com/

[irene]

Stavros, you have created a Treasure Chest of jewels for those of us whose hearts were born in Greece and will live there eternally.

Your site has opened up a whole new exciting world to explore for this Kritikopoula!...Bravo! Efharisto...Yia sou Stavros....O Theos mazi sou...

Irene

[Stavros]

Na se kala.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxVqM-bCLzA

http://greekodyssey.typepad.com/my_greek_odyssey/2006/11/the_battle_of_c_2.html

[Tony Brown]

Stavros Ya!

It's Tony once again and after all this time. I have just finished writing my second book, Zorbus to the Sun, and I wondered if you would like me to send you a PDF copy for you to download and print or to read on screen. It's up to you.
If you'd like one send me an email at tony@grecofilia.co.uk and I will email you the file as a gesture of brotherhood.
I wish you and yours happiness.

[Stavros]

Thank You Tony, I certainly will do so. Nase kala pantote.