I can’t stand Greek bouzouki/popular music. I never could, even when I was 2 years old and didn’t know anything about any other kind of music yet. That’s why I was always the weirdo of my friend’s pack, I guess… I don’t like traditional Greek music either, although I must admit that I much prefer it over popular modern Greek music.

Having said that, there are a few, very few, Greek songs that I very much like. One of them is “Synnefiasmeni Kyriaki” (”Cloudy Sunday”) by Vasilis Tsitsanis. Another one is “Annabel” of Stavros Xarhakos (also known as “ena proino”). It’s a love song but if you try to literally understand its lyrics you won’t make lots of sense (that’s why I won’t even bother translate it). It was the theme song of a late-60s Greek romantic movie where a beautiful English young woman falls for… an uncivilized goat-herder while in Greece for summer vacations.

Ένα πρωινό η Παναγιά μου
θα’ρθει να με βρει στην ακρογιαλιά
πέλαγο κρυφό τα όνειρα μου
κι έστειλες εσύ βάρκα με πανί

Θα σταθείς ψηλά στο παραθύρι
πάνω στα μαλλιά άστρα του νοτιά
έχει η Παναγιά καραβοκύρη
να μας πάει μακριά πέρα απ’τη στεριά

If any Greek reader has an mp3 of it I would be very interested in getting hold of it (can’t buy the album as it’s not sold in US).