Category Archives: Music

Canuck to Helas

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I spend a lot of time listening to very bad music …. so I can find those gems that very often have changed our lives.

On one of my forays into what’s happening somewhere else, I came across this.

A Canadian.  Loreena McKennitt.  

It was audio only, but grabbed it and listened to it quite often.

Fast forward a couple of years and we are in Greece, on Mykonos.  It’s very late at night and we are coming back to our small boutique hotel.  You enter through very wide double doors that are 15 feet high and very old.  Except for potlights the entire huge entrance is dark … and this is playing through the sound system.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yHgImYkFoU

I felt like I’d been smacked on the back of the head.  Stunned, we just sat down and listened to the whole thing.  Still in shock, I wandered around the corner to the front desk and asked the young man – “who was that?”  Those three word started a friendship that has lasted nearly 30 years. It introduced us to Haris Alexiou who has become one of our favourite singers. As it turns out, she is a very good friend of my soul sister in Greece, The man working the desk was a summer student from the School of Music in Athens and Manos Hadjidakis was his mentor.  The young man has gone on to become quite famous as a composer is his own right.

Fast forward many more years and friends that we had met on a Cruise have moved to Parksville from San Jose.  They love all the music I’ve sent them over the years, and one day they were playing a CD in the background over lunch with one of their neighbours.  The woman shrieks … “That song was written by my cousin.  Where did you get that?”

Τα λεφτά μου όλα δίνω για ένα tango κι ένα άγγιγμά σου κάτω από το τραπέζι Αδιάφορα τριγύρω μου να κοιτώ Στο γυμνό λαιμό μου το χέρι σου να παίζει Τα λεφτά μου όλα δίνω για μια βραδιά για ρομαντικές φιγούρες πάνω στην πίστα Να παραμερίζουν όλοι από τη φωτιά που θα στέλνει το κορμί μας στο πρίμα βίστα Τα λεφτά μου όλα δίνω για μια ζημιά που θα κάνει άνω κάτω την λογική σου θέλει τρέλα η ζωή μας και νοστιμιά άμα θες να βρεις τις πύλες του παραδείσου Μια γυναίκα ένας άντρας κι ένας θεός ένας έρωτας θεός να μας σημαδεύει Να σου δίνω τα φιλιά στων κεριών το φως και να παίρνω αυτά που ο νους ας απαγορεύει

Just in case your Greek is a little rusty – en Englais

All my money I’d give for one tango and one touch from you under the table Casually looking around me For your hand playing on my bare neck All my money I’d give for one night for romantic figures on the dance floor everyone else pushed aside by the fire that our bodies will be sending out to the treble Vista All my money I’d give for one harm that will turn your logic inside out. Our lives need craze and gusto if you want to find the gates of paradise. One woman, one man, and one God, God of love

and another interpretation

I give all my money just for a tango and a touch of yours under the table, gazing indifferently around me, your hand caressing my naked neck. I give all my money just for a night with romantic figures on the dancing floor; everyone stepping aside from the fire that sends our bodies upon the prima vista. I give all my money just for a damage that will turn your reason upside down. Life needs craziness and spice, if we are to find the gates of Eden. A woman, a man and a God, a love God pointing at us; kissing you under the candlelight, taking whatever mind forbids us.