Aphrodite's Child was a Greek rock band formed around the time of the student riots in 1968, by Vangelis Papathanassiou (keyboards and vocals); Demis Roussos (bass guitar and vocals); and Loukas Sideras (drums and vocals). After travelling to London to try for a record deal, they found they did not have the correct work permits, and so they regrouped in Paris. There, guitarist Anargyros "Silver" Koulouris was added to their line-up, although he would be forced to leave the band soon afterwards and return to Greece to fulfil his military service, with guitar and bass both being played by Roussos during his absence. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1943x1772, 668 KB)Cover of the single Its Five oClock by Aphrodites Child. ... Rock is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars, and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles, however saxophones have been omitted from newer subgenres of rock music since the 90s. ... (Redirected from 1968 student riots) May 1968 poster: Be young and keep quiet In May 1968 a general insurrection broke out across France. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou better known as Vangelis (the g is pronounced as a hard g, as in get) (born March 29, 1943) is a world-renowned new age and electronic musician. ... Demis Roussos in his 40s Artemios (Demis) Ventouris Roussos (born June 15, 1946) is a Greek singer. ... London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ... Part of the Paris skyline with from left to right: Montparnasse Tower, Eiffel Tower, and in the background, towers of neighboring La Défense. ...

Early albums

The band's first two albums, End of the World and It's Five O'Clock, combined a very '60s sounding Euro-pop-rock with Greek folk music elements. The former album featured the band's first single, "Rain and Tears", a reworking of Pachelbel's Canon in D major. The song was a minor hit in the United Kingdom, reaching No.29, but was a million-seller in France, where the band was based, and did well across the rest of Europe. Other European hits included "Marie Jolie", "I Want to Live", and "Spring, Summer, Winter, and Fall" from 1969 and 1970. Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and for the common people. ... Johann Pachelbel (August 1653 - March 3, 1706) was a German Baroque composer and organist, best remembered for his Canon in D. Pachelbel was organist at Erfurt, in the Thuringian region of Germany. ... Canon in D Major is Johann Pachelbels most well-known work. ... 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ...

666

The band began to record their crowning achievement in 1970: a musical adaptation of the biblical Book of Revelations, entitled 666 - The Apocalypse of St. John. Silver Koulouris, having finished his Greek army duty, had rejoined the band after the others had scored their biggest commercial successes without him. However, relations between all the band members were not good at the time, and continued to worsen during the album's creation. However, the group was contractually obligated to release a third album, and went into the studio in 1970 to create 666. 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... For other uses, see Bible (disambiguation). ... The Revelation of St. ... 666 - The Number of the Beast is a double album by psychedelic/progressive art rock group Aphrodites Child. ...

Essentially, 666 was Vangelis' concept, created with an outside lyricist, Costas Ferris. The music that Vangelis was creating for 666 was much more psychedelic and progressive rock oriented than anything the band had done before. This did not sit well with the other band members, who wished to continue in the pop direction that had brought them success. Further, Roussos was being groomed for a solo career, and pressure from the record company for the band to produce another hit single did not help. In essence, the band broke up during the recording of 666, after which Vangelis spent another entire year finishing the album primarily on his own or with occasional assistance from studio musicians and vocalists. The word psychedelic is a neologism coined from the Greek words for mind, ψυχη (psyche), and manifest, δηλειν (delein). ... Progressive rock (sometimes shortened to prog rock, prog, or progrock) is a subgenre of rock music which arose in the late 1960s, reached the peak of its popularity in the 1970s, and continues as a musical form to this day. ...

Immediately afterwards, Vangelis engaged in a long fight with Mercury Records over the content of the album. The record company, in particular, objected to the song "∞" (infinity), which they considered obscene. It consisted of Greek actress Irene Papas chanting the words "I was, I am, I am to come" over and over again in various stages of orgiastic ecstasy, while Vangelis accompanied her on a maelstrom of percussion (the five-minute finished track was reportedly edited down from a 39-minute piece recorded in a single take). However, the double-album length of 666 and the musical experimentation, as well as the subject matter, also exacerbated Mercury's ire. Another bone of contention was the sleeve note stating "This album was recorded under the influence of Sahlep." This was at first suspected to be either a drug or some form of occult ritual; in fact it is a drink popular around the eastern Mediterranean and made from the dried powdered roots of a type of orchid. After Roussos and Sideras had already released their first solo albums, Mercury finally agreed to release 666 one year after completion and two years after Roussos, Sideras and Koulouris had finished their parts in it, and it came out in 1972, as did a single taken from it - Break. Mercury Records was a record label founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1945 by Irving Green, Berle Adams and Arthur Talmadge. ... Irene Papas (Greek Ειρήνη Παππά, born September 3, 1926 in Corinth) is a Greek-born actress who has starred in over seventy films in a career spanning more than fifty years. ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ...

Strangely enough, 666 was the only Aphrodite's Child album to make any impact in the United States. The blood-red cover with the letters 666 prominently displayed in black and white was striking, and brought immediate accusations of occultism from various quarters. Any suspicions of occultism could be dispersed by simply reading the lyrics, which were fairly faithfully based around the Book of Revelations, but the accusations undoubtedly helped sell the album in the United States. The album met with less controversy elsewhere and sold reasonably well on its own merits.

The music itself was an impressive display of Vangelis' abilities, combining psychedelic and progressive rock with ethnic instruments, choral chanting, recitations, and very advanced use of synthesizers and keyboards for the time. In time the album became recognized as one of the most important early progressive rock works, and a defining example of the concept album. 666 also made Vangelis an underground name to watch, and in 1974 earned him an offer from Jon Anderson to join Yes following the departure of Rick Wakeman. Vangelis turned down the offer in order to concentrate on his solo career, but not before giving it a shot, though a couple of weeks of rehearsals with Yes did not go well. However, he and Anderson later created several duet albums in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Progressive rock (sometimes shortened to prog rock, prog, or progrock) is a subgenre of rock music which arose in the late 1960s, reached the peak of its popularity in the 1970s, and continues as a musical form to this day. ... The Beach Boys Little Deuce Coupe album, one of the first concept albums In popular music, a concept album is an album which is unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical (Shuker 2002, p. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Yes co-founder Jon Anderson Jon Anderson (born October 25, 1944) is a British musician, best known as the lead singer of the progressive rock band Yes. ... Yes are an English progressive rock band that formed in London in 1968. ... Richard Christopher Wakeman (born May 18, 1949 in Perivale, London, England) is a British progressive rock keyboard player. ...

Band Split

After the band split, both Vangelis and Demis Roussos pursued successful solo careers, Roussos as a pop singer and Vangelis as one of the pioneers in New Age music. Kolouris worked with both on occasion. Loukas Sideras pursued a less successful solo career, releasing an album and the single "Rising Sun" after the break-up. New Age describes a broad movement characterized by alternative approaches to traditional Western culture. ...

Discography

• End of the World (1968)
• It's Five O'Clock (1969)
• 666 (The Apocalypse Of John,13/18) (1971)
• Best Of Aphrodite's Child (1980)
• Aphrodite's Child's Greatest Hits (1995)
• The Complete Collection (Aphrodite's Child) (1996)
• Babylon the Great (2002)

Song Highlights: See also: 1967 in music, other events of 1968, 1969 in music, 1960s in music and the list of years in music // January 4 - Guitarist Jimi Hendrix is jailed by Stockholm police, after trashing a hotel room during a drunken fist fight with bassist Noel Redding. ... See also: 1968 in music, other events of 1969, 1970 in music, 1960s in music and the list of years in music // Events Perhaps the most famous musical events of 1969 are two legendary concerts. ... 666 - The Number of the Beast is a double album by psychedelic/progressive art rock group Aphrodites Child. ... See also: 1970 in music, other events of 1971, 1972 in music, 1970s in music and the list of years in music // [edit] Events February 8 - Bob Dylans hour-long documentary film, Eat the Document, premieres at New Yorks Academy of Music. ... See also: 1979 in music, other events of 1980, 1981 in music, 1980s in music and the list of years in music // [edit] Events [edit] January January 1 - Cliff Richard is appointed an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II. The only other pop music acts to be created MBEs are the... See also: 1994 in music, other events of 1995, 1996 in music, 1990s in music and the list of years in music // [edit] Events January 18 - Jerry Garcia wrecks his rented BMW into a guard rail near Mill Valley, California. ... See also: 1995 in music, other events of 1996, 1997 in music, 1990s in music and the list of years in music // January 8 - Madonnas stalker, Robert Hoskins is found guilty and convicted on five charges of assault, stalking, and threatening to kill the singer. ... // Events 2002 was marked by significant trends in Rock Music. ...

"Four Horsemen", from the album 666, was a minor hit on FM radio in the United States, receiving AOR airplay to this day. "Babylon", from the same album, was released as a single, and found similar acceptance on AOR radio in the 1970's. "Hic and Nunc" and "Break", from the same album, were also tried out as singles but did not chart well at the time. Album Oriented Rock, abbreviated AOR, was originally an American FM radio format focusing on album tracks by rock music artists rather than singles releases. ...

"Spring, Summer, Winter and Fall" - the final single before the release of 666 and the last of the band's singles to chart significantly in their European home base.

"Rain and Tears" - based on Pachelbel's Canon in D major, this song was probably their biggest hit as a single release. Johann Pachelbel (August 1653 - March 3, 1706) was a German Baroque composer and organist, best remembered for his Canon in D. Pachelbel was organist at Erfurt, in the Thuringian region of Germany. ... Canon in D Major is Johann Pachelbels most well-known work. ...

"It's Five o Clock" and "Such a Funny Night" also charted in Europe. All of the above songs can be found on various compilation/greatest hits discs. The band's singles were aimed squarely at the pop market, and do not bear any significant resemblance to the music on 666.

References