Occupation and Civil War: 1941-1949
Greece’s struggle during the Second World War and the violent civil war which followed is largely unknown outside the country. Under Metaxas, Greece had attempted to remain neutral in the opening months of World War II; this ended abruptly on October 28, 1940, when Greece refused to capitulate to an Italian ultimatum. Not long after Metaxas’ legendary “OXI,” Italian troops marched into Greece, only to be driven back into Albania by the Greek army. Greece did not fall to the Axis powers until five months later, when Germany made the push into Greece from Yugoslavia and Bulgaria; Athens fell on April 23, 1941. King George II and his government escaped the country, and a collaborationist government was formed. Greece was to be occupied by German, Italian and Bulgarian forces for the next three years, its citizens suffering famine and the brutalities of war, yet maintaining a strong resistance throughout the occupation (“katohis”).
With the German occupation in 1941, all recording activity ceased (Greece’s recording studios and equipment were almost completely destroyed by the end of the war). New rembetika songs by the likes of Gentsaris, Tsitsanis, Vamvakaris and Bagiantera were now disseminated solely through live performance in the musical clubs; some of these songs were recorded by the composers after the war, others were passed down orally and recorded by the next generation. Because of the difficult wartime economy, the clubs’ patrons were generally members of the underworld, black marketeers, thieves, smugglers and the like, and the rembetika performers not surprisingly geared their songs toward this clientele. The hasiklidhika came back into popularity as the persecution of hashish users was not pursued as diligently as in the Metaxas years and hashish was readily available. Song lyrics also bespoke the harshness of war: famine, the pain of separation, destruction, devastation, and death.
Greece’s hardships did not end with its liberation from the Germans in October of 1944. The hatreds between royalists, republicans and communists, which had been simmering since long before the war, exploded. The communist party’s resistance organization EAM and its military wing ELAS (the “andartes”) had been at odds with the rightist military organization EDES throughout the Occupation, and at times the two forces fought each other as well as the Germans. As the war ended, Churchill and Stalin made their famous “percentages agreement,” wherein Greece fell into Britain’s sphere of influence, and thus Britain backed a new government with George Papandreou at its head. Despite the strength and numbers behind ELAS, they received only a token presence in this new government. On December 2, 1944, the EAM ministers resigned in protest during negotiations to disarm the andartes; on December 3, police opened fire upon EAM protesters, and the powder keg exploded. Despite a truce in 1946, war broke out again in 1947. With the Americans assuming Britain’s role, the war continued for the next two years. Greece was imbroiled in a bloody civil war which literally turned brother against brother, with atrocities committed on all sides. ELAS admitted defeat in 1949, although retaliations by the government against the andartes continued for the next several years.
During this period, it is reported that the police cracked down on the underworld, and attempted to fight hashish and drug smuggling. From 1945 on, the “regulars,” black marketeers, etc., who frequented the musical clubs during the World War could no longer function in Athens and Piraeus. Musical reference to hasish and the underworld disappeared. This truly marked the end of rembetiko as a music of the urban underclass.
A new rembetiko evolved after the Civil War, due in large part to Vassili Tsitsanis, whose songs were sung by the likes of Sotiria Bellou and Marika Ninou. Rembetika and the musical clubs once again became respectable. Many exponents of rembetiko before the war (Stratos, and Papaioanou, for example) boosted their careers again by conforming to the new brand of rembetiko, mostly love songs.
The Decline of Rembetika
As rembetika became more and more popular and the clubs more and more expensive, the musicians became better and better paid. It was in the early 1950’s that the archondorembetes appeared – those who got rich off the music. Amplified bouzouki, snare drums, electric organs and sexy female vocalists were the staple of the rembetika performance from this point on. The dromoi, or modes, that rembetika of the past had been built upon were forgotten. By the early ’60s, true rembetika was but a distant memory.
Fortunately, thanks in no small part to performers such as George Dalaras, and recording companies like FM records, Rounder and Traditional Crossroads, we are able to hear this phenomenal music as it once was.