bluegatereview

“This anomaly must stop,” declared the Greek poet Giorgos Seferis in a statement on March 28 1969, in which he denounced the military junta that then ruled Greece. Since seizing power in their 1967 coup, the Colonals had suppressed the Greek people with political punishments and detentions, torture and censorship. Mikis Theodorakis, whose music was banned during the dictatorship, had set a 1930s poem of Seferis’s to music. It was called “Denial” and became a song of resistance. It was a solemn anthem. At the same time there was a different song around, upbeat and triumphant. Kids, that weak link, loved the naughty words and couldn’t help but share the song with their friends at school. Alarmed teachers implored the parents to make the children stop singing the catchy chorus.