παπάρι

There is still a little bit of the song I don't understand:-
Ντάμα, ρήγας και δυάρι
μη φοβάσαι το παπάρι.
What does παπάρι mean in this context & how do the card game terms terms fit into it?

It's simply a vulgar word for either testicle or penis. The card reference is just a rhyme.

I thought it meant testicle in my last entry & 'Man confirmed it but it didn't seem to make sense in this card-playing context. Thanks, Hellegennes, for this illuminating help. It seems there are two versions of this song, one called Τρίτη Πέμπτη μακαρόνια about hash & a police raid & another called Του μουνιού το γλωσσίδι which seems like a crude parody with sundry plays on words. I know both but which is the original rebetiko? Or are they both rebetika? :):blush:

I am afraid you'll have to wait for the expert musicologist of our forum to answer your question.

Thanks, Hellegennes. How does the phrase 'don't fear the prick/ nads' fit into a prison for hash users?

Theseus said:

... It seems there are two versions of this song, one called Τρίτη Πέμπτη μακαρόνια about hash & a police raid & another called Του μουνιού το γλωσσίδι which seems like a crude parody with sundry plays on words. I know both but which is the original rebetiko? Or are they both rebetika?

Click to expand...

Not a parody, I think, but a tribute, an expansion of the Hondronakos song "Τρίτη Πέμπτη μακαρόνια":


Μου χτυπούν το παραθύρι ένα Σάββατο το δείλι
Μου χτυπούσαν και την πόρτα για δυο-τρεις ριζούλες χόρτα

Θέλησάνε για να μπούνε στο μπαξέ μου για να δούνε
και μου κόψαν τις ριζούλες που τις είχα από μικρούλες

Μου χτυπούν το παραθύρι, ξυπνώ και βλέπω το Ζαφείρη
Δεν έγινα Πουλόπουλος και μ' άρπαξε ο Σταυρόπουλος

Στο Γεντί-Κουλέ είν' ωραία
πιο καλά κι απ' τον Περαία

Στην Κασσάνδρα είναι πιο φίνα
έχει και ωραίο κλίμα

Και Τρίτη-Πέμπτη μακαρόνια
φάτε μάγκες, βγάλτε χρόνια


In this live version of the second one, Agathonas asks "Με όλα τα λόγια;" and proceeds to sing all the original lyrics and then add his own to the song:


Hondronakos was born in 1926 while Agathonas in 1955, both active in Thessaloniki, and the latter has contributed to an LP posthumously devoted to the former.

Theseus said:

... How does the phrase 'don't fear the prick/ nads' fit into a prison for hash users?

Click to expand...

They don't; that verse, like several of the added ones, is just a dirty rhyme out of the original context.

Thanks as ever, 'Man. I had already translated the Τρίτη Πέμπτη μακαρόνια but then I came across Του μουνιού το γλωσσίδι. I didn't understand the relationship between them till your full explanation. I was particularly interested in the article you referred me to about Kassandra, which I've just finished reading. Appalling conditions! Why was the use of grass punished in so draconian a manner? The use of the nargiles seemed to be so widespread in the τεκέδες.

It was not (just) the use of drugs, Theseus, that was punished. It was the lifestyle of the people who belonged to the demi-monde, their music, their culture etc. As for the conditions in jail, I suspect they applied to everyone.

Thanks, SBE. Playing the μπουζούκι was part of that lifestyle, wasn't it? Is the use of the μπουζούκι now widespread or is it used in some places more than others or the instrument par excellence of rebetik songs?

Part of the lifestyle, but not exclusively.
Nowadays bouzouki is the main or side instrument in everything in Greek music, including euro-dance-pop.
But don't forget that even before it was introduced and made popular in Greece, there were several similar instruments used in folk and popular music, for example tambouras, lute, mandolin etc. So the sound was not completely strange to people and it was not that hard to adopt the bouzouki.

Thanks again, SBE. In the folk song and dance Κάτω στην Άη Γιώργη in the version commonly used in Corfu, I can't identify most of the instruments. For example, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT7fZE_gTvM.

Violin and a selection of string instruments such as dulcimer (maybe), lute and mandolin, I think, and perhpas some percussion of some sort, maybe a tambourine, too. But it’s hard to tell.
Don’t forget that bouzouki is not a folk instrument, so you won’t find it in folk music (δημοτικά).

Right. Bouzouki belongs to the urban tradition, not the country one.

Thanks, both.