"I started naked, I go alone, my home is the road and my song is the pain…". And the truth is that Pythagoras is one of the few who managed to make pain a song with such mastery and emotion, that in difficult and strange times lyrics they were able to speak directly to the heart of the world.
And his lyrics may not have been at all elaborate and poetic, but it was precisely their simplicity that touched the world. The songs were loved and continue to be loved to this day. Even if some of them are not "current". It is so much the truth that they hide inside them, that they have the power to travel you back in time, to live their time.
Something similar happened with Pythagoras' album "Asia Minor", which was released in 1972 and seemed more out of date than ever, due to the political situation at the time. And because people always love the truth and authenticity, this album immediately embraced him, leaving exposed the record stores that did not want him. While for "Asia Minor" was established for the first time the gold disk.
A few years after the destruction of Smyrna and specifically in 1930 was born Pythagoras Papastamatiou, son of a refugee from Smyrna - although his parents were both born in Samos - who were in Agrinio. The memories of the refugees are fresh and with them the little Pythagoras grew up. As he grew up with the values that his parents took care to give him: love, pride and caring for the neighbor.
Published by Pythagoras Papastamatiou on Wednesday, November 11, 2020
The Occupation finds him a young student, with his older brother during the war going to the mountains and becoming a rebel. Pythagoras follows. Only at the age of 14 he joined the guerrillas to fight the Germans. From a very early age, then, the later lyricist of great successes, learns first hand the two aspects of life: cruelty, pain, injustice, slavery.
But also the pride that his parents taught him, the stature, the struggles for freedom, but also the caring for the neighbor. Pythagoras there in the wildness of war, will see his other side, the most human. The one who says that in the end, we do not have to separate anything between us.
"The war is horrible. You stabbed Panos, then he killed you too. "Now sleep embraced, as God wanted it to be, 'let the peoples be brothers, black, white, a people…", write the lyrics of his song "The Neapolitan".
With these images and experiences, Pythagoras returned to the school which he finished. In fact, then he started signing only with his first name and when his teachers remarked, he used to answer them: "One is Pythagoras, everyone knows me, I do not need the last name".
As soon as he finished school, Pythagoras took the road to the capital. He studied at the Drama School of the Athens Conservatory and although acting has always fascinated him, in the end he did not follow the actor's career. He soon discovered his inclination to write lyrics and through them he was able to bring out all his sensitivity.
So in the 60's he started writing songs. He was not interested in the studied lyrics. He cared to speak in the heart of the common people. Let his voice and his lyrics become what they wanted to say at that time. Injustice, poverty, alienation that took the world away, pain were what occupied the society of that time. And the songs of Pythagoras - although to some they seemed like a member - were the melodic feeling of the Greek, dressed several of them with the great voice of Stelios Kazantzidis.
And the '70s are coming, which is more political because of the junta. But, Pythagoras in 1972 chooses to release in collaboration with Apostolos Kaldaras, the album "Asia Minor" which refers to the uprooting of the Greeks. To many, that record seemed out of date.
But the lyricist - who already had several successes in his assets - wanted through this work to talk about the Asia Minor catastrophe that had marked him so much. Minos, to whom the lyricist belonged at the time, acknowledged the value of the songs, which made their way to the studio to be performed by George Dalaras and Haris Alexiou.
But not everyone showed confidence…
As soon as the recording was completed, the record company's salesmen went to the record stores to sample the record. However, they were negative. The record sellers believed that because of the political situation at the time, people wanted political songs. And that an album about Asia Minor would not sell.
But they were solemnly refuted. And in fact in a few. Because, the album was not only embraced by the world, but also made record sales. In fact, for the sake of "Asia Minor" and Pythagoras, the institution of the Golden Disc was established for the first time in Greece.
The director of the record company, wanting to compensate his associates for the commercial success, established the award ceremony. For the 50.000 sales would be awarded the Gold Disc and for the 100.000, the Platinum.
I will only remind you of the work of "Asia Minor" that I had the good fortune to set to music, that moved the whole of Greece and that with such great mastery, in the narrow context of an album, of course, dealt with the issue of the Asia Minor Catastrophe and that alone open the door for him to the Pantheon of the great folk verses ", Apostolos Kaldaras had stated for Pythagoras.
Pythagoras is - rightly - the lyricist of the greatest successes. And the truth is that even today, listening to some well-known songs, we say: "and this is his?".
Indicatively, some of them:
Wildflower (Music: Christos Nikolopoulos, Song: Stelios Kazantzidis, 1968)
There is no happiness (Music: George Katsaros, Song: Litsa Diamanti, 1971)
You will remember me (Music: Giannis Spanos, Song: Giannis Parios, 1979)
Every port and misery, (Music: George Katsaros, Song: Panos Gavalas-Ria Kourti, 1964)
Under my shirt (Music: Christos Nikolopoulos, Song: Stelios Kazantzidis, 1975)
Stop Night (Music: Christos Nikolopoulos, Song: Litsa Diamanti, 1972)
When a woman drinks (Music: Vassilis Vassiliadis, Song: Kati Petraki / Charoula Alexiou, 1970)
I Exist (Music: Christos Nikolopoulos, Song: Stelios Kazantzidis, 1975)
We are both to blame (Music: Giannis Spanos, Song: Giannis Parios, 1978).
Pythagoras was an avid smoker and refused to obey the advice of his doctors, he died of a heart attack at the age of just 49, on November 12, 1979.