Clip description

'Mother send the doctors away’ is a track from Apodimi Compania’s album 'Rebetika: Songs of Greece’ (1986). It is a Rebetika song from the 1940s, played in a style typical of the genre, with guitar, tzouras and baglama backing the voice.

Curator’s notes

'Mother Send the Doctors Away’ is a song by blind guitarist Steliou Hrisinis (1916–70), a well-known Rembete songwriter and performer who played from the 1930s to the 1950s. The song is one of many about tuberculosis, which was common in Greece in the early years of last century. The singer is telling his mother to send the doctors away, as they can’t help, and let him die in peace.

Apodimi Compania use guitar as the rhythmic basis of the song with baglama, a small half-size bouzouki, providing a rhythmic counterpoint. The melody behind the voice – and filling-in between verses – is played on a tzouras, a smaller bouzouki-style instrument. Worry beads tapped on the side of a glass are used as percussion.