At the age of 85, the great composer, songwriter and pianist Dimos Moutsis passed away.
Who was the Municipality of Moutsis?
He was born in Piraeus on August 2, 1938 and began studying at the Athens Conservatory from the age of 7. At the age of 20-21 he finished his musical studies winning the first prize as a violin soloist. Somewhere in the mid-60s, he met Nikos Gatsos and Manos Hadjidakis, in a café-pastry shop that was an old hangout for artists in Athens, where they both frequented.
In 1967, Nikos Gatsos began to give his lyrics to Moutsis and that’s how he wrote his first songs. Moutsi’s first song was “Vrechei o Theos”. He had written the music first and politely asked Gatso if he wanted to put the lyrics, which he did. This song was performed by Stamatis Kokotas.
The collaboration between Gatsu and Moutsi continued with songs such as “Don’t knock on my door at midnight”, “Piraeus” with the same performer, “I saw you in my eyes” with Vicky Mosholiou. In 1969 with “Tomorrow again” performed by Grigoris Bithikotsis, “With a complaint” with Bithikotsis but also the debutant Manolis Mitsias (the first performance of the song was by Mitsias in the movie “A dude in the salons”).
His collaboration with Manos Hatzidaki
In 1970, Manos Hadjidakis commissioned Moutsis to take care of the orchestration and musical direction of his songs on the album “Return”. All in lyrics by Nikos Gatsos and performed by Grigoris Bithikotsis and the debutante Dimitra Galani. This album included Hadjidaki’s songs “Speak to me”, “Ivory boat”, “Today’s bitterness”, with arrangements by Moutsis. At the same time, Moutsis continues to write hits such as “These hands” (lyrics by Lefteris Papadopoulos) and “In Elefsina once” (lyrics by Vassilis Andreopoulos) performed by Mitsias.
After a series of great folk songs, written by Moutsis, performed by old and new singers, such as Mitsias and Galani and the albums “Some Summer” and “Ena Hamogelo”, he arrives at “Agios Februarios”, recorded at the end of 1971 and was released at the beginning of 1972. Manos Eleftheriou wrote the lyrics and Dimitris Mitropanos and Petri Salpea performed. A very important work that seals the entire first period, indeed opening with this work, as it turned out in hindsight, new roads in the Greek discography. In the album “Agios Febrouarios” in addition to the song of the same name, we will also hear other great songs such as: “What if it’s anyone’s fault”, “The house in the uphill”, “I sousta go forward”, “Allos gia Chios travixe” and others.
“District A”
In 1972 “Synoikismos A” with lyrics mainly by: Yiannis Logothetis (who also had the pseudonym Yiannis Michaelidis) but also Gatsou, Eleftheriou and Varvara Tsimoulis. Performed by Antonis Kalogiannis and Viki Moscholiou (music from the play “50 years of tears, 50 years of laughter”). In “Synoikismus A” we will hear several great hits such as the well-known “White, red, yellow, blue”, “That’s how life is” with Moscholiou, “Looking out the window” with Kalogiannis, the folk orchestral “Her dance Leventias” etc. In 1973 “Strofes” was released, another folk and at the same time very melodic recording work by Dimos Moutsis. With solo performer Vicky Moscholiou and lyrics by Pythagoras, Logothetis, Eleftheriou, but also Gatsu. There we will listen to hits such as: “Hugs and side by side”, “And hello joy”, “A night in Larissa”, “I am me” and the atmospheric “Stous baxedes” which is dedicated to the memory of Markos Vamvakaris.
The Postcolonial Era
In 1974 in the post-colonial period, “Martyries”, which included the songs of Moutsis that had been cut by the junta’s censorship in lyrics by Manos Eleftheriou, Yiannis Logothetis, Giorgos Chronas, Varvaras Tsimoulis and the composer himself and singers Manolis Mitsias, Vasiliki Lavina, in one of her first recordings and Christos Lettonos. In 1975 he releases “Tetralogia”, a pioneering cycle of poetry set to music based on poems by K.P. Cavafy, Costas Karyotakis, Giorgos Seferis and Yiannis Ritsou, with performers Manolis Mitsias, Christos Lettonos and debutant singer Alkisti Protopsaltis. This was followed in 1976 by “Ergatis symphony”, music from Giorgos Skourtis’ play “Strike”. In 1979, “Dromologio” was released based on lyrics by Nikos Gatsos and performed by Manolis Mitsias. In the “Itinerary” we will hear tracks like “Like Che Guevara”, “Far away love hour”, “Greece Greece”, “On Mount Athos” etc.
His subsequent course
In 1981 “Fragma” was released with lyrics by Kostas Tripolitis. With songs such as: “De les kuvenda”, “Delenda est (My peace)”, “Letter from the foreign legion”, “Dalika” etc. The folk songs of the record were sung by the great rebetist Sotiria Belou with Dimos Moutsis he only sings the chorus from the well-known “You don’t talk”. The album’s electric ballads were sung by the composer himself. In the same work, Dimos Moutsis also sang “Quventules with Freud” together with Loukianos Kilaidonis and Alcisti Protopsalti.
In 1983, with “Enchyro” he begins his solitary journey. In 1987 follows “Na!” which also contains his well-known songs “The dream” and “A crying harmonica”. In 1990 “Traveler of everything” with Nana Mouschouri, which was also the last record he wrote for a singer other than himself. In 1994 he returned with “For Sale So!” again with his own lyrics and interpretation.
In 1999, Dimos Moutsis collaborated again with Dimitris Mitropanos and Dimitra Galani in a big concert at Irodeion in which they sang together older and newer hits of the great creator. A long-awaited work of his with performer Haroula Alexiou has never been released!
His political career
In the 2019 European elections, he was a candidate for MEP with MeRA25. The same party formation suspended Mutsi’s party status due to accusations against him.
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