SOCRATES "DRANK THE CONIUM" POWER HENDRIX ACID PSYCH HEAVY Rare 2nd re- LP

$

52

                     WILD AND EXCITING!
      ..|/\|...............................................|/\|..                          
                = SOCRATES =
       "A TASTE OF CONIUM "                 ..|/\|...............................................|/\|..                                   Greece - Polydor - 2421 023

Plays CLEAN!

Long long gone Polydor (scarce) 2nd press in laminated cover ...the 1972 recorded album blows minds with wild frenzy guitar throughout as in the Greece version of the Jimi Hendrix Experience ...

This copy was recently brought to the USA by a collector from Greece. 
This Hendrix-style blues band was playing to standing-room-only crowds in a small club in Athens, during Greece's military dictatorship, a period when even Rolling Stone albums were hard to find, and for a time illegal.

Socrates was Yannis Spathas and Antonis Tourkoyorgis on guitar and bass respectively. During the period that they were playing in the Kitarro Club they went through several drummers including George Trantalidis, all of them terrific. In Athens during the early seventies, when the 1967 military dictatorship was still in control, there were a number of rock clubs in the area around Victoria Square and in the Plaka. Poll and Morka played at the Elaterion. Socrates and Exidaktilo played at the Kitarro. As Dorian Kokas, the founder and leader of Morka told us one night "We used to race through our set and play everything fast so we could get out early and go to the Kittaro and catch the last set of Socrates." Musicians loved Socrates.

Socrates sounded like several bands that were popular at the time, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Deep Purple, Blue Cheer, and Black Sabbath come to mind now when we hear their music from that early period, though the majority of their material was original. There were songs that were crowd favorites such as "Close the Door and Lay Down", "Starvation" and "Underground", but often the highlight of the evening was when they did their Hendrix songs like "Voodoo Chile", "Message of Love" and "Red House" .

Spathas played a Fender Strat, long straight hair hanging down almost to the guitar, he was motionless except for his hands which effortlessly ripped out the most fluid, solos and riffs. He always hooked the chord to his amp over the bottom cutaway so he would not step on it and pull it out during a solo. It was sort of his trademark in a way and we would watch him tune up  with mind-boggling riffs.  Antonis Tourkoyorgis played bass and sang and if Spathas gave the appearance of being introverted he was the complete opposite. He was also a great bass player. The powerful sound this little three-piece band with their stacks of Marshalls put out in the Kittaro kept fans coming back night after night. In all truth no heavy rock early '70s band was better than Socrates; Led Zepplin? Nope, Hendrix or Cream perhaps on the same level, but we can't imagine anyone being better than Socrates on a good night and they were too good to have a bad night.

What made them so remarkable was the guitar playing of Spathas. Even today listening to the solos he played in 1972 we still can't believe the music he was making. If this guy had come to America he would be a guitar hero and everyone would know his name. If you like the way Hendrix, Ritchie Blackmore, Jimmy Page play you will love Spathas and if you play guitar yourself you will wonder "If this was thirty years ago and he is still playing today - how good must he be now?".....

1. Wild Satisfaction
2. 
   
3. Good Morning Blues
4. 
   
5. See See Rider
6. 
   
7. Door of the Dream
8. 
   
9. Waiting for the Sun
10. 
    
11. A Trip in the Sky
12. 
    
13. It's OK
14. 
    
15. Born to be Free
16. 
    
17. She's Gone Away