Some more on Misirlou

[Eva Broman <evbr4965...>]

Hi everyone,

I haven't had the opportunity to read the digests for a while, so I'm a little 
behind in the discussions. However, the mention of "Misirlou" caught my eye. 
Since I am a lot more familiar with Greek music than with Yiddish/klezmer 
music, I knew "Misirlou" in its Greek versions, rather than in the 
Yiddish/American ones! I happened to read about the song on another list, and 
according to this info, the Greek-American music teacher Nikos Rumbanis 
registered (which I presume means that he "copywrighted") "Misirlou" in 1943. 
It then had a jazz ("beguine") style. The original poster mentions that it was 
popular among the Greeks of Kairo, and often played by Greek-Egyptian jazz 
orchestras in the fifties. It is also mentioned that it could be an Armenian 
folk song originally. It would be interesting to know the origins of the song, 
if they can be traced. Anyway, the title is Greek: Misirlou means "woman from 
Misr (Egypt)", which fits well with the song's "oriental" feel. The Yiddish 
lyrics are also very similar to the Greek ones, which is probably due to the 
fact that they were translated from the original English lyrics (which I don't 
know!). I don't know if this applies to klezmer tunes, but in many Greek songs, 
Oriental women are often portrayed as especially alluring and exotic, like the 
beautiful Misirlou.

Apologies if all this is already old news!

One nice Greek version by this song is done by Roma singer Manolis 
Angelopoulos, which is quite fitting, since he often recorded songs that were 
either original Middle Eastern tunes or in a quasi-Middle Eastern style.

All the best, Eva Broman