The band's first two albums, End of the World and It's Five O'Clock, combined a very '60s sounding Euro-pop-rock with Greek folk music elements. The former album featured the song "Rain and Tears", a reworking of Pachelbel's Canon in D major. The song was a minor hit in the United Kingdom, but did far better in France, where the band was based, as well as the rest of Europe. Other European hits included "Marie Jolie", "I Want to Live", and "Spring, Summer, Winter, and Fall" from 1969 and 1970 respectively.
The band began to record their crowning achievement in 1970: a musical adaptation of the biblical Book of Revelations, entitled 666 - The Apocalypse of St. John. Relations between Roussos, Vangelis and Sideras were not good at the time, and continued to worsen before the album's creation. However, the group was contractually obligated to release a third album, and went into the studio in 1970 to create 666.
Essentially, 666 was Vangelis' concept, created with an outside lyricist, Costas Ferris. The music that Vangelis was creating for 666 was much more psychedelic and progressive rock oriented than anything the band had done before. This did not sit well with the other band members, who wished to continue in the pop direction that had brought them success. Further, Roussos was being groomed for a solo career, and pressure from the record company for the band to produce another hit single did not help. In essence, the band broke up during the completion of 666. Vangelis finished the album primarily on his own with assistance from studio musicians.
Immediately afterwards, Vangelis engaged in a long fight with Mercury over the content of the album. The record company, in particular, objected to the song "∞" (infinity), which consisted of actress Irene Papas chanting the words "I was, I am, I am to come" in various stages of orgiastic ecstasy, while Vangelis accompanied her on percussion. However, the double-album length of 666 and the musical experimentation, as well as the subject matter, also exacerbated Mercury's ire. After Roussos and Sideras had already embarked on solo careers, Mercury finally agreed to release 666 two years after its completion, and it came out in 1972.
Strangely enough, 666 was the only Aphrodite's Child album to make any impact in America. The blood-red cover with the letters 666 prominently displayed in black and white was striking, and brought immediate accusations of occultism from various quarters. Any suspicions of occultism could be dispersed by simply reading the lyrics, which were fairly faithfully based around the Book of Revelations, but the accusations undoubtedly helped sell the album in the United States. The album met with less controversy overseas and sold reasonably well on its own merits.
The music itself was an impressive display of Vangelis' abilities, combining psychedelic and progressive rock with ethnic instruments, choral chanting, recitations, and very advanced use of synthesizers and keyboards for the time. In time the album became recognized as one of the most important early progressive rock works, and a defining example of the concept album. 666 also made Vangelis an underground name to watch, and earned him an offer from Jon Anderson to join Yes. Vangelis turned down the offer in order to concentrate on a solo career. However, he and Anderson later created several duet albums in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
After the band split, both Vangelis and Demis Roussos pursued successful solo careers, Roussos as a pop singer and Vangelis as one of the pioneers in progressive electronic music. Kolouris worked with both on occasion. Lucas Sideras pursued a less successful solo career, releasing the single "Rising Sun" after the break-up.
Discography
End of the World (1968)
It's Five O'Clock (1969)
666 (The Apocalypse Of John,13/18) (1971)
Best Of Aphrodite's Child (1980)
Aphrodite's Child's Greatest Hits (1995)
The Complete Collection (Aphrodite's Child) (1996)
Babylon the Great (2002)
Song Highlights:
"Four Horsemen", from the album 666, was a minor hit on FM radio in the United States, receiving AOR airplay to this day. "Babylon", from the same album, was released as a single, and found similar acceptance on AOR radio in the 1970's. "Hic and Nunc" and "Break", from the same album, were also tried out as singles but did not chart well at the time.
"Spring, Summer, Winter and Fall" - the final single before the release of 666 and the last of the band's singles to chart significantly in their European home base.
"Rain and Tears" - based on Pachelbel's Canon in D major, this song was probably their biggest hit as a single release.
"It's Five o Clock" and "Such a Funny Night" also charted in Europe. All of the above songs can be found on various compilation/greatest hits discs. The band's singles were aimed squarely at the pop market, and do not bear any significant resemblance to the music on 666.
Altamont
Aphrodite's Child Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
We saw a lamb with seven eyes
We saw a beast with seven horns
And a book sealed with seven seals
Seven angels with seven trumpets
And seven bowls filled with anger
Those are the pictures
Of what is
And of what has to come
We are the people
The rolling people
The why people
The waiting people
The wanting people
The tambourine people
The alternative people
The angel people
We are the people
The rolling people
The why people
The waiting people
The wanting people
The tambourine people
The alternative people
The angel people
The angel people
The lyrics to Aphrodite's Child's song "Altamont" are rich in symbolism and allusions to religious motifs. The song opens with a description of a vision that the singer has had on a high mountain, where they see a lamb with seven eyes, a beast with seven horns, and a book sealed with seven seals. These are all references to the Book of Revelation, the final book of the New Testament, which describes a series of visions that the apostle John has of the end of the world and the return of Jesus Christ.
The singer also sees seven angels with seven trumpets and seven bowls filled with anger, which are also referenced in the Book of Revelation as the seven trumpets blown by seven angels that announce the end of the world and the seven bowls of God's wrath that are poured out on the earth during the end times. The number seven is significant in the Bible as representing completeness or perfection, and its use in the song suggests that the visions of the singer are meant to be taken as symbolic depictions of the end of the world.
Line by Line Meaning
This is the sight we had one day on the High Mountain
We once witnessed a supernatural phenomenon on a high peak of land
We saw a lamb with seven eyes
We witnessed a strange-looking lamb with seven eyes
We saw a beast with seven horns
We saw a fearsome creature with seven horns
And a book sealed with seven seals
We also saw a book that was sealed tightly with seven seals
Seven angels with seven trumpets
We beheld angels blowing trumpetswhile there were seven of them
And seven bowls filled with anger
We spotted seven bowls that contain fury
Those are the pictures
Of what was
Of what is
And of what has to come
These are visual representations of the past, present, and future realities
We are the people
The rolling people
The why people
The waiting people
The wanting people
The tambourine people
The alternative people
The angel people
We are the people
The rolling people
The why people
The waiting people
The wanting people
The tambourine people
The alternative people
The angel people
We represent various groups of humanity
Contributed by Adrian G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@Arnitikos
This is the sight we had one day
on the High Mountain
We saw a lamb with seven eyes
We saw a beast with seven horns
and a book with seven seals
Seven angels with seven trumpets
and seven bowls filed with anger
Those are the pictures
of what was
of what is
of what has to come We are the people
the rolling people
the why people
the waiting people
the wanting people
the tambourine people
the alternative people
the angel people
@KCNYC
Hard to believe the rest of the band hated this album. Such a masterpiece, and this is one of the top tracks imho.
@RUXCKLENEITOR
Este tema es uno de los mejores del album entero. Sencillamente es épica y delirante, como algo que sonaría mientras se acaba el mundo y salen los créditos...
@Arnitikos
This is the sight we had one day
on the High Mountain
We saw a lamb with seven eyes
We saw a beast with seven horns
and a book with seven seals
Seven angels with seven trumpets
and seven bowls filed with anger
Those are the pictures
of what was
of what is
of what has to come We are the people
the rolling people
the why people
the waiting people
the wanting people
the tambourine people
the alternative people
the angel people
@xiropigado
Nothing sounds like this remarkable album.
@robsiddall9731
Absolutely blinding ,starting to finish 👏 wow quite a medley of a prophesy x
@amh426
For those familiar with Magma...right up their alley...great cut...
@yonathan4051
de mis bandas favoritas
@margosipman2799
Aparte muziek! Beautiful!🎹🪘🎸🥁🪕🎺🙋
@kisawisa1769
Psychedelic jam!
@rockdrumr2772
Fucking AWESOME!