Throughout his childhood he was influenced by the musics that were coexisting in Egypt. The sound of Arabic music entered into his life at that time and has continued until today as one of his biggest influences. At the age of ten, he was intrigued by Jazz and learnt to play the trumpet. As a young boy he also attended the choir of the Greek Byzantine church of Alexandria and sang for five years as a soloist.
However, when Artemios reached the age of fifteen, his life changed. It was the time of the Suez Canal crisis. His family left Egypt and immigrated to their homeland Greece. Artemios then had to work to support his family. During the day he attended school and, at night, he played the trumpet in various clubs in Athens. Two years later, his first band, "The Idols" was formed. Artemios played the Bass Guitar and sang backing vocals as well. One day, as the lead singer needed to rest, he asked Artemios to replace him for a few songs. That night, when Artemios sang "The House Of The Rising Sun" and "When A Man Loves A Woman" the audience was amazed. From then on Artemios was asked to sing again and again.
Within a short period, Artemios was making a sound reputation. It was at this time that he met the man who would later become one of his most successful composer, Lakis Vlavianos. From that meeting a new band was born, the "We Five", with Artemios as the lead singer.
In 1968 Artemios’s journey crossed the road of two other top Greek musicians, Vangelis Papatanassiou and Loukas Sideras. Their associationbecame one of the biggest musical events of the seventies in the form of "Aphrodite’s Child". This ambitious band decided to travel to the United Kingdom for better commercial prospects. Artemios--who had now shortened his name to Demis--would be the singer and the bass player, Vangelis the main composer as well as the keyboard player, and Loukas would play the drums.
However, they were refused entry to the United Kingdom for lack of a work permit. Instead, Aphrodite's Child travelled to Paris, arriving just as the city was going through the May 68 revolution. After a few concerts in some trendy Parisian clubs, a major company offered to record a song of theirs, one that was inspired by Pachelbel‘s canon called "Rain And Tears". This first album of Aphrodite’s Child sold over a million copies in France alone.
Nine months later, as Demis first daughter, Emily, was born, "Rain And Tears" was the top single all over Europe and a top 20 single in the United Kingdom. The band experienced a huge success for three years.
They then released their legendary last album “666”, after which, for various reasons, Aphrodite's Child decided to split up.
Since Demis was one of the main elements of the band, the record company offered him a chance to recorded his first solo single, "We Shall Dance", which was released on the album "On the Greek Side of My Mind". This album and the single jumped into the top five of all the national hit parades of Italy, Spain, France, Holland, Germany and Scandinavia.
Some months later, Demis met with his old friend of the "We Five", Lakis Vlavianos. Lakis was then going through an inspired period and wrote many songs which Demis recorded; these turned into a string of number one hits all over the world, including: "Forever And Ever", "My Friend the Wind", and "Velvet Morning".
After his second child, Cyril, was born in 1975, Demis toured the globe for eight years with his second wife and child. In Brazil, he packed a stadium of 150 000 people--an event that was achieved in that particular stadium twice only. (The other previous artist was Frank Sinatra.) In fact, Demis sold enough records to gain a name in the Guinness Book of records among the personalities of show business in the 70’s and the eighties. He was awarded more than a hundred golden, platinum, and diamond albums and cassettes.
His unique dressing style was often considered eccentric but Demis was following his instinct which told him that the music he was performing should match with the combination of looks between the glorious Byzantine Empire and the Arabic Caftan.
In 1978 his instinct told him again that he should retire for a while, thinking of new things concerning his career and life. And so he took his family to an area of the world where he was unknown, Malibu Beach, California. There, Demis lost over 50 kilograms. He returned to Europe and lived a quieter life between England and Greece, alone with his son, Cyril.
On June 14 1985, wile he was travelling from Athens to Rome, a decisive event occurred. Demis’s TWA airplane was hijacked by terrorists. After two days in that plane praying, Demis was held three days in the prison of Beyrouth with his third wife. Like many other survivors, he went through the shock of a traumatic experience. After that, Demis said he had never understood so well the importance of the nations living in peace and how precious life is when you see death so close. He felt more than ever that his contribution for a better tomorrow could be via music and so decided to return to the recording and performance scene.
He recorded twenty songs and compiled an album called "The story of Demis Roussos". With this album, Demis started to world tour again and found a nostalgic audience who had missed his magic voice. In 1986 Demis toured the USSR for three weeks and was invited to join important scientists, writers and artists at the forum for peace and disarmament in Moscow, during February 1987.
Later that year, during a tight TV schedule in Chile, Demis insisted on fitting in a visit to the Earth summit in Rio to get a clearer picture of the environmental problems, which were a main concern for Demis.
Since then Demis had been a regular visitor of the charts with singles such as "Quand je t’aime" and "On écrit sur les murs", and albums such as "Voice and Vision" and "Immortel".
Since 2008, Demis had been living in Greece by the sea. After being one of the most talented singers of his century, Demis was still working on more magical offerings, with the blessing of music and God.
He died aged 68, on the Hygeia Hospital in Athens on January 25, 2015.
O My Friends You've Been Untrue To Me
Demis Roussos Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
As my heart went astray
When my love chose to lurk in the sea
To live her own way
And all of you have run off the dance
That sadness kept for me
O my friends you've bee untrue to me
You stole my heart away
Hey my heart, let me be
Hang on back to the trees
My sad memory¸
Please my heart, let me be
Free in my so late dreams
Early in the morning
Free in my so late dreams
Early in the morning
The lyrics of Demis Roussos's song "O My Friends You've Been Untrue To Me" depicts an individual who feels betrayed by their friends when their love interest decides to leave them and live her own life. The opening line "O my friends you've been untrue to me" is more of an accusation and condemnation towards his friends for not being there for him in his darkest moment, instead they chose to abandon him and leave him in his misery. He feels that his friends took advantage of his sadness and mended their broken hearts by stealing his heart away.
The chorus of the song "Hey my heart let me be, hang on back to the trees" portrays the singer's desire to move on past the broken heart he's suffered. He pleads with his heart to disregard the grief and hold on to cheerful experiences and memories of the past. He wants to be free in his dreams and in the early mornings when he awakens. The repetition of "free in my so late dreams, early in the morning" indicates he is not letting his heartache in the way of living his best life and augmenting his sorrow with happy dreams.
Overall, the song's lyrics highlight human emotions, especially the feeling of betrayal, heartbreak, and the desire to move on despite the agony.
Line by Line Meaning
O my friends you've been untrue to me
Addressing the treachery of friends who betrayed his trust and faith
As my heart went astray
His emotional turmoil after being abandoned by his love
When my love chose to lurk in the sea
His lover left him and never expected to see again, maybe eloped or drowned in the sea
To live her own way
His lover's decision to leave him on her own accord
And all of you have run off the dance
All of his friends abandoned him, leaving him alone to deal with the pain of his heartache
That sadness kept for me
His friends did not console him with their friendship during his difficult times
O my friends you've bee untrue to me
Reiterating the fact that his friends were disloyal and disingenuous
You stole my heart away
Expressing the heartbreak and sadness he felt after losing his lover due to her own decision
Hey my heart, let me be
He tries to overcome all the pain and sadness by asking his heart not to dwell on past memories
Hang on back to the trees
He wants to forget everything and live happily just like the birds and animals that live happily in the natural world outside.
My sad memory
He wants to forget the pain of the past and move on in life with a clearer perspective
Please my heart, let me be
Pleading with his heart to let go of the past and have hope for the future
Free in my so late dreams
He seeks freedom from his heartache in his dreams, where he can escape reality and live in a world of his own
Early in the morning
Maybe expressing the hope that maybe someday, life will be sunny again
Writer(s): Boris Bergman, Demis Artemios Ventouris Roussos, Anargyros Koulouris
Contributed by Daniel S. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Titus Bondi Tafichazo
Poetic !!!
Thanks Demis for your music for ever !!
Dimiter Stoyanov
R.I.P., Maestro! 🕊️💔
One of my 🔝 fav tunes ever! 👌👍👏🫶🔨
initium71
Demis at his very best!I LOVE his songs/repetoire,from the 70's....what a voice!
Steven Millington
love the first 35, great stuff the whole track is cool ... the rest of the lp is nice too. this is the stand alone track.
London Loves
RIP Demis :(
PeckhamSteve
Rip Demis. Beautiful, man.
MrTomasso66
not quite sure what you are referring to, but this track above is the exact version of the song as it appeared on demis' first lp "fire and ice" in 1971. and if you listen to the single songs from the "late night" comp. you will discover that "questions" originally does not contain any flute samples at all. it was all done in the mix.
RLCH0169
I've always found it a shame that Roussos didn't turn the part beginning at 2mn27 into a full song in that haunting, keyboard-centric style of his. Perhaps it reminded him too much of his Aphrodite's Child work.
itsowizi
This has been sampled at 0:35 by DJ Shadow on Latyrx's "The Quickening"... Great post! Thanks!
GHegazy1
yep the musical intro seems like it doesn't belong to the song.... the song is as usual great..