ERKİN KORAY A TURKISH MUSIC LEGEND
ERKIN KORAY, A MUSIC LEGEND
Erkin Koray, with his unforgettable nickname Erkin Baba (Dad Erkin), is one of the most original and creative artists of Turkish rock music. He was born on June 24, 1941 in Kadıköy, Istanbul, as the son of a musician mother.
The sound of rock music and even Anatolian Rock began to grow towards the end of the 1960s. Of course, across Europe, which carries out the task of pioneering, is called the renaissance of music by some authorities for those changes in Europe in the 1960s. The philosophy of rock music comes from rising of mental objection. Objection for the public, the general order, deception and lovelessness... The approach was the same all over the world, the flower people and their art, especially their music, were born from this approach. They preferred to make love instead of making war, and violently protest the warring imperial states and those who support them, both with their dressing style and their actions. The destruction caused by the Second World War has not been forgotten yet, on the contrary, the Korean War and the US invasion efforts of Vietnam have caused that the protests to get into the blood of music.
Art is not independent, apart from society, isn't that normal? Isn't the artist also a member of the society? While many musicians were transferring their feelings about wars, societies and other subjects to music, many beautiful works emerged.
Similar developments had begun in our country as well. Erkin Koray was one of those who injected his thoughts into the blood of music. He blended Turkish (and eastern) culture with western style so much that unforgettable works emerged. We laughed with some, we played with some, we protested with some, but in each of them, the melodies never left our ears and our memories.
Erkin Koray was born into a house filled with music. His mother was a teacher at the Municipal Conservatory and was a pianist. She enabled Erkin to take piano lessons at the age of 5. But what did Erkin Koray do? Maybe it was because of the protest side in his soul, he chose guitar. Who knows, maybe the guitar seemed more attractive, lively and lively to him back then.
Erkin Koray's acquaintance with rock music coincides with his high school years. At first, they started playing the famous rock and roll tunes with the band they formed at the German High School in Istanbul. The Naval Academy Orchestra was the only ensemble that made this kind of music in Turkey during this period! As Koray and his friends continue their work, a great opportunity awaits them:
A concert at Galatasaray High School in 1957.
The songs that Koray and his friends played in the concert were as follows.
1) Ain't That a Shame - Fats Domino
2) Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On - Jerry Lee Lewis
3) Hound Dog - Elvis Presley
4) I'm Walkin' - Fats Domino
5) Don't Be Cruel - Elvis Presley
In 1972, Erkin Koray performing in a concert in Istanbul.
There was a very important name among the audience of Erkin Koray’s debut, who assumed the role of pioneer, not parallel to the development of music in Türkiye. Barış Manço, a sophomore in secondary school that day. Barış Manço would also become a very famous star years later. (Of course, his life and achievements are long enough to be the subject of a separate article or even articles, just like Erkin Koray.)
Her first single "A September Evening" (Bir Eylul Aksami) was recorded and released in 1962 while he was still studying at the conservatory. The melody of this piece inspired the famous Rolling Stones' anti-war song "Paint It Black" released in 1966. After graduating from conservatory, Erkin Koray was drafted into the army and served in the Air Force Jazz Orchestra in Eskişehir. During this time, he gets to know Turkish Folk Songs better and begins to interpret them with Western melodies. Erkin Koray, who is constantly in pursuit of research, self-development and innovation, released another single during his military years, which was completely in the style of classic rock n roll.
After this date, he went to Europe to research European culture and to understand their music better. He returned to the country after a three-year research period. There he saw and was impressed by the Psychedelic style pioneered by Pink Floyd. This is the result of this interaction, Kızları da Alın Askere (Take the Girls for the Army, too) on one side of the forty-five that was exiled in 1967. Koray, who has not abandoned Turkish melodies in almost any of his pieces, has also added melodies from our own in the Psychedelic style (as entered into Turkish) in this piece. On the other side of this 45 we find the "Love Game" (Aşk Oyunu). The style is the same, expressiveness and creativity are at the highest level and so the awareness of Erkin Koray has increased especially with "Take the girls for the army, too". (Kızları da Askere Alın)
Erkin's new physical appearance reflected the style of the Flower People (Hippy) that we have previously mentioned. Erkin Koray may even be the first of the popular men with long hair in the country. Afterwards, Cem Karaca and Barış Manço adopted the same style, both in terms of appearance and his art. Reflecting his interest in the hippie style, he also had a single "Tuesday Afternoon" (Salı Öğleden Sonra) released during this period. This piece is a psychedelic interpretation of Turkish instrumental folk tune and a cover (reinterpreted, arrangement) of Moody Blues' song Tuesday Afternoon with Turkish lyrics.
Erkin Koray, who founded the band called Erkin Koray Quartet in 1967, achieved his first important success with this group and made four important singles in 1967-1968. He took his place in the "Golden Microphone" (Altın Miktofon) competition held by Hürriyet Newspaper (Used to be the most popular newspaper in Turkey in 1968. Erkin Koray's songs "Unknown" (Meçhul) and “Flower Mountain” (Çiçek Dağı), which came 4th in this competition, were later released by a record company and had a circulation of 800 thousand copies. He gave concerts with his band and continued to work in various venues such as Clubs and Bars.
Erkin Koray and Underground Quartet (Erkin Koray ve Yeraltı Dörtlüsü) in 1969
A year later, in 1969, Erkin Koray, who founded the group "Underground Quartet", started working with the group in an apartment they rented in Cihangir (Taksim’s district in Istanbul). Even the name of the group clearly revealed the interests of Koray and his friends: The Underground Quartet! This group has given the most striking examples of psychedelic music in Turkey and has always been Koray's most famous group. Among the 8 singles he recorded with this group are "Sana Birseyler Olmuş" (Land of a Thousand Dances' cover with Turkish lyrics), "İlahi Morluk", "Senden Ayri", "Mechul " and "Gel Bak Ne Söylicem". , all psychedelic classics, and some of them were on the set list of his concerts to date. From this point of view, especially "Divine Bruise" (İlahi Morluk) is on my recommendation list.
Who were in the Underground Quartet? Of course, Erkin Koray was on vocals and solo guitar. Aydın Buyar Şencan was on the bass guitar and Ataman Hakman was on the guitar. The drummer of the band was Sedat Avcı.
Erkin Koray On Hurriyet (used to be most popular newspaper in Turkiye until around 2010) when he was
The first significant success that came with the fourth place in the Golden Microphone competition, consecutively until the end of the 60s: "Anma Arkadaş" (1967), "Hop Hop Gelsin" (1968), "Sana Bir Şeyler Olmuş" (1969), "Seni Her Gördüğümde" (1969) followed by tracks such as "Yalnızlar Rıhtımı" (1969), all of which were critically acclaimed. Erkin Koray started to write his name in the history of Turkish Rock Music with golden letters. With its unique musical style, it is a wide period of time stretching from the late 1960s to the 1980s, with its most productive years. In these years, new beautiful pieces will come to the music world.
After the Underground Quartet disbanded, he put together another group, the Super Group, which went more in psychedelic vein in 1971. The group had one former Underground Quartet member and they only released two singles. Both included the tunes of two Turkish arabesque songwriters, with whom Erkin Koray was very good friends at that time. “Yağmur” (Rain) was already sung by the songwriter's girlfriend at that time and had become a huge hit, but Koray's version has become a cult among Turkish rock music lovers.
Meanwhile, Orhan Gencebay, the composer of the other single "Goca Dünya", was perhaps the biggest name in the so-called arabesque music scene in Turkey. Shortly after the disbandment of Süper Grup, Koray formed the short-lived group Ter in 1972 with former members of Bunalim, another important group of the Turkish psychedelic-underground music scene. Despite the high expectations from this group, she and Züleyha were able to release another Gencebay song, "Contempt Garibi" (and this piece, unlike the previous one, was a hit by Gencebay himself).
After the release of Contempt Garibi, Ter and Erkin Koray parted ways. In the meantime, another psychedelic single called Mesafeler (Distances) was released, which showed the music lovers how far the master musician has gotten by surpassing himself.
As a note, the master artist usually includes this piece (Distances) in the concert set list and extends the duration by ten to fifteen minutes.
Between 1970-1974, he produced many classical works that were at the top of Turkey's music charts. İlahi Morluk (Divine Bruise), Aşka İnanmıyorum (I Don't Believe in Love), Mesafeler (Distances), "Züleyha", Silinmeyen Hatıralar (Indelible Memories), Şaşkın (Confused) in 1974 and Fesuphanallah are his works of this period.
“Şaşkın” (Confused) was inspired by the melody of Dabke, a traditional Egyptian folk song was folk-arabesque but did not include any rock instruments, not even the guitar that was Koray's signature. To the confusion of his fans and the music press, he released 4 more singles in more or less the same style, sometimes featuring minor guitar and drum work that brought the song closer to rock. In the middle of these arabesque-folk records, it was 1974 when he released Krallar (Kings), another heavy psychedelic single, featuring some musicians from the Yeraltı Dörtlüsü (Underground Quartet) days. In the same year, he released his first non-compilation Long Play named "Elektronik Türleri".
Erkin Koray lived in Germany, Netherlands and Canada between 1974-1984. In those years, he did not neglect to come to Turkey during those years. Koray, who we not have much information about himself in the period he lived abroad apart from his short visits, published well-known works such as "Fesupanallah", "Estarabim", "Arap Saçı ", "Gönül Salıncağı ", "Sevince ", "Sanma". After the LP named Erkin Koray Tutkusu (Erkin Koray Passion), which he founded in 1977 and the band with the same name, he did not form any other bands except for a short time together.
In the next album, "Benden Sana", released in 1982, Erkin Koray tried Indian music this time. It was recorded with the help of Turkish and Indian musicians in Germany and Istanbul, and included remakes of his two previous hits (which would continue the remake tradition for years ahead.).
In 1983, "İlla ki" was released. This album also included remakes of two tracks from the early psychedelic period before the Underground Quartet (Yeraltı Dörtlüsü, the band Erkin performs with). The album was quite rich in terms of arrangement. With this album, he took all the remaining instruments himself, apart from the “Bağlama” (a Special Anatolian musical instrument) that was played by a saz (Bağlama) master, one step further towards becoming a one-man orchestra.
With the album "Gaddar" released in 1986 and the track named Gaddar, which gave the album its name, he received great acclaim. In 1987, the albums "Çukulatam Benim" and in 1989 "Hay Yam Yam" were released. The song "Hayat Katarı", for which he shot a clip in this album, was used in Kemal Sunal's (Famous comedy Turkish actor) movie called "Abuk Subuk Bir Film". In 1990, he released the album "Tamam Artık ", which contains a mix of old and new songs.
After releasing subpar albums in the mid and late '80s and a single live album in 1991, he made a spectacular comeback with "Gün Ola Harman Ola " in 1996. In this album, he had old friends from the Underground Quartet and Ter (another group he founded) days. The album, which was first class in terms of musicality, may have made little progress in terms of innovation. For example, Akrebin Gözleri (Scorpion's Eyes) and Mezarlık Gülleri (Graveyard Roses) were among the most striking tracks of this album.
In addition to the ongoing concerts, he made another album in 1999 and this album continues to be his last album. Devlerin Nefesi (Breath of the Giants) is his ultimate remake album, with over half of the tracks being new versions of old hits or unknown classics. But the arrangements are in a more progressive style. That's why progressive rock enthusiasts will definitely find something to like. Krallar (Kings), for example, is a great example of the psychedelic genre. Needless to say, Çöpçüler (Garbagemen) is a popular song on everyone's lips timelessly.
When we look back, Erkin Koray interpreted the works of the period such as folk songs and Turkish art music in an underground style, while he turned to the psychedelic genre, which the majority of the period found strange by listening to the innovative a bit and not finding that harmony in their minds. While doing these studies, he made serious researches about western rock music and eastern music in the commune houses he rented with his group, and it was the synthesis of the music of the two cultures that emerged.
The musicians living in the same house are in deep searches in their intellectual and philosophical journeys, apart from the experimentalism in their music. The house where the Underground Quartet lived together has turned into a philosophy and music base. In other words, they are the representatives of the intellectual journey from the 1970s to these days.
Erkin Koray, who is innovative with his extraordinary lyrics, unique vocals, long hair and dressing style, was excluded by TRT, the state’s broadcasting monopoly of the period. Because of many other reasons almost all of his works were not deemed suitable for publication by the TRT supervision until private broadcasting institutions emerged. This situation caused Koray's audience to be limited.
Erkin Koray's life has generally passed with economic difficulties. His extremely popular work, unfortunately, was not enough to relieve him financially. Many original artists, such as Erkin Koray, could not get rid of these problems due to uncertain copyrights at that time, limited working opportunities, an unhealthy music market and low purchasing power of music listeners. For this reason, some of them left music and were engaged in jobs where they could get better conditions. Erkin Koray has been one of our most violated artists. For these reasons, he could almost never find the financial resources to realize the productions he wanted.
Anma Arkadaş, one of the songs of Erkin Koray, and whose lyrics belong to Selahattin Sarıkaya, was included in Ogün Sanlısoy's (Popular Rock Singer, vocalist guitarist in Pentagram rock band) album "Ben", which was released on 7 February 2011. Sanlisoy interpreted this piece as a rock version.
Erkin Koray continues his concerts in musical venues. I wish him good health and long life.
Levent Aslan.
Sources:
ERKIN KORAY discography and reviews (progarchives.com)
Erkin Koray Kimdir? - Erkin Koray Hayatı ve Biyografisi (haberler.com)
https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erkin_Koray_diskografisi
https://wannart.com/icerik/31898-erkin-koray-ve-yeralti-dortlusu
In order to have a signed physical copy of this book, you can make a payment notification after making the payment to the bank information below
Add Comment