Stavros Pantelidis was another of the highly-trained musicians who arrived Greece after the destruction of Smyrna. Although he is not as well known as some of the others, such as Vangelis Papazoglou, he played a major role in the popularity of Smyrneika style rebetiko, writing a series of songs that were recorded by the recording artists of the 1930s.
Pantelidis studied European music in Smyrna, but also learned traditional Byzantine music from his father, a cantor. He was an accomplished mandolin and guitar player, and later learned piano and banjo, and played with a variety of musical groups. After the fall of Smyrna to Turkish troops, he moved first to Volos in Greece, where he supported himself as a barber during the day, and continued with his music in the evenings.
In 1927, he moved to Athens and devoted himself to music, often working with friends from Smyrna. He was prolific: his Wikipedia entry lists 84 recordings of his songs, from the early 1930s to 1954, in his discography. Pantelidis fell victim to the censorship imposed by the Metaxas dictatorship and, like his friend Papazoglou, quit writing music in protest.
Through the rest of his life he continued to perform and he used his deep musical knowledge to help other performer’s and composers with their work. The Flea was recorded in 1932 by both Rita Abatzi and Rosa Eskenazi, the leading female singers of the time.
From the lyrics: I will become a flea, merciless / since you do not pity me / and I will come to disturb you / while you are sleeping.
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