When you do the research, the most important facts of Loukas Daralas’s life seem to be that he wrote the very popular song The Mountain and that he was the father of Greek superstar George Dalaras.
Daralas, the son of a well-known violinist, was also a very good bouzouki player, singer and songwriter, who was active through the 1950s and ’60s and is one of those credited with the brief rebetiko revival of the early ’60s. His recorded output was small: primarily two albums, although occasionally a record collector will come across a 45 RPM recording of his. Despite that, he regularly played with many of the big names of that period, and toured widely.
George Dalaras barely knew his father and described him as “a free man who traveled a lot and rarely spent time at home.” (If you want to know more about their fraught relationship, there is a translation of an interview with Dalaras at this forum.)
Loukas died at the age of only 50 in 1977. I haven’t found any information on the cause of his death. The Outcast, written by Vasilis Tsitsanis, was released in 1975 on Daralas’s album Me and Rebetiko. It showcases both his melodious voice and his bouzouki playing.
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