Alkis Alkaios (right) the well-kown poet and lyricist, died of cancer at 63. Alkaios, whose real name was Vaggelis Liaros, was born on the Albanian-Greek border and from an early age became a naturalized citizen of Parga.
He made his first appearance in 1967, publishing a small essay on poet Kostas Karyotakis’ work. In the late 70’s Alkaios first met famous composer Thanos Mikroutsikos, which led to a long-running cooperation with two milestone-albums, Embargo and the antiwar album, At the Shack of the Century.
Embargo includes the great flagship poem Morning Cigarette, written by Alkaios and music composed by Notis Mauroudis in memory of the famous Greek Cypriot composer Manos Loizos, who died young.
In the album, the composer himself sings along with Maria Dimitriadi, Vlassis Bonatsos and Kostas Karalis. The super hit that literally skyrocketed the CD and is registered as one of the best Greek songs ever written, is the song Erotic, a zeimbekiko sung by Manolis Mitsias.
Alkaios also cooperated with Sokratis Malamas on the albums 13.000 days, The Guard and the King, One, Passage, Miltos Pashalidis and Marios Tokas. Alkeos was away from the public eye and public appearances. He is considered as one of the most important lyricists of Greek songs.
His funeral will take place in Parga, on Dec. 11.
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