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Aphrodite's Child ~ 666 - 1972
It doesn't seem possible that it was over forty years ago this month during my early biker days (link below) that I began to dance with Pillow to the music from 666 by Aphrodite's Child at the Hungry i (link below). We had several sets that we danced to up to that point, a leather set, etc. (link below).
This set was the most simple in costume and props but it turned out to
be the most successful of them all because the music from 666 was the basis for the most erotic set we were ever to perform.
Pillow wore a simple but beautiful gold lamé dress and had gold lamé boots with the highest heels that have ever been created!
Underneath the dress she wore a gold lamé thong and bra (similar to the photo below of Janine Andrews of Octopussy fame). Then Pillow would pile her hair up at least six inches high)!
I wore a pair of gold lamé Speedo swim shorts, a gold lamé g-string under it and gold lamé sandals, nothing else. Where on earth I found gold lamé swim shorts pre-Internet is beyond me!
Anyway, back to Aphrodite's Child and 666, the music was perfect for the act! Actually, the act was conceived BECAUSE of the music; it determined everything. 666 is based on the Book of Revelation and was recorded and released early in the career of Vangelis Papathanassiou. It is late prog rock and early electronic with a little bit of concrète thrown in, all of it on steroids. There is a ton of info on the album on the Vangelis lyrics site (link below).
The set would start (with neither of us on stage) with the 40 second cut from the album used as an into, Seven Trumpets, a spoken piece which is more of an announcement as one might hear from a barker at a circus or at the entrance of a strip club. This led right into Altamont, my cue to enter and begin my dance.
The song is a four and a half minute grueling physical workout that would put any gym rat to shame. It kept me in terrific shape!
I danced the song alone and directed my actions to the women in the
audience, especially during the quiet breaks in the song when I would move with suggestive but muscular motions Pillow taught me; she was a body builder who competed under the name, The She-Beast (not to be confused with the 1966 film of the same name). We would only perform the set when there were women present.
Altamont mixed right into the next cut, The Wedding of the Lamb, which was when Pillow made her entrance.
The song is a four and a half minute grueling physical workout that would put any gym rat to shame. It kept me in terrific shape!
Altamont mixed right into the next cut, The Wedding of the Lamb, which was when Pillow made her entrance.
Pillow was two inches taller than me in her bare feet and with her hair piled high and her 6" heels it could have been a silly sight, however, she was like a bronzed (she always had a tan) Amazon that towered over me! The effect was awe inspiring! The waitresses told me both the women and the men in the audience loved it and they got their biggest tips during this set so they were always after us to perform it. I suppose the men had fantasies of being dominated by a big woman and the women had fantasies about dominating a man of ANY size.
- 1983
photo by John Balik/Muscle & Fitness
I would metaphorically if not physically blend into the background and become an active spectator. The Wedding of the Lamb, is a very fast but sensual, percussion driven piece with synthesizers, a flute and a male chorus, and Pillow
would work her magic on the audience. It has a quiet section in which she would seduce/entice the men. Wedding was also was a grueling
workout at almost four minutes but it was great for her, as for a
bodybuilder, it was a perfect workout. Boy! Was she ever
buff!!!
Wedding faded right into the next cut, The Capture of the Beast, which is a fast and percussive piece at the beginning of which we would circle and appraise
each other almost as wrestlers or gladiators might do in a fight.
This was danced with tremendous drama, almost with violence; slowly we would strip each other (well, to be honest, there wasn't much to strip off of me as I had to keep the gold lamé g-string on or get busted!)
Our movements would alternate between brutality and sensuality. Beast ended with a swirl of sensual synthesizers which went right into the last cut in the set, Infinity, the most erotically close to porn as any song has ever come. Thus, this set was the closest we ever came to pornography. If you listen to the song, it will give you an audio depiction of the erotic quality of our set.
This was danced with tremendous drama, almost with violence; slowly we would strip each other (well, to be honest, there wasn't much to strip off of me as I had to keep the gold lamé g-string on or get busted!)
Our movements would alternate between brutality and sensuality. Beast ended with a swirl of sensual synthesizers which went right into the last cut in the set, Infinity, the most erotically close to porn as any song has ever come. Thus, this set was the closest we ever came to pornography. If you listen to the song, it will give you an audio depiction of the erotic quality of our set.
During the "song" Greek actress Irene Papas brings herself to a verbal orgasm through the mantra “I was, I am, I am to come”. An urban legend has it that Papas sat in the recording booth masturbating while repeating the mantra and the band jammed along to the voice track (link below). Except for her verbalizing, the piece is nothing but percussion and VERY heavy on timpani. Towards the end it is deadly quiet with an occasional whimper and you could hear a pin drop in the transfixed audience! The song, and Papas, caused quite a controversy with her graphic "orgasmic" sounds.
Viewfinder links:
Aphrodite's Child ~ 666
Leatherneck, Pillow & a Hungry i
Irene Papas
Pillow (She-Beast)
Styrous®
Vangelis
Net links: Aphrodite's Child ~ 666
Leatherneck, Pillow & a Hungry i
Irene Papas
Pillow (She-Beast)
Styrous®
Vangelis
80's Female Muscle ~ Pillow
Chaos & Pain ~ Pillow, the Badass She-Beast of Bodybuilding
GMV Bodybuilding ~ Pillow – She-Beast video download
Louder Sound ~ 666: A Reappraisal
Metal Reviews ~ Aphrodite's Child - 666
Reddit ~ Aphrodite's Child - Infinity
She Beast sampler
Vangelis lyrics
YouTube links:
Altamont
The Wedding of the Lamb & The Capture of the Beast
Infinity
“You can never repeat certain things. It's only once in a lifetime.“
~ Vangelis
~ Vangelis
Styrous® ~ Tuesday, June 16, 2020
