~
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!
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.
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
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.
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.
Net links:
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
Styrous® ~ Tuesday, June 16, 2020
