"The Four Horsemen" | |
---|---|
Single by Aphrodite's Child | |
from the album 666 | |
B-side | "Blame It All on Eve" |
Released | 1972 |
Recorded | 1970 |
Genre | |
Length | 5:53 |
Label | Vertigo |
Songwriter(s) | Vangelis Papathanassiou |
Producer(s) | Vangelis Papathanassiou |
"The Four Horsemen" is the hit single and most famous song [1] on the concept album 666 by the psychedelic rock band Aphrodite's Child. It has received regular airplay on AOR stations since its release in 1972. Like its album, the song is based on The Book of Revelation.
666 was created as a concept album, telling the story of Revelation, the Apocalypse of John. [2] That book of the Bible that was an attack on the tyranny of the Roman empire at the time it was written, and the album goes through a number of famous passages and themes, including the Whore of Babylon (Rome), The Beast (Nero) and, in this case, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
The song's lyrics mostly paraphrasing the text of Revelation 6. The song's structure is marked by a dynamic contrast, with Roussos singing over an echoed keyboard drone and wind chimes in the verses, [3] [4] and the chorus containing traditional rock instrumentation highlighted by Sideras' drumming. [3] [5] The song culminates in a two-minute wah guitar solo by Koulouris over heavy drumming by Sideras and a repeated "fa fa fa" background chant by Roussos.
In the song, as in Revelation 5, "The Lamb" is presented with a sealed scroll. This lamb is often taken to mean Jesus (who was referred to as The Lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world" in John 3:36). The Lamb begins opening the scroll in both the book and the song. It has seven seals, and as each of the first four is opened, it releases some crisis represented by a horseman. These horsemen are described in part, by the color of their horses, especially in the song:
The leading horse is white
The second horse is red
The third one is a black
The last one is a green. [6]
The first horseman holds a bow, and is said to represent either Plague or evangelism of the Gospels. But more specifically it seems to historically refer to Nero, who expelled the author from Rome and plays the role of the Beast in Revelation. The sword-wielding second horseman may represent war, or genocide. "Red" is a legitimate horse color, a reddish brown. The third horseman, mounted on black, is famine, which carries a balance because this is how grain was handed out when food was scarce:
When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, "Come." I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; but do not damage the oil and the wine." — Revelation 6:5–6
The fourth horse is described using a word "khloros", which probably should be translated from the original greek as "pale". But the Greek-speaking songwriters make a pun here, another meaning of khloros being "green", the origin of the word chlorophyll. The fourth horseman is explicitly named Thanatos, meaning "death" in Greek.
Receiving significant airplay on album-oriented radio, the song went on to be covered or sampled by a number of bands. [7]
"The Four Horsemen" influenced Beck's "Chemtrails", which has a similar structure, [8] and The Verve's "The Rolling People", which quoted the "fa fa fa" chant. [9] The chorus was also sampled, in a slowed-down fashion, on Daniel Lopatin's "A7", from Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1 . [10] The song is very popular among metal and techno acts, forming a significant list of covers and samplings.
The Book of Revelation, also erroneously called the Book of Revelations, is the final book of the New Testament. Written in Koine Greek, its title is derived from the first word of the text: apokalypsis, meaning 'unveiling' or 'revelation'. The Book of Revelation is the only apocalyptic book in the New Testament canon. It occupies a central place in Christian eschatology.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are figures in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Bible, a piece of apocalypse literature written by John of Patmos. They are not specifically identified there but subsequent commentary often identifies them as personifications of Death (Thanatos), Famine (Limos), War (Ares), and Conquest or Glory (Zelus).
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are four beings described in the New Testament's Book of Revelation.
Aphrodite's Child was a Greek rock and pop band formed in 1967, by Evangelos Papathanassiou, Demis Roussos, Loukas Sideras, and Silver Koulouris (guitar). They initially found success in Europe with hit singles like "Rain and Tears", "End of the World", "I Want to Live", and "It's Five O'Clock", before pivoting to progressive rock with their third and final album, 666 (1972). An ambitious concept album inspired by the Book of Revelation, it later gained critical acclaim and has appeared on a number of lists of the top progressive and psychedelic albums of all time.
Artemios "Demis" Ventouris-Roussos was a Greek singer, songwriter and musician. As a band member, he is best remembered for his work in the progressive rock music act Aphrodite's Child, but as a vocal soloist, his repertoire included hit songs like "Goodbye, My Love, Goodbye", "From Souvenirs to Souvenirs" and "Forever and Ever".
666 is the third and final studio album and only double album by Greek progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child, released in June 1972 by Vertigo Records. An ambitious double-LP concept album, ostensibly an adaptation of Biblical passages from the Book of Revelation, 666 was composed by keyboardist Vangelis and lyricist Costas Ferris.
Rock and roll entered Greece in the middle of the 1960s. Greek rock performers in the field include Pavlos Sidiropoulos, Dimitris Poulikakos. Greek rock bands well known globally are Aphrodite's Child, Socrates Drank the Conium and The Last Drive.
The Horsemen of Apocalypse are a team of supervillain characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Led by Apocalypse, they are loosely based on the Biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelation, though its members vary throughout the canon.
666 may refer to:
The Seven Seals of God from the Bible's Book of Revelation are the seven symbolic seals that secure the book or scroll that John of Patmos saw in an apocalyptic vision. The opening of the seals of the document occurs in Rev Ch 5–8 and marks the Second Coming of the Christ and the beginning of The Apocalypse/Revelation. Upon the Lamb of God/Lion of Judah opening a seal on the cover of the book/scroll, a judgment is released or an apocalyptic event occurs. The opening of the first four Seals releases the Four Horsemen, each with his own specific mission. The opening of the fifth Seal releases the cries of martyrs for the "Word/Wrath of God". The sixth Seal prompts plagues, storms and other cataclysmic events. The seventh Seal cues seven angelic trumpeters who in turn cue the seven bowl judgments and more cataclysmic events.
It's Five O'Clock is the second studio album by Greek progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child.
End of the World is the debut studio album by Greek progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child. It features the UK top 30 hit "Rain and Tears".
"Chemtrails" is a 2008 single by American musician Beck. The song, taken from his eleventh studio album, Modern Guilt, was released digitally on June 22, 2008.
The Apocalypse, properly Apocalypse with Pictures, is a series of fifteen woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer published in 1498 depicting various scenes from the Book of Revelation, which rapidly brought him fame across Europe. These woodcuts likely drew on theological advice, particularly from Johannes Pirckheimer, the father of Dürer's friend Willibald Pirckheimer.
Lucas Sideras is the former drummer of the Greek progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the derived term Four Horsemen have appeared many times in popular culture.
Pale horse(s) may refer to:
Anargyros "Silver" Koulouris is a Greek musician best known for his membership in the band Aphrodite's Child, in which he played lead guitar. He has also performed session work on a plethora of albums by other artists, including those of his former Aphrodite's Child bandmates, throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and in recent decades he has released solo recordings under his own name.
Revelation 6 is the sixth chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate. This chapter describes the opening of the first six of the seven seals. The opening of the seventh seal is recorded in chapter 8. Four horses and their riders, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, emerge as the first four seals are opened.
The Story of ... Demis Roussos is a double LP by Greek singer Demis Roussos, released in 1987 on the label BR Music.
A most probably intentional homage to "The Four Horsemen".