If Barry White was an easy, barn door target for seventies satirists, then Demis Roussos provided a bigger one. Literally. They didn't even need to black up to take the mick - a scraggly beard, a load of blankets, a generically whining high pitched voice and Bob was their uncle. Nice work if you can get it, as they say.I've been doing some nosing around the internet for this one, mainly because I was curious to see what basis there was for that description of 'phenomenon' in the title. Because truth be told, I simply can't recall him being one. Seasoned rock fans would maybe have pointed to his pedigree with Aphrodite's Child, but away from their Book of Revelation concept albums, Roussos's solo career ploughed a very different furrow. Yet apart from a handful of earlier singles, there's nothing that warrants such grandiose self promoting. But what the hell, he made number one so it paid off well enough.
Another thing I found in my research was that virtually every reference to this EP considers 'Forever And Ever' to be the lead track of the four. Strange really, because I seem to remember 'My Friend The Wind' getting most airplay back then and it's the one that springs to my mind most readily. Why this should be I don't know, though not that it matters all that much; the four tracks on the EP are virtually interchangeable for the most part with only the brisk bolero beat of 'Sing An Ode To Love' breaking ranks (the fourth track is 'So Dreamy'). Each song offers up a warm, vaguely Mediterranean feel that breezes along on a backing of John Barry-esque female ba ba ba ba vocals and the substance of a very pleasant yet only half remembered memory.
And that really is the main problem with 'The Roussos Phenomenon'; too much Demis. The simple fact is that, unlike other 'high end' vocalists like, say, Jimmy Scott, Roussos isn't a singer I can listen to for hours on end. Each of the four songs could potentially have been a single in its own right, but taken together then the whole winds up drowning itself in a thick jug of olive oil. Roussos's vocals (the subject of much hilarity in their time) hang sweetly to the melody of each track with the restrained power of a volcano ready to blow and they in turn give a unique credibility and a touch of the exotic to the semi-mystical tone of the songs that they probably don't deserve.
But in saying that, I can't dismiss this out of hand as a cheesy period piece. Roussos is not singing to me in any of these songs, and yet like a warm bath I'm in no hurry to get out of, listening to them doesn't make me itch for the off button. Ultimately though, 'The Roussos Phenomenon' is a useful snapshot reminder of a nice holiday in the sun that came with a two week romance, but you can only look at so many pictures of the same landscape before getting bored, no matter how pretty it is.
LOL... RIP Demis.
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