666 (subtitled The Apocalypse of John, 13/18) 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.
Conflict within the band and with their record company over the album's uncommercial style led to its release being delayed for more than a year. Though it was eventually released to a lukewarm critical and commercial reception, it later attracted a cult following among fans and musicians and became the group's most acclaimed project. It has appeared on various lists of the greatest progressive rock albums of all time.
Conception and production
The concept for 666 was created by Vangelis and film director Costas Ferris, who served as the project's lyricist. Ferris cited as influences the nonlinear narrative style of the films Intolerance, Rashomon, Citizen Kane and The Killing, as well as the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and the Who's Tommy.
The central concept is a countercultural interpretation of the Book of Revelation, in which a circus show based on the apocalypse performs for an audience at the same time that the real apocalypse takes place outside the circus tent, and at the end the two merge into one. They took just over three months to record it and finished in early 1971. The overall cost of album's recording was estimated as US$80,000 (). The recording was marked by tension, as the ambitious nature of Vangelis and Ferris' concept clashed with Demis Roussos, Loukas Sideras and Silver Koulouris' wish to continue with the psychedelic pop direction that had brought them success. Vangelis, Roussos and Sideras were also accompanied by their partners, further adding to the strain. Engineer Roger Roche reported that they enjoyed playing together but would not speak to each other after they finished a take. stating, "It was too sophisticated for the group. I realised that I couldn't follow the commercial way anymore, it was very boring."
Giorgio Gomelsky, in France at the time due to his work with Magma and Gong, made several contributions to the album and by his own description served as "a sort of 'acting producer. He believed that his contributions were not enough to warrant a producer's credit. Accordingly, on the album sleeve, he is credited as "passing by". Gerard Fallec, credited on the sleeve with "production coordination", Additional contributors to the album included Harris Halkitis, who had filled in for Vangelis when the band toured in support of It's Five O'Clock, horn player Michel Ripoche, Greek painter Yannis Tsarouchis, actress Irene Papas, John Forst and Daniel Koplowitz.
Upon the album's completion, Mercury Records refused to release it, objecting to its uncommercial material and in particular the song "∞". In 1971, the band organised a "one-year anniversary party" at Europa Sonor, to protest the album not being released. and planned an ambitious happening in Barcelona to mark the album's release. The plan was canceled when Dalí angrily broke off further contact after a friend of Ferris' referred to Gala Dalí as "Madame Éluard" during a visit in Rome. Roussos released his debut solo album Fire and Ice (also known as On the Greek Side of My Mind), obtaining a hit single in Europe with the song "We Shall Dance".
Songs
The music of 666 is more ambitious and experimental than previous Aphrodite's Child releases, containing greater use of electronic keyboards, studio experimentation, expanded instrumentation, and influences from genres such as jazz, musique concrète and world music. Reflecting this character, only six of the album's 24 songs have vocals and lyrics, four by lead singer Demis Roussos and two by Loukas Sideras. The rest are either instrumental, instrumentals with narration, or use vocals as an instrument. According to Classic Rock Magazine: "If Hell exists, half of this album is what it might sound like. The remainder is hypnotically engaging, nay, mind-blowing prog rock." Although the album's material is often acknowledged as challenging and uncommercial, it has also been described as tuneful, "fun", and retaining elements of pop music. Authors Paul Hegarty and Martin Halliwell interpreted the album as reflecting "the turmoil in Greece at the time", and The Verve's "The Rolling People", which quoted the "fa fa fa" chant. The chorus was also sampled, in a slowed-down fashion, on Daniel Lopatin's "A7", from Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1.
"The Lamb" is a world music-influenced instrumental, featuring vocal chants following the main melody, variously perceived by reviewers as being influenced by jazz contains a repetitive funk-influenced groove, Roussos scatting along with the bassline, vibraphone by Vangelis, and overdubbed horns by Halkitis. The second half of the song introduces additional narration, referring to the imagery of previous songs and describing the sight of the apocalypse as "the pictures of what was, of what is, of what is to come". One of the lines of the narration, "We are the people/The rolling people", later inspired the title of The Verve's "The Rolling People".
"Altamont" ends by crossfading into "The Wedding of the Lamb", a world music-influenced instrumental that contains an electronic keyboard melody backed by wordless vocalising and syncopated, rhythmic drumming. The instrumental in turn crossfades into "The Capture of the Beast", a drum solo by Sideras that makes heavy use of toms and percussion instruments, performed over Vangelis' keyboard drones and effects. The songs are linked together by brief spoken lines recited in a halting manner which announce their titles, "That was 'The Wedding of the Lamb'" at the end of the former, and "Now comes 'The Capture of the Beast'" at the beginning of the latter.
"Hic et Nunc" (Latin for "here and now") is an upbeat pop song with phased piano, tenor saxophone by Michel Ripoche, a crowd chanting "Here and now!" in the chorus, a reuse of the audience sound effect from "Babylon" and the "We got the system to fuck the system" chant from "The System" during Vangelis' piano solo, foreshadowing the concluding "montage".
Side four
The longest song on the album, "All the Seats Were Occupied" begins as a slow raga-influenced instrumental
Fallec also brought to the band a surreal, Dalí-influenced painting of a car crash that became the inner sleeve. Ferris stated that the band forgot to ask for the name of the artist (although the signature "M. Dubre" appears on the image), and that while Fallec was unsure about the relation of the painting to the work apart from the "car" theme of the cover, he and Vangelis considered it "the absolute representation of the stupidity of man." Intended as a joke by the band, the statement provoked some controversy at the time of the album's release, as some groups interpreted it to mean that the album was drug-inspired, demonic, or blasphemous.
Release and reception
Mercury released 666 on its progressive rock subsidiary Vertigo Records in June 1972. The album was promoted with one single, "Babylon"/"Break", released in November. and ran a contest where they would give $666 to the first three promoters who could get their market's share of 40,000 sales. Although Melody Maker stated that "Break" "could easily have made the chart if it had been released as a single", Two years later, Vangelis said that the album sold well in the United States. An extended vinyl edition of 666 was released in Greece in 1974, containing alternative mixes of songs with music cut from other versions of the album, in a gatefold sleeve displaying the painting originally on the inner sleeve; some of these versions had appeared on the Brazilian release.