Musician, singer and songwriter, guitarist (b. 24th June 1941 in Istanbul - d. 7 August2023, Trornto / Canada).
He learned to play the piano at young ages from his mother, who was a piano
teacher and after that, he started playing the guitar. He started to play the
contemporary songs of the period with the amateur group “Erkin Koray ve
Ritimcileri” that he founded with his friends when he was studying at İstanbul Alman High
School. After his high school education, he
continued his works in a half amateur and half professional way. He gave his
first piano concert in the Galatasaray
High School when he was
16 years old, in the year of 1957.
Upon an offer he received during the time
he was making programs in several musical houses in the year of 1962, he
created his first extended-play with the song Bir Eylül Akşamı on one side and the English song named It's So
Long on the other side. He realized his military service as a soloist
and guitarist in the Jazz Orchestra of the Air Forces in Ankara between the years of 1963-65. Koray,
who went to Hamburg Germany
after his discharge, founded the group “Erkin Koray Dörtlüsü” when he returned to
Turkey
in 1966. He obtained a great success with his extended-play published in 1967, having
the song named Kızları da Alın Askere
on one side and Aşk Oyunu on the
other side. Especially the song Kızları
da Alın Askere played an important role for Erkin Koray to be widely known
by large masses.
He participated in the competition of
“Altın Mikrofon” organized by the newspaper Hürriyet in the year of 1968. He
came in fourth in this competition. His songs in this competition Meçhul and Çiçek Dağı were released to the market by a record company
afterwards and attracted great attention. This was followed by songs such as Anma Arkadaş, Hop Hop Gelsin, Sana Bir Şeyler Olmuş and Seni Her Gördüğümde attracting great
attention and coming one after another until the end of the 60s. He became the
initiator of the first “Underground” music movement in Turkey with his group “Yeraltı
Dörtlüsü” that he founded in 1969. In the 70s, he determined his unique music
style and gained a wide audience. Koray, who founded the group “Erkin Koray
Süper Grup” in 1971 and “Ter” in 1972, put signature to many classic works that
were on the top of Turkish music lists such as İlahi Morluk, Aşka
İnanmıyorum, Mesafeler, Züleyha, Silinmeyen Hatıralar, Şaşkın
and Fesuphanallah.
Koray lived in the Netherlands, Germany
and Canada between the years
of 1974-84, except the times he came to Turkey for short durations. He
published very well-known works such as Estarabim
and Arap Saçı in this period, for
which there was not much information. He didn’t found another group after the
group “Erkin Koray Tutkusu” that he founded in the year of 1977. One part of his
Album Benden Sana published in 1982
was recorded in Köln and Hamburg in Germany and one part of it was recorded in Istanbul. In addition to
Haluk Taşoğlu and Sedat Avcı, the Hindu musician Harpal Singh also supported
Koray in this album. Some of the songs of the album (Meyhanede, Öyle Bir Geçer,
Sayın Arkadaşım Osman) were composed
from the lyrics written in Turkish by Erkin Koray to the compositions of Hindu
musicians. In the album İlla Ki, which
he released one year later, the new versions of the old songs such as Kızları da Alın Askere and Hop Hop Gelsin also took part in
addition to new songs such as İlla Ki, Deli
Kadın, Tek Başına.
After his definite return to Turkey, he started
his rise with his probably most known song Çöpçüler
between the years of 1985-90. The album Ceylan
containing Çöpçüler was published in
1985. He played most of the instruments by himself in the album. In this
period, he started to work as a pianist-singer in a restaurant as following the
trend of that time. As a reason, he indicated that “he needed to earn money”. The
album Gaddar was published in 1986, Çukulatam Benim in 1987 and Hay Yam Yam in 1989. In this album, the
song Hayat Katarı, for which he shot
a video, was used in the movie named Abuk
Subuk Bir Film, in which Kemal Sunal played. In 1990, he released the album
Tamam Artık containing a mixture of
his old and new songs. He gave a break in making albums except the one named Tek Başına Konser published in 1991 and consisted
of concert records. In the years of 1990-93, he published an album series
formed from his popular songs such as Öyle
Bir Geçer, Arapsaçı, Fesüpanhallah, Şaşkın, Sevince and Yalnızlar Rıhtımı and he also released a
“Best Of”. This silence that lasted until the year of 1996 was broken with the
ambitious and relatively high-budgeted album Gün Ola Harman Ola. This work, which didn’t show a big selling
success but received positive criticisms, was followed by his last album Devlerin Nefesi, published in 1999.
MAIN WORKS:
Bir Eylül Akşamı / It’s So Long (solo, 1962), Balla Balla / You've Got To Hide Your Love Away / Watcha Gonna Do About
It / Its All Over Now (solo, 1966), Kızları da Alın Askere / Aşk Oyunu (Erkin Koray Dörtlüsü, 1967), Sana Bir Şeyler Olmuş (Bir Na Na Na
Şarkısı) / Seni Her Gördüğümde (Yeraltı Dörtlüsü, 1969), Belki Bir Gün Anlarsın / Nihansın Dideden
(Yeraltı Dörtlüsü, 1970), İstemem /
Köprüden Geçti Gelin (Yeraltı Dörtlüsü, 1970), Yağmur / Aşka İnanmıyorum (Süpergrup, 1971), Tek Başına Konser (1991), Electric
Turk (1995), Gün Ola Harman Ola (1996), Devlerin Nefesi (1999), Erkin Koray (1999).
Death:
The
legendary name of rock music, Erkin Koray, who has been living in Canada for
many years, passed away on August 7, 2023, at the age of 82, in Toronto,
Canada. Regarding the death of Erkin Koray, information was shared in the media
that he was struggling with lung diseases and at the same time he had diseases
related to old age. He was buried in Canada.
REFERENCE:
Metin Solmaz / Türkiye'de Pop Müzik - Dünü ve Bugünü ile Bir İnfilak Masalı
(1996), Münir Tireli – Gökhan Aya / Bir Erkin Koray Kitabı (1998), Vural Sözer
/ Müzik Ansiklopedik Sözlük (2005), İlke Boran - Kıvılcım Yıldız Şenürkmez /
Kültürel Tarih Işığında Çok Sesli Batı Müziği (2010), Güven Erkin Erkal / Türkiye’de
Rock’ın Tarihi (2012), İhsan
Işık / Ünlü Sanatçılar (Türkiye Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 5, 2013) -
Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People (2013), Rock müziğinin efsane ismi Erkin
Koray hayatını kaybetti (sabah.com.tr, 07.08.2023), Erkin Koray
vefat etti (yenisafak.com, 07.08.2023), Erkin Koray kimdir ve neden vefat etti?
(haberturk.com, 08.08.2023), Erkin Koray kimdir, kaç yaşında, neden vefat etti (hurriyet.com.tr,
08.08.2023), Erkin Koray öldü mü, neden öldü? (takvim.com.tr, 08.08.2023), Erkin
Koray'ın ölümü sanat dünyasını yasa boğdu (ntv.com.tr, 08.08.2023), Erkin Koray
kimdir, kaç yaşında, neden öldü (cnnturk.com, 8 Ağustos 2023).
