‘666’: The album Salvador Dalí compared to La Sagrada Família
Wailing experimental psychedelia, or drug-fueled self-absorption – the much-maligned genre of progressive rock produced some of the best and worst records of the 1970s. Although perceptions of the genre, which emerged from the more experimental side of 1960s psychedelic rock, are largely limited to its most successful sons – the likes of Genesis, ELO, or Emerson, Lake, and Palmer – prog rock also inspired some of the era’ most stunningly strange experimental albums. Among them, 666 by Aphrodite’s Child certainly stands out.
First formed in 1967, at the peak of the age of counterculture psychedelia, Greek psych-pop outfit Aphrodite’s Child found a modest degree of success across Europe during the period. After all, much of the psychedelic rock occupying the airwaves was arriving from across the Atlantic Ocean, whereas the Greek outfit was able to imbue their work with a distinctly European sensibility. As with all truly great artists, though, the band soon found a desire to reinvent themselves and their sound, crafting something much more original and gripping.
So, during the early 1970s, the group shifted their focus from psychedelic pop to expansive progressive rock, blending far-out themes with their usual psychedelic sound. After months of toiling, arguing, and creating a true one-of-a-kind record, the band released 666 in 1972. Adapting passages from the Book of Revelation to this defiant new prog-rock sound, the album was both ambitious and controversial; it was more akin to an art piece than anything a prog-rock outfit had constructed prior.
You could argue that this penchant for surrealism and artistic experimentation put Aphrodite’s Child in line with some of Europe’s finest artists. Salvador Dalí, for instance, never paid all that much attention to whether his work was palatable for mass audiences; he created what he believed to be inventive and original. It should come as no real surprise, therefore, that the Spanish surrealist was a noted fan of 666, even if mainstream audiences paid little attention to the record.
The story goes that Costas Ferris organised a party in Paris in 1971, commemorating a year since the album’s completion. The previous year had been marked by vicious arguments between the band and their record label, Mercury, who refused to publish the album given its unusual and controversial subject. According to the songwriter, Dalí attended this gathering at Europa Sonor Studios, and he listened intently to the album then and there.
Picturing Dalí sitting for well over an hour listening to this surreal jaunt through progressive rock mixed with Biblical passages makes for an entertaining image. Nevertheless, the artist seemed to be a fan of the record, though one of his few remarks was, “It’s a stone song!” Whatever the surrealist painter meant by that characteristically odd statement is still up for debate, but it does at least sound encouraging, and Aphrodite’s Child certainly took it that way.
Elsewhere, the artist reportedly compared the album to one of Barcelona’s most identifiable attractions, La Sagrada Família. Designed by lauded architect Antoni Gaudí, the Catalan Catholic church has been under construction for 142 years and counting. At first, Dalí’s comparison between this architectural marvel and the 666 album might seem odd, but the more you think about it, the more it makes sense.
After all, the church is unlike any other church in the world and has attracted both praise and controversy for that very fact. Similarly, Aphrodite’s Child attracted controversy for their magnum opus album, even if it gained a dedicated cult following in the years following its release, owing to its defiant inventiveness and originality. Whether Dalí was praising the record’s fearlessness or merely making a comment on the extended period of time it took to construct the album, the comparison certainly adds another layer to the intrigue surrounding 666.
