Coutalianos “Jim the tiger”
I made a big mistake. I never believed that in the world we live in, emotions can overcome every logic in business.
Ar. Onassis
In December 1972, a record titled “Na ‘hame ti na ‘hame” was released in Greece. Its content resulted from the collaboration of lyricist Lefteris Papadopoulos and composer Manos Loizos. The songs were performed by the singer Yiannis Kalatzis, while the singer Giorgos Dalaras participated in some parts of the album. The full title of the song is: “Tzimis the Tiger (Coutalianos)”. This song soon became a great popular success and was sung by millions of Greeks This is a beautiful rhythmic folk song that refers to the athlete’s ability to chew iron, stop trains and much more. But based on its title, the song seems to glorify the power of another athlete who lived in Greece at the time and was famous. It was about the Greek wrestler and weightlifter Dimitrios Armaos (Volos 1933 – Athens 1999) who was known by the nickname “Tzimis the tiger”. This athlete was not only famous in his country, but also in Europe and the USA. We even know that he was the bodyguard of the singer Frank Sinatra and that the actress Barbara Streisand admired him for his skills. Unfortunately, the last years of his life were very difficult. Old now, infirm and poor, he lived in a humble apartment on Dipylou Street, in the center of Athens near Koumoundourou Square. Fortunately for him, its maintenance was undertaken by the famous music composer Vangelis Papathanasiou, who admired and respected him. After all, the two men were also united by their common origin from the beautiful seaside town of Volos, located in Central Greece. So, precisely because the name “Coutalianos” is well-known among the Greeks and is often used as a simile to describe any very strong man, the song has two names in its title. The first, i.e. the name of “Jimi tou tigri” shows to whom the song refers or to whom it is dedicated and the second, i.e. that of “Coutalianos”, is used more as a “simile” and probably because it adapts better to the rest of the verses.
Thousands of verses were written about Coutalianos, both during his life and after his death. Among them, some became songs. In the document presented bellow, another song written in honor of the athlete is confirmed. The song seems to have been written in 1896 in Nicosia by the lyricist Kyriakos Papadopoulos. But for this song we are not able to know more details. It is not related to the previous song that became a big hit in Greece, but we mention its existence precisely because we are talking about songs and also because on our page we highlight everything related to the great and pioneering Greek wrestler.
