A folk song that refers to an Adanali. It is common in the folk music tradition for songs to refer to a particular person with whom the author had dealings or some kind of subjective relationship. Our rebetiko song abounds with such songs, as do the blues and early rock n' roll in the Western musical tradition. The author draws inspiration from a person in his or her environment and describes snapshots that have no real value, but serve the purpose of songwriting.

The lyrics do not help us to gain sufficient information about the historical context, but we understand that this is a popular text whose protagonists belong to the popular classes. Adanali, dressed 'a la turka', i.e. in Ottoman-style clothes, buys canvas shoes. Later the 'narrator' asks Adanali for a series of favours. The reference to the Ottoman style of dress refers to a period before the 20th century, when the Western style of dress was beginning to prevail. By the beginning of the 20th century at the latest, the Sephardic Jews of Thessaloniki had adopted a style of dress similar to that of the Ottoman population. The text of this song is full of words of Turkish origin such as mushama, grush or paras.

Source 1: Flora Molho Archive Source 2: Archive of the Maale Adumim Institute, catalogue no.: 844 Sung by Molho's father, Isaac

Sources 1 & 2 include the exact same recording in which Isaac Molho sings. It is extremely rare for the same recording to belong to two different archives. It is possible that Molho himself donated copies of his recordings to Moshe Saul who created the Maale Adumim archive. The song in question does not exist in any source other than the aforementioned archives, which makes it extremely rare and important.

Source 3: Flora Molho Archive It is sung by women, probably at a family gathering, but it has not been possible to identify them.