Fikret Kızılok

Who was Fikret Kızılok?

Fikret Kızılok was a Turkish musician. He was a pioneer of Turkish rock music, a prolific songwriter, impresario, multi-instrumentalist, and an early experimentalist.

Kızılok was introduced to music during his secondary school years at the Galatasaray High School, a top high school in Turkey that produced music legends Barış Manço and Timur Selçuk as well, although Kızılok went on later to study dentistry. His first instrument was an accordion, but he switched to rhythm guitar in 1963 when he joined the group Cahit Oben 4, whose first release in 1965 was the Beatles-inspired song "I Wanna Be Your Man." Later that year, Cahit Oben 4's second single included their first Turkish-language folksong, "Silifke'nin Yoğurdu," with the B-side featuring the first song written by Kızılok, "Hereke."

After taking a brief break from music to finish dentistry school, Kızılok performed alongside Barış Manço for nearly a year before releasing his first solo single, "Ay Osman - Sevgilim / Colours - Baby." In 1969, Kızılok traveled with writer Arda Uskan to Sivas to meet famed folk poet Aşık Veysel, and to procure permission to record a cover of his song "Uzun İnce Bir Yoldayım", which started a friendship between them. Kızılok later returned to live with Veysel for several months, taking saz lessons as well. His 1969 cover of "Uzun İnce Bir Yoldayım / Benim Aşkım Beni Geçti" went to number one in the Turkish charts, and was Kızılok's first gold album. Kızılok quit music for about a year in 1973 following the death of Aşık Veysel.