Alberto Fortis
Fragole infinite

In 1982, Alberto Fortis released his fourth album, "Fragole infinite." The title track is a clear homage to The Beatles and their Strawberry Fields Forever. Regarding this song, Alberto himself stated: "Dedicated to John Lennon, sung in room 2 of Abbey Road Studios in London, the favorite room of The Beatles, with the valve microphone used for Strawberry Field. In the string quartet of Fragole infinite, summoned by Sir George Martin, the viola and first violin played in Sgt. Pepper... For me, these are great satisfactions": and I believe, I add! In fact, in this record (entirely dedicated to John Lennon, who had recently passed away), George Martin collaborated (even if in the described sense), one of the many "fifth Beatles," as well as the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In the "Italianized" version of the title track, naturally set in London (yellow cars run in the blue, the stopped clock above the city tower marks an extra hour), it talks about a love that is perhaps only platonic and will probably remain so forever.

The music of the entire album is very evocative and captivating, both in the more rhythmic tracks (Ti dirò, Non più di tanto, Galli, Suzy body), in the more melodic tracks (Fragole infinite, Due file, Angelo, Liquido breve per Bibo, Neve), and finally in the tracks where "rhythmic" and "melodic" alternate (L'uomo grande, Dimmi di no). The lyrics, as in the best "fortissian" tradition, are ironic, tender, amusing, romantic, hermetic, and non-sense.

In "Due file" it probably talks about unrequited love and the regrets it left behind, even though at a certain point the language becomes deliberately allegorical-symbolic-hermetic (In the green and gloomy sea, a wolf will wait. In its heart, it will have a snake and the snake will bark).

"Ti dirò" reminds me a lot, in musical structure, of "Settembre" by Fortis himself, with its slightly "inconspicuous" beginning and with the central and final musical "explosion." Even if the song "Settembre" is certainly more famous and probably also more beautiful, "Ti dirò" (whose lyrics could be read as a hymn to optimism and letting go: "Open when you want the light will enter, follow the air and you will rise,".... "Leave what you have, it won't serve you anymore, if the light is in you, you won't lower, you're already born and you will fly") is a beautiful piece.

In "Non più di tanto" others seem always ready to support you if you are in difficulty, but up to a certain point, not more than that indeed.

"L'uomo grande" is a piece against war and injustice with beautiful "images," although it might result a bit rhetorical ("Which war could ever end without generating one more child? Which peace can reign if the scepter will not be a rose or a blue lily?"... "Which rich man could ever buy the sweetness of poverty? which poor can have the uniform and the cowardice of a blue lord?"). Some lines from this track, moreover, will be retaken in a slightly modified form in Fortis' subsequent track "Vita ch'è vita (Greenwich)" from 1990.

Who among us wouldn't want to eliminate the many roosters with green and black heads surrounding our lives with three thousand swords like in the track "Galli"? Metaphorically, that is!

The track "Angelo" is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful in Fortis' entire songbook, about which Fortis himself said: "I hope one day to have a child who will live a happy life and be able to reflect myself in their clear forehead, surprising myself, with a big smile"; the ethereal and dreamy atmosphere of the piece is well underlined also by the sweetness of the related music that unfolds into an almost jazz sound, at least in some parts. "When tired you will wait and the sun will hit your shiny forehead a child will reflect, will look into your eyes and you crying will say: I thought you were an angel and you will be an angel": beautiful verses!

In "Suzy Body" Charles De Gaulle, Napoleon, and the chauvinism of the French alternate with highly ironic tones and a very lively musical rhythm: "I know you French will never say that an American is white, red, and blue. Same flag, same intensity, but it burns you too much and you will shout no".

"Dimmi di no" perhaps talks about a man who, after leaving a woman, returns to her with his "tail between his legs," thus saving his own existence? Interpretations are open! But the most enigmatic and hermetic lyrics are surely those of the track "Liquido breve per Bibo," at least for me! The album closes with the beautiful and delicate "Neve," in which the same snow is almost personified, with the beautiful vocal intervention of Rossana Casale, who was Fortis' girlfriend at the time.

Certainly a more than good album, even if slightly inferior to the previous three, which closes the grace period of Alberto, at least from a commercial point of view. Except for some sporadic appearances in the charts of the subsequent album "El niño" from 1984, in fact, Fortis from then on will practically never appear again in the same charts. He will have a certain resurgence of interest from the "general public" only after his participation in Music Farm in 2006 and the subsequent publication of some albums, some even very valid. But... not more than that!