Alunni del Sole
...E mi manchi tanto

October 10, 2013. Paolo Morelli, voice and pianist of Alunni del Sole, dies in Rome, struck down by a heart attack.

When music becomes the soundtrack of life, when the lyrics get inside, and you carry them with you until the end of your days. Paolo Morelli was not just a singer, he was a songwriter, he was the author of the music and lyrics; in short, he was Alunni Del Sole. A unique character, a true anti-celebrity, someone who rarely gave interviews. From what we know of his personality, he spent hours near a piano chasing words, chasing phrases, chasing melodies, singing about life and his beloved Naples. Remembered by few, loved by those few to the point of becoming a reference point. His friendship with Fabrizio De Andrè was significant, with whom he often exchanged ideas in lyrics, and Faber did not miss the opportunity to show his admiration, which was reciprocated, for the artist's music. Defined as the 'Poet of Love' by his devotees, he formed the group in the distant 60s together with his brother Bruno, who would accompany him in creating his lyrics and music until his last days when Bruno thought Paolo, the big jokester that he was, was jokingly simulating an illness in his car.

Paolo Morelli's music touches the deepest parts of our soul, those often autobiographical feelings, those chases by the sea as teenagers with the girl you liked, those hot summers full of passions and loves. Of that sea always sung by our poet, a source of musical inspiration and a muse for the lyrics. Of that abstract woman, an angel of a Stilnovistic and Dantesque flavor, so distant yet mysterious. Of the sadness for painful goodbyes, of open gardens in which to run and play, where the person next to you was all that mattered, and nothing else. Memory. This is the key word of Morelli's lyrics. Something that burns inside, something you deeply feel the need to narrate through exceptionally melancholy lyrics never repeated. All of this accompanied by hauntingly beautiful music, extremely refined, for a group that, in the wake of Procol Harum in England, had embarked on the path of progressive pop, reaching one of the highest peaks this movement offered. No, nothing like the Poohs or Cugini di Campagna, something only those who have deeply listened to and appreciated Alunni Del Sole's music have been able to grasp. It seems that Paolo Morelli, passionate about painting as well as music, came from a family where art was the air they breathed, with a father who was a violinist and a brother who aspired to be a guitarist. Unforgettable pieces that crash into the minds of enthusiasts, or at least, definitely mine.

Paolo's group, which took its name from the story by Giuseppe Marotta, debuted with the 1969 concept album Dove era lei a quell'ora, an equally brave and wonderful debut, an album I might review sometime soon. But commercial success began with the subsequent ...E mi manchi tanto from 1973, which already contained the initial pieces that skyrocketed to the top of the charts. You know, I find the track by track futile, and except for a few rare experiences due to a lack of experience, I have always avoided it, but I believe doing it now would almost be disrespectful, because let's make it clear immediately. There are no fillers in Alunni Del Sole's career, except for a few slightly unfortunate end-career episodes.

Alongside me, she walked, leading to the river to the place she loved.
She said to me, it’s a short time you’re a love so brief how can I remember you.

With these verses, the song that gives the album its name begins, one of the most known and one of the saddest and most melancholic Morelli songs. An evident premature goodbye with a too-brief love told with astonishing delicacy and sweetness, words that get inside you and inevitably become yours.

Your image in tears
that shows without pride
slides lightly in my eyes...

All of this is embellished with an impeccable and melancholic pianistic setting, wonderful is the ending where the tones rise, and it is impossible to hold back the emotion. Isa...Isabella. As mentioned, no fillers, another wonderful song. Another goodbye, harsher and more poignant than the previous one. Isabella, how many nights how much love with you... And still refined music to support it all.

A butterfly is dying without you
I am dying with pain along with her
I with her

But here Paolo speaks of a love enclosed in the realm of memories, something that slipped away and belongs to the past, but continues to burn inside. An amazing song. The tones become happier (only apparently) with another success of the group, L'aquilone, which tells of memories of youth, of the days when one went to school, but Paolo continues to remember, of a morning when the morning was not free, and running in a meadow with the beloved woman they chased a kite. Today, after many years, if you look at the sky, she will vaguely remember a kite... that went up in the sky.

And yet another wonderful piece, the tones become again more cautious, melancholic and poignant, La Maggiore Età, memories of a summer and a dear person now lost in the kingdom of memories. Who knows where you came back to my thoughts that summer, and your carefree shouts, the confidences, that I read in your eyes [...] And who knows why, I erased from my mind, the expression on your face, and that bit faded way of yours that comes back to my eyes.

Forgive me but I got carried away. Little more than two minutes of pure poetic ecstasy, words saying unforgettable is an understatement.

And then Concerto, perhaps the greatest success of the first part of the group's career. The signs of English prog are slightly felt, acoustic guitar and piano, incredible atmosphere. Where it came from I do not know, the voice of your heart. And still memories, memories upon memories in the poet's mind, put on paper in an epic way. Memory of a night, that never ended..., and once again that sea, so loved by the Poet as to make it a source of inspiration, pain, and joy. We can define Concerto as the first real commercial success that briefly shot Alunni del Sole to the top of the charts.

The hours explaining ourselves with our eyes, a fragile world of love, so begins Ritornelli Inventati, a timeless poem of the past present and future with the woman of his life. A haunting beauty, no note out of place, still poetry, so much poetry overflowing from Morelli's musical vase. Summer evenings singing, the invented refrains [...] Stealing a boat and singing, dreams on the sea's water. Epic.

A cheerful Morelli episode, clearly surrounded by an unripe bittersweetness, Ritorna Fortuna, a track to listen to to know the other side of Alunni Del Sole, which despite the happier tones, does not change the topics addressed. Again memories, and memories of past happy times Ritorna Fortuna...Water was falling around us. Perfect the bass of Giampaolo Borra. Perhaps the most negligible piece of the bunch, but here we are at such a high level that the most ridiculous piece is a gem.

And yet more refrains, this time Ritornelli Infantili, a magical scene. That of the protagonist who spies the woman he loves making love with another man. The scene, as sad as it is true, is described in such a sweet and poetic way as to make you a protagonist of the pain and wonder in seeing that body in the sweet intense moment of love [...] The curtain slipped in the summer evenings

All of this fades into a sad and resigned mood, murmuring a melancholic chant with the voice. A demonstration of how you can be sweet and poetic even in narrating a stab to the heart.

To close the bunch is Fiori, as a symbol of love towards the angel woman...Not flowers of sadness but the flowers of love

I am aware that the choice is courageous and that many, stopping at first impressions and not fully understanding Paolo Morelli's musical proposal, have found it predictable and the same as many others. Nothing could be more wrong. I know I am not a great writer, but for me, it was essential to pay tribute to the group and make it enter Debaser.