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Rating: It's 1976 when a strange cover appears in record stores... Two characters dressed as a Nazi hierarch and a simple troop soldier (still from the German army).
Ladies and gentlemen, here are Cochi and Renato, in another of their imaginative exploits!
I must say, this record marked my childhood, so it will be difficult for me to talk about it in a detached manner... But let's give it a try!
This is their last album, after which gradually each of them will take different paths, one continuing an already sparkling film career, the other discovering the joys of theater.
But in this pearl, endorsed in production, execution, and composition by Enzo Jannacci, it contains great musical and cabaret moments, each one more outrageous than the other.
This is probably their most edgy album, the least accommodating and the most experimental.
But let's proceed with the song-by-song analysis:
"L'inquilino" - The most famous track of the album, sung in Milanese, is a tasty and irresistible little waltz with the banjo in evidence. The lyrics are absolutely brilliant with their attacks on television "that dumbs down the population", the press, and the mass media in general... Wonderful!
"Il Pino" - On a overwhelming Funky rhythm, with an utterly outrageous brass section and bass, they tell the improbable story of Pino, who, playing the sax and boxing, after a series of unintelligible adventures, transforms into a human-airplane... A story to die laughing!!! Great performance by the group, in which at the time, Tullio de Piscopo played the drums...
"Sturmtruppen" - A song taken from the eponymous film they starred in that year: It's a funny little march that hides a subtle veil of melancholy between the lines... or at least that's what I've always perceived! The beginning of the track is almost tragic... The cameo by Enzo, who sings with a Tuscan inflection, "Canto, fo il cantante però canto solo per amore..." is fantastic!!!
"Generale Pizza" - As above, from the film "Sturmtruppen", it is a disco music piece entirely in the style of Jannacci, with Cochi and Renato in a wacky falsetto chorus singing "Generale, signorsì.. Generale la Pizza..." Truly neurotic! However, this piece works within the film, despite being very enjoyable to listen to given the excellent execution by the band, especially the legendary Pino Sacchetti (to whom, I forgot, the aforementioned track "Il Pino" is dedicated).
"Cos'è la vita" - A track composed by Jannacci-Boldi (yes, him, before his brain got mashed by an excess of "Vanzinina"...!) It's another of the album's key moments: after a completely unintelligible monologue by Pozzetto about "someone they wanted to take the garden away from", this magnificent refrain begins, "cos'è la vita, senza i dané..." entirely focused (in an absolutely comic way) on a series of situations of urban poverty, after which the monologue returns interspersed with the catchphrase "Manon lo so!" and then again the refrain... A joy this track! A must listen!
"Stella Stellina" - The weakest track of the album, it’s a funky somewhat evocative of police dramas, based on the famous nursery rhyme but with lyrics full of "pulp" images...
"La moto" - by Dario Fo and Enzo Jannacci. Another absolute masterpiece! On a crazy Rock'n roll track, the hilarious story of someone wanting to swap his motorcycle for a girl, proposing the exchange to her boyfriend, is sung... The ending is more outlandish than ever. Here, Jannacci delights us with a wonderful long piano solo, between rockabilly and bebop... Magic!!
"A Lourdes" - On a swing base, they recount their trip to Lourdes. More irreverent than ever, phrases like "Non è un fatto di ignoranza, è solo un fatto di credenza - La credenza è tutta mia, piena di chincaglieria di Lourdes..." or "Tutti i Balurd (Balordi) a Lourdes" come out. Again, a hoot! A must hear!
Perhaps the most beautiful album and with the highest concentration of classics of the comedic duo is "Il poeta ed il contadino", but in my opinion, the most interesting and the least known is this one... Unfortunately, like all their works, this album has never been reissued on CD and so we have to look for expensive and rare copies from the era, but it's worth the effort...
In conclusion, I don't know if this album objectively deserves 5 stars, but to hell with objectivity, it is one of my all-time favorite albums!!!!
Greetings and enjoy the listening!
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