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Rating: Il_Paolo: "And...stay with me", number 1.
Hello guys/girls, summer is starting, and as promised, your Il_Paolo begins with this review the "mini cycle" dedicated to summer-themed music, or, in any case, music that's great to listen to during the heat and rains of the most exciting season, for better or for worse, of the year.
Today I would start with you and for you with an anthology of one of the most celebrated bands from the late '60s, early '70s, whose music, in my opinion, is ideal for accompanying you on long car rides through the sun-drenched highways of our Beautiful Country, or along the frontage roads, beltways, backroads, and so on, perhaps with your companions, in that makeshift yet priceless harmony that only aimless wandering in a car can offer, without destination and without purpose... "no quarter" as someone said thirty-plus years ago.
Also because, let me reiterate the cliché, the journey is always more interesting than the destination - including the one for summer vacations - especially thanks to the music that emanates from your car radio, or better yet, your vintage cassette player.
The music of Dik Dik is ideal for this sweet wandering (preferably in summer, because the days are longer) because it is intimately cohesive, united, an expression of the most beautiful and pure of feelings (less corruptible than the still important Loooove), that is, Friendship, like the one that has always been evident when observing the stable members of the group, their faces carved by time and yet happy, accomplices, forty years ago as now, almost aware of having found the recipe for eternity, stability and something that does not change, unlike the seasons.
And in this, I would say that Dik Dik are "summer" music, precisely because they make us dream of an eternal and paradisiacal summer, devoid of the forebodings of autumn and the end of the nice season, making us imagine an eternal village fair, "garzoncelli sereni forever".
Setting aside the track-by-track of this diverse anthology, I note how even in the saddest, subtly tragic pieces of the album, there shines an intimate joy, which in my opinion is closely linked to the simplicity with which the group played and sang together, for the sheer pleasure of doing so: take, for example, my beloved "Vendo casa", where the daily disintegration, the self-destruction of the singer is filtered and returned to the listener by elegant melodies reminiscent of the west coast, in a singular contrast between the cold and autumnal tones of the lyrics and the sunny sounds, in major keys. And the same goes for the poetic and poignant "Il vento", which is nothing more than the story of a betrayal, or perhaps a simpler symbol of the search for autonomy, narrated with elegance and expressive composure, with a whispered beginning that bursts into a chorus full of energy, of potential freedom (you all know that summer, vacation, makes us free, but from what and for how long?).
A separate discussion deserves the cheerful, almost free masterpieces of the group, Italy's response to the libertarian vibes coming from San Francisco or late '60s London, with Dik Dik playing the role of little Grateful Dead "made in Brianza": think of the wonderful "Isola di Wight", almost a never-never land, elsewhere where dreams can have space (before Claudio Lolli warned us to "vacate" the streets from them), or again "Sognando la California", in which the desire for travel, for escape and alienation from oneself, from one's responsibilities, explodes in the most visceral, authentic, and I would say youthful way, full of unexpressed energy.
Thus, our summer together begins: put this CD in your car stereo and go, possibly singing these classics in chorus, on a journey that I wish will never end.
I would love to do it in the Dik Dik van, being their roadie along the local festivals of our Country, in search of pure and authentic feelings, as fragrant as a sausage with fries, while many no longer young listen to the group in search of the lost summer.
Touristically Yours
Il_Paolo
Tracklist and Lyrics
14 Sognando La California (02:21)
Cielo grigio su
Foglie gialle giù
Cerco un po’ di blu
Dove il blu non c'è
Sento solo freddo
Fuori e dentro me
Ti sogno California
e un giorno io verrò
Entro in chiesa e là
Io cerco di pregar
Ma il mio pensiero invece va
Ritorna sempre là
Al sole caldo che vorrei
Che qui non verrà mai
Ti sogno California
e un giorno io verrò
Assolo
Cielo grigio su
Foglie gialle giù
Cerco un po’ di blu
Dove il blu non c’è
Se lei non mi aspettasse
So che partirei
Ti sogno California
e un giorno io verrò
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