Edoardo Bennato
Burattino senza fili

Ah, the '70s. The era of the album and not singles, a revenge after the '60s: the album format, intended as vinyl, took precedence over immediate and easy listening, but it didn't last long. The "plastic" '80s brought the single back in vogue, and we are still paying the consequences today. But that decade, 1970-1979, in Italy, was the decade of singer-songwriters, of political engagement in song form, of the desire to tell stories (and storytell) through a musical format, the album, which went far beyond the quick 3-minute tune ready to be listened to on the beach or at home, in solitude. For instance, Bennato's "Burattino senza fili" also had a 45-rpm appendix, "Il gatto e la volpe" (ça va sans dire) which sold very little, partly because extracting a song from a concept context is laughable, to say the least. The album, however, turned Bennato into a kind of superstar (and it lasted at least until the first half of the '80s, when he became the first Italian artist to fill stadiums) and was the best-selling album of the year, released in the height of summer, and, again, this is the summer when Tozzi shook up the Italian charts with the C-major loop of "Ti amo." Yet he, Bennato, won his challenge.

"The album that made a generation of record sellers happy" (Paolo Madeddu)

It's hard to argue against that. Bennato with "Burattino senza fili" dives into Collodiana's tale of Pinocchio, speaking of the present in fairy-tale fashion. The introduction, entrusted to the slow country-like ballad "E' stata tua la colpa" (guitar, drums, and the inevitable harmonica) sets the pace for what the record will be, swift (35 minutes, 9 tracks) and very rich in musical aspects.

«Collodi's fable had its own moral: if you behave well, you will become a well-adjusted adult. Mine, however, has a different one: if you follow the rules, you will find yourself tied by a thousand strings, like a puppet in the hands of power» (Edoardo Bennato)

«As soon as it came out ( [...] ) the intelligentsia that had supported me at festivals began to look at me with suspicion. I hadn't done what the other committed singer-songwriters like Claudio Lolli or Claudio Rocchi had done, I hadn't stayed in my place. I had become commercial, I had sold out» (Edoardo Bennato)

Besides Tozzi, Bennato signaled and surpassed, in sales, even Battisti's "Io tu noi tutti," relegated, incredibly, to the second place in the hit parade. In fact, even the previous year with "Cantautore," Bennato had indicated what the "middle world" of singer-songwriters was. No, he hadn't sold out, he had just intercepted the public's tastes. As would happen, for example, to the not yet solicitous Venditti the following year with "Sotto il segno dei pesci" (1978).

Side A of "Burattino senza fili" is the best, it is where our artist tackles themes head-on and uses music with incredible authority. "Mangiafuoco" is the track that anchors the first half, with Tony Esposito's percussion and a rhythm that's hard to resist, and lyrics that evidently draw heavily from the present ("Mangiafuoco sells tickets keeps prices very high there's no other competitor whoever tries regrets it!"), counterbalanced by the very delicate "La fata."

"The sweetest and most romantic page, but for this very reason more bitter [...] that Edoardo Bennato developed as a metaphor from the novel 'Pinocchio.' The fairy [...] represents the defenseless part of society and the modern world, the one that sacrifices, puts all of itself into what it does, but then also pays for the faults of others ("The fairy is Cuba," Bennato once said during a chat with his fans)" (Dario Salvatori)

The first side closes with the wild "In prigione, in prigione": a judge now thirsty for power (and therefore out of control) wants to imprison everyone (even those who go to the sea, and "all the union leaders") until they imprison him.

Side B opens with "Dotti medici e sapienti." A seventeenth-century atmosphere and a symphony of a certain taste. I have to say, and perhaps I'll make some enemies here, that in the symphonic bennatiana realm, I find that "Tutti insieme lo denunciam" in the subsequent "Sono solo canzonette" is much more accomplished and pointed, and that this one resembles, in music and style, a bit too much "In fila per tre" from the album "I buoni e i cattivi" (1974). But it's my opinion, it's a piece I know many like. I have a totally different reaction to "Tu grillo parlante," which has a nice fingerpicking and a fiendish rhythm, and no one can take away my belief that the criticism toward false prophets was aimed, among others, at Celentano (I know, in the song the cricket "studied a lot, graduated," but still...).

Having spoken about "Il gatto e la volpe," we close with a kind of (pseudo) Dylan-esque ballad, "Quando sarai grande." It always seemed to me a rather weak conclusion, besides that in the text it's a bit rhetorical and not much in tune with the sarcastic, irreverent, and sharp spirit of the entire album. It's very well arranged, but, I don't know, it gives me the impression of a missed opportunity (do we want to compare it with the closing of the subsequent album?).

Finally, a curiosity. The ninth track, the symphonic "Prova d'orchestra," which is "Dotti medici e sapienti" without vocals, present on Spotify, has mysteriously disappeared from the CD editions of recent years. Well, it seemed like a nice final touch. Whoever knows something about it, speak now or forever hold your peace.