Edoardo Bennato
È goal!

THE REVIEW

For Bennato, it is a golden moment. Although the latest album "È arrivato un bastimento" began to disappoint and divide some fans, the previous successes of masterpieces like "Burattino senza fili" and "Sono solo canzonette" were "sufficient" to fill stadiums and arenas and brought almost 80,000 spectators to San Siro in 1981 to listen to Edoardo, a record for the time. Three years later, in March 1984, again at San Siro, there was another great audience response.

So after years of exhilarating concerts, this first live album by the Neapolitan singer-songwriter, who has always offered great live performances, is released. It's titled "È goal!" and it's a record born primarily with the aim of including two singles released in previous years and with the intent of gathering the tracks that made Edoardo known abroad. The writings inside the album, in fact, are in English, demonstrating that the album itself was probably aimed at the international market. Nevertheless, this work will prove to be much more important than expected because, among other things, it contains some songs whose versions will later become final or will serve as a basis for further reworkings.

But let's go in order: the album opens with the only track along with the last one recorded in the studio: the title-track "È goal!", a splendid song that will quickly become one of the most beautiful, original, and entertaining themes of La domenica sportiva, the well-known program aired on RAI. To confirm the album’s international predisposition is the fact that in Spain it was preceded by the single "Es goal!", a completely translated version in Spanish sung by Edoardo himself. The second track, "Nisida", is the live version of the single of the same name released in 1982, but not included in the '83 album "È arrivato un bastimento". The importance of this publication lies in the fact that it then becomes the definitive version of the song (at certain points, it is very different from the original) and will be re-proposed, both in the live album of 1987, in the vast majority of Edoardo's concerts, and to this day it remains one of the most exhilarating moments, with the audience singing it loudly. The third track "Ogni favola è un gioco" is instead very faithful to the original. The fourth, "Canta appress'a nuie", is another single released in 1981 in Switzerland, as well as obviously in Italy, and also not included in the '83 album. This piece too is very faithful to the original version, which is also live. The fifth track is "Cantautore". Of this song, there is a version translated into English titled "Rock'n'roll hero". However, the piece present here diverges greatly from both the English version and the original Italian one (which are almost identical) and it will be re-proposed very similarly in the live album of 1987. Moreover, it will influence the subsequent versions (terrible!) included in the studio collections of 1996 and 2000. (In short, Bennato did everything with this piece, unfortunately!). The sixth well-executed track is "Un giorno credi", a classic of Edo’s repertoire that here he sings with only his guitar and harmonica (in "One-man-band" version constantly re-proposed, even if for a few pieces, in all his live concerts). Following are "La torre di Babele", much more similar to the English version (The tower of Babel) than to the Italian one, and "Lo show finisce qua", like "Ogni favola un gioco", very faithful to the original and probably both recorded shortly before their release on disk dated 1983. This album closes with a new studio version of "Una settimana un giorno", valuable, as in the case of "Cantautore", for replacing the original one even if in this case, the operation is decidedly more successful.

In conclusion, it's not a record to propose to those who have to get to know Bennato, also because it is NOT absolutely a greatest hits (it contains two almost insignificant pieces in Edo's career and it's not necessary to list all the masterpieces that are missing). It is an album born with other purposes, but it is nevertheless well-executed and should definitely not be missing from the die-hard fans of Edoardo.