Stoney

Ah, furthermore I draw attention to the neologism "verseggiativo" just coined by our BEAUTIFUL and SUPER AMUSING Sciusciola. But no, we’re acting like professors... we’re not at school, Italian is an OPSCIONAL.

Gustavo... don't waste too much time on it. Talking about serious music with someone like that is like teaching Italian to Biscardi. Just forget it.

Sciusciola, I want to demonstrate that those who listen to Vasco have an IQ (do you know what IQ is?) close to zero; if you keep this up, you'll end up doing it in my place.

Clako, I still believe that Vasco's fans don’t actually read the lyrics... especially the girls, who if they realized what goes through that man's mind would be horrified. But anyway, let me quote some lines from your favorite singer. From "Stupendo," I quote: "But I don’t remember if who was there / had these faces here / don’t tell me it’s really like that / don’t tell me they’re those ones." To anyone with a minimum of reasoning skills, it’s clear that such a verse was thrown together in 10 seconds, since rhymes between "lì," "qui," "così" are as far from poetry as one can get (a girl in love with her desk mate can write better in her diary) and above all, with a bit of intuition, one can deduce that two out of three lines are filler that serve no purpose for the song. It’s like "Yes, you who makes a fuss but come on," with the "yes" thrown in there to fit the meter and the addition of "but come on," a desperate attempt to find a rhyme with "fai." Same story in "Io No": "When I think about how / In the end, you brought me down / I understand where / You would have YES taken me." This idiot can’t even fit a meter. But the genius always shows in the same song, later on, which states: "When I think about how / You fooled me, though / I don’t understand how / What is it, that you / And someone else not." This deserves a double underline with the red pen of the elementary school teacher. It’s not Italian; maybe it’s Esperanto, or perhaps it’s the language Vasco uses in his fantastic world to talk to pink elephants. Other gems can be found in "Rewind": "UNLESS you’re really / the only one for me, I see the others / the others, yes, I see them"... UNLESS what!? Random words... but is it possible that only I notice such abominations? Also in "Laura" (already mentioned in my previous post), in all his most famous songs, especially the latest ones. Also, I’d like to make some particular quotes, finally (without comments because they speak for themselves). From "Io Non so Più Cosa Devo Fare": "Of course, she insists / She really wants to do / Maybe she’s a feminist / And doesn’t want to be raped." From "Susanna": "Susanna is a colorful girl / Who when she goes dancing looks like an orange soda / And if by chance you feel like / Eating her all up / Be careful, friend / That’s fruit that burns / Be careful, friend... damn, you’ve already broken it!" Honestly, the fact that people don’t shudder in front of such senseless trash, such a mockery of human intelligence, such ignorance, but rather get excited will never cease to amaze me. Probably those who defend Vasco do so because they find him suitable to their intellectual standard; this is the only sad explanation I can come up with.

Gustavo, I believe that the piece about the apple, just like all of Vasco’s other verses with dubious meaning, are simply ignored by his audience (even by the one Clako gave me a draft of...) Most people who listen to Vasco don’t even question it; they’re content to sing along to the stadium choruses together. The fact that I’ve asked questions like these many times to people who say they love Vasco, and have never received an answer, is telling. I can't believe that no one has ever noticed that "gli spari SOPRA" doesn’t mean anything; the only explanation is that no one has ever considered the issue. You enjoy Vasco if you don’t listen deeply, if you sing the carefree chorus, if you don’t stop to analyze what he says and don’t ask yourself why. By all means, that can be beautiful too, but there’s a significant gap between that and giving him the artistic importance that everyone attributes to him. Dear Clako, dear Vasco fans, the little tale of folk art, of "unrefined" poetry made by people who speak as they eat may make sense, but regarding Vasco it actually hides the horrible truth that many people who listen to him are not able to understand more complicated things. P.S. Gli Spari Sopra is the cover of Celebrate... whose chorus says "celebrate, this party's over...". Maybe I’m thinking too harshly, but I believe that Vasco came up with "gli spari sopra" just for a mere issue of assonance. If you try to pronounce "this party's over," you’ll notice that the sound is very similar to "gli spari sopra"; if you then hear how the singer pronounces it in the original song, this suspicion will strike you even more.

Simply perfect record.

Unfortunately, what I see behind black metal is just a strong desire to provoke, to show off, to stand out, to be different and evil at all costs, to scare the average person, to rebel, and all this in the most childish way possible. Hell, I don’t doubt that your interest is genuine; surely you approach music and things seriously, but my point was different. I said that the popularity of this genre (because it’s popular, it’s not niche at all) is due to the extremism that characterizes it; then it’s obvious that there are exceptions of people who take things with coherence and awareness. There are those who try to be alternative by shutting themselves in a social center and getting high, those who cling to backward ideologies, and among others, those who listen to black metal. It's all there, 90% of the people who listen to it do so because the little old lady in the street is shocked when she sees you wearing a shirt full of inverted crosses, only to then complain that the obtuse society ghettoizes it because "it considers him a bad satanist," when he, however, does everything to appear as such. It’s an old game: faced with a society that imposes certain values on you, you react by adopting a diametrically opposed and doubly obtuse ethic, resulting in you being marginalized even more than before and having one more reason to think that you are right in saying that society is bad. I'm making a generic discourse, almost sociological if you want, don’t answer me again that there are people who don’t do this, because I believe you understand what I mean. It’s like me saying that the stadium is a place that incites violence and hatred, and you replying that there are honest people who go there just to watch the game. Beyond the ideals, the lyrics of the songs, how much the Norwegians care about their pagan culture, how much Christianity has destroyed their traditions (and what should we say at this point), I think that the true core of black metal's success is nothing but this I've mentioned. It’s true, every musical genre, every movement today, has little or nothing to say and a lot to flaunt, but black metal deserves the gold medal for that, without a shadow of a doubt.

"And Laura is expecting a child for Christmas... and she’s sure there will be snow, you know, IT'S NOT ALWAYS SUNNY THERE, BUT IT'S NOT THAT IT RAINS EVERY DAY EITHER" ---- "Now that I’m here, in this STUPID STUPID HOTEL (???), and you’re not here with me, everything seems pointless, everything seems just as it is" ---- "you walk down the street eating an apple with school books (?!!?)" --- "when life was easier, AND YOU COULD EVEN EAT STRAWBERRIES (???????)" ---- "smile, THE SHOTS ABOVE (????) are for you". Clako, or whoever defends Vasco so passionately, do you have the courage to explain to me why such RANDOM WORDS should be considered poetry, or why the one who wrote them should be regarded as a poet, a singer, or simply a man worthy of respect?

I saw them in 2006 opening for Pearl Jam. An indescribable boredom; I’ve never hated an opening band as much, not even when the Darkness played before Metallica at the Heineken Jammin' Festival.

I believe instead that there is a fundamental tendency among the public of all kinds: a desire to feel part of a "niche" movement that says "serious" things, yet without complicating life too much. Everyone wants to stand out, everyone wants to claim they listen to complicated things, but no one is willing to commit to deep listening. Let’s be clear: if someone wants to become cultured, they certainly don't listen to black metal. There are types of music that are understood only after years and years of study; if black metal is niche, then what about those? Black and almost all other genres pretend to be niche, but in the end, they all offer immediate and appealing things (in a single word, as someone said above, "cool") that have an easy grab, yet they are dressed up as if they were something profound, so one can grasp them quickly and perhaps even believe they have enlightened themselves about something. Hence, that’s why Satan and not Lao Tzu, and that’s why black metal and not any other genre. I believe that no matter how much one delves into the philosophical aspects, the reasons why a blackster buys CDs of this music are unfortunately the painted faces, the double bass, the wicked riffs, and that’s it. Satanism, paganism, and everything else serve to give it a more dignified dimension and an aura of seriousness that it otherwise wouldn’t have. It’s purely an exterior matter, of form, of appearance, and above all of provocation, which there indeed is a ton of.