In the meantime, I enjoy this reiteration of "old" album reviews, something that will continue to displease the higher-ups at DeB but which, on one hand, demonstrates the insipience and "functional" marginality of nine-tenths of what is produced today (and not only, sigh, in the mainstream...). If what is recorded today makes us cringe, seems pointless, already said, rehashed and digested, then we take refuge in the past, not as professional mourners but, I believe and hope, with a genuine critical spirit. It must be said, and I’ll conclude the intro, that rereading many reviews that appeared on DeB years ago brings both a smile at the sometimes genuinely jovial spirit and frustration at those who expressed themselves "prejudged," but it also reveals insights and flashes, constructive or destructive observations, but often with a logical sense that transcends the mere desire to undermine or glorify a work without any real reason beyond fan spirit or the always-negative detractor stance.
To come to the work of our good
@[joe strummer], undeniably one of the pillars of all Italian pop and not just of "cantautori" in the broad sense, we must inevitably look back to the period when it was created. Dalla came from the experience of "Come è profondo il mare," where he demonstrated to everyone, but primarily to himself, that he was not only a dixieland musician who had produced good and less good things but also, increasingly evidently, an excellent lyricist, concise and determined, direct yet capable of expressions that at times brushed against poetry. The lesson from Roversi, the poet whose verses he had set to music in three albums, had served him well, but he kept a safe distance from copying the literary style.
In "Come è profondo il mare," Dalla had found a unique dimension, with lyrics that went "from the political to the personal," as was said back then, never seeming predictable or clichéd, surprising many; he, who had declared himself incapable of writing lyrics, now proved the opposite...
The music... the music... even in the three albums with Roversi, the decisive shift was evident, with direct, angular sounds, very few solos, a lot of electronics (how many synths from '74 to '84!!) and now, in the full 1979, an eye on certain dry and direct sonorities, also derived from the wave of the time, and another to adorn the words with succinct chords and unexpectedly bluesy notes, with less jazzy elements and minimal Italic melody. The lyrics were often more recited than sung, declaimed quickly, somewhat as we were already used to hearing him but more incisive in terms of rhymes and "sonic" immediacy.
This second chapter of the golden triad of Lucio Dalla completed the insights of the previous one and paved the way for the extraordinary sales of the next. From '81 onwards, Dalla would merely garnish new records with electronics, and in terms of lyrics, he would increasingly take on the challenge of surpassing the completeness of those from the magical triad.
Maximum respect to the great
@[Falloppio], who, in his own way, has seen things also "from the inside" of the general record production, but to define these works from this part of Dalla's career as trivial songs, just trivial songs, is honestly, to say the least, reductive. For the first time, an artist of that caliber brought together words and music under the banner of perfect interlocking and current relevance.
The musicians, Fallo was one of them and rightly mentions them. Portera was fundamental in steering Dalla's sound towards rock-and-roll, Nanni and Pezzoli were a granite rhythm section, and Ron was truly an innovative arranger for that time.
Trivial songs? Come on...
