RingoStarfish

Two years to finally get a real comment on my review, wow!! Anyway, if you could maybe explain to me why it's a four-star album... I mean: it can be as bad and desperate as it wants, drawing from every root of American music, etc... so what? Isn’t that something that contradicts what I said? It could still be rubbish. Explain to me why it isn’t. And I didn’t say that Big Star resemble Rod or Led, I simply pointed out that they had already drawn from that poor American culture you talk about, with different but already exemplary results.

Francesco, thank you, but the credit is all yours. It was your excellent idea to introduce Adam Ant on Debaser, and quite dignified at that! Adam And The Ants were, in 1978, the very first punk band to come to Italy. They did, as I recall, 3-4 concerts between Milan and Rome, informing the beautiful country in their own way about what was happening simultaneously in Albion... For the record, at that time Marco was not yet in the lineup, and the Ants themselves had not yet released anything (they would debut the following year with a small post-punk masterpiece, "Dirk Wears White Socks"). They were more known for their appearance, with Ant as a budding actor, in the cult film "Jubilee" by Derek Jarman. By the way, they even wrote a book here in Italy about those legendary incendiary concerts of Adam in Milan (with the Decibel and other emerging bands enchanted to be the opening act).

In truth, the new-romantic current was born following the epigones of the Ants; they provided the impetus, but unlike the new romantics, they did not make the look the fundamental component. Instead, it was a delightful support to amplify the reach of their musical proposal. It was the famous theatricality learned from uncles like T-Rex and David Bowie (while Adam played at being an Indian during the "Kings..." period, Bowie was spinning the video from Pierrot Lunaire of "Ashes to Ashes...") brought here to an extreme of exquisite punk taste (both he and Marco were thick as thieves with Siouxsie Sioux and various others). Adam wasn’t "dressed in the fashion of the time"; he created the fashion of the time (up until then there had been nothing like it, in fact, everyone had just come from punk, him included). Indeed, this is where the difference lies between Adam-Marco and, for example, the slightly later Duran and Spandau; they were emerging punk icons who decided to create a totally new type of music, from the blank slate of ’77, and were among the first to lay the foundations for a music of the future (the famous "Antmusic.."). The new romantic posers used their outward appearance merely to get noticed and to mask the lack of musical quality and creative depth. With "Prince Charming," Adam and the others unfortunately went too far with the formula they had invented. They were asked to replicate the miracle of "Kings of The Wild Frontier" in less than a year, and they failed, weighing down the formidable recipe due to a lack of equally innovative ideas. It wasn’t easy, but personally, I excuse them because in such a short time they couldn't have done more. With today’s stretched market timelines, perhaps this incident (speaking of the album's value, not sales success, mind you) would not have occurred. If—just to name two that come to mind—the Strokes or Queens of the Stone Age had to replicate the results of their best albums just a few months after their release... would they have succeeded, proportionally, in doing better?

I think comparisons are actually valid; even the so-called "untouchables" must be questioned, perhaps to clarify some common points or even to check once more if these artists truly deserve to be defined as such. If we start categorizing them as untouchables, we cut out 40% of each person's personal heroes from any discussion. Moreover, Guccini himself could be another "untouchable" for some commentators... and that would indeed be a problem, as many interesting comparisons would start to vanish. Regardless, whether they belong to "Serie A" or "Serie B," we are still talking about artists who have made the history of Italian music, and in a positive sense... so they are almost on equal footing, right?

I think comparisons are actually valid; even the so-called "untouchables" must be questioned, perhaps to clarify some common points or even to check once more if these artists truly deserve to be defined as such. If we start categorizing them as untouchables, we cut out 40% of each person's personal heroes from any discussion. Moreover, Guccini himself could be another "untouchable" for some commentators... and that would indeed be a problem, as many interesting comparisons would start to vanish. Regardless, whether they belong to "Serie A" or "Serie B," we are still talking about artists who have made the history of Italian music, and in a positive sense... so they are almost on equal footing, right?

the reference to raised fists was meant to say that someone goes to a Guccini live show as a "political symbol," almost like the Che smiley on t-shirts or on the motorcycle windshield... I also think many raise those fists just through associations of ideas, not through the development of (their own) ideas. (and anyway, the era of raised fists is over, for better or worse, it takes much more to prove you believe in something...)... anyway, I thought it was realistic and fitting to draw a comparison with De André, always "poets with a guitar in hand" are, with similar audiences in coinciding eras... I didn't say Jannacci or Morandi... or Battisti or Battiato...

The fact is that here it has even been recommended as the best introduction to Guccini's corpus; but I can testify that I have some friends who, after being introduced to Guccio through this Live Collection (pushed by other respective friends, among whom maybe there’s someone from you..) left feeling perplexed by the overall disappointing quality of the album. For me, Guccini can also not care less about the outcome, but it's something inconsistent with an artist who has always made live performances (since the days when he was bouncing from one dance hall to another) his banner, his calling card (between via Emilia and the West, I didn't come up with that). I would again suggest making a comparison with Faber, not so much for the historic concert with PFM (that’s a whole story in itself) but for that collection of apparent contractual routine (like our Live Collection) which is "Concerti" from 1991. Here you will find clarifications on what is missing here, or simply a small reference point for Guccio's future live releases. ps: thanks for the prompt response, even though I read this page centuries after your discussion.

The most delicious factor is the fact that these die-hard fans cannot understand that a person can hold a high regard for the Guccio of the golden age (an era that lasted for many years, burying many colleagues like Bennato, Venditti, Graziani, and which has endured with more consistency and grit than that of his friend Vecchioni) and despite this, lament some recent missteps of ours. I mean: it’s not that just because Guccini lasted for years and years with a splendid vein that now, virtually gone, we are forced to forgive him everything as if he were untouchable. I can have great respect for the invincible prince of the '80s, but if he then puts out a dud album - I say it and I admit it - without trying to appeal to ways of thinking, lifestyles, phrases like "I’d like to see if you could do it," "but at his concert there were 10,000 people, many young ones"... even to see the Nomadi there are always on average about 10,000 people at the main dates... does that seem reliable to you? To see Jerry Calà in Versilia in the summer, there are up to 6,000 people, now with about 70% being young and very young who say the night before going to the “concert,” excitedly, “it’s the first time I’m going to see Jerry...” It’s simply not credible. There are those (and this is the hardcore) who go to see Guccini regardless of what he does, the progress of his musical career, his voice, his mind. Good for them. But only for them.

kato, you have all my support for having stated undeniable truths. And it's nice that the hard core of Guccini and Debaser fans responded in kind... appealing to their own touching orthodoxy (quotations from books and interviews to justify the qualitative shortcomings of a live album... have you ever seen such fervor –almost like a Quranic appeal– towards a live performance by the Stones, Earth, Wind & Fire, or Radiohead... or to be more relevant... De André? who has always delivered high-quality live shows, supervising the necessary aspects, just to avoid finding himself facing such RIGHT critiques that he would have to respond to in hindsight). The rabbis of Guccini are admirable; this is a faith for them, not just simple emotion & teaching. And faith is something you believe in regardless. Is Guccini making a lousy album? Has Guccini been in noticeable decline for twenty years? Is Guccini delivering scandalous live shows that everyone justifies with raised fists and the smell of wine? For them, everything is fixable. It’s pure religion. And I respect Guccini because he has managed to create this religious movement around him. Thanks to his past successes, he can now afford to play and is always considered a man who pours gold (for some it's 100%, for others 80%, for others 40%, but for all barricaderos, it’s always GOLD).

When I think back to an album like this one (which, as you rightly said, is "great in its genre"), I feel better about living in this rather unfortunate 2006. I feel better because at least now I don’t risk encountering "stuff" of such caliber in the windows of our post-modern music stores. So thank you, you've brightened the tail end of this sluggish year in which Cat Power's The Greatest now seems like the best album of my life.