primiballi

Um...sorry, the previous post is full of mistakes...I didn't proofread it....

@gustavo. Forgive me, but your judgment can also be accused of being generational. At least as I see it, Vasco's "genius" phase was already over for a while (for me, 1983). Liberi is an album with too many filler pieces, lacking inspiration, recorded in a "live and let die" manner in a mini-studio with excessive electronic drums. There are really few well-written songs: the title track, Dillo alla luna, and Domenica lunatica... in the rest you can already see very clearly the Vasco that will be. And on the live "front," well... if it weren't abundantly enhanced by the guitar of my friend Braido... aesthetically, the live shows of recent years are much better, and as for "pleasure," nothing will ever match the true spiritual testament of Vasco's genius, which is Va ben va ben così... Kisses (about the '90s I won't repeat: good cult stuff and horrible mass appeal, almost always, but that's my opinion, I don't expect it to be shared)

No, for heaven's sake... and you see that by reasoning we can understand each other... I am simply older, enough to understand that sometimes popularity, the crowd, has something grandiosely divine, even when it expresses itself with apparent simplicity. At twenty, for example, I thought that Coltrane was a genius, that Eric Dolphy, who died young and brilliant, was even better, and I didn't understand the interest in Louis Armstrong, fundamentally despising the mass love that has always existed for him. As an adult, I understood, falling in love, that Satchmo is a god. But on the rest of your analysis (of course not on the ancestral hatred for Vasco, but I hope you'll forgive me...) I agree with you. Then, if we are still here (and I hope so) in 10 years, we’ll see if, at least a little, you will have changed your mind. Kisses.

Here's: what I will never be convinced by is this principle of "the whole world is a village" or "all eras are the same." I believe that Dylan was Dylan, and almost all Dylan fans or followers have been worse than the original, just as in jazz the now countless Coltrane or Davis fans are infinitely worse and "less modern" than the originals... In music in general, I believe that obviously there are no binding canons, but I have always adopted, in my small way, a method that seems to work: if a musical work satisfies critics, the public, and musicians, then it means it is intrinsically good, even though it is obvious that every work has its detractors and always will. This is why I judge Paolo Conte to be of high quality (he pleases the three categories, almost without exception) and Cammariere not (musicians don't like him, find me one). It's obvious that this is an opinion. Regarding the irrelevance of the masses, I would have my objections, even though - it's obvious - when I see San Siro filled with fans of Pausini, I would also have strong attacks of aristocraticism...

@iside: no question about it. If you read closely, I’ve always said that DeB is a wonderful place, ultra-democratic, which at its worst suffers from an excess of democracy, which is certainly not a crime. The beauty of DeB is that you can write about anything, even Vasco, and still get over 100 comments, always interesting and stimulating (by the way, this review isn’t even mine...if you go, but you did go, it's confirmed in mine). It’s clear that when you talk about the Boss or Vasco you trigger a tsunami of comments, while when you talk about, I don’t know, Colin Hay, you get 15. That’s just how it is...a fact. What I’m saying is that some individuals will never speak well of De Gregori, Vasco, or Vecchioni, others accept Battisti and Faber (because they are dead), and still others amplify the figure of Gaetano because he has been gone for longer and is seen as a supposed champion of a South that already back then had much better champions. But often, admit it, and be honest, someone who sells and is alive here tends to be looked at unfavorably. I have already expressed my views multiple times on the singer-songwriter scene and light music in general: everything has a birth, development, and death. I don’t see why so-called light music should be an exception. It’s not a nice way to defend your youth to deny it. It’s like saying that Messiaen is as good as Bach. That doesn’t hold up either historically or artistically. Recent quality things, niche (there’s plenty of good American singer-songwriter music, from Marc Cohn to Greg Brown...and countless others), are lofty matters, if you want, exquisitely philological, but good rock has been mass entertainment. Let’s never forget that. Today it isn’t anymore. The market is harsh, okay, but true originality is lacking a lot. Hendrix is gone, and no one has replaced him. This is my thought and, no matter what lux thinks, it’s not aggressive and not directed at him (forgive me but I have the habit of not personalizing). Kisses

Dear young absolutist Lux (also amusingly cheeky, but much less than I’m willing to tolerate), is there anyone you like who sells? Or do the things you like have to be necessarily niche? Just asking. You know, to stay in the '90s, does DMB disgust you? Do they play poorly? Sound bad? Or do they sell too much? @Lewis: none of my comments were directed at you, whom I don’t even know if you can be considered a "90s enthusiast." I’m referring to those (Lux) who claim that the '90s were better than the three decades that preceded them (in my opinion, it’s like saying that the excellent Fresu is superior to Miles... but excuse me, I’m talking about people who sell and sold... anyway, now the moralizing will come and not some names...)

@gardy...: I think the decline started much earlier: "cosa succede" (a record I infinitely love but for personal reasons) and "c'è chi dice" are already compositionally poorer compared to the previous ones, just as the much later "canzoni per me" was compositionally richer, at least in my opinion... What is ontologically dangerous (and therefore inherently wrong) is falling victim to generational judgments (we all risk it... but I - just read me - try to make an effort to objectivize... that is, "I like this record but the standards, assuming they exist, would not entirely agree..."). Here, in DeB, for example, the systematic exaltation of the '90s is purely generational: want to bet that none of the exaltators is over 30...? Another typical symptom is the glorification of imitators in almost total ignorance of those they imitate (this applies to both the oasis-beatles and capossela-waits comparisons). Kisses

@ardy: on Deb (it's both her beauty and her ugliness) you live in the typical "excess of democracy," so there will always be room for those who believe - even if they don't admit it - that the best is the one who listens to them because nobody else does, or that the best is actually them and their little song stuck in a drawer, just that they are a misunderstood genius... it's obvious that it becomes a showcase for frustrated and envious people... but, trust me, here I've also met wonderful and absolutely competent people... Just don't fall for the trick. You hear your music, believe in it, write it, and have fun (ah... then... the comparison with Solange made me laugh for a quarter of an hour...). @iside: on many things we think alike, but, sorry, are "Sally" and "vita spericolata" bad just because Vasco wrote them and because they sold...? if so, then me, along with Mannoia and De Gregori, really know very little.... Come on, guys, it's not by shitting on Vasco on Deb that you find the certainties of life. Let it be said by an old man. Kisses.

Boy, I know the '80s inside out (I've written about it a thousand times in a thousand places), and I consider those years still incredibly interesting, where there was a harmonic and arrangement research worthy of great respect. I personally believe the '70s are the absolute best (pure creativity and experimentation), while I find the '90s to be very poor, false, and hypocritical (and I fear we won’t agree at all on this), starting from the much-lauded (at the time) grunge, a decidedly regressive phenomenon misrepresented as innovative. Sadness. But it’s obvious that this is a very personal position. His Majesty the market, in the '90s, made a fortune with products I consider modest...thus, for many, I would certainly be wrong....Kisses.

"banal even in the '60s" was your phrase. If Italian and grammar make sense, the meaning of the sentence is that the '60s were banal years. Go check what De Andrè and the Doors did in the '60s, and then tell me if they weren't at the highest levels, on this side and that side of the ocean (and if the following decades -maybe not the '70s...- weren't all inferior...). Anyway, no problem even if you don't think that way... obviously.