Lucabbrasi

Simply an extraordinary album. Composed in a state of grace, a work by Orzabal alone to be honest, who here, in a compositional trance, begins to make the duo creak, and perhaps dreams of greatness. What to say? Huge songs, played by gods (Simon Phillips, mostly, on drums, Robbie McIntosh on guitars, Manù Katchè always on the drums...). A small technical note: only for "Badman's Song," it is said that many versions were recorded, all captured by the Fairlight of the good Orzabal, who would later select the best versions from EVERY single musician and reassemble them into a single version: what can I say, the best of each musician gathered in an epic song. There are fabulous and not irreverent tributes (the title track is a tribute to Sg. Pepper...), daring sound explorations that elevate Pop (of which the two are masters...) to higher levels... unfortunately, I repeat, the album was composed and played in a climate that had now deteriorated between the two: Smith demanded more space, space increasingly occupied by a harmonically and melodically possessed Orzabal. I listened to the last reunion, and... I'm sorry, good and honest work but no peaks of any sort. Too bad.

....eh eh Grasshopper, fearsome nickname, right? (great masterpiece the movie) maybe I expressed myself poorly. I listened to that music a lot, and I still appreciate it. However, it seemed to me that the excessive use of the term "jazz," not to mention the...showing off too much about fashionable coolness, the very way many of those musicians played...in short, all the surrounding stuff ruined the good that was in the music...almost a...basking in things that then devalued the music... practically, during that time, any musician was obliged to know ninths, fourths, elevenths, and so on, and magically became someone who "did similar jazz." Semi-acoustic guitars ruled the day, saxophonists made a fortune back then... if I asked a guitarist for just a tiny bit (a little bit, huh?) of distortion during a solo...man, he would look at me badly and zap me! I get it, I experienced it too, it was a post-punk rebellion...but, how much classism, how much snobbery in that movement!

...the only "In my time of dying" justifies listening to it....what a track, damn! The version on the official live DVD is practically chilling....

...um, reading that ""Lucky Man" is Lake's ballad that concludes the album. The song seems inspired by the Beatles and is commercial enough for the Prog Rock that the band offers, enough to tempt Keith into playing the final solo, but despite that, the piece is good." makes me smile slightly....first of all, a piece of advice, for a true appreciation of ELP, listen to Tarkus and the fantastic Trilogy: that's where you will truly appreciate them, without all the labels that may have been unnecessarily attached to them.
Then, returning to Lucky Man: dear, aside from the fact that this song has now become a classic, still played on the radio. Also, just for the fact that it was the FIRST track, the first song where a solo was heard on the MiniMoog synthesizer... well, it's historic just for that. A solo, among other things, stunning, simple and functional to the song (as everything genius should be…). Queen held the record for the first music video in history, but ELP were the first to showcase the initial sounds of a MiniMoog…

...the mistake made at that time, and that some still make today, was to put the word "jazz" next to this music. It happened with Sting's first album (even winning awards from industry magazines...), and it happened with all those little 'heroes,' somewhat annoying, that blossomed in the mid-80s. All just because they placed a nice saxophone in the songs (Sade), or adapted jazzy rhythmic patterns (the bossa of "Everything to Lose" by Style Council).
The truth is that it was POP, excellent and well-played (a lot enjoyed and appreciated by me...), but it had nothing to do with jazz.
If the guitarist of EBTG loved plucking the strings of a pudgy semi-acoustic guitar, fine; if Paul Weller always wore his beloved 50s-style trench coat, great; if some keyboardist refused to play the insipid Yamaha DX7 synth and went to dust off the old Fender piano, even better. In fact, all this being "cool," with jackets and ties, that air of "new cool," was overall rather pretentious and annoying. It was a phenomenon primarily of fashion, of style: but musically, it had nothing to do with jazz at all....

Incredible, nothing to say. Many other things are truly valuable in their production (how can one not appreciate the homage to EW&F in "T.V.U.M.D.B.", or the stornello sung by Bracardi in Romanesco in "Che felicità", or the moving "Grazie Ameri" sung to the tune of Strani Amori by Cutugno, and many others...). Unfortunately, in my opinion, much of the creativity went away with the death of poor Feiez, who was a crucial glue as well as a genius of arrangements and the mixing desk.

...when De Gregori was a singer-songwriter, meaning he composed beautiful songs (with lyrics, to be fair, cryptic to most) and he SANG them. Masterpieces like Rimmel, Bufalo Bill, the tour with Dalla followed. Then, with age, he increasingly fell into the syndrome of our Dylan, and he was irretrievably lost. Except for a comeback with the album produced by Rustici (never again such a bold venture, huh Francesco?), our man has become a prisoner of his own persona. What a shame, he could also sing well. Now he deliberately drags every note, every word, and it’s unclear why. Yesterday I heard "Pezzi" on the radio: someone explain to me why people scream masterpiece for a tedious and monotonous enunciation of a text with "pieces of this, pieces of that," and so on, as well as for a musical chant that is at times irritating... poor Francesco...

...by the way, I had the chance to admire him in Florence during the last tour (a bit too acoustic, to be honest). Well, he is a dazed and disenchanted little man, very likable (he smokes like a chimney...). After the concert, he mingled without any star attitude, and I, like a high school student, got the DVD I bought there signed. I repeat, a rare simple person in a world infested by stars like Ramazzotti et similia.

...songs? ah, I didn't know that recording a jackhammer on CD now corresponds to the concept of a song....I need to rethink my now obsolete dictates...

...well, I think they are yet another national-popular bluff uncovered by that crafty Caterina Caselli, much like other inexplicable bluffs (Ramazzotti, Antonacci, Vibrazioni). Every now and then she gets it right, as evidenced by her attempt at something "higher" (Avion Travel) which fell flat. Honest guys like I imagine many others on the peninsula... looking like (fake) alternatives, with some cameos at the festivals that "are so cool and committed," resulting in what essentially is light Italian pop, which leaves me astonished when I see the girls singing these songs by heart, despite them being nothing really groundbreaking or "not already heard." One atrociously burning question: what the hell is that guy armed with cymbals and a Mac doing front and center, torturing himself like a madman, in a group like this? Can someone explain to me the essential sonic contribution of this guy?