coolermaster

The review had me in stitches, even though you took it from a story by Stephen (The King) King: "The Art of Survival" :-)))

How can I not quote you, Midisun...
Do you know what the problem is? Music criticism!! We are so overwhelmed by tons of words that certain "niche" artists (and I don't want to use other terms) have been praised by many critics under lysergic effects and in our country by politicians, that sometimes we listen to an artist knowing that we are first listening to a shaman!! We convince ourselves of their greatness. But how, damn it, thousands of Scaruffoid intellectuals say they are a genius... oh yes, here it is... La do sibemolle... Minkia!! What a genius!! He played that thing like no one ever has... God even added the burps of his 3-year-old mongoloid son... wow, no one has ever done that and those who did later copied it!! :-)) It’s true, let’s admit it, when instead music is also made of simplicity, of emotions... and I get emotional with a Bouree by Bach, with the Adagio for Strings and Oboe by Alessandro Marcello (to stay in the classical realm) just as I get emotional with the sonatas of Ludovico van or the solos of Dave Gilmour or Steve Wilson...
No, the Doors did not want (nor did they want) to be intellectuals... they have always made "songs"...
Agreed on the analysis of Wyatt.... A bit less on Frank Zappa, but you know... well... in the end, the famous desert island, do you know what I mean? Well, I don’t think I would bring Francesco Zappa's discography with me... no, I would prefer other music.

Mama mia, do the PT make banal, derivative, and carbon-copy music? Then I would say, as I’ve been proposing for years, let’s have a convention on music and establish what is valid and what is not... No, because personally when I listen to "start of something beautiful" or "arriving somewhere," I get goosebumps... and I think of everything except David Gilmour (not our de-reviewer) or King Crimson... and even less to Dream Theatre!! The PT communicate emotions to me... the DT, aside from "images and words," is just boredom... For me, Fates Warning were much fresher... The PT make me dream, in the oldest and noblest sense of the word.... Culture? I couldn’t care less about culture! What’s considered cultured? Velvet Underground? I’ve always found the VU disgusting... I certainly don’t consider them geniuses or masters... Red Crayola? I’ll leave the parabola of Arabol to Scaruffi, he can enjoy himself if he wants... I prefer to get lost with the Beatles' white album... Or with the Doors.... Or with the Crimson King’s Fire Witch.... The PT have brought fresh air to the asphyxiating landscape of British rock in an era dominated by Boy Bands or Brit Pop wannabes, of which Radiohead are the last remnants....

Sorry, I'm taking the opportunity to talk about it here. Because when it comes to Psychedelia, people always mention The Doors, Velvet Underground, and the more savvy ones even bring up the 13th Floor Elevators (not to forget Quicksilver, Plane, Dead, Kaleidoscope, etc...). Yet, nobody mentions (SHAME!!) one of the most important psychedelic bands? I'm referring to VANILLA FUDGE, the New York group that would inspire many genres stemming from psychedelia/progressive/art rock. Without the double bass of Mr. Carmine Appice and the guitar of Tim Bogert, Heavy Rock (or Heavy Metal, if you will) would never have come to be.... They had a tremendous influence on Black Sabbath as well.... Guys, listen to "Some Velvet Morning" by Nancy Sinatra or "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by The Supremes, completely crushed by the murderous fury of Vanilla Fudge! It’s an experience.... And above all, buy Psychedelic SundAE, their first album.... Forget about Velvet Underground....

The point is that Battiato is not a genius; he is a great musician, a bit snobbish, a bit pompous (and true geniuses are usually modest, a quality that Battiato has always lacked) who in the 1970s was really trying to import a very Mitteleuropean, new discourse, but at his peak, he preferred to return to the pop from which he came... that being said, if you say that his Pop compared to certain garbage around today is Beautiful, well-crafted, I absolutely agree, but I've never listened to true miracles from Battiato, of course, according to my taste... some songs are gems and I’ll mention a few: "GLi uccelli," "Oceano di silenzio," "e ti vengo a cercare," "prospettiva Nevsky," "La cura," and a handful of others, but for me the brilliant beauty of "Fetus," "pollution," "Clic," "Sulle corde di aries" is unattainable from the new Dandy Battiato, a money-making machine, and good for narrow radical chic circles who think they can absolve themselves between a cruise and a gala with "Patriots," "La voce del padrone," "Fisiognomica," etc.... etc.... Ah, but I listen to Battiato caVo, so elegant, so snobbish....

I've never liked the cure, but I recognize its value...

But enough already! Once Battisti said: I want to go to the movies to see a bad film, I will go even if I know it's a bad film, but at that moment I feel like watching a bad film... If the Pooh are crap, then I don't know what "i cugini di campagna" are? The aLunni del sole? The collage? And I could go on... and all the aforementioned groups were born in the wake (and shadow) of the Pooh... In the '70s, the Pooh made a handful of fairly remarkable albums with a vague progressive flavor. "Opera Prima", "Alessandra", "Parsifal", "Un po' del nostro tempo migliore", "Forse ancora poesia", "Poohlover", "Rotolando respirando"... and here I stop... then they alternated pathetic moments with real flashes like some things on "Tropico del nord", "Buona Fortuna"... If I sit down to dissect them with the approach of Scar(ognat)uffi, I say well... sure, Battaglia is a good guitarist. Period. He’s not Robert Fripp of the Crimson, nor John Petrucci... But they are genres!! Damn, I find Dream Theatre to be incredibly talented... technically, but perhaps except for "Images&Words"... which has even had the merit of being the manifesto of ProgMetal (or at least the prog metal that is understood today, aside from the various Queensryche still steeped in Power and Classic) the rest doesn’t mean a BELOVED THING to me! I mean, it doesn’t communicate emotions... that’s what music is supposed to do... For me, YESTERDAY by the Beatles communicates something... then I know Miles Davis with Bitches Brew is unreachable, but who cares! Just as at times I listen to "Tanta voglia di lei", "L'anno il posto, l'ora", "Lei e lei", "Noi 2 nel mondo e nell'anima", "Col tempo, con l'età nel vento" (it even moves me to tears with Fogli at the end when he reiterates the line: with time and age in the wind I will remain a man loved by half, a rebel, a poet for half..." because damn it, I can relate to that!!!!!) and I tell myself: well, these are the classics, those icons to which half of Italy (the silent majority of the '70s) has been wetted, and as I never tire of repeating, emotions are respectable, regardless of what makes us feel them. "Sognare" with the Pooh or with "Pink Floyd" or "Porcupine Tree" has the same dignity... I’m sorry...

One of the masterpieces of Italian music. The album of perfection (together with Bella'mbriana) after 2 albums that shattered Neapolitan tradition: Daniele stuck a finger in the ass of Conservatism and sucked it! Attracting endless criticism… (Naples is like the "Church") A great guitarist, a genius of Jazz and Blues, the only one who has fused his dialect with music of American origin without forgetting the more cultured Mediterranean tradition... One who, along with a handful of collaborating friends, brought the music of the South of the United States to Southern Italy... I think of James Senese, Tullio De Piscopo, Napoli Centrale, of whom Daniele was a contemporary... Perhaps one of the albums that has truly brought something new to Italy! No one had ever dared so much... to blend dialect with R'n'B, Jazz, Rock... Daniele managed to do it commendably and, above all, credibly for the first 4 albums.

The thing that amuses me the most is that on this site, many people constantly bash Blasco, who, unlike Ligabue (poor guy, I mean the original), has actually said something, and many years ago quite well. He’s someone who at least had the intelligence and cleverness to surround himself with musicians like Solieri, Riva, Colaiuta, etc... etc... Well... I’ll give him a 2 just for the following of fans and the oceanic masses he managed to gather with this album. Artistically, I find Rita Pavone better: can you compare “datemi un martello?” Sociologically, the lyrics are light-years ahead...

Go Vic, keep it up!! Ligabue rocks ?? If Ligabue plays Italian rock, Celentano is John Lennon, Dolcenera is Joni Mitchell.