Eugenio Finardi
Roccando Rollando

Eight days after the tribute concert for Demetrio Stratos, Eugenio Finardi's fifth LP is released, the least successful of the "political pentalogy" that began in '75. In fact, Roccando rollando, despite its title, does not fully convince and contains much less rock and roll than the title suggests. The album once again features Crisalide, who are to Finardi what Stradaperta is to Venditti. Both are excellent groups. The album starts with the calypso of "15 bambini," presented at the Festival bar, with that "turuturuturu" that immediately sticks in the brain. After "Why love," which will also be released as a single, sung entirely in English and discussing the pain of love, comes "Zerbo," a recollection of Eugenio's participation in the hippie gathering organized by the magazine "Re Nudo" seven years earlier. Side A closes with "Paura," a track that pairs with "La paura del domani," the last track of "Sugo," where the Author sings his heart out to those who drag him down and about leaving the house. Side B opens with "La canzone dell'acqua," a splendid dedication to the fundamental element of our lives and the first in the "trilogy" that includes "Nell'acqua" from 1991 and "Accadueo" from 1998. It continues with one of Finardi's few "light" songs, "Lasciati andare," almost a response to "Paura," where one has to let go to the rhythm because (for once) "there's nothing intellectual." But commitment and intellect quickly return in the album's main theme, "Legalizzatela," clearly referring to soft drugs, where with a reggae rhythm (it recalls "Cuba" from the previous year) he outlines the difference between soft and hard drugs because "you can't put on the same level someone who shoots up and someone who smokes a joint"... After track 2, another English song, "Song Fly High" flies high over social hypocrisies, lovers, and addicts (again!), but where, in the end, "you don't exit the game," as in "Scuola." It all ends with the less than two-minute divertissement "Ridendo scherzando," where the album's title is also mentioned, and "rollando" quite clearly refers to joints more than rock 'n roll. Roccando rollando is a partly successful work, where both musical and textual themes already addressed in previous chapters are mentioned and therefore feel familiar. Eugenio realized a change of direction was needed, so he broke with Gianni Sassi's courageous Cramps and moved to the Castle of Carimate to change environment and genre. It's a 3.5-rated album like Non gettate... but the latter is worth a bit more.