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Rating: Pop/rock musicians can be divided into two major categories: on one hand, those who explore, throughout their career, just one musical genre, repeating themselves with timid variations dictated more by trends and the evolution of recording technologies or instrumentation than by an intimate conviction or a precise design, often returning to their original style: think of many Italian songwriters, perpetually faithful to their style and more focused on the textual side than the musical side of their art; on the other hand, there are the indefatigable experimenters, sometimes overly ambitious and niche, who try to mix multiple genres or different musical approaches, various sounds, emphasizing the technical and cerebral side of music, sometimes at the expense of direct communicability: still staying in Italy, this is the case of many avant-garde bands like the '70s prog bands.
Sometimes these two tendencies meet in a fruitful and unrepeatable synthesis, capable alone of marking an era. This happened in '79 with the release of two live records by Fabrizio de André, the greatest Italian songwriter and a true master of the singer-songwriter genre, and Premiata Forneria Marconi, the most dynamic formation of Italian progressive rock. Released a few months apart, the two live albums should be considered as one, being taken from two concerts in Florence and Bologna. In them, some of De André's most famous songs are rearranged and accompanied by PFM, achieving a perfect fusion between the singer-songwriter's poignant and caustic singing and the group's intricate musical compositions, enriching the individual songs with new tones, in a fusion of singer-songwriter tradition and progressive music never before recorded or attempted, in Italy and the world.
In volume I, particularly notable are the performances of Bocca di rosa, Volta la carta, La guerra di Piero il Pescatore, whose progression is emphasized by the ever more insistent rhythm section of PFM (Djivas and Di Cioccio) as De André's stories unfold to their irreverent, surprising, or dramatic conclusions. In other pieces, the Mediterranean sounds that would be so dear to De André in the '80s come to the fore: in Andrea, the Latin influences of Mussida's guitar and Premoli's synthesizers stand out. Un giudice is highlighted by an accordion that almost brings to life the image of the inquisitive and watchful dwarf, while Zirighiltaggia is a frenetic ethnic rock piece that wouldn’t be out of place on Mano Negra's albums (!). A third series of tracks focuses mainly on the emotional power of the lyrics and music: Giugno '73, with its dramatic and touching lyrics (one of De André's most successful) finds in PFM's calm sounds an excellent accompaniment, almost causing the song to implode in continuous tension; La Canzone di Marinella appears essential, upheld by the touching melody of piano and guitars, while Amico Fragile is the piece most influenced by PFM's prog rock style, expansive and symphonic, with Mussida's splendid interjections enhancing the music confession of De André.
The same patterns are found in volume II, which opens with the Dylan-esque Avventura a Durango with its rich folk-rock sound, followed by Sally, whose main theme echoes almost Morriconian influences. Premoli’s piano and synths uphold and emphasize the tones of Verranno a chiederti del nostro amore, while Rimini, with its choral hints and melodic openings, offers a perfect synthesis of progressive tensions and melodic songwriting. In Via del Campo, the synthesizer counterpoints appear as an inlay to De André’s splendid voice. The introduction of Maria nella bottega del falegname is curious, reproducing the sounds of a workshop: compared to previous tracks, it is marked by an electric and decisive arrangement, with prominent drums and backing vocals, while the synthesizer sketches out an unforgettable theme. The concluding Il Testamento di Tito stands out for Djivas’s bass work and the increasing role of the PFM, enveloping the song.
Aside from the undoubted value of the work, these two albums are worth purchasing because they somewhat mark the sonic epitaph of an entire era of Italian music and lay the foundations for more fruitful developments, even if not always known to the general public or average consumers: it bid farewell to the classic Genoese school singer-songwriting and the prog rock of the decade coming to an end, while the future would bring De André a more decisive ethnic turn (Creuza de Ma – '84) and mixed fortunes to PFM in redefining their signature rock (Suonare suonare – '80; Come Ti Va in Riva alla Città – '81).
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