Fabrizio De André
Storia di un impiegato

LA RECENSIONE

You know, in singer-songwriter music, what differentiates a true poet from a clever wordsmith? Those with little understanding would say it is precisely the word, the graphic body of his art that guides its destiny. In reality, it's not like that: the poetry lies in the voice, or to be precise, in the sound that your voice can offer the word. It's only when spoken or sung that a word can take flight, rise into the air and resonate with all its poetic layers.

This is what differentiates a poet like De Gregori from a mediocre one like De André: personality, and thus the strength in the voice. De André doesn't sing but humbly and self-effacingly serves the word. He doesn't dominate the words but is a slave to their sound. And he's a slave to the meter, rhythm, and melody. De André is neither a musician nor a poet, but a foolish juggler of words, a jester who doesn't quite get it and then tries to save himself with some third-rate metric tricks. In the end, De André makes art what the graying neighbor from under the umbrella, who inevitably hails from Cremona and is an accountant, makes of his life: he amuses himself with puzzle games from Settimana Enigmistica, thinking that all the meaning of his art/life resides in these things. And well, you tell him he's good and make him happy.

Now, one might think that I'm biased against Faber ̶C̶o̶r̶o̶n̶a̶ De André and his ̶b̶l̶a̶c̶k̶m̶a̶i̶l̶ ̶p̶h̶o̶t̶o̶s̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶R̶o̶c̶c̶o̶ ̶C̶a̶s̶a̶l̶i̶n̶o̶ pseudo-songs, which I frankly find mere exercises in style inflated with a retorically sugary that scrapes the nerves. But the point is that I think he is really very lacking. I took this album as a symbol, it's not worse than others but also not better than any dental abscess. Not even better than any album by Venditti, for example, whom De André loved to mock. At least Antonello knew how to sing, not just because of vocal training, but because he knew how to breathe life, meaning, and sense into his words. Fabrizzzioneeeee, on the other hand, sings with his gum raised to the left because who knows, maybe it's chic, but who cares really. Can I say that to me he's acting, and can I say he's doing it poorly? If you like De André, in my eyes you're a bit like Fabio Fazio, your choice.