Francesco De Gregori
Titanic

"The first class costs a thousand lire, the second a hundred, the third is pain and fear!!" This is how the song begins that gives the name to the seventh album (not counting the one with Venditti) by Francesco De Gregori, titled Titanic, a tribute (if we want to call it so) to the famous ocean liner that sank thanks to a collision with an iceberg near the island of Newfoundland, it was 1911... Thousands of victims, mostly poor souls locked in that infamous third class, drowned like rats in a cage. All with the hope of the American dream, "we will depart from Great Britain with a glass in hand" mentions De Gregori, a journey hailed as a social event for some, but a journey for survival for many.

De Gregori, with great class as always, tells of this reckless journey to death, and he tells it in his own way, with his usual poetry, focusing especially on the captain of that ship, Captain Smith, to whom he dedicates "i muscoli del capitano," "the captain is never afraid standing on the deck smoking a pipe, in this fresh and dark dawn that resembles life a bit" to give the idea of the strength of the man, of the one who has everything under control, of the one commanding the ship that not even God could sink!! But unfortunately, the captain fell victim to his own errors, a wrong course, and it was too late to fix it once the massive iceberg appeared, "there's in the middle of the sea a white woman so enormous in the starlight so beautiful that one never tires of looking at her" Captain Smith, however, with his enormous creature!! De Gregori lingers again on that seemingly calm and tranquil night, before the tragedy, with "centocinquanta stelle," "a night so friendly to sleep in a sleeping bag" the song goes, but most conveys the idea of the beautiful "l'abbigliamento di un fuochista," which echoes the great popular songs of Italy at the beginning of the century: "but mom, they steal my life when they make me toil for a few dollars the boilers below sea level" of a boy's illusion "in this black, black ship that they tell me cannot sink" to a mother's despair "in this bad Atlantic never forgotten son". A true masterpiece that De Gregori almost always sings at his concerts. Out of context, the other songs on the album are equally splendid, the introductory "belli capelli," pure De Gregorian poetry, "white hair that would stop at a fountain to comb the years" passing through Caterina dedicated to the Tuscan singer Caterina Bueno, (whom De Gregori accompanied with the guitar at her concerts in the early seventies) lots of melancholy in this dedication, "who knows if you still play with the curls on your ear, and if looking into my eyes you would find me a little older" not to mention "la leva calcistica della classe 68," one of De Gregori's most famous songs which some want to dedicate to a particular footballer, but in my humble opinion, football is light-years away from this piece, which served only as a pretext.

In the album also "rollo & his jets," a song that nostalgically speaks of the 50s when: mentions De Gregori, "radios worked with valves and the children were us" a reference to his generation. While closing the album is a song of incredible depth, San Lorenzo, which narrates the terrible bombing during World War II of the Roman neighborhood of San Lorenzo precisely, De Gregori almost whispers the words, "oggi pietà l'è morta ma un bel giorno rinascerà" truly chilling. But perhaps the entire album is chilling, released in 1982 today it is declared the most beautiful album of the last thirty years, putting behind giants like Pink Floyd and U2. For me, it's an honor to review this masterpiece written by the greatest Italian singer-songwriter of all time.