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Rating: With this album, Franco Battiato strings together essays on love and decadent poetry worthy of the great poets of that movement, and composed by various singer-songwriters, Italian and otherwise; indolently laid on a 'velvet' of strings and piano.
The album opens with a tribute to De André, 'La canzone dell'amore perduto', a song that requires no additions, except to be quoted in the most beautiful verses: '... I would like to tell you the same things now, but how quickly, love, the roses wither, just like for us... and when you find in your hand, those flowers wilted in the sun of a now distant April, there you will regret...' On a classical and keyboard background more similar to an organ.
Next is 'Ruby Tuesday', by the Rolling Stones, which has circled the globe several times and is perfectly slotted in the album's flow, which then moves to 'Jentends siffler le train' pronounced with the same artistic licenses as the previous one, always set on a slow and daydreaming pace. We move to 'Aria di neve', by Sergio Endrigo, with a Nocturne background and lyrics including: 'We are here', among everyday things, grey days and days, air of snow on your face... it's an impossible life, this life with you, you don't laugh, you don't cry, you don't speak anymore... along the road of our love, I have already invented, a thousand new songs, for your eyes, more than a thousand new songs, that you never sing...' - Sung with great expressiveness.
Next is 'Ed io tra di voi' which seems the most obvious continuation, but written by Charles Aznavour, with resigned lyrics of someone discovering he is no longer loved by a woman through disguised glances directed at others. Also, the next 'Te lo leggo negli occhi' seems to continue the sense of the previous ones, while 'La canzone dei vecchi amanti' instills a metric increase, written by Jacques Brel, and is my favorite of this album: the original text in French remains intact in the chorus, captured in such a definition: 'Mon amour mon doux, mon tendre, mon merveilleux amour de l'aube claire jusqu'à la fin du jour je t'aime encore, tu sais, je t'aime'. Stunning in the way it rests in the violin's metric.
Another song, this time with Neapolitan lyrics, is 'Era de maggio' which I do not quote because, frankly, Neapolitan song has written unparalleled chapters, even by Battiato. The next song, still in French, translated, initially represents the muffled sound of the old record player, then clear. Next is a song also contained in 'La Cura', namely 'Amore che vieni amore che vai' which maintains the coordinates of the album just like the following songs of Franco Battiato.
In my opinion, it is a beautiful album derived from such diverse influences, and so well blended within a romantic impression, though with very sad tones and therefore not easily assimilable.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Ruby Tuesday (03:36)
She would never say where she came from
Yesterday don't matter if it's gone
While the sun is bright
Or in the darkest night
No-one knows
She comes and goes
Good-bye Ruby Tuesday
Who could hang a name on you?
When you change with ev'ry new day
Still I'm gonna miss you
Don't question why she needs to be so free
She'll tell you it's the only way to be
She just can't be chained
To a life where nothing's gained
And nothing's lost
At such a cost
Good-bye Ruby Tuesday
Who could hang a name on you?
When you change with ev'ry new day
Still I'm gonna miss you
There's no time to lose, I heard her say
Cash your dreams before they slip away
Dying all the time
Lose your dreams and you
Will lose your mind
Ain't life unkind
Good-bye Ruby Tuesday
Who could hang a name on you?
When you change with ev'ry new day
Still I'm gonna miss you.
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