Giorgio Gaber
Dialogo tra un impegnato e un non so

After the theatrical debut with 'Il signor G.' and the return to the studio with 'I borghesi', Gaber is ready to begin a long theatre-song project, which will see him animate, together with Luporini, intense theatrical seasons for several years. The first two LPs, as mentioned before, are early, uncertain, and still almost close to the career before the theatrical turn. With this one, however, we are at the heart and perhaps the best moment of his project. As usual, the considerable length of the work does not make listening easy; the homogeneity is supported, in a somewhat forced manner, by the prose that should connect one song to another. A secular listening, excluding the prose, loses much of Gaber's theatricality, but streamlines everything and offers us many tracks, one after the other, including more than a few excellent episodes. In addition to many tracks that have become classics and often retrieved in subsequent shows (including 'Il teatro canzone', an anthology LP, always relative to a theatrical season, the one of 1991-1992), there are less known but fine tracks.

In the first part of the show, 'L'ingranaggio' and 'La presa del potere' are noteworthy. After these notes, I usually write a few words of consideration about the chosen tracks, with Gaber there's little to do; unusual for many reasons compared to 'studio' songwriters, he uses an extremely simple language, makes irony his favorite rhetorical tool, and overuses it. On the contrary, he doesn't like metaphors or symbols much, preferring to say things as they are, often using current events, but also introspection and social relationships as a pretext for the songs. His language is direct, suitable for the theatre, which does not foresee, unlike the LP, continuous listenings and the possibility to wear out a record and memorize the track, or listen to it many times to study and understand it thoroughly. Far from the hermeticism of De Gregori, like the mythical-autobiographical theme of Vecchioni, gloomy, sometimes Guccini-like, especially in his very first theater works, but more often ironic, an entertainer, and, as the years go by, increasingly angry.

Similar to very few, capable of using words very well, yet somewhat overrated. Choosing a moment from his career to get an idea of him is difficult due to the enormous amount of songs; besides this work, I highlight 'Polli di allevamento', as two very successful episodes.

Regarding the tracks, there is little to say, they are numerous, Gaber tends to repeat himself quite often: the theme of daily, bored, or bourgeois love, for example, often recurs in the early theatrical episodes; sometimes he introduces new themes, but which he feels are not his own, resulting in quite unfortunate tracks (especially in 'Far finta di essere sani', where, aiming to release an album with as many as 16 tracks, he actually creates a mess, and more than half of these should really be forgotten); there's genius, but it must be discovered little by little, exploring his production. The tracks easily capture attention with their language and themes, often familiar, simple or current, rarely banal, true, genuine, but often a bit forced.

In the second part of the LP, 'Ci sono dei momenti' stands out, where for once social commitment gives way to introspection, demonstrating that beyond 'Stato', 'Piccolo borghese' and 'Democrazia', there are also more intimate, personal and human concepts, emerging in a track, in its own way, very poetic, sincere and touching. Gaber realizes his discomfort precisely from the indifference that in 'those moments' he feels towards society, politics, class struggle, and rejection, and tenderly asks to be involved again in reality during those moments, when sadness alienates him. In this very beautiful and simple track, not pretentious at all, but disgustingly candid, we see how attachment to ideals can also hide the need for an escape, a diversion from a reality that is human, the same for everyone, and difficult to tolerate for all. Besides this, I highlight the more famous 'Al bar Casablanca', which although revisits the theme of indifference towards social issues, does so with unsurpassed irony and simplicity, making it always fitting, even after many listens, so vivid is the portrait painted of the nonchalant and indifferent intellectuals, sitting comfortably on the bar stool, as comfortably as they are in their conventional condition. On the other side of rhetoric, indifference, commitment made only with words and slogans, there are dirty hands, sweat, little imagination, little willingness and possibility to educate oneself, to become aware, and therefore to defend oneself from the real threats of power, i.e., there are 'Gli operai'; in a track that, from the title, might seem like one of the thousands written by Gaber on the theme of raising awareness for proletarian justice, in reality, the same discourse applies, as different as the subjects are, as 'Al bar Casablanca', i.e.: the track is quite original, simple, unpretentious: a formula that applies to many of G.'s tracks and in reality doesn't always succeed, but in this beautiful album offers us unforgettable insights, and, I hope, unforgotten.

In conclusion, since I don't think I will write other reviews about him (I've already written another one): Gaber should be appreciated for his honesty, his immediacy, his communicative force, halfway between poetry and subversive speeches, always close to life, never hyperbolic or dreamlike, close to the strings that vibrate in daily life and all of us. It's wrong to overestimate him, as I often read, but impossible not to appreciate him.