Giorgio Gaber
Polli di Allevamento

The period from 1970 to 1985 was an important time for many, and even Gaber fits the best of his repertoire into less than 10 albums here. Upon closer and especially very subjective analysis, the masterpieces of our most comedian-like songwriter can be found scattered here and there in various shows. Shows, theater-song albums, which are a new and courageous idea, yet easily fit among the other traditional singer-songwriters' real LPs, those who divide themselves between the recording studio and live concert, and don't know the alchemy of creating their own product live.

The albums are therefore recordings of shows, moments from the theater season tour, which involves both advantages and disadvantages: it is clear that Gaber finds the verses of a song limiting, he must act, speak, and sometimes change even the same pieces; I am sure anyone who has attended one of his shows holds the memory with jealousy and love. For me, who listens to the LPs, challenging listens often arise: the obligation of extreme length (that of a show) generally quadruple that of an LP, the alternation between songs and prose, and the need to break tension and keep the audience's attention alive, using both songs and 'breather' verses, pauses.

Listening to the records at home, aside from being somewhat contrary to the nature of the shows curated by Gaber and Luporini, is not very easy, to put it briefly: do not speak to me of 'Il signor G.' or 'Far finta di essere sani' (which, moreover, comes out as an LP recorded in the studio), as memorable works. I appreciate 'Dialogo tra un impegnato e un non so', and especially the only truly sensational episode of this project, which (I say before you start getting angry) leaves behind many beautiful moments and valuable and unforgettable pieces, only no album reaches the same finesse as what the top of their class were doing in those years. Attack me if you want, for me Gaber (like Lolli), are the first, the best, in a 'second' class of that Italian word art, right below the podium, in short.

No album, I was saying, except 'Polli di allevamento'. In which we first enjoy the homogeneity of the songs, which even before concerning the level of care in the lyrics, works well for the album idea: the attack on conformity, already evidently difficult for Gaber in many early theatrical works ('I borghesi', 'Dialogo...'), a hypothetical prologue is the piece that opens the previous theater season, namely 'I reduci', where a melancholy eye turns to those moments, those movements, lived together, in the tender illusion of changing the world forever. An illusion defeated indeed by conformity and consumerism, which have devoured the love and commitment of the young, transforming them, indeed, into 'factory farm chickens' who 'now hate out of frustration and not by choice'.

The level of the songs is always high, both in the usual ironic episodes (Chissà nel socialismo; Salviamo sto paese), and in the attention to current affairs, contemporary man and his fears and manias (La pistola), or in introspection (L'esperienza).

But above all, there is commitment: disillusionment regarding the failed revolutions (Eva non è ancora nata), the new conformity (Guardatemi bene), alas, which was still in an infant state, and would be destined to grow and swallow other generations, taking them in its grasp through fashion, technology, but also social alienation, lack of faith, humanity, indifference.

The balance of those who follow the new youth movements is not positive: the account is that the world does not change, history is destined to repeat itself, if the possibility of subverting truly existed, it belonged to a finished moment, to aged faces, changed consciences. This does not only concern 'Timide variazioni', but also the generational confrontation, from a family and educational point of view ('I padri miei', 'I padri tuoi').

Rarely are minor songs discussed, they are all very dense, do not refuse that minimum of introspection, and above all do not hold back on anger: in 'Guardatemi bene', more than in other songs (I padri...Polli di allevamento), we understand that the process Gaber subjects young people to sees them come out destroyed, dismantled, unmasked, all to be redone. The non-conformism leads to a worthy anger, which actually permeates much of the album, in 'La festa'. But what seems to us is that almost all the songs act as a prologue, as if for an escalation, to bring us to what is the epilogue, but at the same time the ideal center of the album, one of the best pieces of this theatrical experiment of many years, namely 'Quando è moda è moda', which in turn could be considered a prologue to 'Io se fossi Dio' of the following season, if it weren't a more lucid, more synthetic, and targeted version, perhaps less violent, but raw, and always conscious, careful in choosing targets, which are more generic than those in the subsequent season's piece.

To the great dust and censorship of 'Io se fossi Dio', I prefer 'Quando è moda è moda', which is the mirror of much theater-song production. As I prefer 'Polli di allevamento' to any other work of Gaber, whom I love very much, but who, in his prolific and beloved previous works, had missed the classic. This does not mean the other episodes, from 'Dialogo...' to 'Teatro di...', are ignorable, on the contrary.