Giorgio Gaber
Raccolta Anni '60

This record does not exist, but rather this is a small contribution to Gaber of the '60s. There are many records that include that period, I suggest 'Prima Del Signor G', perhaps the most complete; released by Ricordi in 2005, so fairly recent.

Here they are, they had slipped one by one from memory but; here they are slowly returning, quirky characters from a childhood spent playing in dusty courtyards and the absolute prohibition of entering the smoky tavern. The characters from the songs of the early Gaber, splendid tavern scribbles, each with their flaws, their humanity never defeated; the automobile La Balilla which is shared with neighbors, with all the relatives, so much is the happiness and joy of the dream achieved, and then what does it matter if it will be wrecked by ignorant barbarians who don't even know what a car is, Il Riccardo who taught everyone to play billiards, the aim, the diamond, the diagonals, and we, in short pants, would hang to spy from the window that world of adults. A world made of bizarre characters, the dancer of Pum Pum Rumba and Teresa who never forgave him, the Tinker always dirty with grease up to his elbows, the barber, the haberdasher.

When Gaber sang these songs Italy was different, the long climb towards collective well-being was beginning, cars for everyone, telephone, TV, but then, TV was watched in taverns, the neighbors helped your mother to look after the multitude of screaming and festive children, all built to scale, and on Sundays before mass our mother lined us all up in our best clothes, with admonitions to us boys not to play football because the shoes were expensive and then she would wet the comb with water and make a straight parting that you never understood how it could be so “magic.” And our father from the other room would say goodbye before leaving for the tavern, to the "trani", to the Trani a Go Go, where the wine was good, and you mixed it with Champagne, without class distinction between the rich and the poor united by the pain of unrequited love, and other songs would come out of the electric device, the Torpedo Blu, Ma Pensa Te that poor girl who thought she was someone and even pretended to know languages and to go to Saint Tropez on vacation, hiding from us and herself the fact that she would always stop in Bordighera.

A thousand characters sung by Gaber in those sixties I now find in my memory of a carefree child, how can I forget a humanity that has been lost in the frantic pace of modern life?? So welcome the Gogangas, the Cerruti Ginos, the Zeppelin de Rossis, the hunters returning from the Sicilian trip where they shot so much that to cool the shotgun barrels they had to pee on them, and upon arrival it was a joy for everyone, those thousands of little corpses that would make the polenta more delicious for three consecutive Sundays.