Ivan Graziani
I Lupi

“But I will not stop. Never. A real guitarist dies. He must die on stage”.

Ivan Graziani was one of the greatest (and unjustly underestimated) Italian guitarists. He made a name for himself at the end of the 60s with the band Anonima Sound and, having embarked on a solo career, became a highly sought-after session man; Lucio Battisti, Formula 3, Premiata Forneria Marconi, Antonello Venditti, Francesco De Gregori, Renato Zero, and Bruno Lauzi availed themselves of his precious collaboration, but the role of "extra" was too tight for the Abruzzese artist. In the early 70s, he participated with little luck in various experimental music works.

His true debut came in 1976, thanks to the record label Numero Uno (owned by Battisti and Mogol), with the album “Ballata Per Quattro Stagioni”, followed the next year by what remains, in my opinion, the highest point in his discography, “I Lupi”.

In this work, Ivan's writing ability had already reached a maturity and awareness matched only by his prowess with the instrument, and the track “Lugano Addio” is a shining example that allows the general public to finally know Ivan Graziani; so much so that the single reached the top positions of the sales charts and the album also achieved decent success, selling the remarkable quantity of 10,000 copies. “Lugano Addio” is one of the most famous pieces (perhaps the most famous) of Ivan Graziani, created, as often would happen in the future, around an almost ethereal female figure, for whom Marta rises to the rank of muse… a little Beatrice or Laura described with a poetic melancholy of rare beauty; but the album is shaken from its very beginning by the deviated rock of the title track, a story of desertion and self-analysis of a soldier during the Spanish Civil War, set on the progressive stride of the track, masterfully conducted by Ivan's guitar and Walter Calloni's drums.

“Motocross”, the second track on the album, is the piece that most highlights Graziani's sarcastic vein, grappling with a borderline suburban story, built on Hugh Bullen's pulsating bass and the robust keyboards of his friend Venditti, which once again emphasize the cutting guitars of the artist from Teramo and vigorously support his peculiar sibylline voice. A track that, for the images it evokes, has been often compared to Andrea Pazienza's comics (ironically, the cover was made by Tanino Liberatore, co-author with Tamburini of 'Ranxerox').
The rest of the album is corrosive, pervaded by a strong sense of hermeticism and self-analysis; a sort of imaginative journey into buried memories in one’s head and a roster of characters always on the verge of improbability... the ragged Zorro of “Zorro”, the guardian and the client of the brothel in “Il Topo Nel Formaggio” or the protagonist of “Eva”, with her habits and bizarre quirks, another portrait of a woman, this time painted with the pastel colors typical of De Gregori.

The colorful music, sometimes melodic and dreamy, sometimes energetic and furious, perfectly underscores the skewed, acid, and caustic lyrics... as in the dreamy finale of “il Soldo”, with distant mid-sixties reminiscences, which gently caresses even the last and extreme thought... “Tomorrow there’s school. And with the coin falling... I’ll kill myself tomorrow”. Nothing seems serious and nothing is facetious in Graziani's irony, and this album continues to be the one that surprises me the most with each listen, as he even said years later: “it's my most sincere and spontaneous work to date”.

Long live cross, long live motocross.