Raff/Laura Branigan
Self Control

THE REVIEW

Even though Raf has denied it multiple times, "Self Control" for me remains perhaps his most decent track.

Florence, early '80s: our now mainstream pop singer Raffaele Riefoli, known as Raf, is caught up in the great wave of New Wave coming from across the English Channel, which sweeps through the city of Florence and makes it the capital of the new Italian rock. Musicians, records, and instruments are circulating in the city, bands are forming, and they go to play at the Tenax, a cult venue that in those years saw performances by the likes of Joy Division and Ultravox and the Italian Diaframma, Litfiba, Moda, Neon, and many others... Among these groups were also Raf’s Cafè Caracas (on bass), Ghigo Renzulli, later of Litfiba, (on guitar) and Renzo Franchi, who for a short time joined Diaframma (on drums): I remember an honestly insignificant cover of "Tintarella di luna".

Then something happens: the Italo-Disco is born and spreads successfully throughout Europe and beyond. The Cafè Caracas are no more, and Raf is in London, where he meets Steve Piccolo, bassist of the no wave group Lounge Lizards, with whom, along with Giancarlo Bigazzi, he writes "Self Control". It is a commercial, dance, "breakthrough" track, sung in English, very catchy and essential, with a synthetic beat and synth; the track is released in two versions: in Europe sung by our Raff (with 2 f's), in America by the sultry Laura Branigan. It's 1984, no one knows who Raff is or that he's Italian, but everyone hums "Oh, oh, oh! Oh, oh, oh! Oh, oh, oh! Oh, oh, oh! On the night..."

The commercial success is astounding, worldwide, matching the contemporary "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, but Raf doesn't like that world and changes course: the problem is he takes the wrong path... shortly after there will be "Gente di mare"...

"Oh, oh, oh! Oh, oh, oh!
Oh, oh, oh! Oh, oh, oh!
Oh, oh, oh! Oh, oh, oh!
Oh, oh, oh! Oh, oh, oh

On the night is my word
City lights painted girls
In the day nothing matters
It's the night time that flatters

In the night no control
Through the wall something breaking
Wearing white as you're walking
Down the street of my soul.

You take myself you take my self-control
You got me living only for the night
Before the morning comes the story's told