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If I were a musician, I would want to be Gene Simmons, co-founder of the “Kisses” with the extra long tongue, not in the sense that he's a great talker. I’d make terrible music, but with women in “pink panties” I’d have a decent success, even at an advanced age. Definitely better than now when, between prostatitis, chronic fatigue, and little interest, I struggle to complete the weekly.
If instead I were an Italian musician, maybe from the province of Rieti, precisely from Poggio Bustone or Poggiobustonese, not Poggiese, damn ... Bolognese, I’d be Lucio Dalla!
But if I were born the day after Dalla and also named Lucio, who would I be?
“We’ll only find out by living”?
And what does paronomasia mean? Don’t know? Here's an example:
I'm realizing that I've entered the house / with my box still with the pink ribbon / and haven't mistaken my purchase / or my bride
then a solo that would make Gilmour or Waters and any Pink Floyd fan pale, with Lucio continuing to sing “chissà chi sei”, but only on LP, while it doesn't appear on the single. Who knows why… And guitarist Phil Palmer declared he recorded it in one single long take because he had to go to the dentist. Perhaps it’s the first case of musical orthodontics for Italy’s most famous solo.
On the other hand, if I “dream of embracing a true friend” who writes me Mogol for the last time, making me want to disappear from all known scenes and move away from the “venomous Brianza” that evokes the Seveso disaster, something between the two definitely existed. And what about “The fierce hatred, the roaring hatred
It hurts inside and burns the mind, I understand you, I know something about it”… 45 years ago, Lucio began his disappearance from the scene. No more concerts, TV appearances, and interviews, with a small exception where he declared to journalist Giorgio Fieschi that “I will no longer speak because an artist must only communicate through his work. The artist does not exist. His art exists” and then “An artist cannot walk behind the public. An artist must walk ahead.” Thus providing an explanation (?) for his disappearance from the scene. As for the end of the partnership with Mogol, a duo that, without exaggerating, was certainly the best in Italy, equal to Lennon/Macca in the rest of the world, many doubts still persist. So why did the partnership end? Stinginess? Dispute over royalties? Envy for the celebrity of one compared to the other?
But who cares about the reasons, let's accept the fact and move on. It would be like wondering why Juventus wins (won) so many championships, better not to investigate... The last album of the fantastic duo is right this one, the gloomy day of February 1980. Here, Lucio shows his love for disco music, understanding, indeed perceiving its rapid decline, and thus goes beyond. Echoes of Supertram or ELO appear here and there, the keyboards dominate, in the end here come the 80s. The producer, Geoff Westley, pushes heavily in this direction, the band accompanying him includes the drummer from Alan Parsons Project, a future member of Simple Minds, a collaborator of Van the man, a member (again!) of King Crimson, another from Brand X of Phil Collins, in short the peak of pop of the time, all in London, far from fans and newspapers, the possibility of working quietly and for a long time. The result is this album, where absolute masterpieces like the title track coexist, an exhilarating pop rock and “Con il nastro rosa,” which has already been talked about, the absolute masterpiece of all Italian music; with minor tracks, chief among them “Una vita viva” which with an irritating falsetto and too many oh oh oh is just to be skipped. But the rest of the album is a real marvel, musical innovations that still surprise us 45 years later, making everything modern and current. “il Monolocale” with its funky rhythm, a chorus composed of a single word (vendesi), with a splendid final guitar riff. “Arrivederci a questa sera,” danceable and with a soft soul horn section that feels like listening to Earth, Wind & Fire, with Mel Collins’ sax in the finale reaching very high pop heights. What about the musicality of “Orgoglio e dignità,” a piece in 12/8 with two intertwined keyboard solos. Funky, Latin rhythms, Lucio's dizzying falsetto, echoes of the “urlatori” style (friendship with Adriano Pappalardo will have influenced something?), a beginning of electronics… The TBT is useless, listen to it again, and then tell me if this album is the ‘Calimero’ of Battisti's discography.
I wanted to do justice to this pop masterpiece, still very current today, unjustly treated badly in the reviews already present on the underbass. Personally, I even consider it superior to the previous “Una donna per amico,” but tastes are tastes, after all who am I to judge a great like Lucio Battisti, Poggiobustonese, no, bustoso, ummh, … from Poggio Bustone and what the hell…
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