Lucio Dalla
Viaggi Organizzati

In 1984, Viaggi Organizzati was published. It was unfortunately unlucky. Because it followed an incredible series of genius albums. Listing them from memory now almost gives one chills: Terra di Gaibola, Storie di casa mia, Il giorno aveva cinque teste, Anidride Solforosa, Automobili, Com'è profondo il mare, Lucio Dalla, Dalla, Dalla Q Disc, 1983. In addition, Lucio Dalla, here and there, left gems for others. "Lontano da dove" for the film of the same name, "Un fiore per Hal" for Stadio, "Lunedì Cinema" for the audience at home, "Angeli" for Bruno Lauzi, "Anima" for Ron, and so on. The last stroke of genius was this one.

Our artist availed himself of the collaboration of Mauro Malavasi and wonders emerged. It's just that the Bolognese artist paid the price for deviating from his previous work, a feat no one in Italy had managed to express up until that moment (with the exception of Battiato and Battisti; and for antithetical reasons). But if you listen now, this long playng is a provider of wonderful atmospheres: rarefied and pulsing. The powerful songs are "Washington" and "Tutta la vita." But there's much more: Dalla's imagination here is unleashed. There's a bull wishing for a remote control to never think, there's the intergalactic journey of an astronaut dreaming of waking up next to his partner, there's a birth for which "maybe love begins in silence, it's opening and closing wings." There's the bewilderment in front of mystery, there are dinosaurs, and a man who finds nothing funny anymore. And then there's one of the most beautiful and poignant lyrics ever composed by Dalla in "Tu come eri." A text speaking of a dentist with a chicken in his hands, of messages that don't arrive, of eyes, ears, and computers that turn us into boxes of nothing. In short, a beautiful album. Of high writing because it's low; truly Dallian.

After the genius, the excellent Dalla will arrive because, I'm sure time will prove me right, songs like "Felicità," "Il duemila, un gatto e il re," "2009 Le cicale e le stelle," "Comunista," "Le rondini," "Henna," "Latin lover," "Merdman," "Lunedì," "Dark Bologna" are pieces of incredible freshness. Already, the writing was weaker, but where it reached, it was extraordinarily powerful. The detractors of the later Dalla are often those who couldn't stand his omnipresence at any cost, his sloppiness, his giving in, his lack of shame and snobbery. True Dalliani know that Lucio has always been like this, even when he was a God. That's why they loved him until the end.