Osage Tribe
Arrow Head

In 1971, Franco Battiato, following more or less casual encounters, particularly with the drummer "Cucciolo" Favia, founded a group named after a not very well-known Indian tribe, the Osage.

The group included singer and guitarist Marco Zoccheddu, who had experiences with Nuova Idea, and bassist Bob Callero. They immediately recorded a 45 rpm for the newly founded Bla Bla, which became a successful TV theme song, "Un falco nel cielo," a catchy tune of which an English version was also proposed titled "Prehistoric Sound." The show was the famous "Chissà chi lo sa" presented by Febo Conti.

The collaboration with Battiato ended here, partly due to military obligations, partly due to the rightful solo ambitions of the Sicilian, who in that same year released "Fetus," and partly due to the strictly progressive interests of the others.

"Arrow Head" was released in '72 and it is an extraordinary album. Battiato was already gone, but he co-signed the first track with Zoccheddu, which some have considered a sort of proto-rap.

Then the prog takes over. And it is great prog. The trio conveys incredible energy, and in the next 4 tracks, all by the versatile Zoccheddu, they demonstrate a rare instrument cohesion for those times with passages of great intensity and warmth.

Complex musical structures, articulated with insertions of a dynamism never heard before as in the wild title track. The lyrics are never trivial, even if perhaps a little naive, but always well-calibrated and well-integrated into the musical context. Famous are the "funghetti rossi" a clear reference to the use of peyote, which in the mythology of the era represented the inner search, the one Castaneda spoke of in "A scuola dallo stregone."

A fundamental rhythm section, especially in the phrases with Zoccheddu's guitar. Notable and beautiful is "Bianchi soffici veli," to me the epitome of this supergroup's skill. In short, a very current album that had no success and effectively led to the dissolution of the group, which branched out into various projects, as often happened in those times.

One thing was certainly not lacking then: creativity, the desire to explore, to challenge oneself, and they did it without too many thoughts, without too many calculations.

In the CD reissued by BFT, there are, as bonus tracks, the two versions of the aforementioned single.

A note for the curious: the group's name is possibly due to a certain interest of Battiato in Indian culture, which in those years was being rediscovered and re-evaluated even by cinema, as in "Soldier Blue" from the previous year. However, the choice seems to have been provocative, as it seems that the Osage were a 'sly' tribe, and indeed to this day there exists a pretentious Osage Nation, complete with a reservation, state organization, and website. But under the guise of tribal pride, it reveals itself as a holding company for casinos scattered throughout Oklahoma.