Often at dinner, I listen to an American radio station that introduces me to a lot of music I don't know. I've been doing this for two or three years, not just yesterday.
Tonight, I hear the intro to Prendila così and I'm taken aback; I had never heard them play an Italian song before. It was an opportunity to put it into context among international music. At first, I felt embarrassed: they played this piece with a complex structure, long, with original and surprising solutions and changes in atmosphere... I find this structure works very well, one environment flows into the other naturally for me, but I felt as if this was so personal (or perhaps odd) that only we Italians who have it in our family could truly understand a piece like this. As I continued listening, I started to hear it as if it were less mine, and at that point, placing it among the others, I had a new confirmation of its artistic level and deep originality. There has been no artist or musical product quite like this. Unique, among the greats.
Battisti sought out, mixed, experimented, and played at the level of other greats in international music. We are not just a peripheral village and a bit naive. We have the sea.

Lucio Battisti - Prendila così (Still/Pseudo Video)