Patty Pravo
Tanto

From the tender age of four, I've carried the image of this woman with me: her appearances on Canzonissima, her "Caroselli" for Piper Algida, the most technological ice cream of '68, which I had learned to handle before savoring those splendid swirls of sour cherry or chocolate, her covers on major music or gossip weeklies portraying her as a cultural phenomenon and female model in an Italy ready for major social revolutions, divorce, abortion, rejecting old political-religious mechanisms to make our country finally free to express itself and be fully European.

In her 45-year career, her vast discography is marked by various phases as befits any star, with the difference of having better exploited generational shifts to propose, and propose herself, with music and image always paired and often converging in her private experiences. The choice to review this album in particular is part of this discourse, but I have to start three years before its release...

In 1973, with a surprise move, PATTY PRAVO returned to RCA with the CRAZY IDEA of reclaiming her audience, those masses that idolized her as the GIRL FROM PIPER and who hadn't greatly appreciated her subsequent existentialist phase, with that image weighed down by makeup and sober evening attire making her look 10 years older. Of course, she retakes the top of the charts and advances lightly, sniffing from flower to flower, almost wanting to DIE AMONG THE VIOLETS walking LOU REED through KENSINGTON GARDENS. The following year, MAURIZIO MONTI will tailor visionary and poetic lyrics for her, and she, realizing she's NEVER A LADY, will prefer to wander LIKE A PIERROT with THE BLUE SUITCASE in hand. But in '75 the ENCOUNTER with a lit streetlamp at Castel Sant'Angelo puts her in a reflective mood: musically we've reached the levels of SOLEADO, Monti is busy with a solo career that will sell about ten copies in total, and pieces by Venditti and De Gregori aren't enough to elevate an album that won't take off even with a good kick. She has no choice but to run to the higher-ups at RCA, the white-collars sweat at the thought of a "different" album with a consequent decline in sales, but in the end, they decide on a decisive "Call London": VANGELIS PAPATHANASSIOU answers, who remembered the blonde sports car from his time touring Italy with his APHRODITE'S CHILD, and at the moment, settled in the Nemo Studios after declining the invitation to join YES, he was in full solo creativity.

Patty arrives in London with her companion, guitarist PAUL JEFFERY, and with some Italian musicians who were joined by English ones during the sessions. The compositions are chosen from "various and possible" authors: distinguished are two young brothers from Lucania, ARMANDO and PINO MANGO, the latter making his recording debut on RCA, the three pieces given, transformed into Progressive Pop songs by the magical hands of the Greek-wizard, assume an unusual value in inspiring a song even more appealing and harmonious than usual, FOR YOU WHO OPENS THE UNIVERSE and MY EXTRA SEASON are dominated by synths treated also in the style of ONDES MARTENOT, while TO LOVE YOU WITH LOVE is enriched by the ENGLISH CHAMBER CHOIR in a further move toward the same electronic experiments of Vangelis. The same treatment is reserved for the Title Track, where it's hard to determine where the choirs end and the mellotrons begin due to an incredibly sophisticated mix, and the dramatic intensity of ABSURD, with a vocal performance fit for the anthology of our pop music. There are also more gritty episodes, like the minimal-funky of THE CICADA and the disco-oriented rhythm of BATTISTIAN IO TI VENDEREI, spiced with bizarre moog swirls, perfect for the dance floors of '76. Two more very different covers are WHERE WILL OUR DREAMS GO, the classic WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE by PETE SEEGER, with a beautiful text by the late DANIELE PACE, and the less successful AND I WALK, a reinterpretation of EVIL WOMAN by ELO, excessively over-arranged with cloying female choruses. It's the only flaw in an otherwise impeccable album.

Sales do not reach previous ones and hint at a conflict with record executives: the necessity of creating an equally adventurous follow-up leads to a breach in the contract and a single album with RICORDI, that PATTY PRAVO which fans conveniently call the BIAFRA ALBUM.

BUT IF THAT'S THE WAY IT GIVES ME SO MUCH!!!....