Piergiorgio Pardo
Un gusto superiore. Il cantautorato progressivo italiano dal beat al bit.

“A Superior Taste” (Crac Edizioni, 2023) is a book full of names and surnames, song titles, and albums. The cover pays homage to Claudio Rocchi (also mentioned in the title, alongside Paolo Tofani) and Jacopo Incani, alias Iosonouncane. “Volo magico n. 1” and “Ira”, the past and present of progressive songwriting, “from beat to bit” in just fifty years.

But what is progressive songwriting? It is Piergiorgio Pardo, the author of the book, who provides an explanation: it is nothing but an attempt to “combine the ancient popular, classical, Mediterranean, later antifascist art of the bard with the rising tide of expressions and techniques linked to youth and anti-academic music: rock, electronic, ethnic, jazz. On this line, songwriting and progressive mesh, and it's no coincidence that the first progressive murmurs in Italy can be traced to records linked to songwriting”. It makes perfect sense. And Pardo does a great job condensing half a century of courageous and unpredictable music, reckless and far from clichés. Beautiful music.

The author starts by hinting at rock'n'roll and the early signs of all those changes that would find fertile ground starting from the 1970s of the last century. Ennio Morricone, “Senza orario senza bandiera” (the seminal album by New Trolls) and then Lucio Battisti, Lucio Dalla, Franco Battiato. Up to the present day with Baustelle, Andrea Chimenti, Morgan, and, of course, Iosoniuncane. In between, essential beautiful losers like Alfredo Cohen, Maria Monti, Mauro Pelosi as well as unexpected figures such as Sammy Barbot, Gianni Togni, Riccardo Fogli. But these are just some of the many names (not the usual ones, for a change) that Pardo references within 322 pages rich in information and reviews that emerge from the grooves of over two hundred records analyzed, dissected, delved into, meticulously examined, contextualizing everything within the historical periods of reference and concluding with a series of particularly interesting unpublished interviews.

Piergiorgio Pardo, collaborator of the monthly Blow Up, musician and radio host, leads the dance with full knowledge, relying on a brilliant pen and an almost torrential writing style. Perhaps the best music book released in recent years.