Pooh
Viva

Pooh - "Viva" (1979)

We've all had a Pooh moment in our lives.

Do you remember years ago an old program ("Avanzi") where there was a character - played by Antonello Fassari - who portrayed the typical left-wing activist from the protest years, with clarks and anorak, who, struck by narcolepsy, woke up after many years of deep sleep and was shocked because he no longer found his reference points: the Italian Communist Party was gone, the Berlin Wall was gone, the Soviet Union was gone, in short, everything he believed in had disappeared... but finally Dandini managed to console him because the POOH were still there!

Since the group is a Wax Museum icon, almost all of us have had a Fassari-style Pooh moment in our lives. It happened to me the other day re-listening to the 45 rpm "Io sono vivo." As usual, most of my reviews concern songs tied to personal memories, something special that has remained etched in my mind: something lived, a bit of our best time that each of us keeps in a warm corner of the heart.

This is my first and last review on the Pooh.

First because perhaps already here with "Viva" they should have stopped, last because like many groups forcibly creating songs and albums without inspiration, they become replicants, dinosaurs that elicit laughter and a bit of sacred awe. Apart from a longstanding antipathy I feel towards them - yet on this album - due to adolescent itches that catch you at the brink of maturity - I can say that this LP has withstood the wear of the needle well. Apart from the only flaw of being super-plastic even for the time, the songs are cute and very fresh - and they conclude the second stage of the 70s for the group, which began with "Dammi solo un minuto" and "Cercami".

Here there's "Notte a sorpresa", "Una Donna Normale", "L'ultima Notte Di Caccia", "Così Ti Vorrei", they are all memorable and will bring a tear to anyone thinking back to the first kisses with mint tongue between their teeth: the notes of this song take me back to my first love of my life, I still think about her today and even though we have different lives it feels like I still love her, and if I had a time machine I’d use it to go back to those days.

The Pooh have lost D'Orazio. But if they don't dissolve, let's dissolve them ourselves, and join Mammuccari www.dai_sciogliamo_i_Pooh, www.non_ne_possiamo_più.

But beware: the pure poetry of verses like "L'inverno va nei pesci a primavera, il mio segno è un corpo che respira...", one day they'll be studied in school.

Here and there melancholy, poetry, and fantasy.