Pooh
Viva!

The Pooh, it's very easy to heap criticism on them, and to tell the truth, when you do, you're not entirely wrong; for over 25 years, they've been offering us cookie-cutter albums, lacking in strength, with music, lyrics, and arrangements that could be sued (with some very rare exceptions, see "Uomini Soli"), live on live performances, double lives, greatest hits, best,... all of which are remarkably useless. A musical industry.

But who were the Pooh? First and foremost, a group that for the first fifteen years of their career (they debuted in 1966) managed to wisely combine high listenability with quality, a band capable of bringing together the most disparate categories of listeners, a very arduous task. From that beautiful period, what is most remembered are especially the great melodies, the instrumental and vocal harmony, the high live performance, but above all, albums significantly above average like "Parsifal" and "Un po' del nostro tempo migliore," in the opinion of the reviewer, the two absolute peaks of the band.

In 1979, "Viva!" was released, the album I'm about to talk to you about: from 1976, the Pooh had decided to gradually abandon the orchestral layers that characterized them until then, focusing more on the guitar-keyboard duo. "Viva!" is an excellent example of quality pop-rock, centered on the guitar acrobatics of Donato"Dodi"Battaglia and the polyphonic synths of Camillo"Roby"Facchinetti. A special mention goes to the lyrics of Valerio Negrini, which as always explore everyday life, preferring the analysis of the small things in everyday life.

Without a tedious yet schematic list, I can say that, looking at the track listing, the best pieces are the disco-rock of "Io sono vivo", a sparkling anthem to life, "...in concerto" a dry yet touching reflection on the life of a musician when the spotlight goes off

"...The suitcase already packed for the next scene
there's never anything left, many hands and none
there's never anything left, just take and go
and I can't talk about this to people..."

Not to forget the final duo "L'ultima notte di caccia/Viva!": the first a progressive pop in odd time signatures with perfect choruses and a compelling, syncopated melody about an impossible love between a Native American and a "white woman", this track, where for the avoidance of doubt Stefano D'Orazio proves that beneath the curls there's also a great drummer, is according to the writer, the best piece ever composed and recorded by our friends;

the second, "Viva!" the last track of the album, is a resounding instrumental, which between synths and tubular bells, bass slaps by the good Bruno"Red"Canzian and breathtaking 'solos' by Dodi closes the album in a glorious way.

Very good also the other tracks (ten in total) always balancing between pop and rock, slightly underwhelming the famous "Notte a sorpresa" and "Così ti vorrei", a bit too radio-friendly and 'soft'.

I only ask you to forget for a moment those four puppets with plastic faces we periodically find on Pippo Baudo's "Domenica In" who call themselves the Pooh; listen to the album, maybe forgetting the group's name and faces:

a perfect example of "high chart-high quality"