Renato Zero
Spalle Al Muro

"Back to the wall
When the years are rifles against you
A few wrinkles on your skin
Thoughts take the place of words
Eyes low with the fear of being alone
And the curve of your days is no longer uphill
You gently descend from memories downward
They will let your steps seem slower
Desperately at the edge of all currents"

The fear and obsession that the years gone by are many and there might not be much time left to live. The anxious reflection of someone who no longer looks to tomorrow but relives more and more of what was yesterday. Seeing the finish line for the first time, after making the mistake of believing in the eternity of youth. And now being there, alone, a point that becomes more of a question mark and less of an exclamation point in a different world, no longer recognizable by those who lived it fully many years ago.

"Old
They will say you are old
With all the strength that is in you
Old
When it is not over, you still have much life
And the soul cries it out, and you know it"

But the point is that you don't feel finished. Because deep down age is just a number. There is still much strength inside that man who is not content to let go, to give in. And so, among those who think he is a burden, an obsolete character in the shadow of what was, now useless, expired, the man feels within himself the voice of a living strength that does not want to surrender. He shouts it to everyone, even to those who don't care and no longer want to listen, because in their frenzy, they have forgotten how to do so.

A sumptuous elegy to life, nothing more is Spalle Al Muro by Renato Zero. Through a discourse that the interlocutor engages with a no longer young man, a reflection on oneself is born. An encouragement to be strong and to let the fire that lives within us burn. Despite the fears, the anxieties, the words of others. All of this together with an austere, grandly powerful music in the search for an unusual melody, difficult, far from the known pop standards.

In reality, the piece that Renato Zero brought to Sanremo in 1991 was written by Mariella Nava. Renato's interpretation is sublime. It is not a cover, it is a Renato Zero song in every respect because the Roman artist manages to make it completely his own. A gem of rare atypical beauty in the panorama of our music; perhaps the highest point reached by the artist.