Rino Gaetano
Aida

THE REVIEW

It is said that Rino Gaetano showed up at the record company with a guitar and when asked "play me something," he replied: "I can't play." However, this young man, who tragically died in a car accident, had talent.

Musically mediocre, he wrote lyrics that seemed carefree but were anything but. Above all, he wrote beautiful, ironic, and intelligent pieces. "Aida" is the most famous album and certainly not the best, but it contains some tracks that are real gems, including the poignant "Escluso il cane." And then there's "Aida," one of the most famous songs that describes the 20th century by comparing it to a beautiful woman, the Aida of the title. Beyond these two, the satirical "Spendi spandi effendi" and "Rare tracce" should be remembered, a clear accusation against the wealthy bourgeoisie "big and cunning traffickers, rich, strong, and unblemished".

"Aida" is a fast album, lasting just twenty-nine minutes, but direct and essential, primarily dealing with the history and society of the 20th century. As always, Italian society is exposed, ridiculed, the dirty mechanism driving the political and social game in Italy is repeatedly unmasked, and Rino does it with a certain apparent simplicity, with the weapon of the nursery rhyme, the song to sing in the shower, which, in reality, hides far more complex meanings but ones that are not difficult to understand.

Rino Gaetano is an artist who would still have had many things to tell us infusing his verses with vitriol, and it would have been necessary. His songs are so powerful that even today they can be updated without encountering any discrepancies with the reality of the facts, without encountering any difficulty. In my opinion, this is the strength of the legendary Rino Gaetano, namely having created songs that transcend common language, becoming a new language to be offered to everyone.