Roberto Vecchioni
Camper

In 1992, Prof Roberto Vecchioni released his first live album. It is indeed strange that a singer-songwriter like Vecchioni, already "in the game" for over twenty years at the time, waited so long to release his first live album. Could it be for this reason that the mentioned album is even a double one and that the same Prof would catch up greatly with live performances in the following years? There are no absolute certainties on this matter, but the hypothesis is more than plausible. But returning to the live in question and paraphrasing a famous advertisement from some years (decades?) ago, it can be said that Roberto "does things right": he enlists a host of very professional musicians, who cloak his songs with new musicality and arrangements, almost always in a more "lively" and daringly more "rock" manner compared to the original versions. In some cases, the result seems better, in others worse than the original versions. However, generally, it can be said that if on one hand, the pieces gain in professionalism, on the other they lose in "rawness" (in the good sense of the term, of course).

Like any good live that respects itself, there shouldn’t be lacking (at least) one unreleased track, represented specifically by "Voglio una donna," which would win the Festivalbar of that year. Regarding this track, Vecchioni stated: “I had a lot of fun writing it because I had never done one so rock, and no one expected it from me anymore.” In fact, such rhythmically intense pieces were few in the Prof's career, perhaps "Stranamore" and very few others. The piece provoked an "uprising" from the feminists of the time, especially for some "controversial" phrases like "We have a sea of kids to wipe their butts, might she stop wandering about: I want her like Snow White with the seven dwarfs, boring like an Intillimani song" or "May she fall in love with you who makes a career, the one with the penis and the black flag, the bald singer and the barricade-lover who’s never home in the evening." However, the same feminists evidently overlooked the final phrase "Take her who does the leasing, may Captain Nemo fall in love with you, the one who goes to the briefing because that's her business, and walks away from the meeting nastier like a man, lonelier like a man," where the true essence and focus of the song is concealed.

In three tracks, great guests also collaborate: Andrea Mirò sings with her beautiful voice in "Tema del soldato eterno e degli aironi," Angelo Branduardi sings and plays the violin in "Samarcanda," Enzo Jannacci sings a verse with his usual innate and somewhat whimsical charm in "Luci a San Siro." The choice of tracks is quite apt since it embraces almost all periods and albums of the Professor, even if they completely exclude "Saldi di fine stagione" of 1972, "Il re non si diverte" of 1973, "Ipertensione" of 1975, "Ippopotami" of 1986. Sure, some major pieces like "Figlia," "Canzone per Laura," "Pesci nelle orecchie," "A.R." are not present, but I think in a live set, it is almost physiological for some pieces, even very beautiful ones, to remain excluded. On the other hand, what is included is certainly not to be discarded, quite the opposite! The tracks included are taken from the albums "Parabola" of 1971 (Luci a San Siro), "Elisir" of 1976 (Velasquez), "Samarcanda" of 1977 (Samarcanda, L'ultimo spettacolo), "Calabuig, stranamore e altri incidenti" of 1978 (Stranamore-Pure questo è amore, Ninni, Il capolavoro), "Robinson, come salvarsi la vita" of 1979 (Signor giudice-Un signore così così, Mi manchi, Robinson, Vorrei), "Montecristo" of 1980 (Montecristo), "Hollywood Hollywood" of 1982 (Dentro gli occhi), "Il grande sogno" of 1984 (Il grande sogno), "Bei tempi" of 1985 (La mia ragazza), "Milady" of 1989 (Milady), "Per amore mio" of 1991 (Tema del soldato eterno e degli aironi, Per amore mio-Ultimi giorni di Sancho Panza, Tommy).

So, it spans tracks from various periods that reflect very well the two main strands of Vecchioni's poetry: on one hand, the recounting of historical-literary characters "restored" in all their humanness and most authentic essence; on the other, the analysis of feelings (especially his personal ones), narrated almost always in the first person with no shame or fear of showing even his most intimate and extreme pain regarding them when things "take a bad turn." For the first, we can cite the songs: "Stranamore" in which, in narrating a series of indeed "strange" love affairs, figures like Marcus Aurelius, Alexander the Great, and Garibaldi are mentioned directly or indirectly; "Per amore mio," where despite the title, the "exploits" of Sancho Panza, Dulcinea and Don Quixote are actually narrated between reality, dream, and fantasy; "Velasquez," which talks about an ideal of moving forward in life despite all adversities encountered, "employing" a Spanish explorer Velasquez who seems to have really existed. For the latter, we can instead cite the tracks "Mi manchi," "Vorrei," "Montecristo," "La mia ragazza": while the first three reflect a moment of personal-sentimental crisis for the author, as they all relate to his separation from his first wife, the fourth is much more calming and relaxed as it instead refers to the relationship with his new partner. But there is a song that blends these two aspects together, which I consider one of the most beautiful ever, "L'ultimo spettacolo": in it, two stories are narrated in parallel, one "ancient" and one "modern." The first recounts an episode set in ancient Greece, while the second, with a sort of "parallel" to the first, narrates the separation and abandonment between him and his first wife (yes, again!), which occurred right in that period. The verses are amazing: "And one is not alone when someone else has left you, you’re alone if someone has never come. But descending, I lose pieces on the stairs and those who step on them don't know they're hurting me. But don't come telling me: “Now let it go,” or that the fight, in the end, must continue. Because if this story were a song with an ending of mine, you wouldn’t leave." In reality, besides the mentioned two strands, there is another that permeates almost all of Roberto's production and is present also in some of the already indicated songs: the intersection, the intertwining, the meeting (call it what you will) between reality, dream, and fantasy. In fact, perhaps this last is precisely where the author gives his best.

Naturally, other themes are also tackled in his pieces, besides those described. In "Il capolavoro" and "Milady," the difficulty of reconciling private and artistic life is talked about (Milady, in my opinion, is precisely music or perhaps art in general). "Tommy" narrates the suicide of Vecchioni's dentist friend, a real event. The reason? "Tommy had nothing to dream about, he had already spent all his future": I think there’s unfortunately no need to add more; but Roberto, about it, also addresses God: "If You've placed him beside a murderer, take him away from there, Lord." In this track, I notice a certain parallelism with the track "Preghiera in gennaio" by Fabrizio De André, dedicated to the suicide of Luigi Tenco: "Well-thinking gentlemen, I hope you won't mind if in heaven, amidst the Saints, God, in his arms, will smother the sobbing of those pale lips, who preferred death to hate and ignorance." Because, as De André himself said "Tomorrow at three in the mass grave he will be, without the priest and the mass, because of a suicide they have no mercy," even though this is another song. "Tema del soldato eterno e degli aironi" deals with the uselessness and even the senselessness-absurdity of every war: "I was old at Alamo, a child at Marathon, every idea, the last one, was good. I have always betrayed everyone, everyone has forgiven me; I haven't done it and they executed me."

In "Ninni," the author imagines a "science-fiction" meeting of his adult self with his child self and his "young" parents twenty years apart on a train: looking back thus with a certain amount of nostalgia; in "Dentro gli occhi," a dialogue is instead imagined between a person when young and the same person when old: looking in this case at the future with a certain amount of pessimism and resignation. In these two pieces, the previously described dream-fantasy-reality component is very present, and it’s no coincidence, in my opinion, that they are two of the most beautiful pieces of the entire Vecchionian songbook. In "Signor giudice," starting from a personal affair, Vecchioni denounces the sluggishness of the Italian judicial system: unfortunately, the current situation doesn’t seem much different from that of 1979, the year of the track's release. The author was indeed accused by a spectator of one of his concerts of offering him a joint during the same. This accusation would be completely dismissed and Vecchioni would be acquitted, but while waiting for the judge’s decision which was delayed because the same was on vacation, he had to spend some days in prison in Marsala, Sicily. Hence all his acrimony and his indictment against the same judge but also, as said, against the Italian judicial system as a whole, "seasoned" with much irony and sarcasm: "Mr. Judge, the stars are clear for those who can see them, perhaps staying by the sea. Mr. Judge, who knows, who knows what sun: please cover up because it could harm you. We imagine you have bigger concerns than us, perhaps a too young wife and we apologize for bothering you like this, but understand us, in the end, we are men just so so." Fortunately, there is no lack of moments of relaxation and carefreeness, as in the track "Il grande sogno": "I want Pepita Moreno, the jazz diva, I want to dance on her chest in the Ritz atrium." The batch closes with two Vecchioni and Italian music evergreens, present in all his live shows: "Samarcanda" and "Luci a San Siro," which I believe need no introduction.

In conclusion, I would say it is a more than good live performance, spanning many periods and thus covering many very interesting themes, which sold very well at the time of its release; I don’t give it the highest rating only because I prefer, albeit slightly, the subsequent live "Canzoni e cicogne" of 2000.