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"Geni, you either are from the beginning or you are not anymore/ I live in a world where we are all good, but none is a genius".
(R. Vecchioni 1976)
Elisir is an album made quickly, not only for the execution but also for the composition. The cover, depicting a precious game of goose, is the work of Mario Vivono who elaborates an idea by Michelangelo Romano, a meticulous producer who uses all the available tracks of the mixer in the recording studio; in order to sculpt the sounds one by one and then return them to us in a fascinating interlocking game.
With Un Uomo Navigato, the theme of songwriter creativity dominates, even if the only goal is to gain experience, to become, indeed, seasoned men. The maritime language serves as a preamble to Velasquez, a hypothetical navigator with a name almost similar to the painter from Seville. Velasquez, however, is a metaphor; Velasquez has always existed in the stories of the grandfather: "And you were there before my father, before my father's father, it was there that everything began". At the same time, he is Mr. Rossi and Che Guevara; he is the interlocutor that allows Roberto to speak confidentially with History. The uncertain man feels strongly the allure of navigation, but at the same time, he is afraid of it.
A.R., dedicated to Arthur Rimbaud, takes us towards Marseille; and those harbor lights that never arrive, to Verlaine who loved and shot him, syphilis, the leg, and agony.
"And ship, damn ship, go".
Skillfully intertwining his own words, phrases from Rimbaud himself or from J. Gelman (Portuguese, English, and many other birds of prey he chose for company), Vecchioni talking about the author of Battello Ebbro, is careful not to use symbolism or to involve himself, more ambitiously wants to delve into his poetics.
Pani & Pesci is a hummed nursery rhyme. A game with many more or less current characters, at least at the time (Fanfani of "the smaller they are, the more they raise their hands").
With Figlia, you enter the private sphere, a delicate prayer, the desire every father has for his children, the wish to see his unrealized and only longed-for dreams finally materialize by his offspring. Even if in the end, he only wishes her to be free, free especially from prejudices, the song concludes with a prophecy that will come true.
"Sorry if we will see each other little and poorly".
Instead, dedicated to the lifelong friend and drinking is Canzone Per Francesco, where Francesco is another singer-songwriter: Guccini. Here Roberto enjoys quoting his friend in a thousand ways, the Susanna who "passes through a chimney", "God is dead" not dead for three days, or the anger marked by the "locomotive" and the poets who have now found all the islands.
"Bologna is an old man repeating my life, the last love, the tavern that's left to me".
Il Suonatore Stanco is inspired by the ethereal De Gregori, while in Le Belle Compagnie, Vecchioni rails against De André, even comparing him to a Whisky Kid, with explicit references in "marcondirondirondello" and allusions to Storia Di Un Impiegato
"...So tell me, mirror on the wall, who is the most anarchic of them all...".
The album closes with Pagando S'Intende (song of the wrong effects), quite cryptic. Where he has the chance to reaffirm an aspect of his character: embracing sadness when life gives him a lot.
"We all think we are the only ones doing something important, and instead we only repeat other people's concepts; or, anyway, many of us in the same way are saying the same thing".
(R. Vecchioni 1976)
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
02 Velasquez (07:41)
Ahi Velasquez, dove porti la mia vita?
un fiore di camposi è impigliato fra le dita,
e tante stelle, tante nelle notti chiare,
e mille lune, mille dune da scoprire.
Ahi Velasquez, non ti avessi mai seguito,
con te non si torna una volta sola indietro:
in mezzo ai venti, sempre genti da salvare,
sei morto mille volte senza mai morire.
Un vecchio zingaro ungherese
di te parlando mi giurò
che c'eri prima di suo padre,
più in là nel tempo non andò.
I cerchi del tuo tronco sono
ferite d'armi e di parole
che mai nessuno vendicò
Ahi Velasquez, com'è duro questo amore.
Mi pesa la notte prima di ricominciare:
e tante veglie, come soglie di un mistero,
per arrivare sempre più vicino al vero...
Ahi Velasquez certe sere quanta voglia,
fermare la vela e ritornare da mia moglie;
e tu mi dici: "Fatti scrivere", è normale,
per te bisogna sempre scrivere e lottare.
E la tempesta ci sorprese
due miglia dopo Capo Horn:
se ne rideva delle offese,
in mezzo al ponte si distese
e fino all'alba mi cantò
Ragazze, terre, contadini,
da sempre popoli e padroni,
fu lì che tutto comincò.
Ahi Velasquez fino a quando inventeremo
un nido di rose ai piedi dell'arcobaleno,
e tante stelle, tante nelle notti chiare
per questo mondo, questo mondo da cambiare?
ahi Velasquez, ahi chitarra come spada,
mantello di sabbia, orecchio mozzo, antica sfida,
eterna attesa, corda tesa da spazzare,
e tanta voglia, tanta voglia di tornare...
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Other reviews
By Carlo V.
The elixir is the journey into the unknown, the challenge to what is unknown, always holding your head high despite the total inability to understand what will be.
Here lies everything, or almost everything, of the professor, and if you like this type of approach, where the entire output of an artist is encapsulated in an LP or a track, here I could almost say that there’s a track that is ‘the’ track, the one where all of Vecchioni is present, all his artistic strength and poetic gentleness, namely ‘Figlia.’
By MarkRChandar
Everything becomes warmer, and the torpor consoles you. A sort of temporary kintsugi that manages to connect sky and earth for 20-30 minutes.
No less than this, I am situated near the airport, a cloud of layovers and departures where countless planes come and go, tracing the same routes and consuming the sky.
