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Rating:
"The Great Dream", or how to judge an album by its cover and not be wrong. Andrea Pazienza was, at the time, the most brilliant Italian cartoonist, and perhaps he still is, despite having left us many years ago, considering how his work is a subject of cult and study, as well as a constant inspiration for many. Paz drew everything, including album covers, with his unmistakable volcanic style, and in 1984 he found himself working on his fourth and unfortunately last cover for Roberto Vecchioni, a cover where improbable Captain Paper comics, black women, panthers, books, palms, and TVs are mixed, all gathered under a yellow sky, probably of the southern seas, populating the dream, the great dream, of the protagonist. A cover I have always loved, and which has always given added value to the music it held inside. The music, indeed. There's a lot of music here because "The Great Dream" is a double album, as its nature is also double, partly new songs, partly old pieces rearranged and harmonized with the new material. It almost seems like Vecchioni wanted, with this album, to take stock of his career, revisiting some significant songs from his past, updating them and reworking them to compose a great and ambitious fresco from which to restart with future projects (and dreams). A fresco populated with literary and non-literary characters, from Arthur Rimbaud ("A.R.") to a modern Ulysses ("Ulysses and America"), from Indians with long knives to Piedmontese at the attack of Gaeta ("Inside the Eyes") and still Laura, and Mr. Judge, the black lady of Samarkand and the Count of "Paid in Full". After all, Vecchioni's world is this, a world where the word is central, where daily life blends with literature and dream with reality, of which it's both a mirror and metaphor, as well as an overcoming.
All the songs are linked together, with the new arrangements curated by the trusted Mauro Paoluzzi, and the result is quite homogeneous, so much so that those unfamiliar with the origin of the pieces in question might think it to be a concept album conceived from scratch. Instead, it's a sort of strange Best Of, a kind of bridge between past and future that in hindsight seems ideal to divide the Professor’s discography into two periods, before and after. This is a central album, in many senses: it is undoubtedly the peak of Michelangelo Romano's production (then the toy will start to wear out), it is approximately central to Vecchioni's discography numerically speaking, it is also an excellent starting point for those wishing to venture for the first time into the now extensive production of the songwriter. It is also, as was said, the last cover Paz made for Vecchioni, and this too makes us former young folks love it quite a bit.
P.S. The record companies (particularly CGD) have in the years made indescribable messes with part of Vecchioni's discography (see "Montecristo" which today can only be found thanks to the duplications of some kind souls) and here, in particular on the occasion of the CD publication, they thought fit to cut some pieces (!) only to then recover them (imagine that) on the CD of the subsequent "Good Times". The reason frankly goes beyond my comprehension and I don’t even know if the subsequent editions edited by EMI have remedied this mess. So if on the back of the above-mentioned cover you find listed songs that are not on the album, you know it is neither your player that is defective nor your copy that is counterfeit, but it is the record executives who are the beasts.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
07 Samarcanda (04:09)
Ridere, ridere, ridere ancora
Ora la guerra paura non fa
Brucian nel fuoco le divise la sera
Brucia nella gola, vino a sazietà
Musica di tamburelli fino all'aurora,
Il soldato che tutta la notte ballò
Vide fra la folla quella nera signora,
Vide che cercava lui e si spaventò....
Soldato:
"Salvami, salvami, grande sovrano,
Fammi fuggire, fuggire di qua,
Alla parata lei mi stava vicino
E mi guardava con malignità..."
Sovrano:
"Dategli, dategli un animale
Figlio del lampo, degno d'un re
Presto, più presto, perchè possa scappare
Dategli la bestia più veloce che c'è..."
Soldato:
"Corri cavallo, corri, ti prego,
Fino a Samarcanda io ti guiderò
Non ti fermare, vola, ti prego,
Corri come il vento, che mi salverò...
Oh oh, cavallo,
Oh oh, cavallo
Oh oh, cavallo
Oh oh, cavallo
Oh oh...
Fiumi, poi campi, poi l'alba era viola
Bianche le torri che infine toccò,
Ma c'era tra sulla porta quella nera signora
Stanco di fuggire, la sua testa chinò..
Soldato:
"Eri tra la gente nella capitale
So che mi guardavi con malignità
Son scappato in mezzo ai grilli e alle cicale,
Son scappato via,ma ti ritrovo qua?"
Signora:
"Sbagli, t'inganni, ti sbagli, soldato,
Io non ti guardavo con malignità
Era solamente uno sguardo stupito,
Cosa ci facevi l'altro ieri là?
T'aspettavo qui, per oggi, a Samarcanda
Eri lontanissimo due giorni fa,
Ho temuto che per ascoltar la banda
Non facessi in tempo ad arrivare qua"
Soldato:
"Non è poi così lontana Samarcanda,
Corri cavallo, corri di là,
Ho cantato insieme a te tutta la notte
Corri come il vento che ci arriverà..."
Oh oh, cavallo
Oh oh, cavallo
Oh oh, cavallo
Oh oh, cavallo
Oh oh...
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