Roberto Vecchioni
Il Re Non Si Diverte

1973 Vecchioni, after participating in Sanremo, releases an album that breaks the mold.

The monkey on the cover is already a 10, you can tell that our artist takes a new path, eight songs, but two are longer than 7 minutes. The first track, short and self-ironic: "They executed a professor yesterday, all his thoughts." "Theatre": A play between two actors, the established and the young, the successful man and the one who still has nothing. Brilliant when, distorting his voice: "Always be grateful, you're an artist." At times the piece becomes a bit too heavy, musically, the fault lies with M. Romano, in my opinion, a bit megalomaniac.
"Interval II": It resumes the first track and then intersperses it with a Hendrix-like guitar, the professor dies well thinking that this way he will have no more lessons or corrections, closes again with a distorted guitar, a bit excessive. A piano opens the theme of "The King Is Not Amused", background noises, the piano carries the entire phrasing alone, then, with the whole orchestra, it repeats it faster. This is a track almost 10 minutes long, in the end a bit tiring, the lyrics are really amusing. "So why, if my king has everything tonight, did he hide under the table? ... Pull him out from under the bench." This never happy king, though he has everything, represents many things, for me it suggests the human condition, never content, never truly happy. Certainly the best moment of this work.

"Judas (If You Didn't Understand...)" Here, in unsuspected times, the figure of the apostle traitor is reevaluated, the one who "Will die to make you king." "Messina" A strange piece, it begins like a love song: "Great love, eternal love" and then finds itself in Messina but, what am I doing in Messina. It's this passion for her that overwhelms us and makes us feel lost. "But what do you expect me to do in... Messina." In the final crescendo, he goes off on various Battisti, Rocchi, De André.
"I could do what doesn't take risks, and like shoes invent records" is still relevant, how many do it, and yes, even the old Vecchioni. "Lullaby" The son dedicates a lullaby to the elderly mother, between everyday life and yearning "And you'll lower your head and then you'll sleep." All emphasized by the usual piano that accompanies us throughout the album.

"And while I have four floors beneath my feet, you jump out of your bed and ask me: What are you doing.... Sunday I'm free to go out. Sunday is tomorrow. Tomorrow I only make right children." This is: "Saturday Stars" Roberto's strangled voice is split between himself and another person locked away, maybe it's Adriana, his woman of the time. She begs him to wait for her, that she's almost healed instead he cynically abandons her. Beautiful and moving song. She prostrates herself before him but, he's now tired of a relationship full of fights and jealousy turns his back. Only to regret the fact. "But where do you go without her? She was almost healed."

"The cynicism of the male character is striking in the face of a call for help. Roberto, who no longer regrets Adriana, consequently ends up not loving himself; we have reached the fatal terminus of the journey that began with LIGHTS IN SAN SIRO. And Roberto, before alighting, gives us this song that chills the spine."

This record won the Critic's Record Award. For this review, I was helped by the book 'VOCI A SAN SIRO' by Sergio Secondiano Sacchi; the last quoted sentence I copied entirely.