Roberto Vecchioni
Parabola

We are in 1971, debut album by Professor Vecchioni, who catapults us into a world of hypocrisies, falsehoods, stereotypes, and betrayals in which it is truly difficult to stay afloat, to continue being oneself, to pursue one's dreams and ideals, and to remain consistent with one's choices. A world in which Vecchioni feels truly trapped, one that will remain a central theme throughout his entire poetic oeuvre.

The issue of being oneself and not being commodified or sold to the public appears strikingly in that magnificent ballad "Luci a San Siro." A true masterpiece in which the professor, through a dialogue with his record executives who demand simple HitParade pop songs, responds by speaking of his youth and a love he had to abandon precisely because of his dream of becoming a singer-songwriter.
But by now choices have been made, the path has been taken, and there is no point in lamenting the good old days as in "Il Tamburo Battuto": "I know I lived in other times, for all that I loved and felt was mine, with so many different domino pieces and the uncertain smile of a woman in my heart"

In the record, we find a series of characters who are victims of this society, including the "Povero Ragazzo" betrayed by his woman, perhaps with his best friend: "Poor boy, I am with the woman you love and once loved, but I would rather die than know that tonight you are crying over her." Characters who partly share the same suffering as Vecchioni, like the "illegitimate son poet" protagonist of the title track to whom a father-master (creator of everything who never makes mistakes) calls him a "infamous chatterbox" and even denies him the company of the woman he loves, instead favoring the legitimate son, the "accountant," to whom everything is owed.
A father even capable of condemning his "poet" son: "For the world that is mine, I curse you, you will have twenty years all your life, but you can only love Margherita."

The story of the "poet" continues with "Io non devo andare in via Ferrante Aporti," a humorous song in which the protagonist does everything to avoid coming face to face with his half-brother. With a very rhythmic music to give the right sense of irony to the song.
In "Improvviso Paese," we find instead a Vecchioni who decides to take some vacations and visit a military friend of his, but through a strange twist of fate, he ends up in a village from his childhood where once the dream, the hope, the trust in a better world were still alive:

In "this crappy dog world" it is not surprising that someone chooses an extreme gesture like suicide as an escape, narrated in a mix of sadness and melancholy in "Lui s'è ne andato."

The theme of the desire for suicide is expressed very ironically also in songs like "Per la cruna di un ago" and "Cambio Gioco," where the concept of the difficulty of making songs while remaining consistent with one's ideas without falling consequently into the commercial is emphasized:

"The ball spins aimlessly, my number is not there
maybe I'll change game, all the fault of the croupiers.
I'll play with the gun as when I was a cowboy
only instead of at the cows
I'll shoot between my eyes."

The album is of pleasant listening, considering it's early days, and Vecchioni's poetry is of a high level, even if not perfectly defined, as it will be in albums like "Ipertensione" and "Elisir." Even the music offers mostly sparse arrangements, although the piano in "Luci a San Siro" is chilling, managing to convey the sense of sadness and melancholy evoked by the song, as does the guitar in "Povero Ragazzo," but mostly they accompany the pathos that Vecchioni's voice manages to create. The arrangements will gradually become more refined in Vecchioni's subsequent albums until reaching peaks as in "Samarcanda" and "Calabuig."