Roberto Vecchioni
Altre canzoni 1966-2011

ROBERTO VECCHIONI, ALTRE CANZONI 1966-2021 (update October 31, 2021).

In over 50 years of working with words, Roberto Vecchioni, excluding entirely new albums and "half anthologies," has scattered about forty songs across live performances and compilations, but also in others' albums. Instead of reviewing the albums of origin, I've conveniently decided to merge these tracks into a single review to complete the Vecchioni oeuvre here. The review will first cover 20 tracks, 19 belonging to his solo discography, and then another 25 in other artists' albums.

It all starts long ago, in 1968, when the 23-year-old fresh graduate in Classical Literature releases his first 45 under his name: "La pioggia e il parco/Un disco scelto a caso." We are truly at the primordial and essential Vecchioni, voice, and guitar arpeggios. However, the collaboration with Lo Vecchio proves successful, and indeed the duo becomes highly demanded in the musical scene, including Sanremo, of those years.

To find another track present only on a 45 rpm record, we move to 1983, when "Hotel degli assassini" is released, with "Morgana," already published in "Hollywood Hollywood," on the flip side. The cover portrays Vecchioni as an investigator, and indeed the piece is musically catchy, and the lyrics play a lot with rhymes.

Fast forward 9 years, in the live "Camper" from 1992, the only new track is "Voglio una donna," with which the professor wins the Festivalbar, a good compromise between catchy music (also borrowed from Bruce Springsteen's "I'm going down"!) and unconventional lyrics, with improbable rhymes like "Freud/Lloyd." Also in 1992, he releases "Voci a San Siro" with a book annex, a Q-Disc with four unreleased tracks: "Addio alle armi," written in 1990, a literary reference to Hemingway who would be quoted again in 2004; "Waterloo," "Quello che non sai," and "Camion," written between the late Sixties and early Seventies. The first track stands out as the best, demonstrating Vecchioni's textual maturity compared to previous decades.

A year later, the Milanese teacher gifts us a gem entirely written by him, dedicated to Vladimir Visotsky, simply titled with the writer's name. A song reminiscent of both "A.R." and the subsequent "Vincent."

1997: In "Studio Collection," a praiseworthy, unreleased track appears, "Verrà la notte e avrà i tuoi occhi," once again a literary reference, this time to Cesare Pavese. The track is energetic, arranged also with electric guitars, for a now mature and modern Vecchioni. In the second live album of 2000, "Canzoni e Cicogne," besides the titular unreleased song, there's a cover (and what a cover!) of the American songwriter Don McLean, and it's "Vincent," dedicated to Van Gogh. With the help of former student and then lyricist Enrico Nascimbeni, Vecchioni translates, not just literally, but also according to "European sensitivity," the original text, resulting in a masterpiece, electrically arranged as well.

The protagonist of the 2005 live "Il contastorie" is a cover, this time of Jacques Brel, in homage to the French tradition: "Le stagioni nel sole," sung only live and extensively introduced by the singer-songwriter.

We reach 2011, a wonderful year for Roberto, in which he wins the Sanremo Festival, along with the Critics' Prize, and releases two anthologies, "Chiamami ancora amore" and "I colori del buio." The first features a breathtaking opening triptych: "Chiamami ancora amore," the winning Sanremo song, which is kind of an updated "Sogna ragazzo sogna"; "Mi porterò," a heartfelt declaration in the face of death, listing all the things one will take with them after life; and "La casa delle farfalle," a song about war, as were "Marika" and going further back to the superb "Tema del soldato eterno e degli aironi." As a digital-only bonus track, there's a reinterpretation of a semi-known song recorded by Bruno Lauzi in 1968, "Il bene di luglio." In the second anthology appear "I colori del buio" and "Un lungo addio," both heartfelt, particularly the first, which echoes the style of both "Chiamami ancora amore" and "Mi porterò" for an intense and elevated result.

We conclude with 2016, when in "Canzoni per i figli" appears "Che c'eri sempre," dedicated to his mother and taken from a piece of the book "La vita che si ama," musically set with the introduction of "Canzone da lontano." Moving and poignant.

The other 25 tracks: "Barbara Ann," "Lasciate qualcosa per me" and "Se rimani con noi" for Pop Seven, marking the recording debut in 1966; the very brief "Un’altra storia," in 1979, and the tribute to Charles Bukowski, "L'ultima notte di un vecchio sporcaccione," in 2001, with Enrico Nascimbeni; "O Tannenbaum," in a personal version in the 1983 album "Natale con i tuoi"; the duet at Premio Tenco with Francesco Guccini in "Gli amici"; the cover of Pablo Milanes' "Dove saranno," from "Cuanto gané, cuanto perdí"; the reinterpretation with Baglioni in '97 of "Donna felicità," his most famous song written for others, that is, for Nuovi Angeli; a mix by Sergio Endrigo "Vecchia balera/I tuoi vent’anni"; tribute to Quartetto Cetra with "Dove andate?"; for the 150th anniversary of Italy's unification "O’surdato 'nnammurato," homage to his parents' Naples; covers from the Genoese school, with "Bocca di rosa" in 2002, in the collection "Le ballate," and with "Lontano lontano" by Tenco and "Hotel Supramonte," again by De André, in 2011; a cover of Rino Gaetano also in 2011, "Io scriverò"; a cover of Giorgio Gaber "La ballata del Cerutti"; "Non lo so," an unreleased track in 2014 for the soundtrack of "Braccialetti rossi"; choral participation in "Fare notizie" in "Notizie" by Pino Pavone in 1995; in 2009 personal version of "Jingle Bells" and in "Domani," a song for the earthquake in Abruzzo; in 2014 a duet with Alberto Fortis in "Mi fa strano"; in 2020 a cover of "Sopramilano" by the late Piero Cesanelli, founder of Musicultura and of "Autunno" by Guccini, in a duet with Emma; last collaboration, to the current year 2021, in the duet "L’anima vuole" by Paolo Simoni.

Combining all these tracks, we globally reach a solid four stars.