Stefano Palladini
Ben Venga Maggio

Stefano Palladini - Let May Come - 1976

I had a dream:

I had a dream: I'm a neophyte in the cavern of a Mithraic temple witnessing the sacrifice of a bull: the animal moans terrifyingly and almost sings to the evoked god, and there I have a sparkling inner flash, an illumination, in its terrifying nature I was frightened; the Bull sang, it too sang, a disturbing high note: I wake up and turn on the TV, and I find a report on the legal dispute between Albano and Michael Jackson for the Swans of Balaka versus Will you be there included by the pop-star in the album "Dangerous" in 1990, then I thought, WHAT TO SAY about the media silence on Laura non c'è (1997) by Nek with "Più ci penso" by Gianni Bella (1974), Ligabue's self-plagiarism in "Il campo delle lucciole", where he shamelessly repeated without shame "Balliamo sul mondo", and then the self-self-plagiarism in "Happy hour", where he still manages to play that riff in a new way. And yet: the mythicized Subsonica, with "Terrestre", on a particular track, titled "Dormi" seem to rehash guitar arpeggios, melody, song, and counterpoint of "Wednesday Morning, 3 AM" by "Simon & Garfunkel". Or is it possible that the Cure wrote "Boys Don't Cry" listening to "Rimmel" by Francesco De Gregori? They are identical. And the arpeggio on which "Street Spirits" by Radiohead is based is that of "Un mondo d'amore" by Gianni Morandi: but how is it possible?

"È necessario" by Tiromancino reminds very much "Every me every you" by Placebo, "Vertigo" by U2 has an initial bassline taken from "Isolation" by Joy Division? And Lenny Kravitz with his "Fly away" has guitar riffs that remind of a very old song by Elio e le storie tese, snippets of which can be heard at the end of a CD that includes old pieces neglected over time. Le Vibrazioni (who with Te ne vai plagiarizeGrace by Jeff Buckley) have reused for the opening arpeggio of "Dedicato a Te", from "Pourtant" by a certain Vanessa Paradis who in turn seems to have plagiarized Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven. Which seems clearly inspired (at least for the non-sung initial part) by Taurus by Spirit. I even put up with Bowie, who self-plagiarized with I am a laser written for Ava Cherry of the Astronettes and recycled as Scream like a baby on Scary monsters. Then I endured the fact that Il giorno di dolore che uno ha, by Ligabue, has the carbon-copy chords of Wonderwall and in the live version even more marked in rhythm, and that Il mio corpo che cambia by Litfiba also harks back to Wonderwall. But Wonderwall itself calls back to the Cure's Homesick: the piano part is the same. Then "Ovunque Andrò" by Vibrazioni is the carbon copy of an old piece by the Beatles, "Here, There and Everywhere"."

Or "Emergenza D'amore" by Laura Pausini is "Can't Let Go" by Mariah Carey [the latter is dated 1990 and is well before the piece], and "Perdono" by T. Ferro is copied from a song by R Kelly! ("Did You Ever Think"). I endured the Negramaro who have been "inspired" by Coldplay for years: "Solo per te" has the same piano notes as Trouble and Estate which takes riffs from other Coldplay songs; the video for Come Sempre identical to that for In my place... I pretend nothing if Child in time by Deep Purple seems like Bombay Calling by It's a beautiful day or if Jon Bon Jovi shamelessly copied a song by Bonnie Tyler released just the year before, namely If you were a man /You give love a bad name. Or that the 883 with "Ti Sento Vivere" are based on "Per Una Lira" by the legendary Lucio Battisti. And that the hit "Hanno Ucciso L'Uomo Ragno" always by the 883 on the verse has significant similarities, significant, to an 80s song, "Love at First Sight" by Joe Yellow. And what to say about the other hit of this former duo-gay-flatbread, i.e. Sei un mito with the chorus identical to Major tom by Peter Shelling from 1983.... And what to say about "L'uomo volante" by Masini with the song by Laura Pausini, "Ascolta il tuo cuore". or of Edoardo Bennato with "Ritorna l'estate" shamelessly copied verse, chorus, and choirs of "Do it again" by the Beach Boys. But discovering that the kings of punky-disco-pop, the Red hot chili peppers, for the chorus of By the way, unbelievably but true, have cloned a theme song from the cartoon Monkey, written by Roberto Soffici in '79 -with his loyal monkeys mocking the powerful...monkeyyy, well it was too much: the American geniuses with the poorly concealed naivety that can be inferred from their physiognomy, especially the singer's, even cite at the end of said chorus monkeyyy.

I said to myself a purifying bath is needed here, a catharsis: let May come, then, Stefano Palladini vintage vinyl 1976, produced by Paolo Conte. Very particular the cover, a psychedelic mirage with Botticellian Venus, an idea later copied exactly by Celentano for the album Soli: the daily grayness of the big city in black and white is unreal and bleak in its mad race to progress, making the Venusian ghost in color even more real, almost the epiphany of Platonic otherworldly realities: no longer an alien and alienated goddess from a time and space distant epoch, static while everything drowns in traffic: only the child can see her and turns to the garlanded spirit that smiles from the silver b/n waters of reality;"No more the moon is the sky to us, than we to the moon." sang Giordano Bruno, who knows who is in the mirror and who observes the other. Behind the audacity of the operation lies a true concept album of poetic reflections on time, the magic of youth, fantasies, the world revolving around the Pascolian childlike spirit buried within us, which Stefano Palladini invites us to rediscover in his ethereal melodies.

Ah, if in school they had made us study poetry in this way. Let's state right away that Palladini's experiment is to be commended especially for daring to folk and update high but outdated lyrics from our literature, and not even the easiest or most predictable.

It opens with Ballatetta by the stilnovist Cavalcanti, a poignant love letter to a distant lady, but such a current lament on the servitude of love: female choirs in the background make the ballad even sadder. Then Pascoli's childlike soul, with La mia sera, renews itself in a happy blend of Italian pop and improbable country choruses, in a sort of improbable Texan jumpin', with mandolins in the finale: the delicate images evoked by music and text are timeless, very current. Amai by Saba is a forgotten dream and dark,Salvezza by Gozzano is yet another poignant, skeletal ballad on the beauty of passing life, with a delicate and hypnotic guitar arpeggio at the end of each verse. Followed by Brindisi by Parini, with minimalist accordion in the background, it is a reflection on the transience of earthly pleasures, saudade with bacchic toast -drink and then die- to which Palladini gives an interpretation so apparently aloof that the folk seems to aim at samba. Ben venga maggio by Poliziano takes us to a cheerful Laurenzian triumph ambiance, an ode to youth and the beauty of the month and its heroes and heroines.

The Weaver is another poem by Pascoli, accompanied by guitars, mandolins and accordion, together forming a sort of sad post-industrial little orchestra. Strambotto by Machiavelli is accompanied by a sparse, gentle melody; The cats will know, by Pavese, this time the guitar arpeggio, sweetly melancholic, is punctuated by a few drops of old synth with enveloping sounds, and without continuity you reach Voi ch'ascoltate by Petrarca, also supported by delicate arpeggios reminding that what pleases the world is a brief dream. The album closes with La libertà, poignant and epic with a piano in the background, almost a funeral lullaby with a final impetus...

A masterpiece record to be listened to without medical prescriptions of time and place, without necessarily syncing it with films, without paying attention to Sofri's playlist, who makes catalog books with his aural turgescences that are also successful in sales, not thanks to me: sorry for the digression of the "but what does all this have to do with rocknroll?" series

V.R.