Zucchero Fornaciari
Rispetto

"Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down..." sang an artist of no particular repute some years ago. Whether he had the qualities of a Nostradamus-like seer, we will probably never know; however, it turns out that no prediction could have been more accurate, in a decade characterized by a musical scarcity (especially on the Italian scene) never so evident before. So who could manage to help the Italian music lovers swallow the infamous "pill" when they were already beginning to tear their robes? Well, when Zucchero appeared on the scene, at the Sanremo Festival in the youth section in 1982, the people of the Boot didn’t yet know that they had found their nugget of gold, disguised as a young lover of blues and soul.

A completely different story four years later, in the year 1986: "Rispetto" comes out, the third album of our artist, still under the name Zucchero Fornaciari, and this is where the real compositional turning point of his career occurs. Certainly, there are not yet compositional peaks ("Diamante" docet), but the good old Adelmo, rhythm in his veins and a constant focus on English, well ahead of his time, explores territories never visited before thanks to the collaboration of Gino Paoli, who writes the lyrics of the wonderful "Come Il Sole All'Improvviso". The rest is entrusted to the excellent title track, but the element that somewhat unites the whole work is the persistent melancholy (and from here one might start the definition of concept-album, albeit with all the necessary caveats) that the singer gives to a little bit of all the songs (Canzone Triste, Solo Seduto Sulla Panchina Del Porto Guardo le Navi Partir, and Torna a Casa, just to name three exemplary titles).

The cover is another little masterpiece, with the diapered child yelling into the microphone like a true blues preacher, with dyed and slicked-back hair. On the back, the same child seems to be recognized grown up, in the guise of Zucchero, but now singing with more sentiment, more feeling. Adelmo makes use, in addition to the production of Corrado Rustici, of Rustici himself on guitars and a large group ("The Band") of musicians from abroad. Last colorful note, the composition Nuovo Meraviglioso Amico, which is dedicated to Joe Cocker. This, too, as we know, is part of history.

I’ll end with the usual comment I now reserve for many artists, which Zucchero cannot escape, being in my opinion one of the most representative: disheartening to say the least. Perhaps Adelmo didn't think he would now transmit that melancholy which he sang about so proudly when he was young and now only makes one sigh.