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H. P. L.'s undefeatable thread of ancient, odd and frankly embarassing Italian pop-rock


H. P. L.
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Since we've been rising some interest on Filippo Neri and his life and times in that other thread, here are some songs from the 80s movie about this unique Saint's life.

Songs and music by Angelo Branduardi, who also makes an appearance.

 

 

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Pooh (named after Winnie the Pooh) are not a group. They are an institution. You don't grow up in Italy and NOT go through a Pooh phase. You just don't. Starting off as a beat-pop band, they morphed briefly into a prog band with the Parsifal concept album, and then proceeded to craft their own style of bombastic, stage friendly pop-symphonic-melodic-rock. They probably have released even more albums than Rush.

This is from their heyday in the 70s, and yes, they look kinda like a 4-piece EL&P. Killer guitar, though. Dodi Battaglia is a true axeman.

 

http://youtu.be/zoXWfarzMng

I guess "Pooh" is to italians what "Menudo" is to Mexicans

You mean the band or the soup? :LOL:

This band is growing on me like musical fungus—awesome!!!
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Pooh (named after Winnie the Pooh) are not a group. They are an institution. You don't grow up in Italy and NOT go through a Pooh phase. You just don't. Starting off as a beat-pop band, they morphed briefly into a prog band with the Parsifal concept album, and then proceeded to craft their own style of bombastic, stage friendly pop-symphonic-melodic-rock. They probably have released even more albums than Rush.

This is from their heyday in the 70s, and yes, they look kinda like a 4-piece EL&P. Killer guitar, though. Dodi Battaglia is a true axeman.

 

http://youtu.be/zoXWfarzMng

I guess "Pooh" is to italians what "Menudo" is to Mexicans

You mean the band or the soup? :LOL:

This band is growing on me like musical fungus—awesome!!!

Then here's another one, only for you!

 

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Pooh (named after Winnie the Pooh) are not a group. They are an institution. You don't grow up in Italy and NOT go through a Pooh phase. You just don't. Starting off as a beat-pop band, they morphed briefly into a prog band with the Parsifal concept album, and then proceeded to craft their own style of bombastic, stage friendly pop-symphonic-melodic-rock. They probably have released even more albums than Rush.

This is from their heyday in the 70s, and yes, they look kinda like a 4-piece EL&P. Killer guitar, though. Dodi Battaglia is a true axeman.

 

http://youtu.be/zoXWfarzMng

I guess "Pooh" is to italians what "Menudo" is to Mexicans

You mean the band or the soup? :LOL:

This band is growing on me like musical fungus—awesome!!!

Then here's another one, only for you!

 

It's official—Pooh fan right here. Great stuff. More please!!!

 

The drummer visually reminds of Gil Moore from Triumph

Edited by Tombstone Mountain
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Black metal was born in the Middle Ages.

La Danse Macabre, the personalization of Death into the figure of the Grim Reaper with the skeleton and the scythe, the obsessive refrain that everyone must die, the notion that noone is safe from Death, not the young, not the rich, not the beautiful, was painted on churches walls all over northern Europe, with Death dancing, literally, with every piece of the human consort he/she could find.

Flash forward to 1976: Angelo Branduardi, the most folk-influenced Italian cantautore, takes the text of a Danse Macabre from the wall of a church, adds some traditional XVI century music, and composes a dance of Death for the prog age. As it turns out, it's ageless.

 

http://youtu.be/mHeM7kmKmhY

The beginning brought this thought to me: Italian Xanadu. This is genuis! Loved every creepy minute
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Another Pooh gem for Tombstone: Pooh at their progressive peak. This is the title track from their concept album Parsifal, that talks about, well, Parsifal. Ten minutes of prog dabbling!

 

http://youtu.be/hUAVOIWinwM

 

I didn't know Brian May played for Pooh and Queen. My wife and I love this stuff Rocko!

 

More please!

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I'm going to make this a semi-permanent feature, if it's ok for everyone. And remember, it's for FUN!

Not that I'm going to post a song everyday, either, even if the source material is vast and deep and unfathomable.

 

Seeing that there are a lot of vintage Italian prog lovers here, I thought it might be fun to share "the dark side" of that particular moment in time. Bands and singers that, although influenced to a larger or lesser degree by "prog", kept one and a half foot firmly in pop territory. They couldn't play, they wouldn't, they didn't care, they wanted to make money. Your choice.

But say what you want, they knew how to hold the stage and they could deliver.

 

So be ready for a barrage of ridicoulous melodic honey, awful british rock covers, silly jackets and terrible hair.

 

No other song is fit to be the first in thread like this, so here it goes. You might recognize this one.

 

Thanks for this thread. The music is great, the visuals are odd...ultimately its about the music—and it is addictive!
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I didn't know Brian May played for Pooh and Queen. My wife and I love this stuff Rocko!

 

More please!

Yeah, Dodi Battaglia was in full rock mode in those early days...

 

OK, this is really precious stuff: Pooh play two of their cheesest most romantic songs on Italian TV...

 

"Gimme just one minute"

http://youtu.be/Zqsf34mxuuE

 

The similarity between Red Canzian and Greg Lake is quite unsettling...

 

"Thought"

http://youtu.be/ylYitSkn_Dc

 

This one has original bass player Riccardo Fogli, who would leave the band soon after for a neo-melodic career...

 

PS: wait a sec, you're MARRIED?!?!? You're 17 years old, how can you be married??? ;)

Edited by H. P. L.
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http://youtu.be/PXqVoHpxX5w

Thanks for this thread. The music is great, the visuals are odd...ultimately its about the music—and it is addictive!

You're most welcome. Did you recognize that song?

There's a familiarity to it but I can't put my finger on it
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Aaaaand... here we go again!

Everyone with a heart has had a broken heart, and every italian guy with a broken heart has found solace in this song: Teorema by Marco Ferradini.

It's a very clever song. It features the immortal line: "Take a woman / treat her like s*it" and goes on to list all the wicked things you have to do to a woman "and she will love you". Try to be a good guy, write her love songs, "and she will leave you". But just when you think this is just a bitter, chauvinistic song, the second part comes in and you realize it's all a dialogue between a cynic guy and a nice, optimistic, dating guy. So, in the end, all's well that ends well.

 

 

Ok, dude's lip synching. He's got a decent voice and I liked the song. I just wish I knew WTF he's saying.

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Ok, not even King Diamond in his prime went this far. Never mind the cowls: adding a customized stand for your pet crow on the bass machine head. How metal is that?

But then, I Corvi (The Crows, obviously) were something else. The bad boys of Italian pop, but still able to get to television and so be preserved for posterity.

This is their best known song, and yes, it's a cover of "Miracle worker", but they really turned into their own song: the lyrics ("I am a rough boy / and you're messing me up") and the delivery make it even angrier than the original.

Still popular today, they have their own annual festival around Parma. You just don't mess with I Corvi.

 

http://youtu.be/bhAlqe2x6SI

 

Officially my favorite.

 

They way the singer comes off is fantastic. Loved it.

 

The bird perch on the bass, well let's just say he belongs in the RRHOF for that craziness alone.

Who the hell does that? Crazy Italians—that's who!Awesome!

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Aaaaand... here we go again!

Everyone with a heart has had a broken heart, and every italian guy with a broken heart has found solace in this song: Teorema by Marco Ferradini.

It's a very clever song. It features the immortal line: "Take a woman / treat her like s*it" and goes on to list all the wicked things you have to do to a woman "and she will love you". Try to be a good guy, write her love songs, "and she will leave you". But just when you think this is just a bitter, chauvinistic song, the second part comes in and you realize it's all a dialogue between a cynic guy and a nice, optimistic, dating guy. So, in the end, all's well that ends well.

 

http://youtu.be/dbKqQdbv2YI

 

Ok, dude's lip synching. He's got a decent voice and I liked the song. I just wish I knew WTF he's saying.

 

This is what Google makes of it. Not too far from truth.

 

Take a woman , tell her you love her

write them love songs

send her roses , poems

also squeezed by the heart ;

errs always feel important ,

from the best, the best that you

seeks to be a tender lover ,

is always present,

risolvile trouble.

 

It is sure that you will leave

who does not love you too dear ,

and are sure that you will leave

who loves less is the strongest known.

 

Take a woman , treat her badly,

let me wait for hours,

does not make you live and when you call

phallus as if it were a favor

feel that it is unimportant,

good dose love and cruelty,

seeks to be a tender lover

but out of bed no mercy .

 

And then you 'll see that will love you

those who are less loved more love you give ,

and then you 'll see that will love you

who loves less is the strongest known.

 

No dear friend ,

I do not agree ,

speak for injured man

piece of bread ? she's gone

and you have resisted ?

There are no laws in love,

just be who you are,

leaves open the door of the heart

you'll see that a woman is already looking for you .

 

Without love a man what

this will agree with me,

a man without love what is

and this is the only law that is there.

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Ok, not even King Diamond in his prime went this far. Never mind the cowls: adding a customized stand for your pet crow on the bass machine head. How metal is that?

But then, I Corvi (The Crows, obviously) were something else. The bad boys of Italian pop, but still able to get to television and so be preserved for posterity.

This is their best known song, and yes, it's a cover of "Miracle worker", but they really turned into their own song: the lyrics ("I am a rough boy / and you're messing me up") and the delivery make it even angrier than the original.

Still popular today, they have their own annual festival around Parma. You just don't mess with I Corvi.

 

http://youtu.be/bhAlqe2x6SI

 

Officially my favorite.

 

They way the singer comes off is fantastic. Loved it.

 

The bird perch on the bass, well let's just say he belongs in the RRHOF for that craziness alone.

Who the hell does that? Crazy Italians—that's who!Awesome!

 

Dude I'm listening to this at 630 am its so awesome

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Ok, not even King Diamond in his prime went this far. Never mind the cowls: adding a customized stand for your pet crow on the bass machine head. How metal is that?

But then, I Corvi (The Crows, obviously) were something else. The bad boys of Italian pop, but still able to get to television and so be preserved for posterity.

This is their best known song, and yes, it's a cover of "Miracle worker", but they really turned into their own song: the lyrics ("I am a rough boy / and you're messing me up") and the delivery make it even angrier than the original.

Still popular today, they have their own annual festival around Parma. You just don't mess with I Corvi.

 

http://youtu.be/bhAlqe2x6SI

 

Officially my favorite.

 

They way the singer comes off is fantastic. Loved it.

 

The bird perch on the bass, well let's just say he belongs in the RRHOF for that craziness alone.

Who the hell does that? Crazy Italians—that's who!Awesome!

 

Dude I'm listening to this at 630 am its so awesome

This should be required viewing for every person on the planet
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Volente o nolente, like we say around here, it seems I've become the flagbearer of Pooh.

There are worse fates, I suppose.

Anyway, you already know the 80s crushed down on the 70s band like a tidal wave... See what happened to Yes or EL&P... Pooh did their best to change their sound and in 1981 they were so ahead of their time that they made... Reservoir Dogs ten years in advance!! No kidding, just watch...

 

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Ok, not even King Diamond in his prime went this far. Never mind the cowls: adding a customized stand for your pet crow on the bass machine head. How metal is that?

But then, I Corvi (The Crows, obviously) were something else. The bad boys of Italian pop, but still able to get to television and so be preserved for posterity.

This is their best known song, and yes, it's a cover of "Miracle worker", but they really turned into their own song: the lyrics ("I am a rough boy / and you're messing me up") and the delivery make it even angrier than the original.

Still popular today, they have their own annual festival around Parma. You just don't mess with I Corvi.

 

http://youtu.be/bhAlqe2x6SI

This never gets old. The bird rocks!

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