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

[H. P. L.]

OK, let's get back to discover some obscure prog or pop-prog gem from the past. Like, what was Banco (del Mutuo Soccorso) doing in the 80s? In a way, they were faring better than PFM, since, IMHO, their 80s albums are a little bit better. This is one of their best efforts in the years of Euro-disco: MOBY DICK (and no, it's not a Zeppelin cover).

 

http://youtu.be/GU9cbwo7y1E

[H. P. L.]

It seems I've been a little remiss in my mission as "protecter" of Pooh. Easily fixed.

 

Can you say M E G A B A L L A D??? Pooh surely can!!

 

[H. P. L.]

Time for another Pooh kick, it seems! Damn, even I did not remember they had SO many songs... This is one from the very beginning. It's about a girl losing her virginity. I think.

 

http://youtu.be/UJmEsd2ZFCo

[H. P. L.]

This is a great song.

 

The fact that it was the opening tune to a highly-succesful serial in 1976 somehow diminishes its value, segregating it into nostalgia land. Still, it's a great song, with a lot of punch, one of the greatest basslines ever, and even a sitar!

 

The REAL song starts at 1:20

 

http://youtu.be/Bh1kBdS7GNk

Edited February 11, 2014 by H. P. L.

[H. P. L.]

Roberto "Freak" Antoni died today.

 

It's hard to describe him to a Canadian-American-English speaking audience. The best thing that comes to my mind is a sort of Weird Al Yankovich, but he was more a comedian than a parody-maker.

 

With his band, Skiantos, he almost single-handedly invented "comedy rock", or "rock demenziale" as we call it. A blend of rock and hilarious lyrics, often satires of our reality.

 

While I was never "a fan", I recognize now they were years ahead. In my younger years, while I was listening only to SERIOUS music, if I had stuck my head out of my a** and cherished their stupid songs, maybe I woulda had more fun.

 

 

[H. P. L.]

So Francesco di Giacomo is no more with us.

I can see no more fitting tribute than this one. "Don't break my balls"

 

[H. P. L.]

OK, it's high time to bring this topic back in the sun, where it belongs.

And in order to do this, I'm starting a week-long special about one of Italy's greatest singers.

His name: Adriano Celentano.

And let's start with his first, killer, Elvis-inspired single.

 

[Tombstone Mountain]

Roberto "Freak" Antoni died today.

 

It's hard to describe him to a Canadian-American-English speaking audience. The best thing that comes to my mind is a sort of Weird Al Yankovich, but he was more a comedian than a parody-maker.

 

With his band, Skiantos, he almost single-handedly invented "comedy rock", or "rock demenziale" as we call it. A blend of rock and hilarious lyrics, often satires of our reality.

 

While I was never "a fan", I recognize now they were years ahead. In my younger years, while I was listening only to SERIOUS music, if I had stuck my head out of my a** and cherished their stupid songs, maybe I woulda had more fun.

 

 

That's fascinating. I've got much to catch up on

[H. P. L.]

Let's go on with our celebration of the one and only Adriano Celentano.

True, he was one of the many who tried to be Elvis in Italy, but ultimately in the 60s he changed his style and became just himself. "Himself" being this larger-than-life, though guy prone to melancholy and "thinking". No one sounded like him then and no one does now. He's still going strong, btw.

Here's another good song:

 

[Tombstone Mountain]

I haven't come across much, if any in this thread that isn't quality stuff. I need to come to Italy and hang with you. It'd be epic if Grey came along. We'd probably get arrested b for some chicanery...but it'd be good times.

 

I wanna meet Pooh...worship at their feet

[H. P. L.]

I haven't come across much, if any in this thread that isn't quality stuff. I need to come to Italy and hang with you. It'd be epic if Grey came along. We'd probably get arrested b for some chicanery...but it'd be good times.

 

I wanna meet Pooh...worship at their feet

 

Well, keep in mind that I can pick up the best out of 50 years of Italian pop music here... Actually the music in Italy today kinda sucks, it's all about talent shows. But I can let you know when Pooh are touring...

 

Going back to our special guest this week, the one and only Adriano Celentano.

You guys cannot understand the kind of love and respect I have for this man: he's like the cool uncle of the family, always doing crazy things but with a good heart.

Although always an up-front Catholic and a strictly "no drugs only sex with my hot wife" kinda guy, there HAD to be something in his cigarettes in the middle 70s, because he came up with a concept album AND a movie called "Yuppi Du" and the meaning was, well, not very clear. Get the title track. Backing vocals in pseudo-english by his own wife, Claudia Mori.

 

[H. P. L.]

Another day, another Adriano Celentano sweetcake for us all.

Keeping in coherence with the 70s weirdness, here is a... song in a made-up language. It has terrible fake english, but the title and most of the lyrics just don't make sense. With a strong groovy vibe, it's a stomp-disco pastiche that... I have no more words to describe. So here it is.

 

 

Since I can't decide which video is crazier, I'm posting them both.

 

[H. P. L.]

Mmmmhhh... I skipped a day last week, didn't I? Well, since there's so much good material, I'm gonna keep the Adriano Celentano tribute going for a while. Keep in mind we're talking about the Italian Neil Young, here.

 

So here it is, my personal favourite. A masterpiece of musicality, a story of sex, rivalry and betrial.

 

http://youtu.be/5A0zclUhlck

[H. P. L.]

Boy, girl, boy, girl. The vocal quartet. Who comes to your mind? The Mamas and Papas? Sure. Abba? Definitely.

But only in Italy you can find a multi-ultra-mega platinum selling vocal quartet that hasn't been a quartet for more than 35 years. "What?" you say. Let's proceed in order, shall we?

 

I Ricchi e Poveri (The rich and the poor) were born in the grand tradition of vocal quartets, with more than a dash of flower power, italian style.

 

 

 

But no sooner than that, the blonde girl left, never to be replaced. The three soldiered on and in the 80s became the quintessence of easy listening, with tremendously successful mega-pop hits.

 

[H. P. L.]

Their slew of happy sing-along nonsense seems to know no bounds...

http://youtu.be/3XI5-v-JaT0

 

[H. P. L.]

OK, I'm in the mood to post something REALLY BAD today, because, you know, you can't have enough italian vintage melody. And in my quest for the baddest of the bad, I can't skip this towering achievement of everything that is bad (and in the same time, good) about italian pop music. So, without much further ado, a classic from 1979, still played to this day.

 

 

Some years ago Adriano Pappalardo (which funnily translates roughly as "bacon eater") starred in a survival reality show, proving he is still a mighty force of nature. And of course he played this song.

[H. P. L.]

To my knowledge, not even the sexiest, foxiest, most provocative female bombshell pop singer in the english-speaking world has had the guts to come up with a song titled "Buy me". Sure, there are millions of shades and innuendos, similar meanings, but really, I can't recall, for the life of me, a song called "Buy me" ever.

Well, trust Italians to come up with such a song. And trust Viola Valentino, wife to Riccardo Fogli, original Pooh bass player, to turn it into a disco-chanteuse mega-pop hit. It was 1979 and this is Lana Del Rey 30 years in advance.

 

http://youtu.be/2hSwQt0bXnA

[H. P. L.]

Time to get serious once again.

If you've been keeping track, some pages ago I mentioned the rather-elusive group of singer-songwriters universally known as Cantautori, which is quite a direct translation of the "singer-songwriter" sobriquet.

From the late 60s to the late 80s, and some even after, the Cantautori were the thinking man's choice of musique du jour. Inspired by Bob Dylan (some would say, "worshipping"), these young lions turned Italian pop music upside down, tearing apart the usual soppy lyrics of the tradition (amore, amore, amore...) and talking about REAL, IMPORTANT stuff, stripping down the arrangements usually to acoustic guitar or piano, because the lyrics were IMPORTANT and you had to hear them.

From an American POW, you could say they were all democrats, although there's an ocean of difference between American left-field and Italian left-field (those were still the days the Italian Communist Party was the second biggest party in the country). This is important because politics played a huge role in their image, their creative process and their message, ultimately.

There were many Cantautori and each one of them is different. Anyway, I'm going to start with my very favourite: Giorgio Gaber.

 

Haling out of Milan (the industrial city of rich bourgeosie), Gaber started as an Elvis wannabe, trying to push the italian language in the sincopated metric of rock and roll (an almost impossible feat), but soon he found a unique style, mixing a great dose of irony with a rich musical palette and a ferocious, almost prophetic vision of his country. He criticized consumerism, urban dystopia, sex, manhood, everything. He was a songwriter, an actor, a guitarist. He shunned television and stadiums, playing only in prose theaters (what he called "teatro canzone") for more than 50 years before dying in 2003.

 

Gaber had seen, 30 years before time, where Italy was headed, and by God was he right. I apologise in advance because you can't get the full experience of Gaber without understanding what he's saying, but as you'll see, the man was a total body actor as well.

 

Here's an early one: "Pretending to be sane"

 

 

 

And another one. Note the bold time changes from verse to choir: not your everyday pop single.

 

[H. P. L.]

I could spend weeks posting Gaber songs since the man made more albums than Rush, anyway, I'll try to keep a balance between the "comedy" songs and the more serious ones. Let's go for comedy first. And it will be hard not to crack up.

 

Have Dylan, Seeger, Young, Peart ever made a song about Head and Shoulders? No? Well they should have! See how Gaber turned into a catharsis song, using the metaphor of the shampoo as the illusory, pale shelter provided by consumerism.

 

http://youtu.be/NwqerSEuEUM

[H. P. L.]

Here's another one with serious ROTFL potential. It's a live jam featuring friend and colleague Enzo Jannacci (sporting a never-so-out-of-place PRS) in a picaresque song written by Jannacci himself. If you want to know what it means, ask and I'll be happy to explain.

 

http://youtu.be/VLA4nJAvfOc

[H. P. L.]

Time to go underground. More or less.

What a long, strange story the story of Litfiba is!

They started out in the 80s as a trve vndergrovnd band, became enormously successful in the 90s, broke up, reformed, and then iconic singer Piero Pelù ended up being one of the jury in the italian X-Factor. Now that's a parabole.

One of their early songs (and a personal favourite), very Joy Division.

 

[H. P. L.]

[H. P. L.]

The other great new wave 80s band: Diaframma.

 

This is my absolutely favourite song by them and a great video to boot: "Siberia".

 

[H. P. L.]

Can't let this thread slide into the black hole, can I?

And what better way to revamp it than with another Pooh song? This is one of their best ballads, taken from the Viva album, 1979, probably their finest effort. Please note the similarities to Queen's "in the studio" videos that would follow.

 

[H. P. L.]

Punk in Italy.

Well, we never had the Sex Pistols or The Clash. Buuuut we had a bunch of guys who took more after American punk-new wave scene and turned into a poppy carnival fest. There were many chanteuses who tried to be Italy's Debbie Harry: none succeded, but still they provided some long-due provocation, sex and nasty thoughts to us kids of that time.

 

Number one - Donatella Rettore. The punkish of the punk, as much as you could BE punk in Italy and still go on public TV. She had a great bunch of songs. This is called "Razorblades" and goes "Gimme a razorblade / I wanna slash my wrists". Can you remember a lyric as direct as this?

 

 

Number two - Anna Oxa. One of the best voices in Italy ever. In another country she would have been Annie Haslam, instead she never had a REALLY GOOD song, just a lot of sexual innuendos and lame lyrics. This is her first single:

 

http://youtu.be/-LQcbypc8q4