Guccini, or the "Don Quijote" of Italian Music
grmaglor | Italy | 08/02/2000
(3 out of 5 stars)
"And then, long aspected for, the last album of Francesco Guccini was released in may 2000. Guccini is a 50 years old Italian singer, famous for hits like "Dio è morto" (God is dead), "La locomotiva" (The locomotive) and "Auschwitz", being in the beginning inspired by the music of Bob Dylan. After this recently his music has achieved other results in social criticism. He whips a society of talk-shows, false respectability, tinsels and pushfulness. The first (and last) song of this CD, "Addio" (Goodbye), is a denunciation of this world and in the same time a proud-humble memory of his originy from a little town of the mountains in the Apennines. But the song I value the most important and beatiful of the album is "Don Chisciotte" (Italian version of Cervantes' Don Quijote), a contemporary identification with Cervantes' hero, who prefers does not look at the reality as it is (as Sancho proposes) but fights the Power with rage and fantasy. And a very good sound! It remembers "Cyrano", a song of his previous album, and it is difficult to value what song is the most beautiful; "Cyrano" was also a love song, but "Don Chisciotte" has a better rhythm. The album contains also and old song never published before, "Stagion" (Seasons), not dedicated to Che Guevara, as it first could seem, but to '68 young generation, his dreams and delusions. "Ho ancora la forza..." (I still have the strenght...) is born form a collaboration between Guccini and the Italian rockstar Ligabue, with whom I also took a part in the movie "Radio Freccia". "E un giorno..." is the second song he dedicates to his daughter Teresa (also starring in "Radio Freccia"), it is a song on regretted childhood. A love story (a very ancient one!) is "Primavera '59" ('59 Spring). "Inverno '60" ('60 Winter), at last, is a song very interesting for the sound aspects, blues-like. On a wall of Sarajevo was found a sentences from a song of Guccini, signed "Francesco Guccini, Italian poet. This is Francesco Guccini, I suggest everybody to enjoy his music."
Track Listings (9) - Disc #1