55 years without Luigi Tenco there are many to bear, especially if you think about how much the Genoese artist (by adoption) could have given to Italian music. On that tragic Sanremo night of 27 January 1967, in which the artist took his own life with a blow to the temple, the music also died. Tenco was a pure talent, a rebel genius and, for this reason, little understood by the public at the time, still tied to a different type of music. The era of the songwriter it was beginning to assert itself and Tenco was part of the group of the "Genoese school”, Which also included artists such as Fabrizio De Andrè, Gino Paoli e Bruno Lauzi (to name a few). Tenco was the "less fortunate" among the songwriters of the time. However, his style is unmistakable and his profound texts were re-evaluated in the years to come, making him one of the immortal myths of Italian music.
An "ordinary boy" who wanted to change Italian music
Tenco, in addition to his tragic death, is remembered for having been a gloomy singer, melancholy. Even if he himself said "if I'm in a good mood I don't write songs, I go for a rideThose who knew him remember him as an ordinary twenty year old boy, a cheerful person. The melancholy that emerges from Tenco's pieces is also linked to the expressive power of his lyrics. "I have fallen in love with you"(1962),"I understood that I love you"(1965),"I'll marry you one of these days"(1966) and"Angela”(1962), are just a few examples of how Tenco treats the theme of love in an unconventional way compared to the canons of the time, that is, a tormented love. Luigi Tenco was not just an artist nonconformist, was antimilitarist and author of protest songs political and social.
"Dear teacher”(1962), a piece of social criticism with a profoundly innovative text against inequality, was censored for 2 years by RAI for a verse with an anticlerical tone. In "And if they tell us"(1967), Tenco expresses all his anti-militarism and antiracism: "And they will tell us / that he is a great traitor / who defends people / of another color / we who have seen people with fair skin / do things we should be ashamed of / we will answer we will answer no no no no». "Hello love, hello”(Song sung in Sanremo 1967 a few hours before his death), was born as antimilitarist song. The original title was in fact "I saw them returnAnd it was about a girl watching soldiers go to the front. Considered "too hard" to present it to Festival of Sanremo, Tenco modified the text. The final version, sung with Dalida, has as its theme emigration. The only verse that remains the same is the chorus.
The mystery of death and the artistic void left by Luigi Tenco
The "Tenco case"For some it is today a unsolved mystery. Not everyone believes in the suicide thesis, despite the artist having left a note to explain his tragic gesture. For example, there are those who say that the shell of the bullet found (a Beretta) was different from that of Tenco's owned pistol (a Walther PPK bought for self-defense). Furthermore Orietta Berti, which won the Sanremo '67 edition, with "Me you and the roses”In a recent interview with the weekly Today declared that he did not believe that Tenco wrote that farewell message in his own hand (which also quoted his passage), as “There were some spelling mistakes that Tenco would certainly not have made". Although the case was reopened twice (2006 and 2016), both sentences nevertheless rejected the hypothesis of murder.
The only certain thing is that the death of that "any guy"Of suns 28 years, innate talent, who always sought success without ever really achieving it e he never compromised in order not to deny himself, he left an unbridgeable void in the Italian music scene. Tenco never saw the cultural revolution of '68 and the transformation of the world. Despite this, his songs are still tremendously current. Tenco was a fthe burning flame of music, who unfortunately passed away too soon. However, his artistic heritage remains a precious treasure for every singer-songwriter, which should never be forgotten. Hi Luigi Hi.
