Unpredictable, experimenter and eclectic artist. These are just some of the adjectives that can be compared to the figure of Franco Battiato, the singer-songwriter from Catania who passed away last year 18st May following a long illness that today, 23 March, would have accomplished 77 years. Battiato was a sacred monster of Italian music, as Lucio Dalla, De Andrè, Lucio Battisti o Luigi Tenco. Battiato has not always been understood in his flashes of madness and genius by critics and audiences, especially in the early years of his career. However, over the years the master from Catania has managed to carve out a special place in the hearts of millions of fans. His versatility in fact made him one of the most popular artists of recent decades, thanks also to songs such as "Cuckoo-cuckoo","The era of the white boar","The season of love" and naturally, "The care".
Franco Battiato, philosophy and the East
Battiato can also be considered a "explorer". As a man of great culture he has always gone beyond the schemes, thanks to brilliant musical and poetic intuitions. He was able to enter philosophical concepts, cryptic, for some abstruse and nonsense, in pop songs. His curiosity towards the oriental philosophy and music she was fundamental in the writing of his songs. Examples of this are the famous "Voglio Vederti Danzare"and "Center of permanent gravity". In the first Battiato, he takes the listener into a mystical journey which has as its theme the dance, Between dervishes tour, desert gypsies Bulgarian dancers moving on burning braziers and elderly couples dancing Viennese waltzes. In the second instead Battiato, influenced by the ideas of the philosopher Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff, speaks of the sense of loss and of search for the self. The center of gravity makes it possible to observe oneself and the outside world with detachment.
Giusto Pio and Manlio Sgalambro: two essential encounters
The two “fuses” capable of exploding Battiato's creativity were the encounters with Right Pio and the philosopher from Catania Manlio Sgalambro. The first is a violinist with whom the teacher he collaborated from the mid-70s until the turn of the century. Pio will contribute to the arrangements of some of Battiato's most successful records, such as the famous "The Master's voice"Of 1981. The partnership with Sgalambro it will begin in the mid-nineties. The two will write some of the most splendid songs of that period, such as "Call to defer to suicide","The dance of power"and "The care". The latter is a hymn touniversal love e transcendental, made up of exotic and dreamlike evocations, which has become one of the most evocative and significant pieces of Franco Battiato's entire production.
That'Be special, which has made an immense contribution to Italian music and culture, unfortunately no longer exists today. Its absence in the Italian music scene is felt strongly, like the thunder of an adult elephant's footsteps in an empty room. Listening to Battiato, today as then, is like coming into contact with one parallel dimension where everything is new and nothing is as it seems, where it is possible wander the fields of Tennessee, listen to the Balkan music di Tirana radio o meet Igor Stravinsky on Nevskji prospect. Happy birthday dear Battiato, we miss you more every day.
Featured photo: © rabendeviaregia - Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).
