Francesco de Gregori - Scacchi e Tarocchi (CD)

All Music Guide

The Eighties was not a great decade for singersongwriters, given the obsession that FM radio programmers all over the world had with drum machines and MIDI synthesizers. For a while, it seemed (at least to music producers and record companies) that no record would get any airplay if it did not comply with a certain electronic sound. For many songwriters born and bred on acoustic guitar and piano settings, like Francesco De Gregori, to adjust to the new mandatory sound proved quite a challenge. Not surprisingly, many of their records from that decade sound a bit forced, or dated, particularly when compared with their previous or later work. Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, or Lou Reed are good cases in point; so is De Gregori. Fortunately, while sections of 1985'sScacchi e tarocchi fall under the sonic iron rule mentioned above, his songwriting remains strong as ever. Not coincidentally, this is easier to see in those songs that keep the arrangement to a minimum, as in the gorgeous piano balla...ds "Ciao Ciao" and "A Pa'", the later a warm if characteristically oblique tribute to Pier Paolo Pasolini, who was a key influence in De Gregori's intellectual and political education. Scacchi e tarocchi's raison d'être, however, has to undoubtedly be his opening number "La storia", one of the most extraordinary songs De Gregori ever wrote. Its subject could not be more grandiose, History and the way it affects people's everyday life. The way De Gregori goes about it, on the other hand, could not be humbler: only his voice and a few piano chords, a simple language, one memorable image after another. De Gregori puts forward the idea that every single person is socially responsible and has a political role to play, and that neglecting such facts will not make History stop, change or go away and, believe it or not, he somehow manages to do all this sounding earnest rather than pretentious. "La storia" is nothing short of a miracle of popular songwriting: a socialist philosophy of History made into a two minute and a half pop ballad, in a language that everyone can understand. The studio version present in this otherwise fine collection, or any of its live versions, is essential listening for anybody seeking to understand the sheer greatness of Francesco De Gregori. - Mariano Prunes, All Music Guide Read more Less