"31 Songs" is the title of a book by the british writer
Nick Hornby, which I have been suggested to read (but i didn't read it
yet) by my blog friend Silvano, who has
a blog titled infact "31 canzoni" ["31 songs"].
As Silvano tells me, the book is about the 31 songs that "marked" the author's
life.
This dialogue with him made me want to list the 31 songs that marked
my life.
No sooner said than done.
I thought it would have been a colossal enterprise, but instead it was pretty
easy to find out so many songs. On the opposite, i had to exclude some songs
because they didn't fit in the number of the list.
To tell the truth, I cannot say that, considering each song individually, all
of them were really the essence of my life, but for sure each one of them
"describes" atleast a part of me. They are songs that i love, or i loved in
some period of my life. Nowadays some of them would not even enter my personal
hit-parade anymore. But i remember all of them with much affection for what
they meant or still mean now. Some of them still give me chicken skin.
Thanks to Silvano for giving me the idea to start this introspective search.
;-)
The order of the songs is absolutely random.
1.
Keith Jarrett,
The Köln concert - part I
Keith Jarrett concerts are the exasperation of the concept of improvisation,
meaning that they are
totally improvised. Melodies and harmonies are not
prepared before but they develop under the fingers of the pianist, apparently
in a way independent from his will. One has the feeling that the pianist is
only a subsidiary instrument of a trascendent design. If i had been a great
pianist, Keith Jarrett would have been my model. Unfortunately i always had to
be satisfied with much less.
2.
The Queen, Somebody
to love
This song is, in my opinion, perfect. Never repetitive and always surprising
from the beginning to the end, in a mixture of harmonies and melodies that run
after each other without a break.
3.
Pink Floyd, Shine
on you crazy diamond - part 6, 7 and
part 8, 9
The thing i like in this song is the warm sound of the monofonic analog
synthesizer. In this type of music the synth is used to research new sonorities
and not, as it happened later, to simplify the musicians' task with the
faithful imitation of traditional instruments. Artificial sounds, but in this
song they have a concrete expressivity, as it can be found only in traditional
instruments.
4.
Louis Armstrong,
The wonderful world
To me this is the anthem of Nature, in its simplicity.
5.
Miles Davis, Human
nature
This is a song by Michael Jackson (i don't like the original version at all).
The last "electric" period of Miles Davis is marked by the contamination of
jazz with pop, and this makes it much easier than the classic Miles Davis,
remaining at excellent levels (and here the purists would tore me to pieces!).
Miles Davis is the less technically talented trumpet-player that i know,
nevertheless any single note of his is a shudder at my back.
6.
Incognito, Don't
you worry 'bout a thing
Acid jazz is since some times the type of music i prefer.
I have been at a live concert of this band years ago and i had been enthusiast
of it. Impossible to stop dancing! About 20 musicians on the stage, everyone
with some particular talent that extols him, but all of them perfectly combined
with each other, even though they are a bounch of different nationalities and
ethnicities (a good example of integration!).
This song is one of their most popular (and also most beautiful to me) hit.
It's a cover song really much more funky than the original by Stevie Wonder.
7.
Cyndi Lauper, Time
after time
This is a song that when it gets in my head, it doesn't want to go out anymore.
There are a huge number of versions of this hit. I love in particular
the one by Miles Davis, but i wouldn't like to repeat the same comment
of song n. 5 :-)
8.
Francesco Di Giacomo & Sam Moore, Hey Joe (sorry i didn't find
the song on the Internet)
Hey Joe is the popular song that Jimi Hendrix made famous. Even if i don't deny
Jimi Hendrix's talent, i could never appreciate his style. Francesco di Giacomo
and Sam Moore gave this song a second life with a funky-blues very refined
rearrangement. Unfortunately i have only the vinyl record (what's the name of
those 45rpm records sized like an LP?): i don't know how to listen to it
anymore.
9.
Premiata Forneria Marconi,
Impressioni di settembre
This song reminds my teen age, even if, actually, when i used to listen to it,
in that period it was already a piece of history. It was the first song that i
played with a band: passion for played music was born into me along with
passion for this song.
10.
Dirotta su Cuba,
Tutto da rifare
I listen to
Dirotta the first time at a show on TV in the early 90s,
where they played live "
Liberi
di Liberi da", their first hit. And i loved it. I bought their first CD
and i was enthusiastic. So i bought also the second CD and i was enthusiastic
again. I skipped the third because it was a compilation of songs of the first
two, and about the fourth... it was a waste of money because i didn't like it
at all. I stopped being their fan, but the first two CDs are still masterpieces
to me.
11.
Simply Red, The
right thing
Beyond the typical voice of Mick Hucknall, i like very much also the musicians.
I remember once that, going for a beer to my favorite pub-live-music (
Ponderosa
at Lonate Ceppino - ah! it would deserve a post itself!), i found them on the
stage playing jazz cover music, in a makeshift concert, while
Sergio Cammariere
Mick was staying sitting at the bar drinking beer and chatting with the barman.
"The right thing" is a beautiful song. In particular i like the harmonic change
of the refrain at the reprise.
12.
Roberto Vecchioni,
Luci a San Siro
The mood of
my town, in which i don't love to go anymore, becaus, as
Vecchioni says,
il tempo emigra [time migrates], and
luci a San Siro non
ne accenderanno più [lights, at San Siro, won't be lighted
anymore]. And Milano is not
mine anymore [San Siro is a quarter of the
town].
13.
The Blues Brothers,
Sweet home Chicago
A movie that i would never be tired to watch again and again, an incredible
band, Sweet home Chicago, a classic that this list couldn't miss.
14.
Sergio Cammariere,
Tutto quello che un uomo
It's the song i would have liked to compose for her.
Sade
15.
Sade, By your
side
Her warmth, by my side, in the hard moments, even when she's far.
16.
The Cure, Why
can't I be you
I believe that the one of The Cure was my first big concert at a stadium. I
never identified myself in their style, but I always liked their music for the
amount of simple melodies that "interlace" the armonies
17.
Sting, Moon
over Bourbon street
The mood of the night.
18.
Deep Purple, Child
in time
A far (fortunately - for my health - enough short!) period of my life I played
in a hard rock band that used to play Deep Purple cover songs. Child in Time is
an example of that style where virtuosity with instruments, as well as voice,
is exalted. Lately i changed style and tastes, but this song was a point of
referennce.
19.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
Lacrimosa (Requiem)
Even if i don't have a wide culture of it, i always liked classic music. My
favorite musician is Mozart, and Requiem is the most beautiful opera.
20.
Average White Band,
Pick up the pieces
This song is a really infectious funky, and often it was the "soundtrack" of
light-hearted moments.
21.
Jevetta Steele,
Calling you
It's the song of the movie "Baghdad Cafe". This song is diametrically opposite
to n. 20: it's the soudtrack of many sad moments.
22.
Carl Orff, Fortuna
Imperatrix Mundi (Carmina Burana)
Another classic music opera i particularily love is "Carmina Burana" by Carl
Orff, that contaminates classic music with other more contemporary genres. Also
the subject of this opera is quite original in the context, because it
describes scenes of everyday life, from the tavern to the brothel, not missing
a roasted swan singing. A mixture of Latin and German language.
23.
M People, Don't
look any further
It's a pop song, that had been remade in tons of rearrangements, also in a
taste of acid jazz. A song that in its simplicity went over the passing of time
and i still listen to it very pleasantly.
The version of the linked video is a remake by M People theirselves, a little
too much "dance" for my tastes.
24.
David Bowie, Heroes
I always perceived David Bowie like a kind of extraterrestrian. Like those
people that look like they attract attention among the indistinct crowd. Not
that i give much importance to this feature, but i always thought that Bowie's
greatness was to be able to use this charisma to transfer emotions.
25.
Toto, Georgy
Porgy
I like Toto for the originality of their sounds and mostrly their rythms.
About this song i remember a picture of the drummer i used to play with while
obsessively tried again and again the stroke with the snare drum at the reprise
from the stop at 1'55" in the linked video, which is not exactly
on the beat
(as he said, "an intention
on the upbeat"). This song gives the idea to
be built around that snare drum stroke.
26.
Manhattan Transfer,
Soul food to go
What i like of Manhattan Transfer is the impression they give to use the voices
as musical instruments. Very sofisticated.
27.
Let the
sunshine in - from the movie Hair
It's the pacifist movie that represent, in this final song, the collective
protest against war and the establishment that guides it, in which i totally
identify.
28.
Dire Straits,
Tunnel of Love
The real personality of this band is given by Mark Knopfler guitar, without
which their songs would totally loose any meaning. Even if one cannot really
exalt his singing talent, also the print of his voice makes Dire Straits' songs
unique.
I like Tunnel of Love in particular for the crescendo in the instrumental final
part.
29.
John Lennon, Imagine
The lyrics of this song are to me the definition itself ot the word "Peace".
30.
Vinicio Capossela,
All'una e trentacinque circa
Nowadays i don't like Vinicio Capossela a lot, anymore, but when the album that
is named after this song came out, i liked it very much. Refinedly jazz but
also popular. Vinicio Capossela almost looks one of us found himself by chance
on a stage. With a bottle of cheap Lambrusco wine.
31.
Johan Sebastian Bach,
Passacaglia in C minor and
Thema fugatum
The first time i listened this music was at an organ conncert in a church where
a friend, keen on pipe organs, dragged me. Even if i am not completely ignorant
of classic music, i had never gone to a classic concert before (in a church, in
addition!). I already resigned myself to boredom, when, all of the sudden, in
particular at this song, here it comes my enthusiasm! Years after, when i
acquired some technique, i made a personal reduction for piano, and i learnt to
play it.
Passacaglia is a musical form based on obsessive repetition of a theme always
identical to itself, that is harmonized any time in different ways. In this
case the theme is then reprised in the final fugue.
