Riccardo Cocciante, ode to an underdog: the playlist
The new single “I have twenty years with you“, which has just been released, has brought one of the most recognizable and intense voices of Italian music back to center stage: that of Riccardo Cocciante. Written by Riccardo Cocciante in collaboration with Luc Plamondon and Pasquale Panella, “Ho vent’anni con te” – which anticipates the album of the same name which will arrive on March 13, after the release of the docu-film “My name is Riccardo Cocciante” in cinemas – is an emblematic song, almost an emotional testament, in which the musician looks to the future from the point of view of an important milestone such as his eightieth birthday. It is the voice of a man who, despite the time that has passed, continues to experience the carefreeness of youth, which resurfaces thanks to a deep and all-encompassing love, as a condition of the soul, which marks the singer-songwriter’s return to the recording scene twenty-one years after his last album, is the ideal starting point for a playlist which spans over fifty years of career, a journey through passion, melancholy, theatrical impulses and intimate confessions. You can listen to it below by clicking on “play“.
If “Ho twenty years with you” tells of a mature love that renews, Cocciante’s great classics take us back to the roots of that same emotional intensity. It was 1974 when with “Soulless beauty” the artist staged a lacerating, almost angry rupture: one of his most famous interpretations, in which the voice becomes scratching and denunciation. In the same album, “Anima”, there was “When a love ends”a song that has become a universal symbol of the end of a relationship: the pain is told without filters, with a melody that grows until it explodes into a memorable refrain. Two years later, in 1976, it would arrive “Margherita pizza”perhaps his most iconic song, which turns 50 this year: an emotional crescendo that mixes nostalgia, passion and regret, which over time has become a true classic of Italian song.
But a playlist dedicated to Cocciante cannot miss the songs that have made entire generations fall in love. “If we are together”with which he won the 1991 Sanremo Festival, is a hymn to the conscious choice to remain united, despite the difficulties. It is a song that embodies maturity and dedication, themes that we also find in the new single. With “For a friend” And “Sincerity”Cocciante instead showed his ability to alternate delicacy and momentum, recounting profound feelings with direct, never artificial writing.
From the young performer of the 70s to the mature composer of today, the thread that binds all of Cocciante’s production is only one: love mixed with anger. It’s no coincidence that a live album from 1976 was titled “Love with anger”. Idealized love, burning passion, loss, reconciliation, up to serene awareness: listening to this playlist means going through personal and collective memories, letting yourself be overwhelmed by melodies that have not lost strength over time. Because, after all, with Riccardo Cocciante’s voice in our ears, we too can feel – at least for one song – in our twenties again.
