Beatles in Rome, 60 years ago. Paolo Zaccagnini: "I was there, and ..."

Paolo Zaccagnini was the historical signature of the newspaper “Il Messaggero”, a musical critic with an encyclopedic memory, at the time when an interview or a review could move the opinions of the readers and have the wallet to buy albums or concert tickets. Above all he was and remains a passionate of music, a saved from music, which is a completely different matter. Anarchist and inseparable from the beard, he conquered the esteem of many artists, to name a couple: Bruce Springsteen called him on stage and dedicated songs to him in the live, Lou Reed telephoned him to get advice and became one of his dearest friends. For destiny or simple luck, there was also Zaccagnini to see the Beatles in Rome, on June 27, 1965. He tells us on the phone from Dublin.

Paolo, retrace that day for us.

«It was a Sunday afternoon, Saharian heat. A friend of mine and I were riding a Motom 48 red color, directed to via Appia to go and see “3S3 Agent – Passport for Hell ”, an Italian espionage film that was our response to the English agent 007. Crossing Piazza Cavour, we saw a flood of people in front of the Adriano cinema and we met some schoolmates who asked us:” But don’t you come to the concert? “. And” What concert? “.

Do you want to tell me you didn’t know anything about it?

“Exact. I was 17 years old, I was not yet the journalist. There was no advertising today, on TV he didn’t talk about it, he worked more for word of mouth, and the newspapers, they talked about it, spoke badly. They called them “four bad faces”, “four perfect idiots”. Then at the ADRIANO were not made concerts. It was a cinema, we went there to see the films of James Bond and Bond’s gadgets that showed in the atrium. We passed by pure case in front of it and we intrigued ourselves. Tickets were available and made a collection to enter ».

The press titled “Sea beat Beatles”. Incredible that it was not all exhausted, right?

«But it was not such an epochal event as we perceive it today. It is thought that everyone was waiting for the Beatles, that the whole of Italy was delirious, but it was not so. They had come out two years earlier and Beatlemania did not concern our country, if not that public niche, especially feminine, who followed them. If you went to see “A Hard Day’s Night” The panties and reggapetti flew to the cinema. The masks brought via carriole of underwear, and we males were amazed to discover the fury of our peers, generally much more composed. It made the sense that something was changing, at the costume level, but we did not have the feeling of being at the center of this great story. So much so that that day the torrid heat and savory prices was enough to convince many young people to leave the sea ».

What do you remember of the concert?

«Gianni Minà very young, Peppino Di Capri at the opening. I not noticed Carlo Verdone with his father or Anna Magnani with his son, only years later I discovered that they were in the audience. The concert lasted about half an hour. Nothing was understood. The screams were so strong that the songs covered, and people pushed to invade the stage. What he succeeded, was called Filippo, a high school companion of mine, very nice, stutterer ».

Did he steal the hat from John Lennon?

«Yes, he attacked him behind and snatched him from his head, then ran to the bathroom to hide. We companions and other strangers reached him in the bathroom and weighted him. We tried to take the trophy but he kept him tight under his shirt. The next day he introduced himself to school with Lennon’s cap and several bruises ».

What impression did the Beatles live live?

“Of heat! We sweaty in a shirt and they were fully dressed, in a jacket and tie, polite, they made the bows. I was unable to evaluate them musically because of the hellish casino, but such a thing had never been seen. From the impact they had on people, Intuii that it could be something revolutionary ».

It was.

«Yes, but not immediately. It is not that the next day among us guys he spoke so much. At most, we started looking for the Beatles ankle boots, among other things very expensive. And someone let the hair grow. The real turning point for us I think it was the Piper, it is there that a certain type of music broke out, a group behavior, but we were still few, certainly not worldwide. The idea of a youth movement linked to the music that wanted to unhinge and change everything, we perceived it more in 1970, when the film on Woodstock came out ».

But you in June 1965 were already a hair.

«Yes, and from there a few months I would have met others at” yellow flag “. My hair friends were Roberto (D’Agostino, ed) and Renato (Zero, ed), full of curls. They called us “Fagoci”, “Mascalzoni”. Once in Trastevere they pulled us behind the entire fruit and vegetable market. At Piper it was a show to see those two dance, instead I was stopping to look, like a Christmas tree without lights. Then Renato Ballò at the opening of the Jimi Hendrix at Brancaccio’s concert in 1968. A electrocution ».

Two years later you would have entered the messenger. Did you meet the Beatles in the role of journalist?

«Everyone except Lennon, who once greeted me (laughs). In 1969 I was in London with Luigi, a friend Hare Krishna, who said to me: “Do you want to come and meet John?”. Certain! I went with these Hare Krishna, dressed in Hare Krishna, while I was wearing normal clothes, a Tittenhurst Park, and Casa Lennon, very white, stood out on the hill. A few meters below there was another, at home, and we stopped there. A guy brought us dry white paint and told us to paint it. I was perplexed and Luigi added: “This puts us in touch with the spirit of John.” In short, without knowing it, I was enrolled in the hand of free work. After a while Lennon looked out the window to greet us ».

And when did you interview them?

«On several occasions. Once I went to Barcelona to meet Paul and his wife Linda. I knew they were vegetarians and introduced myself with two kilos of Italian cherry tomatoes. They went crazy! But I loved above all George Harrison, calm and incredibly witty, not surprisingly he finished the film “Brian of Nazareth” of the Monty Python “.

Madness for which the house mortgaged. He said he was their debtor because when the Beatles were melting, the comedy of the Pythons had kept him healthy.

“And this explains what kind of humor he had. I will tell you this: we were in Sanremo in 1988, Harrison was a guest at Palarock and Paul at the Ariston Theater. They arrived separate, they were there for different reasons, on different stages. I was for lunch with George, his wife and son. From the balcony I saw a great chaos on the street and Paul in the middle. I exclaimed: “But it’s McCartney!” George replied: “Yes, he was in the beatles”. Yes, he was in the Beatles. I didn’t stop laughing. ”

Ten years later the Beatles at the Airiano, you recited in “I am an autarchic” by Nanni Moretti, then in “Excellent Bombo”. Has the myth of collectivism, male self -awareness, the illusion that that generation could change everything could have already finished?

“” I am an autarchic “we turned him in a cellar where he died of cold. In a scene, Nanni and I wore a long shirt and the newspaper “Repubblica” wrote that in the film there was Demis Roussos. They exchanged me for him, because of the beard and the shirt. In “Ecce Bombo” I said: “”I had to be born a hundred years ago, in 1848. The barricades in Leipzig. At twenty -two I had already done the Municipality of Paris. Now, parastal employee “… and beautiful company” But what are we doing? But what is happening? But when will we see the sun? I’m sick, I have also cold. ” disappointment for political experience, but nOn it can be said that nothing had changed. More rights and freedoms had acquired, EMUsically, from the Beatles onwards, for over a decade, we lived something extraordinary and unrepeatable ».

Beatles or Stones?

“I could beat Rome for weeks looking for the Stones” 19th Nervous Breakdown “, but I have always preferred the Beatles, four boys of the sub -rider, who, however, had a precise identity while ranging among many different genres in the songs”.

What have they changed?

«Needless to say, they were the musical source from which from then on he drew anyone. Instead, it is necessary to remember that they really changed the way of seeing the world. After the Beatles, we all went to London. And there we discovered everything, also India. In London we also discovered America ».