If De André’s story were a playlist, it would sound like this
If Fabrizio De André’s story were a playlist, what would it sound like? From “Il pescatore” to “Bocca di rosa”, passing through “La Guerra di Piero”, “Don Raffaè”, “Via del Campo”, “Dolcenera”: the most popular – and most significant – songs from the great singer-songwriter’s repertoire Genoese, who passed away in 1999, come back to life in a playlist that celebrates his impact on Italian song and artistic legacy.
Forty songs, about 2 and a quarter hours of music: close your eyes and you find yourself experiencing a journey that, starting from the Genoese district of Pegli (where Faber was born, in February 1940 – in via De Nicolay 12, the Municipality of Genoa has placed in 2001 a commemorative plaque remembering him “for his talent, for his spirit of solidarity and for having given universal prominence to the language of Genoa”) crossed the Atlantic and reached South America, the sound world that De André explored in last album, “Anime salve” from 1996, today considered his musical and spiritual testament (even if, at the time the album was made, the artist was not yet aware of the illness that was just over two years old would later lead to his disappearance). “Love that comes, love that goes”, revived at the last Sanremo Festival also by Diodato in duet with Jack Savoretti in the cover evening, “The ballad of blind love (or vanity)”, “The song of love lost”, “A chemist”, “Fiume Sand Creek”: twenty-five years after the death of Faber (who will be remembered in his city with a concert-event scheduled for the beginning of the summer), his music continues to fascinate generations, testifying to the indelible mark he left on Italian authorial music. You can listen to the playlist right below by clicking on “play”.
Also celebrating De André twenty-five years after his death Fabrizio De André Onlus Foundation And Sony Music Italiawho with the monumental project “Way Point. Where do you come from… Where are you going?” open the treasures of the singer-songwriter. The initiative involves the release of special reprints of the records that represent the full-bodied artistic and cultural legacy of the great Genoese artist, unpublished booklets with the lyrics of the songs, autograph notes from the singer-songwriter, thoughts, reflections, comments , extracts from interviews relating to the songs and albums and reproductions of some unpublished writings preserved in the Study Center dedicated to him at the University of Siena: the project started last Friday with the release of the first four highly anticipated reissues of his studio albums (you can pre-order the box sets by clicking here)and aims to retrace the history of the beloved singer-songwriter through his words, his thoughts, his vision and his “journeys”, still relevant today.
After “Volume 1”, “Tutti morimmo a stento”, “Volume 3” and “La Buona Novella”, the first to return to the shops, in the coming months it will be the turn of the reprints of masterpieces such as “Not to money, not to love nor to the sky”, “Story of an employee”, “Songs”, “Volume 8”, “Rimini”, “Fabrizio De André / L’Indiano”, “Crêuza de mä”, “Nuvole”, “Anime Salve” and “Singles”: milestones not only in De André’s personal and artistic history, but in Italian authorial music more generally.