March 8: eight women sung by Antonello Venditti

SISTER ROSE

Music by Edmondo Giuliani and Antonello Venditti, words by Antonello Venditti

Previously recorded, in the same year, by Edoardo De Angelis in his album with Stelio Gicca Palli “Il Paese dove i limoni”, “Sora Rosa” was reinterpreted by Venditti in “Theorius Campus”, the album which in the spring of '72 marks the debut of the duo of the same name composed of the Roman singer-songwriter together with his partner Francesco De Gregori.

The song, in Roman dialect, is an imaginary monologue addressed to a woman named Rosa, who listens to Venditti's outburst, which speaks of social injustices and poverty: “I'm leaving in Sora Rosa / my heart is in pieces for 'the shame / of this land that never helps me / of these people who spit on your face / who have never picked up a joke / who can be distinguished by a tie'.

MARIU'

Music and words by Antonello Venditti
Six years before “Albachiara” by Vasco Rossi, in December 1973 Antonello Venditti portrayed a female figure with a rather risqué text for those years: “Love is titillated with her tapered hands, she holds her panties up halfway, his tongue searches, searches with great pleasure for his little finger, then looks down at me.” The song, contained in the album “Le cose della vita”, tells of an adolescent infatuation, a love only dreamed of and very voyeuristic.

MARTA

Music and words by Antonello Venditti
A year after “Mariù”, in 1974 Antonello Venditti returned to try his hand at writing another female portrait for the album “When Christmas will come”.

The protagonist, this time, is a girl named Marta, a young student-worker struggling with the difficulties of daily life, between a father-boss who asks her for her report card and money and an all too cumbersome weight of expectations: “Pray, Marta , in the evening / no God will answer / every day a prayer / and a false freedom”, sings Venditti. Decades after the release of the album, the Roman singer-songwriter said: “I was a very lonely teenager, bullied until I was 16. I was so complex and complicated that I risked suicide many times. The songs were born from that pain, even if sometimes, take 'Marta', I hid behind another name.” .

LILLY

Music and words by Antonello Venditti
Among all the female portraits written and recorded by Antonello Venditti over the course of his fifty-year career, “Lilly” is perhaps the rawest, most bitter song. The title of the 1975 album of the same name, Venditti's fourth as a soloist, is a poignant ballad dedicated to a girl victim of drug addiction: “Four holes in the skin / newspaper / naked and without shoes / white, and not in hospital”, sings, among other things, Venditti, portraying only with images the decay of the protagonist, sucked into addiction. “Lilly existed, her name was Patrizia. I just hope she's still alive,” the singer-songwriter will say.

LOVE HAS NO MASTERS

Music and words by Antonello Venditti
In the album “Lilly” there is another highlight: “Love has no masters” is a dedication to Simona Izzo, who Venditti married in 1975.

From their union Francesco was born the following year, destined to follow in the footsteps of his father and mother in the world of entertainment (he became an actor). “You are alone in the room / you don't even feel like reading the newspaper / and you bought yourself a dog / that won't be able to fill you with itself”, sings Venditti in the verses of the song. The couple separated three years later, in 1978. The dog mentioned by Venditti in “Love has no masters” will return in “Dimmelo tu cos'è”, the 1982 song inspired by the end of the story with the actress: “ Our dog no longer recognizes me.” .

WILL BE

Music and words by Antonello Venditti
Among the most popular female portraits of the Roman singer-songwriter, loved and sung by several generations, “Sara” – contained in “Under the sign of fish”, 1978 – has as its protagonist a girl who is pregnant, but almost passive in front of her boyfriend , who seems only apparently caring towards her: “Sara, if I had the money I would take you to the seaside every day / Sara, if I had time I would take you to make love every day / oh, but Sara, I have to graduate / but maybe one day I will marry you”. In the end the protagonist will emerge from that loneliness thanks to the birth of the child: “Sara, you are no longer alone / your love will be enough for him”.

GIULIA

Music and words by Antonello Venditti
In “Under the sign of the fish” there is also “Giulia”, which is indeed a female portrait, but whose text however lends itself to multiple interpretations. We limit ourselves to reporting some of the most interesting lines of the text, in which Venditti seems to address his partner saying: “Giulia knows what to do / Giulia is intelligent / Giulia is something more / Giulia caresses you / Giulia fights together / Giulia also speaks for you / it is Giulia who touches you / it is Giulia who takes you / away from me”.

WE NEED A FRIEND

Music and words by Antonello Venditti
In 1983 Antonello Venditti returned to sing L'amore Finito with Simona Izzo. “It would take a friend” is about the actress. Or rather: it is the end of the story with Izzo that inspires the writing of the song. The friend Venditti speaks of is Lucio Dalla. The singer-songwriter will say: “I wrote it on the piano in a very delicate phase of my life. I wanted to end it after the separation with Simona Izzo. It was Lucio Dalla who saved me when I returned from Milan, where I had moved. He found me a house in Trastevere, near him.”

(Bonus tracks) UNIQUE

Music and words by Antonello Venditti
In 2011 Antonello Venditti sent the album “Unica” to stores.

This song is part of it, which immediately becomes a hit (the following year Paolo Sorrentino will include it in the soundtrack of his masterpiece “The Great Beauty”): “Where are you now? / If you live another story, who are you with? / who will take you? Who will hold you? / who will shout at you: 'you are unique'?”. “For me the most important thing in life is the female figure. 'Unique' is a prayer, a hope, life, freedom, happiness, passion, music, poetry, justice, a song, voice, culture, faith, diversity, unity, Rome (not 'the' Rome, but it could also be), the strength, the experience. As you can see, they are all feminine nouns”, the singer-songwriter will tell us. .