Max Pezzali: unreleased songs for the 30th anniversary of 883’s cult album

You don’t make it out of the 90s alive. Max Pezzali has announced the release of a box set with which he will celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of one of 883’s most beloved albums, “The woman, the dream and the great nightmare”, containing unreleased songs and rarities. The box set will be released tomorrow, Friday 31 October, with a new cover designed by Giulio De Vita, the same illustrator who signed the iconic cover of the 1995 album. Together with the box set, a 45 rpm single will also be released which will contain the demo of “Gli vultures”, one of the eleven songs contained in “La donna, il dream e il grande nightmare”, and “Non 6 Bob Dylan”, which was the “ghost track” of the 1995 album. considered a small cult, it is also mentioned in the Sky series by Sydney Sibilia who relaunched the 883 brand, “They killed Spider-Man”, of which the second season is currently being filmed: «It was one of the first songs that we wrote as 883 and which we then published as a ghost track on “La donna il dream & il grande nightmare”», recalled Pezzali.

“The woman, the dream and the great nightmare” was the first 883 album without Mauro Repetto (who however appears as the author of songs such as “Tieni il tempo” and “Musica”, also singing in the same “Non 6 Bob Dylan”), and the first with the new line-up composed of Max Pezzali assisted by a group of young people, including the backing singers Paola and Chiara Iezzi (the future Paola & Chiara). Regarding the importance of the album, containing, among others, “Una canzone d’amore” and “Gli anni”, Pezzali says:

“The woman, the dream and the great nightmare” is the last album of the 883 trilogy of the first half of the nineties, indeed it cuts the nineties perfectly in the middle. It was the first album without Mauro, even if there are a few pieces in there that we had “experienced” together. In 1995 883 became a band in all respects, with different elements, with live horns, I couldn’t be alone on stage, or rather I couldn’t be, as Mike Bongiorno once introduced me, 883. It’s an important record for me because it’s full of songs that later became very popular and that we still play with great heart today, in fact, there are 4-5 of them that are the heart of our shows.

Then speaking about the discovery of unreleased songs and auditions, the singer-songwriter from Pavia reveals:

Last summer my father was in the tavern (the famous rumpus room) rearranging some things and found a box with some cassettes. Among these we found some songs that had never been released, I think dating back to 1990 (therefore before the first album) and then the demo of “Gli vultures”. We were already working on this special release and so I called Warner and asked if they wanted to further enrich the box with this audition. It’s a little different from the version that ended up on the album, but maybe it helps everyone understand a little how the songs can be put down when they’re written (or maybe like I did and do). It’s a treat, for a few. We made a 45 of it, together with “Non 6 Bob Dylan”, which as many will have seen from the TV series was one of the first songs we wrote as 883 and which we then published as a ghost track on “La donna il dream & il grande nightmare”.

First in the Siae ranking of the most followed live shows of 2024 (at the Olympic Stadium in Rome on 26 June 2024 he performed for 64,351 people), Max Pezzali has already announced a series of concerts in Italian stadiums scheduled for summer 2026.