Roberto Vecchioni explains life as a balancing act
The album turns 25 years old Roberto Vecchioni “Dream boy dream”. The song that gives the album its title is among the most loved by the fans of the Milanese singer-songwriter and was presented by the young Genoese rapper Alpha in the evening dedicated to the covers of the last Sanremo festival accompanied by Vecchioni himself. What you can read below is the review of the album that we published 25 years ago.
The objection is the usual one: “But why, Vecchioni again?” The answer, perhaps, is also the usual one. Yes, Vecchioni again. Because, although his works often have traits in common from a musical point of view – a nice euphemism to say that they are all similar – however… there is a however. There is the Man, in Vecchioni's records, and he is the man with a capital U. Man is half divine, half human, half mortal, half immortal, half finite, half infinite. There is the splendor and the misery, the humility and the ambition of an extraordinary being.
This is what Vecchioni has been singing all his life, perhaps few people sing this as he sings it: the hermetic (De Gregori), the committed (Fossati), the social (De Andrè), the politicians (Guccini) have ultimately done something else, and the Man balancing on a juggling ball remained with Vecchioni. From man the discussion on dreams becomes quick and almost obligatory: If it is true – as someone said – that “dreams are the only thing that knows no humiliation”, Vecchioni goes further and explains life as a game of balance to keep reality and dreams together without ever confusing plans.
He sees in the dream something more than a remedy for frustrations, indeed, he attributes to it the sense of the project, which is what guided Icarus and Leonardo, Galileo and Luther King. “Dream, boy, dream” is a record full of words that hurt, because they remind us of problems, dilemmas that concern us and that we often no longer have the courage to face: the secret correspondence with our inner note, someone else would say , looking at the life we live and realizing that, deep down, it resembles us. And we like it.
Among the songs, an extra round of applause for “I comedians”, “Song for Alda Merini” (similar to “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls), “I dreamed of living”, “Dream boy dream”. And congratulations on the strength with which he believes in what he does, dear Professor.
