Stefano D’Orazio of Pooh, farewell five years ago. Ten songs
Five years ago, Stefano D’Orazio, drummer and lyricist of Pooh, left us too prematurely. To remember him, I asked Andrea Pedrinelli, who is undoubtedly the greatest Italian expert on Pooh, to choose ten songs whose lyrics were written by Stefano. Here is his list.
ELEONORA, MY MOTHER (Pooh, Some of our best time1975)
(Facchinetti/D’Orazio)
The text
The first text that Lucariello pushes him to write, and then he titles with his own “Lucarellian” style. Stefano the author is inspired by Valerio, but already shows a more concrete lyricism and a sensitive attention to the feminine, which he will always exalt and respect.
DO, DO, SAY, GUESS (Pooh, Poohlover1976)
(Facchinetti-Battaglia/D’Orazio)
The text
The caustic D’Orazio who dares sharp criticisms of fashions in Pooh’s repertoire. But this is also the first song by the group in which his lead vocals are heard.
THE LEGEND OF MAUTOA (Pooh, Boomerang1978)
(Facchinetti/D’Orazio)
The text
A jewel between the epic and the fairytale, in which however Stefano hides the portrait of one of the many young dreamers of 1968 who, lost in maximalisms, in the end found themselves alone and without any dream realized.
LET’S STEAL AN ISLAND (Pooh, Viva1979)
(Facchinetti/D’Orazio)
The text
He already wants to escape from Pooh and their routine, in one of the pieces that he loved most, and which best speak of his soul. (And which Pooh were unable or unwilling to resume by returning to the scene after 2016, despite continuous advice…)
NUMBER ONE (Pooh, …Stop1980)
(Facchinetti/D’Orazio)
The text
A masterpiece of depth, in which well before the talents and the degradation of the record, the inadequacies, errors and horrors of the craft of making songs in Italy are photographed.
GOOD LUCK (Pooh, Good luck1981)
(Facchinetti/D’Orazio)
The text
Stefano tells Stefano: a sardonic and defenseless autobiography, written beautifully on a lyrical level.
LETTER FROM EAST BERLIN (Pooh, Northern Tropic1983)
(Facchinetti-Canzian/D’Orazio)
The text
The dreams and disillusionments of respectable people forced by the Cold War behind the Iron Curtain, people Stefano met several times on tour and here made the subject of a great song.
THE GIRL WITH SUNNY EYES (Pooh, Oasis1988)
(Battle/D’Orazio)
The text
The side of Stefano that he reluctantly hid behind jokes and irony: romance, tenderness and melancholy, for a journey into his adolescence into a platonic love actually experienced on a Roman tram. After If there is a place in your heart from 1985, this is also the song that makes Stefano the fourth official solo singer of Pooh, pushed by Roby, but also the fourth live frontman: here ever, given that he sang the song, acoustically, in the center of the stage without being hidden by his drums.
50 SPRINGS (Pooh, The sky is blue above the clouds1992)
(Battle/D’Orazio)
The text
His family, his values. Always sung with extreme emotion on stage.
I WILL BE BORN AGAIN YOU WILL BE BORN AGAIN (Roby Facchinetti, released as a single in March 2020)
(Facchinetti/D’Orazio)
The text
The last time I heard Stefano, a few weeks before his death, he laughingly said to me “Do you know that this is the best-selling song of my entire story and that of Roby?”: a touching masterpiece, written in the darkness of the pandemic, with the copyright donated to charity to find a cure for Covid, and which became his farewell when he himself, in tragic retaliation, was struck down by the virus eight months after writing it.
For Stefano,
true friend, multifaceted artist, sensitive and profound person,
five years later
AP
Read also: Stefano D’Orazio’s (his) ten favorite songs
Andrea Pedrinelli is the author of the two books illustrated below.
