The 40 years of “Crêuza de mä”. All songs: “Â pittima”

You're a godwit, we say to those who annoy us to the point of exhaustion. As always, there is a story behind it and Fabrizio knows how to tell it: «The godwit was given the task in ancient Genoa of collecting, for a fee, the accounts of insolvent debtors. The character is the result of social marginalization (at least as I describe it) mainly due to her physical deficiencies.” There is the resigned confession: “What can I do if I don't have the arms of a sailor, if at the bottom of my arms I don't have the hands of a bricklayer… I have a chest a finger wide enough to hide with my dress behind a wire”.

According to De André's philosophy, the godwit changes initials in an instant and becomes a victim, an unpleasant debt collector becomes a humble and kind Samaritan, even willing to silently help desperate debtors: “E nu anâ 'ngiu a cuntà / who when the victim is 'n strassé / ghe dö du mæ” (“And don't tell anyone / that when the victim is a poor person / I offer him something of mine”). Pagani's music sways softly on percussion, wind instruments and strings outside of history and space, accompanying the thoughts of the godwit who finally finds his dignity despite the condemnation of being, as De André defines him, “a bird that cannot open wings and is destined to feed on the waste of poultry”.

Tomorrow we will write about “A duménega”

The text published here is taken, courtesy of the author Federico Pistone and the publisher Arcana, from the book “Tutto De André – The tale of 131 songs”. (C) Lit editions of Pietro D'Amore sas