When Mango Became a Cloud Catcher

September 19, 2008 Mango released the cover album “Cloud Catcher” which reached the third position in the sales charts in Italy. To celebrate the anniversary of its release, we republish, in the lines below, how the Lucanian musician who passed away on December 8, 2014 at the age of 60, presented the album in a press conference.

“It’s not necessarily true that those who make a cover album do it because they have no more ideas,” explained Mango during the presentation of his new album “Acchiappanuvole,” “on the contrary, it means that he has a lot of thoughts in his head and a great desire to approach a new world, which is that of revisiting songs written by others. Making an album like this was more difficult than making an album of unreleased songs, because with covers you always have a comparison, while with new songs you have no yardsticks.”

The album contains fourteen reinterpretations of international and non-international songs, ranging from Fabrizio De André with “La canzone dell’amore perduto” to Ivano Fossati with “La disciplina della terra”, from Creedence Clearwater Revival with “Have you ever seen the rain” to John Lennon with “Love”: “I interpreted songs that struck me to the heart”, he added, “The initial screening was done on about fifty pieces until I decided on the final tracks to include.

‘Dio mio no’ by Lucio Battisti is a song that almost nobody knows, and I really enjoyed revisiting it in my own way. ‘Love’ by Lennon is truly brilliant, I had almost never considered it, then my guitarist made me listen to it again and I decided to record a version, while ‘Luce (tramonti a nord-est)’ by Elisa I chose simply because I like it a lot and I feel Elisa is very close to me on an epidermal and artistic level. All the songs were not simply re-sung, but there was a very laborious but equally fun work of arrangements and personalization. I enjoyed putting together such different songs trying to unite them all with a continuity that is given by my vocality”.

“In this album,” she explained, “I also sing songs like ‘Senza pietà’ brought to success by Anna Oxa and the beautiful ‘Se perdo te’ by Patty Pravo. Both sing about a love that ended, but they interpret it, not being singer-songwriters, in a very feminine, elegant and delicate way, while I tried to interpret the end of a love from a male point of view, giving the songs another flavor”. “It took me fifteen years to decide to make this album”, she continued, “I started from the feeling, trying to leave each song with its original meaning, because that is essential for it to remain. I am also very proud of the fact that Claudio Baglioni and Franco Battiato decided to record ‘Amore bello’ and ‘La stagione dell’amore’ with me, respectively. They were very enthusiastic when I made them listen to my version of the songs, and being two great professionals, when they came to record they gave me some essential suggestions”.

“Acchiappanuvole” is a quote from a song by Luigi Tenco, “Ragazzo mio”, included in the album: “I decided to call it that because I really liked it as a phrase, as a word. I think it has a beautiful sound and at the same time a very deep meaning. Some time ago I thought that dreams should remain dreams, but now I think we have to grab them all, like passing clouds, and make them live under our skin”.