my cow keeper father,
my mother a peasant,
I am the only child almost as blond as Jesus,
I was a few years old and then twenty seems like a few,
then you turn to look at them and you can't find them anymore.
Track taken from "Buffalo Bill”By Francesco De Gregori
April 4, 2021, the Prince turns 70. When he was twenty he was really blond almost like Jesus, in a few days he will be 70 years old and that blond hair is almost gone. The head almost always ends with a hat, of different models, to cover the forehead and with smoked glasses to slightly hide the eyes full of a light that time cannot dim. The weather. Time already. Fifty years of life have passed since then and events of all kinds: tragedies, songs, smiles, epochal changes, wonderful stories and other less exciting ones, tears, songs and more smiles have taken place in the life of Francesco De Gregori. And in ours.
Turns out always a bit difficult to tell about one's passions, because we run always the risk of making the figure of the boring passer-by who regrets the youth gone through praise frantic of hers "travel friends"Youth. But Francesco De Gregori was not the traveling companion of a single generation, of my generation; there will be, at least, three, four generations that will claim to have had him as a North Star, as a continuous and constant point of reference, within their musical history. Because Francesco De Gregori is part of the musical history, of the Italian one. And ours.
The great songwriter
"It was one of the most important movements in the history of Italian song, it produced things of great level, up to the seventies - eighties. But there are no more personalities of that type, you don't do that kind of song anymore. The De André, the De Gregori are no longer born". Words of Francesco Guccini. To that movement, as Guccini defines it, or to the great songwriter, De Gregori has given so much, in different ways, but always offering artistic products of the highest quality. Give her its compositions up to collaborations with Fabrizio De André, Lucio Dalla o Antonello Venditti, Prince he has written songs that have become part of the history of music.
The relevance of his verses
If the greatness of an artist is evaluated on the basis of what he has written and, immediately after, if his work maintains its originality intact, its ability to remain current despite the inexorable passage of time, Francesco de Gregori must be inserted of law within the category of "Teachers of word". Read some phrases from one of De Gregori's most beautiful songs, "We are the story"And carry it on an equal footing in our daily lives marked by the Covid pandemic - 19.
Let's reflect, just for a moment, on what the scientists of the Scientific Technical Committee and beyond, our politicians, at least the most sensible ones, and our Great Pope Francis obsessively repeat to us during this year marked by this terrible pandemic: "We will only get out of it together", With i our correct behavior, with the our infinite patience and, above all, with the our will to return to live one real life, precisely because "We are history,because it is people who make history, no one feels excluded".
They will seem like words written a month ago or so, but the song is dated 1985.
We are the story, no one is offended
We are this meadow of needles under the sky
We are history, attention
Nobody feels excluded
.....................
And then the people, because it is the people who make history
When it comes to choosing and going
You find it all with your eyes open
Who know very well what to do
Those who have read a million books
And those who can't even speak
And that's why the story gives the chills
Because no one can stop it.
Track taken from "We are the story”Composed by Francesco De Gregori
