Preface by Dario Fo
Dear Adriano,
The story of the young man from Via Gluck (“Il ragazzo della Via Gluck”) is undoubtedly one of your best songs. And you did write a gazillion of good ones!
I personally find it so poetically melancholic and filled with rage.
I’m not complaining: it’s the beat of an outraged conscience.
And it’s also not a nostalgic ballad of a bygone era; it’s the resentful song about brutal businessmen in cahoots with city planners and together they’re demolishing low rent housing so that they can build cement blocks and skyscrapers.
Musically it’s extremely pleasant, but it’s greatest merit are the lyrics; “This is the story of one of us, who by chance was also born in Via Gluck, in a home just out of town, where nice hardworking people lived…”
The simplicity of the language is of immediate impact: simplicity and clarity. As Bertolt Brecht used to say: “It’s not the richness of the terms or the refinement of the ideas that makes a text strong, but the authenticity of the expression and knowing how to convey deep concepts with simple, clear words.”
And since we’re on the topic, I’m going to go all out and quote Jesus and what he used to say about words: “Bless you, Father for having taught me how to express myself with the language of the humble and put in my mouth the most simple of words so that they may be hidden to the wise and learned and revealed to the childlike.”
But enough, I wouldn’t want you to become bigheaded because of my reflections and have you declare, while walking and dancing on water to a rock song, that the Lord has anointed you.
But before I go I would like to say one last thing. When, many years ago, I first listened to your song, I immediately thought: “I’m sure Adriano originally composed this song in hi sown dialect”. Of course I means that lighter dialect of the suburbs of Milan.
It could sound something like this:
“’Sta chi l’è la storia de vün de nünch
nasciüt per sbài anca lü in via Gluck
in d’una casón fóra de porta…”
You could also sing it in Neapolitan, with the Rossini tarantella base of
“Già la luna è in mezzo u mare”. You do know which song I’m referring to, right? And the lyrics would go something like this:
“Chista è a storia d’uno guaglione
Uno ‘me nùie nasciùto pur isso accà…”
And wouldn’t it be marvelous, sung in French by Charles Aznavour?
“Voilà l’histoire d’un gars comme nous
tombé par hasard dans la banlieue…”
Did you ever try these versions? I’m sure they’d be an instant hit.
Give it a go, Adriano! You might even become famous.