On December 15, 1970, was released Emotionsa compilation testifying to the early career inspired by a legendary tandem of Italian music: Lucio Battisti and his lyricist Mogol.
In 1970 was published Emotions of Lucio Battisti. An unofficial Greatest Hits of the period 1966-1970 which will deteriorate relations between Baptists and his record company Memories records. This record drawing on the singer’s early career singles was published above all for commercial opportunism. A compilation having 8 titles in common with Emotions will also be published, only on cassette and 8-track cartridge (Lucio Battisti Vol. 2) A concept album by Baptists was ready but its too progressive rock side worried Memories records. Small examination of the pieces ofEmotions in the chronological order of release of the singles, in order to follow the emergence of an Italian classic.
Dessert of the day/For a lira : July 23, 1966, Lucio Battisti released his first single as a performer, at a time when record companies considered that his voice lacked depth. Because his music is a nice pastiche of sixties Anglo-Saxon pop, Dessert during the daythe only piece retained here, is not as thunderous an introduction as The Lilac Puncher. But there is already the signature of Mogul lyricist: the painting of what a man can be pathetic, weak, ridiculous, vain… in a romantic relationship.
Here, the narrator announces to a partner who plays hot and cold on the field of feelings that he is leaving her. « When it’s sunny / you talk about love / then when it’s evening / you’re a wax statue / but I’ve already decided that this is the last time I go out with you. » (When it’s sunny, you talk about love. When it’s evening you’re a wax statue. But I’ve decided that this is the last time I go out with you.)
Luisa Rossi/Era : Of this single from July 1967, only Side B Era was retained. A piece composed by Baptists in 1965 to lyrics by Roby Matano with Yesterday in line of sight. Not (yet) a masterpiece but this time an acoustic guitar close to the ballads of Beatles without giving a feeling of pastiche variety or Yé Yé. Baptists sings it with a text of Mogul which, when it comes to love, is closer to the irony of Lennon (You’ve got to hide your love away) only the sweet nostalgia of McCartney (Yesterday).
The memories of the beauty of a beloved woman, of the disillusionments with her. The narrator tells himself that all that is behind him and that he is happy with another woman. Before the cruelty of the final fall: his ex reminds him of his current one and fear invades him. « I’m scared / I’m scared / When I think that / It was, it was, it was, it was / It was like you » (I’m scared. I’m scared. when I think she was was was was like you)
My song for Maria/I will live (without you) : Single from October 1968 including only Side B I will live (without you) has been selected. A piece already performed by the Rokesa group made up of English expatriates in Italy. The summer slow-style arrangement and vocal approach of the Moody Blues of the version Rokes further highlight the defeated side of the voice of Baptists in its own version. The narrator addresses the woman who is going to leave him to tell her what he will do… the day after the breakup. « Here’s what / what / will happen to me from tomorrow » (Here is what will happen to me from tomorrow) But what is announced is far from a serene breakup at the Don’t think twice it’s allright. The narrator predicts an acceptance of an impossible return… accompanied by a long sadness. « I will live without you / even if I still don’t know how I will live » (I will live without you even if I don’t know yet how I will live)
An adventure/It’s not Francesca: At Face B It’s not Francesca from this January 1969 single is the only track on the album. A summit of the art of the duo Baptists/Mogul. The musical part begins with a marriage of a guitar close to the ballads of Fab Four and string arrangements with a very Italian sentimentality in restrained mode. Before the surprise of the very psychedelic end of the piece. The stroke of genius of the text of Mogul is to depict a male version of the figure of the cuckold refusing to face infidelity. The narrator responds to a friend telling him about the partner’s infidelities that it is false.
Blue water, clear water/Ten girls: A single released in March 1969. Story of a love story accompanied by late releases, Blue water, clear water is not the most inspired thing Battisti has done musically. The balance between pop influence and Italian variety of his best titles is broken in favor of the second.
Ten girls is on the other hand a Battistian masterpiece. Perfect combination of guitars with a sound close to that of the Stone classic Heart of stonestrings and omnipresent choirs and Rythm’n’Blues influence. The text of Mogul could have been written by Yuddy (Our Wild Years) or Chow Mo-wan (2046). By these Wongkarwaian playboys whose female conquests every kilometer do not make them forget the memory of their ex-beloved. Even the red lips to die on (red lips to die on) can’t help it. Which allows us to point out that in the eyes of the Italian exegesis of Battisti’s texts the term death would be synonymous with orgasm for Mogol.
You come back to my mind/7.40 : In October, Battisti published his third and last single from 1969. Marked once again by the influence of psychedelia, You come back to my mind also applies to its bass line and rhythmic breaks. The memory of the beloved woman is painful, that of an angel who had fallen in mid-flight. With its introduction and rhythm to the It’s the same old song, 7 e 40 (7:40) might seem like a breakup song. The narrator asks the woman who is leaving to put in her luggage any object that could remind her of the woman she loves. But it is perhaps the suffering of seeing her distant, a (sick) need to be at her side permanently.
Pink peach blossom flowers/Time to die : Beautiful group shot from June 1970. A pair of Battistian summits. Pink peach blossom flowers draws its strength from arrangements and breaks in rhythm perfectly synchronized with the emotional fluctuations of the narrator. The latter returns to see his ex, hoping to put the pieces back together. She has rebuilt her life and, disappointed, he turns back. Organ in the opening while hope still exists, guitar when he presents himself, strings arriving as he declares his love again…
Time to die is he the Everest of the tandem Baptists/Mogul. A piece having elsewhere -like Seven Nation Army– of a second unofficial title –Motorcycle-. The voice full of fragility Baptists y rises in the treble without emphasis. The instrumental part is a fine example of less is more. The song begins with an acoustic guitar playing a riff heard in a billion blues songs. Bass and drums only arrive after a minute and a half. And squeals creating unease precede the arrival of a bluesy electric guitar in the background. The narrator is madly in love with a woman who is with another man. Just for one night with her, he is ready to give her the most precious thing he has: a Motorcycle, 10 HP (motorcycle with 10 tax horses). A vehicle that he wouldn’t give for anything in the world… except in a desperate case. « It costs me a life / I would give it for nothing / But my heart is sick / and I know I would get better » (It cost me an entire life, I wouldn’t give it up for anything in the world. Yes, but my heart is sick, and that would heal me.)
Mogul will concede that 10 fiscal horses corresponded to a low-end model. But no matter: the audience felt the words as if the narrator was offering them a Harley Davidson. Death as a sexual metaphor makes its return (the title). And the plea of Don’t say: “No” (Don’t say “No.”) stays long after listening. A piece undoubtedly explaining the admiration of transalpine rockers for Baptists. Because its subject is that of a host of rock classics since Elvis: I want the one I can’t have.
Emotions/Anna : The other single from 1970, in October. Maybe Bowiedeclared admirer of Baptistshe saw in the acoustic ride Emotioni, in which Nature echoes the narrator’s emotions, a tone close to his slow, acoustic pieces from the early 1970s. Annait’s the memory of the ex. An ex necessarily more beautiful than the one with whom the narrator seems happy. Since it is perfect like the memory. « And in the evening there are those who / Can’t say no to me / What more do I want? / You’re right. / What more do I want? / What do I want? / Anna. / I want Anna. » (I’m with the one who never says no to me. What more do I want? You’re right. What more do I want? What do I want? Anna. I want Anna).
We can be annoyed by the excess female choirs at the gospel-like beginning. But the song largely makes up for the rest. The psychedelic explosion of the moment when the narrator remembers his sexual embraces with Anna. « I slept there / In her hair / Me together with her / I was a man / How many yes She shouted / How many you don’t know / I was a man » (I slept here, in her hair. Me with her, I was a man. How many and how many “yes” she shouted. How many you don’t know. I was a man.) And after a relative slowing down the acceleration and the soaring finale accompanying the I want Anna. On the synchronicity of music/lyrics, we must also recall the duo’s working method: Baptists composed and Mogul then wrote the texts.
The album will be the first number one album of Baptists in Italy, financially vindicating the mercantile bet of Memories records. But after all the tandem Baptists/Mogul undoubtedly deserved to have at this stage of his career his Hatful of hollow to him. The Italian public who did not wait for the release of each new single also deserved this record, moreover. Finally, an album that could have the subtitle The modernization of Italian song meets the change in the country’s romantic dynamics at the end of the 1960s deserved to exist.
Ordell Robbie
