Interactive Poll XXVI: The Dreadful Decade

1988 was an important year for me. Some records still remain in my heart. Rattle and Hum (U2), Nothing Like The Sun (Sting), Tracy Chapman (debut album), Fisiognomica (Battiato's best album of the Eighties), Tango in the Night (Fleetwood Mac).

In Italy it is a year still dominated by melodic music (Sanremo Festival) and by songwriters, all good (Cocciante, Dalla, De Gregori, Vasco Rossi, Bennato, Pino Daniele, Lucio Battisti, Barbarossa etc) but without the poetic talent of De André and Guccini.

The Jovanotti case explodes, he is the new melodic rocker, in his case also rapper, which is liked by adolescent males: Jovanotti, Zucchero and Vasco Rossi are the most loved and will remain so for many years.

However, I must point out that I discover two songwriters of superior rank: Ivano Fossati, in 1988 finally reaches success. He comes from prog (Delirium), then he wrote many songs given to many female performers, and finally he reaches success alone with "LA PIANTA DEL TE '", the first of very magnificent albums.

The second is Paolo Conte, jazz singer and pianist loved above all in France, with a humorous and irreverent vein, of which I put the song Via con me (one of the most commercial of him) in the last Poll. Conte is a true singer-songwriter, who sings with the mushy voice of a smoker and wine drinker, and who sings in a deliberately off-key and drawling way.

They are both from Genoa, the city of De André. Genoa and Bologna (the city of Guccini, Dalla, Giovanni Lindo Ferretti) are the Italian capitals of songwriters, followed by Rome, Milan and Naples.

I post a song by Fossati from 1988, one by Conte and one by De Andre from the eighties.

But 1988 will remain in my heart for the first two concerts at the stadium.

In June Bruce Springsteen arrives in Turin, tour of Tunnel of Love. 4 hours of concert (with a central break). Sensational. It's the first Bruce concert I've ever seen. I've seen 20 so far, I think. Thinking about it now, he has made much better ones. At that time he flirted on stage with Patti Scialfa, and in fact in that year he separated from his first wife, married in 1985, to get with Patti. And you could see that the two already loved each other when they sang looking into each other's eyes Tougher Than The Rest.

But I get to talk about the moment that will remain forever in my memory. In October Springsteen returns to Turin, for a concert that lasts 9 hours. Nine hours?

Yes, because he is not alone. It's the Amnesty International concert. Tracy Chapman opens, alone, guitar and vocals, fantastic. Then Youssou N 'Dour (nobody knew him); then Claudio Baglioni, a very melodic singer-songwriter loved only by females (I talked about it in the part dedicated to the year 1985). Then here's the beautiful scenery: Sting, Peter Gabriel and Springsteen. The former have 40 minutes each, the last three an hour. Then all together singing Bob Marley's Get Up Stand Up, Bob Dylan's Chimes of Freedom and Twist and Shout with Springsteen's band staying on stage. Half an hour, if not more, takes a break between one artist and another to change the stage. It starts at 4 pm with the sun and ends at 1 am.

Unforgettable concert. Much of the audience came to see Springsteen. Then many also for Sting. And also for Gabriel (the nostalgics of Prog plus his new audience).

What happens during Baglioni's performance? The end of the world. Baglioni has an audience made up of teenage girls, nothing to do with rock. Zucchero or Vasco Rossi were more suitable for that rock concert but Amnesty Internationl chose Baglioni because he had been involved in the fight for human rights for years (he is a serious person, even if you wouldn't say, from his songs). At the stadium we were all teenagers and adults who loved rock. Apart from a few groups of little girls. When Baglioni goes on stage he is covered with whistles, nothing is heard, and then from the front rows they throw oranges and tomatoes at him, an incredible thing. I was 30 meters from the stage and I could see everything. There was a deafening sound of whistles (in Italy they are negative) and Baglioni while he sang dodged the oranges by moving his head.

I appreciated Baglioni for his courage. 

Believe me, it's the truth. Just think: we were at a human rights concert and the front rows were throwing oranges against the singer !!!!

I think that what happened to Baglioni expresses the unease of many boys who were tired of listening to honeyed and cloying melodic songs and wanted to isten to rock music.

Halfway through his performance Peter Gabriel went on stage to sing with him NINNA NANNA "Lullaby". I don't know if it was intended or if it was a way to defend Baglioni from throwing fruit and vegetables.

Incidentally, Gabriel's performance was fantastic, Springsteen-worthy, better than Sting. Since then I have loved Peter Gabriel and even now I prefer him to Genesis.

In the end everyone sang Twist and Shout and Gabriel and Sting laughed to see Springsteen who didn't want to concede the song and kept repeating the chorus. Sting has since become a close friend of Springsteen. Sting and Springsteene sang The River together with the violinist of Peter Gabriel. It was the best moment of the show.

1989?

It was another important year for me.

I can tell you this: I discovered Bob Dylan: Oh Mercy is a wonderful album and.... Nick Cave, especially The Carny.

And the prog? I discovered the prog in the Nineties, and I couldn't help falling in love with Peter Hammill.

Talk Talk: Spirit of Eden, 1988.

It's one of my fave album ever.

Especially side A, in fact a suite in three movements. Wonderful.

And I appreciate that a band like Talk Tallk, after having reached the success (It's My Life, The Colour of Spring) decides to suicide itself with this album, in the name of the art.

Zaz Turned Blue - Great melodic song, with a phenomenal baritone voice, very romantic and evocative. Wow!

Slingrer Ned... - Pleasing commercial song with a sound very eighties. I like the vocals and the Rhythm.

A-Ha - I liked A-ha. Especially for the beautiful voice of the singer. This song is wonderful, melodic and hard rock at the same time. Great, great ispiration. Maybe a little overproduced but it's a masterpiece

Lets Van Gevoul - another commercial song very good in Eighties style,

Phew- noisy and avant-garde song based on percussive rhythm. hmmmm ... I dont know what to think but it's interesting

Dead Kennedys - This is a masterpiece of hardcore music... Wow... not easy listening....

Freez - Sound very eighties

Fehlfarben : Deutsch post punk band?

Boiled in.... It recals me The Strawbs and Fariport Convention

Lloyd Coyle - Deep voice, pleasing music

Bitter Sweet Alley - Hard rock

Robyn Hitchcock - Good songwriting, he is a true songwriter.

My Podium:

1) A-Ha.

2) Zaz Turned Blue

And for the third place, bronze medal, it's difficult to choose between The Call and Dead Kennedys... they are at the same level for me.

But ok, for the immediate pleasure I choose 

3) The Call

----

3) Dead Kennedys

4) Slingrer Ned...

5) Phew

6) Fehlfarben

7) Robyn Hitchcok

-The Call- The Woods....(I did have one or two lp's by them in the past and I Still Believe was one I also liked) 

-Nick Cave-The Carny...( a unique performer and cult favorite and my friend Greg was a huge fan,,he used to play his lp's for me all the time in the 80's and 90's)

-Lloyd Cole- Forest Fire...(heard the name but not the music before...good indie pop rock...)