Italian Prog book

"The Return of Italian Pop" by Paolo Barotto.  231 pages.

An essential tome of information, discogs, interviews, and brief bios on the legends of Italian progressive rock.  As mentioned, while the bios on each band are just brief overviews this book is still packed with useful information for anyone wishing to pursue an Italian prog collection.  Also rates the difficulty level of obtaining original vinyl albums for each release which would be helpful to vinyl collectors.  Not a perfect book but given how few Italian books are out there, it's good enough for this fan.  An English edition is available.  Available from Doug Larson for $25. 

Don't forget to mention the free CD! For me it was a good start to discover the Italian Prog when I got it in the early Nineties.

Another one for my endless wishlist

erik neuteboom wrote: Don't forget to mention the free CD! For me it was a good start to discover the Italian Prog when I got it in the early Nineties.

Dick Heath wrote: I got this book 3 or 4 years ago through Ultima Thule in the UK. While agreeing about being a good source of info on many Italian prog bands, it really becomes unreadable in places because the English translation is poor. It needed a sympathetic referee who's first language was English to read the galleys, correcting the draft thoroughly before letting the book loose in the English speaking countries.

I agree with your remarks on the poor translation. Being a semi-pro translator myself, I know how difficult it can be to translate from Italian into English and vice versa. Far too many people think it's an easy job - and Italians have this mistaken idea that English is an easy language as well. All too often, the results are quite painful to behold.

That said, language problems aside, the book is a very good, thorough resource for anyone interested in Italian prog. Micky got it in the spring from the BTF store in Milan, and was rarely seen without it for quite a long time. Pity that it's not been updated.