All Prog From Italy Appreciation Thread

By the way, a novel (partially autobiographical)  about "the Italian prog scene" of the seventies by former PFM's member Mauro Pagani has just been published...

Sorry for the late response... I hope you are still around to read this post. I just wanted to answer your query concerning the influence of the Italian canzone on RPI.

In order to understand the whole RPI phenomenon, you have to take into account the almost unescapable influence of the Italian melodic tradition, which is best embodied by what we call canzone. Though prog seemingly went against the traditional 'verse-chorus-verse' structure, which is essential for the canzone, the presence of the latter could be felt in other ways - though not in the output of every band. Some bands, like for instance New Trolls, started out with albums of songs, and others (like I Giganti and I Dik Dik) came to prog straight from the lively Italian beat scene, which was equally based about a sort of reinterpretation of the local song tradition. Many classics of RPI could also be seen like glorified canzoni - take, for instance, PFM's "Dolcissima Maria", or Banco's "Non mi rompete".

There were also those bands or artists who, while not directly belonging to the 'real' RPI movement, injected prog elements in their mostly song-based music: a prime example of this are I Pooh (here in Prog-Related). And then, let's not forget that, for many protagonists of RPI, things went full circle, and they returned to writing and performed more or less tradtional songs in the Eighties. This happened to Battiato, Banco and PFM, but even more notably to the likes of New Trolls and Alan Sorrenti, who turned into full-fledged melodic pop acts.

Thanks chaps - I'm glad to hear i wasn't imagining the canzone connection! It seems to me to be one of the key ways in which at least some parts of RPI can claim distinction from British models (given the clear influences that can be heard from King Crimson, Genesis, The Nice/ELP and Jethro Tull especially).

yeah... but how are her paradiddles? 

Keppa4v wrote: Yeah, my dealer went to Japan a while ago and asked if he should bring me and my girlfriend something, and now that we went to the store, we came back with Arbeit Macht Frei, Crac! and Darwin!  Love those Japanese vinyl replica pressings, we've got Zarathustra like that as well. We've got a sort of a friendship anniversary going today, four years ago we we're casual acquaintances from a music/pets related discussion forum, and on the night between April 17th and 18th we spent a long night chatting on IRC and searching the 'archives (that's right, Progarchives played a major part in the beginning of our relationship ) finding tons of new bands we both liked. Like PFM, New Trolls, Locanda Delle Fate, Quella Vecchia Locanda, Banco, and other non-Italian bands as well. That night deepened our relationship a great deal, and six months on from that after meeting on a couple of gigs we got together. It's fitting that we scored those Italian classics just today. And fearing that we might not be proggy enough yet, we went and bought a keyboard as well

Keppa, that a great story!  Congratulations on your anniversary.  Hey, when you can combine Italian Prog with true love, you know you're meant to be!!   I wish you both a wonderful day. 

Keppa4v wrote: Yeah, my dealer went to Japan a while ago and asked if he should bring me and my girlfriend something, and now that we went to the store, we came back with Arbeit Macht Frei, Crac! and Darwin!  Love those Japanese vinyl replica pressings, we've got Zarathustra like that as well. We've got a sort of a friendship anniversary going today, four years ago we we're casual acquaintances from a music/pets related discussion forum, and on the night between April 17th and 18th we spent a long night chatting on IRC and searching the 'archives (that's right, Progarchives played a major part in the beginning of our relationship ) finding tons of new bands we both liked. Like PFM, New Trolls, Locanda Delle Fate, Quella Vecchia Locanda, Banco, and other non-Italian bands as well. That night deepened our relationship a great deal, and six months on from that after meeting on a couple of gigs we got together. It's fitting that we scored those Italian classics just today. And fearing that we might not be proggy enough yet, we went and bought a keyboard as well

Fantastik story Thanx!

Gary, welcome to the family.  You'll find plenty of pasta prog lovers in this thread.  I have a little Italian prog blog you can link to below.  And you'll find an almost infinite supply of reviews in our RPI section here.   We hope to see some reviews from you too. 

Enjoy

Thanks for the welcome, Finnforest. I will check out your blog. All of my prog LPs are from the 70s and were purchaced when I managed a record store from '74 to '77. So any reviews or comments I may make would be limited to the 70s.

Thank you

GaryB wrote: Thank you I'm very interested in learning about more recent Italian Prog. I know that some of the bands I liked in the 70s continued to record long after I stopped collecting LPs. I'm also seeing that there is a whole new generation of bands and I intend to become familiar with as many as I can.