IO COME IO

"Io come io" is the second album by Roman band Il Rovescio della Medaglia and was released in 1972 on the RCA label with a consolidated line up featuring Enzo Vita (guitar), Stefano Urso (bass), Gino Campoli (drums) and Pino Ballarini (vocals, flute). It's another concept album in a hard rock style that in some way confirms qualities and flaws of its predecessor, "La bibbia". The music is full of energy but the overall sound quality reflects the hurried recording sessions and an approximative production. To explain the concept, the liner notes quote some lines from German philosopher Hegel... "In philosophy the determinations of knowledge are considered not unilaterally, only as determinations of things, but together with the knowledge to which they refer, at least together with things; i.e. they are taken not merely as objective determinations, but also as subjective determinations, or rather as determinate species of the mutual relation of subject and object...". However, do not worry! Despite the ambitious liner notes and the subject matter (an introspective quest for Truth), the lyrics are not abstruse nor pretentious and Hegel's thought here is filtered and interpreted very loosely and with a particular hippy style point of view...

The opener "Io" (I) starts by the sound of gong, then drums and electric guitar set a tense atmosphere. The music and lyrics evoke strange visions. Things and people, places and feelings come through the mist of time, something is coming closer. It's the memory of a past experience, a shadow. It's a man who once taught to the protagonist the secrets of life, he was old then but now he's much younger than the protagonist himself. It's like in a strange dream where the protagonist has to face the thought of life and death, he has yet to understand how beautiful life is and he trembles because he can't understand what death really means... "You say that everything I said to you is true / But I'm scared when you say you don't know how good it is to die!"...

"Fenomeno" (Phenomenon) is a long track divided into two parts respectively subtitled "Proiezione" (Projection) and "Rappresentazione" (Representation). It begins by a strummed acoustic guitar pattern broken by heavy electric guitar riffs and a choir that could recall Il Balletto di Bronzo's "Ys". The music and lyrics conjure up the image of the protagonist lost on a mysterious road, wandering in a thousand directions without a clue, desperately trying to understand what's false or true. The world around him is empty, amorphous and lifeless, in the morning there's no sun, in the evening there's no moon. After a calm middle section, suddenly the rhythm rises. The protagonist can see a light and someone calls him, a door opens for him... "Time, space, now I no longer live / Am I the real me?"...

The cathartic "Non io" (Not I) opens the second side of the original LP. It begins with a delicate acoustic guitar arpeggio and soaring flute notes, the atmosphere is peaceful and dreamy. The music and lyrics depicts the new awareness of the protagonist who can see his past days unfold behind him. Now he hates money and reflects about the true values of life such as the love of a mother for her children. Naked, barefoot, the protagonists wants to go where the sky ends and the sea begins in search for ideals that can't fade away over time like beauty or richness... "I still want to go on my way, where the sky joins the sea / Leaving alone behind me that man who has no truth...".

The last track, "Io come io" (I as I), is divided into two parts subtitled "Divenire" (Becoming) and "Logica" (Logic) and marks the achievement of the inner journey of the protagonist. He's found the light and the light is burning in him like a sun that will never die. The positive energy of the long instrumental coda describes the power of Truth and self-awareness...

On the whole, an interesting concept and a good work.