Linus: “De Gregori’s birthday is also mine. Francesco, thank you for always being there “

TURIN. That of Linus for Francesco De Gregori, who turns 70 on April 4, is a passion that comes from afar, from the beginnings of the Roman singer-songwriter, and that the director of the radios of the Gedi group and soul of Deejay has never hidden. That is why it is with him that we have chosen to wish him happy birthday.

Linus, what do we write on this greeting card?
«Francesco’s birthday is also mine because there is no other character that I have lived in such a parallel way to my life. He is a little older than me, six years, I met him on the first record and there have never been moments in which I have strayed from it. Despite having musical tastes normally far from his music, he has always been there in my listening. It’s a kind of imprinting that will always remind me of my adolescence ».

So what is the text of this message?
«It can only be“ Thank you for always being there ”. Because its continuity in quality and presence is reassuring. With all his strengths and weaknesses … sometimes he is an edgy character ».

And in fact, for the birthday he anticipated every possible request for interviews by making his press officer say that he would not grant any. How has it been for you to interview him over the years?
“I never know if he’s serious or if he’s kidding me because he knows I’m a fan of his. He plays with it a lot and enjoys taking me apart ».

But over the years it has smoothed certain corners a bit, don’t you think?
“Yes, that’s partly true, thankfully on grumpiness he didn’t follow in the footsteps of his idol Bob Dylan to the end. Today he plays with it, just as he has stopped raping his songs live, now when he does it there is always a reason ».

Is the love for De Gregori shared by your children?
«I am happy to have passed on this passion Filippo, the eldest. While Michele, who is 17, has not yet begun to appreciate. And since his big brother likes him and he’s against it, he’s going far away for now. The last two or three concerts I saw of Francesco I was with Filippo and we would have gone to see him in Milan in December if they hadn’t canceled everything, but also at the Olimpico for the live with Venditti. Do you know what? I have always snubbed those who, growing up, remain tied to the music of their 18 years, which is ninety percent of people and is inevitable. Here, now I’m falling into it too, albeit a little late. I realize that when I have to listen to music for my own business and not for work, I go to retrieve De Gregori, Billy Joel, Battisti … But I’m happy that Francesco was part of that era and that he is also in this era ».

You have often said that an artist says everything in the first two or three discs, but I don’t think you can think the same about De Gregori, can you?
«Yes, I have always said it in a way that is also a bit drastic because I believe that pop music, by its very nature, is an expressive formula with few possible variations. And therefore most of the artists follow the same path: first album beautiful, second very beautiful, third just slightly less beautiful; then there begin to be repetition and cliché, until perhaps oblivion is reached. Here, De Gregori belongs to that minority that was not limited to the first three discs, so much so that if you asked me which are his favorite songs, I would also put Look, it’s not me, which is a few years ago ».

Making a selection of De Gregori’s songs is very hard. I make it even harder for you, just choose one. What is this song for?
“Once I would have told you Pieces of glass, as Francesco knows. For a certain generation it’s that THE song, just as it is What joy by Lucio Dalla. But now I have detoxed a little and today I could tell you Forever and For Always. For its simplicity. It is perhaps one of his least cryptic songs, it says what it is, you don’t have to interpret it. On Pieces of glass I had made ten thousand trips and then it’s just the story of a twenty-year-old who is jealous of his girlfriend who winks at someone who is a fakir in Trastevere ».

But is it really important what De Gregori means with his songs?
«Art should be something interpretable and also something acceptable. In front of a painting it is not that every detail must be the object of reasoning, we also rely on instinct. We have always been told instead that Italian songs must always be understood or explained, yet nonsense phrases are also present in many foreign songs and no one has ever questioned the meaning. The Beatles’ songs have so many questions that will always remain so. And therefore, in summary, I believe that it is not mandatory to understand De Gregori’s songs, but that it is enough to take possession of them. Then everyone sees what they want inside ».

But today is there something that can also resemble what the Italian songwriting movement of the Seventies was and meant for our popular culture?
“There was a time when, somehow, a certain Roman songwriter tended to resemble him. I think of the first Tommaso Paradiso, in Calcutta or Coez. It had some form of lyricism that referred to that world. More Rome than Milan, however. Also because even in the seventies there was not much here from this point of view. I believe that in Rome it is easier to play together, to create a school, in Milan individuality wins ».

Could we perhaps quote Fulminacci today?
“It could. For me he is the virtual winner of Sanremo because he is the newest and most complete ».

How do Deejay listeners react when you broadcast a De Gregori song?
“It’s an interesting spy on how the radio audience has changed. In the 80s and 90s the radios were aimed at young listeners interested above all in leisure, his music seemed to belong to another universe, to another generation. I remember the first times that Francesco came to us, between the mid-90s and the early 2000s, there was always a “But what am I doing here? You play disco music, music for kids ”. It was a legitimate question, probably if I hadn’t been there, I was happy to have him on the radio, I wouldn’t have even invited someone like him. Now, however, it has become a normal thing because the radio listener on average starts at the age of 30 and reaches the age of 50. And therefore there must be someone who listens to De Gregori ».

Interviews, as we said, do not issue any. Let’s close, then: ask him a question he won’t answer.
«Francesco, when will you play us a new record? I need to confirm what I said: that he is one of the very few who still has something to say after fifty years of career ».

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