The Watusis, A-very tan, the Hully Gully. But also swinging with the twist or wearing fins, a rifle and goggles when the sea is a blue table. Or still descend from the summit of the mountain with a pair of ski-skis. Catchphrases that have passed through all generations since the 60s, when they were written and interpreted by Edoardo Vianello (or written by him for others, such as Rita Pavone), one of the first exponents of Italian songwriting. The one that exploded in 1958 with Domenico Modugno's "Nel blu pittura di blu", which later became one of the most listened to and translated Italian songs abroad, just like Vianello's Watussi or Paolo Conte's Azzurro, and others.
This was discussed at the MAXXI in Rome, in the first meeting of cycle on the “Necessary songwriter”, with special guest Edoardo Vianello and dedicated precisely to the dawn of Italian songwriting and its link with art. In fact, in 1958 Domenico Modugno and Franco Migliacci wrote the text of that song which we sometimes call "Volare" but whose official title is not by chance "Nel blue painted blue", precisely because it was inspired by a painting by the painter Marc Chagall which represented the theme of flight on a blue background. In 1962, then, came the first great success of Vianello, a Roman "de borgata", almost 80 years brought with the freshness of his songs and, speaking of art, son of a futurist poet: he wrote, together with Carlo Rossi, " Shotgun fins and glasses”, a song that none of us can fail to link to a summer memory or to some film that evokes the atmosphere of those years.
The Sixties, which you set to music with lightheartedness and irony, were those of the economic boom. Everything is different now, but how do you see Italy today?
“I see a pessimistic Italy, with no prospects. In those years there was euphoria, the changes came slowly but there was the feeling that we were moving towards the best, as it was then. We were probably poorer on average, but happier because we had fewer needs. As a child I dreamed of buying a bicycle, which is an object accessible even to families of modest economic level: today a poor person dreams of having a car, but it is a much more expensive thing and therefore this gives him the feeling of being even more poor. Let's face it: the well-being that we have achieved since those years, which is no longer there, has spoiled us a bit”.
Perhaps today there would be a need for that author song of the past, in which families identified themselves because it told of their daily lives. Can music be an instrument of social peace?
“I have always been inspired by the family, to tell it for better or for worse, even if I want to clarify that I have never been involved in politics, my aim was to have fun and to entertain. Music can do a lot, it can lighten people's lives but only if there is already a climate of general well-being: if a person, as happens today, struggles to find work or to make ends meet, it is difficult for him to dedicate its time to appreciate music and it is even more difficult for an artist to lightheartedly describe an unhappy society. Now, compared to 50 years ago, there are even more inequalities: once the rich weren't as rich as they are now and therefore there wasn't so much intolerance among the poorer classes. However, music can be an instrument of peace but not today: before we recognized each other more, with the songwriting we reached the public”.
Why? How has music changed?
“A lot and unfortunately for the worse. Today there is too much offer and too often free: this causes the system to create either great international stars or artists destined to never emerge, unable to make a living from this profession. And if an artist doesn't have economic serenity, he will hardly have the time, imagination and light-heartedness to find inspiration and write lyrics that the public will like: for this reason there are fewer and fewer songwriters and more and more "characters". Today the character emerges, perhaps with a fashionable look and tattoos, not the artist. In the 60s, on the other hand, music was a mysterious fact, there was hardly TV and there was no Internet, the point of arrival was Sanremo but behind it there was a whole apprenticeship, direct contact with the public which now does not exist. 'it's more. However, it was a sporadic, intimate contact, made up of concerts in clubs, while the general public knew you first with your records and only later as a television personality. We were known first through our own texts rather than through our own image”.
So there was more space for everyone than today?
"Yes. Even then he broke through the famous one in a million, but all the others somehow lived. Now that one in a million can become a superstar and the others do nothing and abandon the artistic path. It is a sort of mirror of society, which is increasingly exclusive: there are the rich who are getting richer and the poor who are getting poorer”.
From a musical point of view, are we therefore at a dead end?
“I would say at a fixed point, but there is a bit of excitement. He must be helped, accompanied. As? Financing culture. For me, culture is that which reaches everyone, which enriches everyone, not just that of intellectuals. Music, even light music, is culture, but investments are needed. Before the Municipalities, the pro loco took care of it: today less and less and this is an enormous damage. Every concert not done penalizes the artist, the public but also the related industries, because electricians, sound engineers and everything around a musical event do not even work. The cuts to culture are a very serious fact: we need to go back to investing above all for those who have remained outside, not so much for those who are already inside the circuit".
By now, returning to the subject of television, talent shows do this.
“I don't have such a negative opinion of it. They still represent a showcase for launching young people, but they should be done more seriously, with more attention to quality, texts and less to the show and business. This is the only way to form a new generation of songwriters. In my day there was more discipline, not only in music but in everything: Italy needs a more serious management, to go back to doing things properly”.
If Vianello were a young songwriter today, what kind of impact would it have?
“I'm telling you the truth: in my opinion, despite all the skills that have been recognized in me over time, I wouldn't make it even for a dream. As I said before, fifty years ago everyone was on average more listened to, there was more equilibrium in the market. Even now, when I'm invited on television, I'm asked to sing exclusively the catchphrases of the time: but in the meantime, even recently, I've written many other songs, which despite my name, few are interested in hearing. The public wants to hear "I Watussi" and therefore they ask me to sing only that. It is the commercial logic, which does not go well with that of songwriting”.
