Our Tribute to the Great Lucio Dalla

He died far from his beloved Bologna, in Montreux, Switzerland, where he was for a series of concerts. He would have turned 69 on March 4th.

Lucio Dalla, who had just participated in the Sanremo Festival, was one of Italy’s most acclaimed singer-songwriters, with a career spanning nearly 50 years of artistic activity.

Therefore, we wish to remember him with some of the most beautiful lines from his songs—words that touched the heart of each of us, verses that remind everyone of a moment, a love, a laugh.

“… They say he was a handsome man and he came, he came from the sea…” He certainly wasn’t a beauty in the traditional sense, but his lyrics made him wonderful!

“… In my own way, I would need caresses too. I would need to pray to God. But I will never, ever change my life, in my own way, I chose to be what I am…” One of the most famous verses of Piazza Grande, that square in Bologna that he loved so much, just like his city.

“… The power of opera where every drama is a sham, where with a bit of makeup and mimicry you can become someone else, but two eyes looking at you, so close and real, make you forget the words, they confuse your thoughts…” How can we not remember Caruso and that terrace overlooking the Gulf of Sorrento.

“… Meanwhile the fish, from whom we all descend, watched curiously the collective drama of this world, which to them undoubtedly must have seemed evil, and they began to think, in their great sea, how deep the sea is, in their great sea. How deep the sea is!…” The sea often returns in Dalla’s songs as something essential, something that seems to hide the meaning of life.

But Dalla was also a singer-songwriter with a unique, irreverent irony… as in “Disperato, erotico stomp”:
“… They saw you drinking at a fountain that wasn’t me, they saw you undressed in the morning, you naughty thing. While with me you wouldn’t even undress at night, and there were blows, God, what blows…”

Friendship is another theme dear to Dalla… and so… “Dear friend, I am writing to you so I can distract myself a bit, and since you are very far away, I will write to you more loudly. Since you left, there is big news, the old year is over now, but something here is still not right…”

Yes, dear Lucio, now that you are gone, something here is not right… we are left with all your songs, the emotions you gave us, which will make you immortal for each of us. We could go on for a long time quoting songs, verses, and emotions given to us by the great Dalla, but we will stop here… because we are a bit lost now that he is gone…
If you allow me, I would like to close this post with a phrase from the Dalla song that I personally love madly: “if it’s a girl, her name will be Futura. Her name spoken tonight is already frightening, she will be different, beautiful as a star, you in miniature.”
Goodbye Lucio and thank you… for everything you left us. Now all we can do is wait “for the light to return, to hear a voice… we wait without fear, for tomorrow.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ1MdaYRkpY