March 5 Lucio Battisti is born. Minstrel of emotions, talented innovator and pure artistic genius. Lucio Battisti's career is told in intense pages of poetry. Between lightness and hermeticism, between candor and subversion. A tribute to the popular idol, but also to the man never completely understood and never forgotten. One of the greatest Italian artists of all time.
March 5 Lucio Battisti is born
Il March 5, 1943 in the house in Via Roma 40 in Poggio Bustone Lucio Battisti was born in the province of Rieti. Since he was a boy he cultivated a passion for music so much that he asked his parents for a guitar as a gift. The beginnings and the apprenticeship are to be reconnected in the period between 1962 and 1966. In these years he moved to Milan thanks to the offer of Roby Matano, leader of the band I Campioni, who chooses him as a guitarist. The first concerts begin in Italy and abroad. Lucio Battisti composes the first pieces and is noticed by the French producer Christine Leroux. Enraptured by his style and fascinated by his almost soundless voice, she joins him with Mogol.
The meeting with Mogol
The meeting between the two artists, contrary to what one might believe, was not one of the rosiest. The partnership between the two took place a few years later, overcoming the first misunderstandings and precisely between 1967 and 1968. The artistic partnership and the awareness of being able to do great things together gave way to the era Battisti-Mogul. In 1967 the song was released September 29th engraved by Equipe 84 and written by Lucio Battisti, Mogol and Renato Angiolini. 1969 saw the release of the artist's first album entitled Lucio Battisti.
The album is a collection of songs by the duo, some already known and others written for other artists. An artistic and commercial success, which remained among the best sellers for nine weeks. In 1970 it was the turn of emotions. A combination of delicacy, refrains and intricate rhythms. The song from which the album takes its name represents the symbol of an era. The intimate tension, the feeling of discovery, the melancholy of the melodic line and the whirlwind of sensations that comes from listening. After Emozioni, there are several albums signed by the duo, but it is with My free song of 1972 that reaches the pinnacle of perfection. Simply a masterpiece.
The latest works with Mogol
At the end of 1974, Lucio Battisti is the maximum expression of the Italian song. The artist, however, feels the urge to expand his boundaries, to reinvent himself and to experiment with other musical universes. The testimony of his travels in South America converges on the record Latin soul. A mix of pop, Latin American sounds, a break with the past and authentic psychedelia. They follow Lucio Battisti, the drums, the double bass, etc. in 1976, I you all of us in 1977 and A woman as a friend in 1978. In 1980 the last work signed by Mogol-Battisti was released: A gloomy day. Once the collaboration with Mogol is closed, Lucio Battisti decides to close relations with the mass media. In the last interview released, dated 1979, he explains the reasons.
«Everything pushes me towards a total redefinition of my professional activity. In a short time I achieved considerable success with the public. To continue my path I need new artistic goals, new professional stimuli: I have to destroy the squalid and consumerist image that they have sewn on me. I will never speak again, because an artist has to communicate only through his work. The artist does not exist. His art exists. "
Experiments, records and whites and last years
The 80s are the period of experimentation and of the "white discs", so called for the sparse and minimal covers. The phase of collaborations with Adriano Pappalardo and the meeting with the Roman lyricist Pasquale Panella. In 1982 he released E Already with the lyrics of his wife Grazia Letizia Veronese. The change emerges, the message is clear: nothing will return to the way it was before. In 86 it was the turn of Don Giovanni, The appearance in 1988, 1990 The western bride e What will happen to the girl in 1992. The last disc is titled Hegel, 1994.
In the summer of 1998 the news of Lucio Battisti's hospitalization in a Milanese clinic spread. In September of the same year, his conditions worsened and he was transferred to the intensive care unit of the San Paolo Hospital in Milan.. Lucio Battisti died on 9 September 1998, at the age of 55. The causes of death have not been officially communicated, the medical bulletin reports that "the patient, despite all the care of the health professionals who assisted him, died of complications in a severe clinical picture from the beginning."
Lucio Battisti was born on March 5 and his great classics will remain, the songs that have been able to change an era. His memories, his way of singing and his shyness will remain. His values will also remain, such as the courage and the will to reject the spectacle of the show. The intense pages of poetry of timeless music. The sweetness and melancholy in recognizing himself in his songs, because "You cannot understand ... You call them, if you want, emotions ... "
