Francesco Guccini
Encyclopedia
- For the album, see Guccini (album)Guccini (album)Guccini is an album by the Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini, released in 1983.- Track listing :All songs by Francesco Guccini, with the exception of "Gulliver" by Guccini-Alloisio-Guccini.#"Autogrill" #"Argentina"...
.
Francesco Guccini (fran'ʧesko gu'tʧini, born June 14, 1940) is an Italian singer-songwriter, considered one of the most important Cantautori. During the five decades of his music career he has recorded 16 studio albums and collections, and 6 live albums. He is also a writer, having published autobiographic and noir novels, and a comics artist
Comics artist
A comics artist is an artist working within the comics medium on comic strips, comic books or graphic novels. The term may refer to any number of artists who contribute to produce a work in the comics form, from those who oversee all aspects of the work to those who contribute only a part.-Comic...
. Guccini also worked as actor, soundtrack composer, lexicographer
Lexicography
Lexicography is divided into two related disciplines:*Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries....
and dialectologist
Dialectology
Dialectology is the scientific study of linguistic dialect, a sub-field of sociolinguistics. It studies variations in language based primarily on geographic distribution and their associated features...
.
Guccini moved to Pàvana during World War II, then returned to Modena
Modena
Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
where he spent his teenage years and established his musical career. His debut album, Folk beat n. 1
Folk beat n. 1
Folk beat n°1 is the first album of Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was published under the name "Francesco" alone.-The album:...
, was released in 1967, but the first success was in 1972 with the album Radici
Radici
Radici is an album of Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in 1972 by EMI.- The album:Radici deals mainly with Guccini's rediscover of his youth, symbolized by the cover's picture, portraying his grandparents and family. The family's house in Pavana, on the Tuscan...
. He was harshly criticised after releasing Stanze di vita quotidiana
Stanze di vita quotidiana
Stanze di vita quotidiana is an album of Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in 1974 by EMI Italiana. The title means "Stanzas of today's life": each song is entitled "Canzone of...", and deals, often with pessimistic of melancholic tone, with aspects of life, such as...
, and answered to his critics with the song "L'avvelenata". His studio albums production slowed down in the nineties and 2000s, but his live albums continued being successful.
His lyrics have been praised for their poetic and literary value and have been used in schools as an example of modern poetry. Guccini has gained the appreciation of critics and fans, who regard him as an iconic figure. He has received several awards for his works; an asteroid
39748 Guccini
39748 Guccini is an asteroid. It was discovered by Luciano Tesi and Gabriele Cattani, and named after the famous Italian singer Francesco Guccini....
, a cactus species and a butterfly subspecies have been named after him. The main instrument in most of his songs is the acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
.
Origins
Guccini was born in 1940 in ModenaModena
Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
, Italy. His father, Ferruccio Guccini, was a postal employee, and his mother, Ester Prandi, was a housewife. While his father served in the Italian military during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Guccini lived with his grandparents in a small village in the Apennine Mountains
Apennine mountains
The Apennines or Apennine Mountains or Greek oros but just as often used alone as a noun. The ancient Greeks and Romans typically but not always used "mountain" in the singular to mean one or a range; thus, "the Apennine mountain" refers to the entire chain and is translated "the Apennine...
in northern Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
called Pàvana, where he spent his childhood. His years spent in the somewhat archaic society of the mountains of central Italy was to be a strong inspiration throughout his career, and it became one of the key recurring themes of his songs and books.
When World War II had ended, Guccini moved back to his family in Modena. He studied at the Istituto Magistrale Carlo Sigonio, the same school Luciano Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti
right|thumb|Luciano Pavarotti performing at the opening of the Constantine Palace in [[Strelna]], 31 May 2003. The concert was part of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of [[St...
had attended, earning his high school diploma
Diploma
A diploma is a certificate or deed issued by an educational institution, such as a university, that testifies that the recipient has successfully completed a particular course of study or confers an academic degree. In countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia, the word diploma refers to...
in 1958. Guccini spent his teenage years in Modena
Modena
Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
, as he later recounted in his second novel Vacca d'un Cane and in songs including "Piccola Città", which paints a bitter portrait of the city as "a strange enemy".
Youth and musical beginnings
Guccini's first job was as a teacher at a boarding school in PesaroPesaro
Pesaro is a town and comune in the Italian region of the Marche, capital of the Pesaro e Urbino province, on the Adriatic. According to the 2007 census, its population was 92,206....
, but he was fired after a month and a half. He then worked as a journalist at the Gazzetta di Modena
Gazzetta di Modena
Gazzetta di Modena is a morning daily newspaper that serves the city of Modena and its similarly named province in Italy. It is part of the Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso media conglomerate....
for two years. In April 1960, Guccini interviewed Domenico Modugno
Domenico Modugno
Domenico Modugno was an Italian singer, songwriter, actor, and later in life, a member of the Italian Parliament. He is known for his 1958 international hit song "Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu "...
, who had just won two consecutive Sanremo Festivals. This inspired Guccini to write "L'antisociale", his first composition as a singer-songwriter.
In 1958 Guccini was guitarist and vocalist in a group first called Hurricanes, then Snakers and finally Gatti. The group included Pier Farri (drums), who would later become Guccini's producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
; Victor Sogliani (saxophone), future member of Equipe 84
Equipe 84
Equipe 84 were an Italian Beat band formed in 1964 in Modena. The name translates as Team 84, and it was originally suggested by a friend of the band, Pier Parri...
; and Franco Fini Storchi (guitar). Guccini wrote his first songs while in the Snakers, in a style inspired by The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers are country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing...
and Peppino di Capri
Peppino di Capri
Peppino di Capri is an Italian popular music singer, songwriter and pianist. His international hits are: "St...
. The group performed for two years, touring around Northern Italy and Switzerland. In 1961 the Guccini family moved to Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, and Francesco enrolled at the University of Bologna
University of Bologna
The Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna is the oldest continually operating university in the world, the word 'universitas' being first used by this institution at its foundation. The true date of its founding is uncertain, but believed by most accounts to have been 1088...
to study foreign languages. The next year he undertook mandatory military service, an experience he described as "substantially positive". When he returned to Bologna, Guccini was asked to join the band Equipe 84
Equipe 84
Equipe 84 were an Italian Beat band formed in 1964 in Modena. The name translates as Team 84, and it was originally suggested by a friend of the band, Pier Parri...
, but he declined in order to continue his studies. He later quit university just before taking his degree (he was conferred a degree honoris causa in science education
Science education
Science education is the field concerned with sharing science content and process with individuals not traditionally considered part of the scientific community. The target individuals may be children, college students, or adults within the general public. The field of science education comprises...
in 2002). The band Cantacronache was an important influence in Guccini's artistic growth, as was Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
.
Debut (1967–1969)
Record Producer CGDCompagnia Generale del Disco
CGD was an Italian record label.-History:CGD was founded in 1948 by singer Teddy Reno. At that time it was established in Milan in Via Passarella 4...
commissioned Guccini to write a song for the 1967 Sanremo Festival, "Una storia d'amore", to be sung by Caterina Caselli
Caterina Caselli
Caterina Caselli is an Italian record producer and former singer and actress.In 1966 she debuted in the Sanremo Festival with "Nessuno mi può giudicare", a song discarded by Adriano Celentano, scoring a notable success. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc...
and Gigliola Cinquetti
Gigliola Cinquetti
Gigliola Cinquetti is an Italian singer, TV presenter and journalist.-Biography:At the age of 16 she won the Sanremo Music Festival in 1964 singing "Non ho l'età" , with music composed by Nicola Salerno and lyrics by Mario Panzeri...
at . The song, though, was not selected for the event, and Guccini was embittered by the edits made by two lyricists engaged by CGD.
Guccini made his debut as a singer-songwriter in March 1967, with the album Folk beat n. 1
Folk beat n. 1
Folk beat n°1 is the first album of Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was published under the name "Francesco" alone.-The album:...
, which received little commercial success. Three of the songs recorded for the album had previously been successes for Nomadi
Nomadi
Nomadi is an Italian band formed in 1963 and still present on the music scene.-Origins:In 1961 Beppe Carletti and Leonardo Manfredini formed the group I Monelli ....
and Equipe 84: "Noi non ci saremo", "L'antisociale" and "Auschwitz". The latter was translated and sung in English by Equipe 84, as well as by Rod MacDonald
Rod MacDonald
Rod MacDonald is an American folk singer/songwriter. He was a "big part of the 1980s folk revival in Greenwich Village clubs," performing at the Speakeasy, The Bottom Line, Folk City, and the Songwriter's Exchange at the Cornelia Street Cafe for many years. He co-founded the Greenwich Village...
in his 1994 album Man on the Ledge. Another song from the album, "In morte di S.F.", later renamed "Canzone per un'amica", was recorded by Nomadi in 1968. From 1965 onward, Guccini spent 20 years teaching Italian at the off-campus Dickinson College
Dickinson College
Dickinson College is a private, residential liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Originally established as a Grammar School in 1773, Dickinson was chartered September 9, 1783, five days after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, making it the first college to be founded in the newly...
, in Bologna.
In May 1967 Guccini made his first appearance in television, on Diamoci del tu, hosted by Caterina Caselli
Caterina Caselli
Caterina Caselli is an Italian record producer and former singer and actress.In 1966 she debuted in the Sanremo Festival with "Nessuno mi può giudicare", a song discarded by Adriano Celentano, scoring a notable success. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc...
and Giorgio Gaber
Giorgio Gaber
Giorgio Gaber, byname of Giorgio Gaberscik , was an Italian singer-songwriter, actor and playwright. He was also an accomplished guitar player and author of one of the first rock songs in Italian...
singing "Auschwitz". He wrote several songs for Caselli and for Nomadi, who made his song "Dio è morto" become widely popular; it became one of his most famous songs, despite being censored by the RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
for blasphemy
Blasphemy
Blasphemy is irreverence towards religious or holy persons or things. Some countries have laws to punish blasphemy, while others have laws to give recourse to those who are offended by blasphemy...
. In 1968 the 45 rpm record
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
Un altro giorno è andato/Il bello was released; Guccini re-recorded the Side A song in an acoustic version for his 1970 album L'isola non trovata
L'isola non trovata
L'isola non trovata is an album of Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in December 1970 by EMI, under the nickname "Francesco".- Personnel:*Francesco Guccini - voice and guitar*Ares Tavolazzi - bass*Ellade Bandini - drums...
. His first concert was held the same year at the La Cittadella Cultural Centre in Assisi
Assisi
- Churches :* The Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi is a World Heritage Site. The Franciscan monastery, il Sacro Convento, and the lower and upper church of St Francis were begun immediately after his canonization in 1228, and completed in 1253...
.
1970s
In 1970 Guccini released his second album, Due anni dopoDue anni dopo
Due anni dopo is the second album by Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in 1970 by EMI.-Overview:The album was recorded in November 1969 in Milan. On the front cover the name of the author was simply "Francesco"; this already occurred in Guccini's first album, Folk beat n. 1...
, recorded in the autumn of 1969. The main themes of the album are the passage of time and the analysis of everyday life in the context of bourgeois hypocrisy, with a noticeable influence from French music and from Leopardi
Giacomo Leopardi
Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi was an Italian poet, essayist, philosopher, and philologist...
's poetic style. After this album Guccini started his 10 year long collaboration with folksinger Deborah Kooperman, who played fingerstyle guitar
Fingerstyle guitar
Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking ....
on it, a style mostly unknown in Italy at the time. Eleven months after Due anni dopo, the album L'isola non trovata
L'isola non trovata
L'isola non trovata is an album of Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in December 1970 by EMI, under the nickname "Francesco".- Personnel:*Francesco Guccini - voice and guitar*Ares Tavolazzi - bass*Ellade Bandini - drums...
was released. The title was a literary reference to Guido Gozzano
Guido Gozzano
Guido Gustavo Gozzano was an Italian poet and writer.-Biography:He was born in Turin, the son of Fausto Gozzano, an engineer, and of Diodata Mautino, the daughter of Senator Mautino, patriot and supporter of Giuseppe Mazzini and Massimo D'Azeglio...
, and the song "La collina" contained a reference to J. D. Salinger
J. D. Salinger
Jerome David Salinger was an American author, best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, as well as his reclusive nature. His last original published work was in 1965; he gave his last interview in 1980....
. Guccini's fame began to spread beyond Bologna, partly thanks to the appearance in the TV show Speciale tre milioni, where he sang some of his songs and befriended Claudio Baglioni
Claudio Baglioni
Claudio Baglioni is an Italian musician. His various works include the official Anthem for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin. He has also written for previous sporting events....
. In 1971 he married his long-time girlfriend Roberta Baccilieri, who was pictured on the back cover of his next album.
The turning point in Guccini's career was in 1972 thanks to the album Radici
Radici
Radici is an album of Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in 1972 by EMI.- The album:Radici deals mainly with Guccini's rediscover of his youth, symbolized by the cover's picture, portraying his grandparents and family. The family's house in Pavana, on the Tuscan...
(roots), about the constant research of one's origins.. This was also conveyed by the image on the front cover of the album, portraying Guccini's grandparents and their siblings next to their old mountain home. Radici contains some of his most renowned and popular songs, like "Incontro", "Piccola Città", "Il vecchio e il bambino", "La Canzone della bambina portoghese", "Canzone dei dodici mesi", and "La locomotiva", based on a real event and dealing with themes of equality, social justice and freedom, with a style similar to the anarchic music of the end of the 19th century. In the same year Guccini brought Claudio Lolli
Claudio Lolli
Claudio Lolli is an Italian singer-songwriter, poet, writer and secondary school teacher.-Biography:His first musical experiences started in the early 70s into the Osteria delle Dame of Bologna. Francesco Guccini introduced him into the music company EMI Italiana, who edited his first four LP from...
, a young singer-songwriter, to his record label, EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
Italiana. He later wrote two songs with him, "Keaton" and "Ballando con una sconosciuta".
In 1973 Guccini released Opera buffa
Opera buffa
Opera buffa is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ‘commedia in musica’, ‘commedia per musica’, ‘dramma bernesco’, ‘dramma comico’, ‘divertimento giocoso' etc...
, a light-hearted and playful album, which showed his skills as an ironic, theatrical and cultured cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
artist. Guccini was perplexed by the release of the disc, especially because of its arrangements and because it was recorded live (with overdubs made in a recording studio). One year later Stanze di vita quotidiana
Stanze di vita quotidiana
Stanze di vita quotidiana is an album of Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in 1974 by EMI Italiana. The title means "Stanzas of today's life": each song is entitled "Canzone of...", and deals, often with pessimistic of melancholic tone, with aspects of life, such as...
was released, with a mixed reception by fans and critics. It included six long and melancholic songs, a mirror of the crisis Guccini faced, worsened by constant disagreements with his producer Pier Farri. Guccini received harsh criticism, including a slating by the critic Riccardo Bertoncelli, who said the singer songwriter was "a finished artist, who has nothing else to say". Guccini answered with the song "L'avvelenata", a few years later.
Guccini had his first commercial success in 1976, with Via Paolo Fabbri 43
Via Paolo Fabbri 43
Via Paolo Fabbri 43 is an album of Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in 1978 by EMI Italiana, and was Guccini's most-selling title...
, which was the sixth best-selling album of the year. It was named after the address of the house in Bologna where he lived. He sang with a more mature and determined voice, and the musical structure was more complex than in his earlier works. The album contained "L'avvelenata", a bitter and colourful reply to the criticism he received for Stanze di vita quotidiana, which cited one of his critics, Riccardo Bertoncelli. Later Guccini was reluctant in performing the song during concerts, saying it was obsolete.
The title track was an abstract description of Guccini's life in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, which referenced Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
and Barthes
Roland Barthes
Roland Gérard Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. Barthes' ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory including structuralism, semiotics, existentialism, social theory, Marxism, anthropology and...
; it also mentioned the "three heroins of Italian song", Alice, Marinella and Lilly, three women from songs by Italian singer-songwriters De Gregori
Francesco De Gregori
Francesco De Gregori is an Italian singer-songwriter. He is popularly known as "Il Principe Poeta" , a nickname referring to the elegance of his lyrics.-1970s:...
, De André
Fabrizio De André
Fabrizio De André was an Italian singer-songwriter.Known for his sympathies towards anarchism, libertarianism, and pacifism, he also was a convicted atheist , and his songs often featured marginalized and rebellious people, prostitutes and knaves, and attacked the Catholic Church...
and Venditti
Antonello Venditti
Antonello Venditti is an Italian singer-songwriter who became famous in the 1970s for the social themes of his songs.-Biography:...
. Other notable tracks were "Canzone quasi d'Amore", characterised by existential poetry, and "Il pensionato", about an old neighbour of Guccini, focusing on the sad psychological situation of some old people. Guccini's next album, Amerigo
Amerigo (album)
Amerigo is an album of the Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in 1978 by EMI Italiana. The title track is about the story of Enrico Guccini,a granduncle of Guccini who had emigrated to the United States before World War II, hence the album title .The album contains one of...
was released in 1978. The most popular song was "Eskimo", but Guccini claimed the highest point was the title track, a ballad about an emigrant uncle of his.
In 1977 the weekly magazine Grand Hotel featured Guccini on the cover titled "The father every teenager would have liked to have". Guccini did not endorse the article, which was based on an interview he did not know would be published, and commented: "I cannot understand how they chose that title, I write songs for an audience of people in their thirties, I do not see how an audience of sixteen year olds fresh out of school could relate with the things I say". In the same year, Guccini separated from his wife Roberta (the song "Eskimo" is about this event), and started cohabitating with Angela. In 1978 they had a daughter, Teresa, to whom the songs "Culodritto" and "E un giorno..." are dedicated. In 1979 the live album Album concerto, recorded in a concert with Nomadi, was released. It was peculiar because the songs were performed in duet with Augusto Daolio
Augusto Daolio
Augusto Daolio was an Italian singer, poet and painter, founding member and frontman of I Nomadi band.-Biography:Daolio was born in Novellara, Emilia-Romagna....
, and because it included previously unreleased songs: "Dio è morto", "Noi", and "Per fare un uomo".
1980s
Metropolis (Guccini album)
Metropolis is an album by the Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini, released in 1981 by Emi Italiana.- Track listing :All songs by Francesco Guccini, with the exception of "Venezia" by Biggi-Alloisio, and "Milano " by Guccini-Alloisio-Guccini.#"Bisanzio" #"Venezia" #"Antenòr" #"Bologna"...
, which was characterised by the description of cities with a symbolic value: Byzantium
Byzantium
Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
, Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
and Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
. Their histories mingle with the distress caused by life in the city and with symbolic references. The album had richer arrangements, with saxophones, bass guitars, drums, clarinets, flutes and zufoli
Zuffolo
Zuffolo is a French fipple flute. First described in the 14th century, it had a rear thumb-hole, two front finger-holes, and a conical bar, with a range of over two octaves....
. Byzantium is described by Guccini as a fascinating yet oppressive city at the crossroads of two continents and two eras. The song is set at the time of Emperor Justinian I
Justinian I
Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...
(483–565), and there are many historical references to that period, that have been explained by Guccini himself. The narrator, Filemazio, who some critics believe to be a fictionalized Guccini, senses the decadence of his civilization and the coming of the end. The song was praised by critic Paolo Jachia, who described it as "moving and dreamlike". In 1981 Guccini was the co-author, along with Giorgio Gaber
Giorgio Gaber
Giorgio Gaber, byname of Giorgio Gaberscik , was an Italian singer-songwriter, actor and playwright. He was also an accomplished guitar player and author of one of the first rock songs in Italian...
, Sandro Luporini and Gian Piero Alloisio, of the musical Gli ultimi viaggi di Gulliver. The eponymous song "Gulliver" was then included in Guccini's next album, Guccini
Guccini (album)
Guccini is an album by the Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini, released in 1983.- Track listing :All songs by Francesco Guccini, with the exception of "Gulliver" by Guccini-Alloisio-Guccini.#"Autogrill" #"Argentina"...
, which dealt with the same themes found in Metropolis
Metropolis (Guccini album)
Metropolis is an album by the Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini, released in 1981 by Emi Italiana.- Track listing :All songs by Francesco Guccini, with the exception of "Venezia" by Biggi-Alloisio, and "Milano " by Guccini-Alloisio-Guccini.#"Bisanzio" #"Venezia" #"Antenòr" #"Bologna"...
. Notable songs in the album include "Shomèr ma mi llailah?" ("Watchman, what of the night?", from ), "Autogrill", about a love only dreamt of, and "Inutile", which narrates a day two lovers spent in Rimini
Rimini
Rimini is a medium-sized city of 142,579 inhabitants in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It is located on the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia and Ausa...
. The subsequent tour was the first in which Guccini performed with a backing band; previously, Guccini used to perform solo, or with just one or two guitarists. In 1984 the live album Fra la via Emilia e il West was released. It included live versions of many of his popular songs, recorded mainly at a concert held in Piazza Maggiore
Piazza Maggiore
Piazza Maggiore is a square in Bologna, Italy. It was created in its present appearance the 13th century.The square is surrounded by the Palazzo dei Notai, the Palazzo d'Accursio, the Palazzo del Podestà and the Basilica of San Petronio....
in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, in which several guests performed alongside Guccini: Giorgio Gaber
Giorgio Gaber
Giorgio Gaber, byname of Giorgio Gaberscik , was an Italian singer-songwriter, actor and playwright. He was also an accomplished guitar player and author of one of the first rock songs in Italian...
, Paolo Conte
Paolo Conte
Paolo Conte is an Italian singer, pianist, composer, and lawyer notable for his grainy, resonant voice, his colourful and dreamy compositions and his wistful, sometimes melancholic...
, I Nomadi, Roberto Vecchioni
Roberto Vecchioni
Roberto Vecchioni is an Italian singer-songwriter and writer.-Biography:Vecchioni was born in Carate Brianza, province of Milan, to a family of Neapolitan origin. In 1968 he graduated in Classical Literature at the Università Cattolica of Milan, where he remained for two years as assistant...
and Equipe 84
Equipe 84
Equipe 84 were an Italian Beat band formed in 1964 in Modena. The name translates as Team 84, and it was originally suggested by a friend of the band, Pier Parri...
.
In 1987 the album Signora Bovary
Signora Bovary
Signora Bovary is an album of Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in 1987 by EMI.- The album:"Signora Bovary" is a poetic variation of Gustave Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary. "Culodritto" is dedicated to Guccini's daughter, Teresa, who was 9 at the time...
was released. Several of the songs portray people from Guccini's life: "Van Loon" is his father, "Culodritto" is his daughter Teresa, and "Signora Bovary" is himself. Other songs include "Keaton", written with his friend Claudio Lolli
Claudio Lolli
Claudio Lolli is an Italian singer-songwriter, poet, writer and secondary school teacher.-Biography:His first musical experiences started in the early 70s into the Osteria delle Dame of Bologna. Francesco Guccini introduced him into the music company EMI Italiana, who edited his first four LP from...
, and "Scirocco", an award-winning song about an episode in the life of the poet Adriano Spatola, a friend of Guccini. In 1988 the singer-songwriter released a live album, ...quasi come Dumas..., which included some of his songs from the Sixties, in a rearranged version. The title is a homage to Twenty Years After
Twenty Years After
Twenty Years After is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, père, first serialized from January to August, 1845. A book of the D'Artagnan Romances, it is a sequel to The Three Musketeers and precedes The Vicomte de Bragelonne .The novel follows events in France during La Fronde, during the childhood reign...
, the novel by Alexandre Dumas.
1990s
In 1990 Guccini released Quello che non...Quello che non...
Quello che non... is the fifteenth album by Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in 1990 by EMI.-Overview:Quello che non... was released in 1990 by EMI, three years after Guccini's last studio album, Signora Bovary, continuing on the same style. The main themes of the album...
, which continued in the style of Signora Bovary
Signora Bovary
Signora Bovary is an album of Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in 1987 by EMI.- The album:"Signora Bovary" is a poetic variation of Gustave Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary. "Culodritto" is dedicated to Guccini's daughter, Teresa, who was 9 at the time...
. Songs included in the album are "Quello che non" and "La canzone delle domande consuete", which received the Club Tenco best song of the year award. Three years later, he released Parnassius Guccinii
Parnassius Guccinii
Parnassius Guccinii is the sixteenth album by Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. The title references a butterfly subspecies named after the artist. It was released in 1993 by EMI and was generally well received.-Overview:...
referencing a subspecies of butterfly which was named in his honour. The song "Farewell", included in the album, is a homage to Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's "Farewell, Angelina", featuring its instrumental introduction and citing a verse ("The triangle tingles, and the trumpet plays slow"). The literary criticist Paolo Jachia commented: "Guccini's enormous poetic and cultural effort has been opening the best tradition of Italian poetry to Dylan-esque ballads". Other songs included in the album are "Canzone per Silvia", dedicated to Silvia Baraldini, and "Acque", composed for Tiziano Sclavi
Tiziano Sclavi
Tiziano Sclavi is an Italian comic book author, journalist and writer of several novels. Sclavi is most famous as creator of the comic book Dylan Dog in 1986, for Italian publishing house Sergio Bonelli Editore...
's movie Nero.
It was three years until he released his next album, D'amore di morte e di altre sciocchezze
D'amore di morte e di altre sciocchezze
D'amore di morte e di altre sciocchezze is a 1996 studio album by Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini.-Track listing:# "Lettera"# "Vorrei"# "Quattro stracci"# "Stelle"# "Canzone delle colombe e del fiore"# "Il caduto"# "Cirano"# "Il matto"...
, which achieved significant commercial success. Tracks included are "Cirano", inspired by the play Cyrano de Bergerac
Cyrano de Bergerac
Hercule-Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac was a French dramatist and duelist. He is now best remembered for the works of fiction which have been woven, often very loosely, around his life story, most notably the 1897 play by Edmond Rostand...
; "Quattro stracci", about the ending of the relationship with Angela (the same woman to whom Farewell was dedicated); "Stelle" about the feelings of powerlessness men feel when looking at the starry night sky; "Vorrei", dedicated to his new partner, Raffaella Zuccari, and "I Fichi", a farcical song.
2000s
StagioniStagioni
Stagioni is the nineteenth album by Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. The title means seasons, and three of the songs of the album are named after a season...
was Guccini's first album of the 2000s. The key theme is the passage of time and the different temporal cycles connected to it. Songs included are "Autunno", "Ho ancora la forza" (with Ligabue
Luciano Ligabue
Luciano Ligabue , more commonly known as Ligabue or Liga, is an Italian rock singer-songwriter, film director and writer.-Biography:...
), "Don Chisciotte", in which Guccini takes the role of Don Quixote, and his guitarist that of Sancho Panza
Sancho Panza
Sancho Panza is a fictional character in the novel Don Quixote written by Spanish author Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605. Sancho acts as squire to Don Quixote, and provides comments throughout the novel, known as sanchismos, that are a combination of broad humour, ironic Spanish proverbs,...
), and "Addio", a song akin to "L'avvelenata". The album and its tour were successful, with the unexpected presence of many young people among the audience, establishing Guccini as an iconic artist for three generations. A special limited edition vinyl version of Stagioni was also released.
In 2004 Guccini released Ritratti
Ritratti
-Personnel:*Vince Tempera - piano, keyboards*Antonio Marangolo - saxophone, percussion*Roberto Manuzzi - saxophone, keyboards*Ares Tavolazzi - bass guitar, double bass*Juan Carlos Biondini - guitar, backing vocals, bouzouki*Ellade Bandini - drums...
. Some of the songs contained in the album are imagined dialogues with historical figures, such as Odysseus
Odysseus
Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
, Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
and Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
. The first track of the album, "Odysseus", is on the theme of travel, and contains references to the Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
, to Dante
Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
(Canto 27 of Inferno
Inferno (Dante)
Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. It is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through what is largely the medieval concept of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as...
), and to a poem by Foscolo
Ugo Foscolo
Ugo Foscolo , born Niccolò Foscolo, was an Italian writer, revolutionary and poet.-Biography:Foscolo was born on the Ionian island of Zakynthos...
. Another song in the album, "Piazza Alimonda", is about the death of Carlo Giuliani during the demonstrations at the G8 summit in Genoa. Ritratti received critical acclaim and commercial success, reaching the number one spot in the FIMI Albums Chart, holding it for two weeks, and remaining in the chart for eighteen weeks. In the same year, lyrics from "Canzone per Piero" were included in a final upper secondary school exam"; Guccini claimed he was "embarrassed and glad" about being alongside Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
and Raphael
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
.
In 2005 the live double-album Anfiteatro Live, recorded in the amphitheatre
Amphitheatre
An amphitheatre is an open-air venue used for entertainment and performances.There are two similar, but distinct, types of structure for which the word "amphitheatre" is used: Ancient Roman amphitheatres were large central performance spaces surrounded by ascending seating, and were commonly used...
in Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
, was released; it also included a DVD of the concert. Anfiteatro Live was a commercial success, holding the number one spot in the FIMI Chart for one month, and remaining in the chart for twenty-two weeks. In 2006 Guccini received one vote in the 2006 Italian presidential election
Italian presidential election, 2006
The 2006 election of the President of the Italian Republic was held on May 2–10, 2006. As a second-level, indirect election, only Members of Parliament and regional deputies were entitled to vote...
. The same year, the triple-album The Platinum Collection, containing 47 songs, was released as a celebration of his fortieth year as a musical artist. In October Guccini's official biography, Portavo allora un Eskimo innocente by Massimo Cotto, was published.
On 21 April 2008, an article on La Stampa
La Stampa
La Stampa is one of the best-known, most influential and most widely sold Italian daily newspapers. Published in Turin, it is distributed in Italy and other European nations. The current owner is the Fiat Group.-History:...
affirmed that Guccini had stopped smoking, and that this had caused him to gain weight and lose his inspiration. He denied it on 18 May 2008, in TV show Che tempo che fa. In 2010 the Mondadori published Non so che viso avesse, a book which contains a Guccini autobiography and, in the second part of the book, a critical essay edited by Alberto Bertoni. Luciano Ligabue
Luciano Ligabue
Luciano Ligabue , more commonly known as Ligabue or Liga, is an Italian rock singer-songwriter, film director and writer.-Biography:...
, friend and colleague of Guccini, entitled him a song, "Caro il mio Francesco" on his album Arrivederci, mostro!
Ligabue discography
This is the discography of Italian rock-singer, Ligabue.-Albums:-Tour & Live:...
. On 28 September 2010 the collection Storia di altre storie was released, with songs selected by Guccini himself. In the same year the botanist Davide Donati named a new species of mexican cactus, the Corynopuntia guccinii, after him. In the article about the discovery on the botanical magazine Piante Grasse, Donati explained that he discovered the unknown plant whilst listening to Guccini's "Incontro", adding: "I could not have named it after anyone else". On 25 April 2011, Guccini married for the second time , with Raffaella Zuccari, who had been his partner in the last fifteen years.
Style
Guccini's lyrical and poetic style has been praised by many, including famous authors and singer-songwriters. Fellow singer-songwriter Roberto VecchioniRoberto Vecchioni
Roberto Vecchioni is an Italian singer-songwriter and writer.-Biography:Vecchioni was born in Carate Brianza, province of Milan, to a family of Neapolitan origin. In 1968 he graduated in Classical Literature at the Università Cattolica of Milan, where he remained for two years as assistant...
said about Guccini: "he's not a singer of stories, he's a singer of thoughts and a singer of doubts", while Nobel prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winner Dario Fo
Dario Fo
Dario Fo is an Italian satirist, playwright, theater director, actor and composer. His dramatic work employs comedic methods of the ancient Italian commedia dell'arte, a theatrical style popular with the working classes. He currently owns and operates a theatre company with his wife, actress...
called him a "voice of truth".
Despite the length of his career, there are some defining characteristics, such as the use of different registers
Register (sociolinguistics)
In linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, when speaking in a formal setting an English speaker may be more likely to adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal...
, the literary references to several writers, and the use of a variety of themes in order to reach moral conclusions. His lyrics frequently have a metaphysical tone and existential
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
motifs, and are often centered around portrayals of people and events. Guccini's voice is baritonal, with a noticeable rhotacism
Rhotacism
Rhotacism refers to several phenomena related to the usage of the consonant r :*the excessive or idiosyncratic use of the r;...
. Most of his songs, especially early in his career, are folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
.
Guccini has been seen as a sociopolitical chronicler, and some of his songs express his opinion about a political issue. In "La primavera di Praga", he expressed criticism of the Sovietic occupation of Czechoslovakia
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
On the night of 20–21 August 1968, the Soviet Union and her main satellite states in the Warsaw Pact – Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic , Hungary and Poland – invaded the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in order to halt Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring political liberalization...
in 1968 , and "Piccola storia ignobile" supported the Italian abortion law
Abortion in Italy
Abortion in Italy became legal in May 1978, when Italian women were allowed to terminate a pregnancy on demand during the first 90 days. Although a proposal to repeal the law was considered in a 1981 national referendum, it was rejected by nearly 68% of voters; however, another referendum, this one...
. "Canzone per Silvia" was dedicated to Silvia Baraldini
Silvia Baraldini
Silvia Baraldini was active in both the Black Power and Puerto Rican independence movements in the United States in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s...
, and both "Canzone per il Che" and "Stagioni" were dedicated to Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
. "Piazza Alimonda" was about the riots at the G8 summit in Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
and "La locomotiva" was about a failed anarchic railroad attack.
Guccini defines himself an anarchic
Anarchy
Anarchy , has more than one colloquial definition. In the United States, the term "anarchy" typically is meant to refer to a society which lacks publicly recognized government or violently enforced political authority...
, and he expressed his thoughts about the relation between music and politics in his song "L'avvelenata"; "I never said that with songs you can make revolutions or you can make poetry."
Books
In his career as a writer, Guccini published several novels and essays, experimenting with different genres. His first novel, Cròniche Epafàniche, was published by Feltrinelli in 1989, and was one of his most successful works. Even though it is not explicitly an autobiography, it can be considered the first of three autobiographical books. It describes past events of Pàvana, the town where he spent his childhood. Guccini recounts stories he heard from elderly people living on the TuscanTuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
Apennines; critics praised the "philological accuracy" of the book.
His next two novels, Vacca d'un cane and Cittanòva blues were also bestsellers, and covered different periods of his life. Vacca d'un cane depicts a teenage Guccini in Modena
Modena
Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
, as he realizes that the city's provincialism will be an obstacle to his intellectual growth, while Cittanòva Blues the last part of his trio of autobiographical books, tells of his time in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, seen as a "little Paris".
Guccini also collaborated with Loriano Macchiavelli
Loriano Macchiavelli
Loriano Macchiavelli is an Italian mystery writer and playwright.Macchiavelli was born in Vergato, near Bologna. He worked also a theatre impresario, actor and playwright....
for a series of Noir books, and published a Dictionary of the dialect of Pàvana which showed his ability as dialectologist and translator.
Guccini has also worked as a comics artist
Comics artist
A comics artist is an artist working within the comics medium on comic strips, comic books or graphic novels. The term may refer to any number of artists who contribute to produce a work in the comics form, from those who oversee all aspects of the work to those who contribute only a part.-Comic...
. He is a lover of comics, and some of his songs reference them. He's been author and script writer of comic books
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
, such as Vita e morte del brigante Bobini detto «Gnicche», illustrated by Francesco Rubino, and Lo sconosciuto, illustrated by Magnus
Roberto Raviola
Magnus, pseudonym of Roberto Raviola, was an Italian comic book artist, regarded as one of the foremost cartoonists of all time in his country.-Biography:Born in Bologna in 1939, Raviola lived there for his whole life....
, and script writer of Cronache di spazio profondo, drawn by his friend Bonvi.
Cinema
Guccini's first experience as actor was in the 1976 movie Fantasia, ma non troppo, per violino, directed by Gianfranco Mingozzi, in which he played Giulio Cesare CroceGiulio Cesare Croce
Giulio Cesare Croce was an Italian writer, actor/producer of cantastoria and enigma writer....
, a poet who narrates the history of Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
. He then appeared in: I giorni cantati, a 1979 movie directed by Paolo Pietrangeli
Paolo Pietrangeli
Paolo Pietrangeli is an Italian film director and screenwriter. He directed six films between 1975 and 2001. His 1977 film Pigs Have Wings was entered into the 27th Berlin International Film Festival.-External links:...
, which featured two of Guccini's songs in its soundtrack, "Eskimo" and "Canzone di notte n°2"; Musica per vecchi animali, a 1989 movie directed by Umberto Angelucci and Stefano Benni
Stefano Benni
Stefano Benni is an Italian satirical writer, poet and journalist. His books have been translated into around 20 foreign languages and scored notable commercial success...
; Radiofreccia
Radiofreccia
Radiofreccia, released in 1998, is the first movie directed by Italian rock singer-songwriter Luciano Ligabue, based on his 1997 debut novel Fuori e dentro il Borgo....
, the 1998 directorial debut of singer-songwriter Luciano Ligabue
Luciano Ligabue
Luciano Ligabue , more commonly known as Ligabue or Liga, is an Italian rock singer-songwriter, film director and writer.-Biography:...
; Ormai è fatta, the 1999 movie directed by Enzo Monteleone. In the 2000s he acted in three movies directed by Leonardo Pieraccioni
Leonardo Pieraccioni
Leonardo Pieraccioni is an Italian film director, actor, and screenwriter.Born in Florence, he made his directorial debut on Italian TV in 1995, directing I laureati...
, Ti amo in tutte le lingue del mondo (2005), Una moglie bellissima (2007) and Io & Marilyn (2009). Guccini wrote the soundtrack of the 1977 movie Nenè
Nenè
Nenè is a 1977 Italian drama film directed by Salvatore Samperi. The film is a historical drama, set in post-war Italy in 1948 during the first free elections after the war. It tells of a romance and a coming-of-age amid a difficult family life and amid national political tensions.The film was an...
, directed by Salvatore Samperi
Salvatore Samperi
Salvatore Samperi was an Italian film director. His 1973 film Malicious was entered into the 23rd Berlin International Film Festival and his 1979 film Ernesto was entered into the 29th Berlin International Film Festival.-Selected filmography:* Come Play with Me * Malicious * Ernesto...
, and his song "Acque" featured in the soundtrack of Nero
Nero
Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....
, the 1992 movie directed by Giancarlo Soldi.
Awards
Awards, accolades and recognitions received by Guccini:- In 1992 he received the Librex Montale Award "Poetry for Music", for the song "Canzone delle domande consuete".
- In 1992 an entomologistEntomologyEntomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of arthropodology...
discovered a new subspecies of butterflyButterflyA butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...
on the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, naming it Parnassius mnemosyne guccinii. - In 1997 Luciano TesiLuciano TesiLuciano Tesi is an Italian astronomer, and director of the San Marcello Pistoiese Observatory. He is a prolific discoverer of asteroids.-Asteroids discovered:-References:...
and Gabriele CattaniGabriele CattaniGabriele Cattani is an Italian astronomer. He has discovered or co-discovered numerous asteroids including 8051 Pistoria.-References:...
discovered an asteroid, naming it 39748 Guccini39748 Guccini39748 Guccini is an asteroid. It was discovered by Luciano Tesi and Gabriele Cattani, and named after the famous Italian singer Francesco Guccini....
. - In 2001 his story "La Cena" was included in the anthology "Racconti italiani del Novecento" (I Meridiani – Mondadori).
- In 2002 the universities of BolognaUniversity of BolognaThe Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna is the oldest continually operating university in the world, the word 'universitas' being first used by this institution at its foundation. The true date of its founding is uncertain, but believed by most accounts to have been 1088...
, Modena and Reggio EmiliaUniversity of Modena and Reggio EmiliaThe University of Modena and Reggio Emilia , located in Modena and Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, is one of the oldest universities in Italy, founded in 1175, with a population of more than 20,000 students....
awarded him an honorary degreeHonorary degreeAn honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
in Science of Education - In 2003 the comuneComuneIn Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...
of Carpi celebrated Guccini's fortieth year of career dedicating him the show "Stagioni di vita quotidiana". - In 2004 Carlo Azeglio CiampiCarlo Azeglio Ciampidr. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is an Italian politician and banker. He was the 73rd Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994 and was the tenth President of the Italian Republic from 1999 to 2006...
awarded him the title of Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian RepublicOrder of Merit of the Italian RepublicThe Order of Merit of the Italian Republic was founded as the senior order of knighthood by the second President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi in 1951...
. - In 2004 he received the Targa Ferré, the award named after Léo FerréLéo FerréLéo Ferré was a Franco-Monegasque poet, composer, singer and musician.Born in Monaco, Ferré mixed love and melancholy with moral anarchy, lyricism with slang, rhyming verse with prose monologues...
. - In 2005 he received the award "Giuseppe Giacosa – Parole per la musica".
- In 2007, in Catanzaro, he was awarded the "Riccio d'argento" for Best Singer-Songwriter Live Album.
- In 2008, in Carpi, he received the Arturo Loria award for his book of short stories Icaro.
- In 2010 the botanist Davide Donati discovered a new species of cactus, naming it Corynopuntia guccinii.
From the Club Tenco:
- 1975 – Premio Tenco, career award along with Fausto AmodeiFausto AmodeiFausto Amodei is an Italian folk singer-songwriter and musicologist. He was born in 1935 in Turin.-Biography:Amodei started his musical career founding, in 1958, the music band of Cantacronache. In his songs he uses irony and satire, a style inspired by the French singer Georges Brassens...
, Umberto BindiUmberto BindiUmberto Bindi was an Italian singer-songwriter.He is especially known for the popular song he co-wrote with Gino Paoli, Il Mio Mondo , which he recorded in Italian in 1963. It was later performed by singers in English and other languages.Bindi was born in Bogliasco , Italy, and was classically...
, Fabrizio De AndréFabrizio De AndréFabrizio De André was an Italian singer-songwriter.Known for his sympathies towards anarchism, libertarianism, and pacifism, he also was a convicted atheist , and his songs often featured marginalized and rebellious people, prostitutes and knaves, and attacked the Catholic Church...
, Vinicius de MoraesVinicius de MoraesMarcus Vinicius de Moraes , known as Vinicius de Moraes and nicknamed O Poetinho , was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Son of Lydia Cruz de Moraes and Clodoaldo Pereira da Silva Moraes, he was a seminal figure in contemporary Brazilian music...
, Enzo JannacciEnzo JannacciVincenzo Jannacci , more commonly known as Enzo Jannacci , is an Italian singer-songwriter, actor and stand-up comedian...
. - 1987 – Targa Tenco for the song "Scirocco".
- 1990 – Targa Tenco for the song "La canzone delle domande consuete.
- 1994 – Targa Tenco for the album Parnassius GucciniiParnassius GucciniiParnassius Guccinii is the sixteenth album by Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. The title references a butterfly subspecies named after the artist. It was released in 1993 by EMI and was generally well received.-Overview:...
. - 2000 – Targa Tenco for the song "Ho ancora la forza".
Awards won in collaboration with Loriano Macchiavelli
Loriano Macchiavelli
Loriano Macchiavelli is an Italian mystery writer and playwright.Macchiavelli was born in Vergato, near Bologna. He worked also a theatre impresario, actor and playwright....
:
- In 1997 Guccini and Macchiavelli received the Alassio Literally Award, un libro per l'Europa, for the book Macaronì: romanzo di santi e delinquenti.
- In 1998 Guccini and Macchiavelli won the annual "Police Film Festival" for the book Macaronì: romanzo di santi e delinquenti.
- In 2007 Guccini and Macchiavelli won an award at the "Serravalle Noir 2007" for their novel Tango e gli altri – romanzo di una raffica, anzi tre.
Discography
- 1967 – Folk beat n. 1Folk beat n. 1Folk beat n°1 is the first album of Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was published under the name "Francesco" alone.-The album:...
- 1970 – Due anni dopoDue anni dopoDue anni dopo is the second album by Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in 1970 by EMI.-Overview:The album was recorded in November 1969 in Milan. On the front cover the name of the author was simply "Francesco"; this already occurred in Guccini's first album, Folk beat n. 1...
- 1970 – L'isola non trovataL'isola non trovataL'isola non trovata is an album of Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in December 1970 by EMI, under the nickname "Francesco".- Personnel:*Francesco Guccini - voice and guitar*Ares Tavolazzi - bass*Ellade Bandini - drums...
- 1972 – RadiciRadiciRadici is an album of Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in 1972 by EMI.- The album:Radici deals mainly with Guccini's rediscover of his youth, symbolized by the cover's picture, portraying his grandparents and family. The family's house in Pavana, on the Tuscan...
- 1973 – Opera buffa
- 1974 – Stanze di vita quotidianaStanze di vita quotidianaStanze di vita quotidiana is an album of Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in 1974 by EMI Italiana. The title means "Stanzas of today's life": each song is entitled "Canzone of...", and deals, often with pessimistic of melancholic tone, with aspects of life, such as...
- 1976 – Via Paolo Fabbri 43Via Paolo Fabbri 43Via Paolo Fabbri 43 is an album of Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in 1978 by EMI Italiana, and was Guccini's most-selling title...
- 1978 – AmerigoAmerigo (album)Amerigo is an album of the Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in 1978 by EMI Italiana. The title track is about the story of Enrico Guccini,a granduncle of Guccini who had emigrated to the United States before World War II, hence the album title .The album contains one of...
- 1979 – Album concerto (live with NomadiNomadiNomadi is an Italian band formed in 1963 and still present on the music scene.-Origins:In 1961 Beppe Carletti and Leonardo Manfredini formed the group I Monelli ....
) - 1981 – MetropolisMetropolis (Guccini album)Metropolis is an album by the Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini, released in 1981 by Emi Italiana.- Track listing :All songs by Francesco Guccini, with the exception of "Venezia" by Biggi-Alloisio, and "Milano " by Guccini-Alloisio-Guccini.#"Bisanzio" #"Venezia" #"Antenòr" #"Bologna"...
- 1983 – GucciniGuccini (album)Guccini is an album by the Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini, released in 1983.- Track listing :All songs by Francesco Guccini, with the exception of "Gulliver" by Guccini-Alloisio-Guccini.#"Autogrill" #"Argentina"...
- 1984 – Fra la via Emilia e il West (live)
- 1987 – Signora BovarySignora BovarySignora Bovary is an album of Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in 1987 by EMI.- The album:"Signora Bovary" is a poetic variation of Gustave Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary. "Culodritto" is dedicated to Guccini's daughter, Teresa, who was 9 at the time...
- 1988 – ...quasi come Dumas... (live)
- 1990 – Quello che non...Quello che non...Quello che non... is the fifteenth album by Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in 1990 by EMI.-Overview:Quello che non... was released in 1990 by EMI, three years after Guccini's last studio album, Signora Bovary, continuing on the same style. The main themes of the album...
- 1993 – Parnassius GucciniiParnassius GucciniiParnassius Guccinii is the sixteenth album by Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. The title references a butterfly subspecies named after the artist. It was released in 1993 by EMI and was generally well received.-Overview:...
- 1996 – D'amore di morte e di altre sciocchezzeD'amore di morte e di altre sciocchezzeD'amore di morte e di altre sciocchezze is a 1996 studio album by Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini.-Track listing:# "Lettera"# "Vorrei"# "Quattro stracci"# "Stelle"# "Canzone delle colombe e del fiore"# "Il caduto"# "Cirano"# "Il matto"...
- 1998 – Guccini Live Collection (live)
- 2000 – StagioniStagioniStagioni is the nineteenth album by Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. The title means seasons, and three of the songs of the album are named after a season...
- 2001 – Francesco Guccini Live @ RTSI (live)
- 2004 – RitrattiRitratti-Personnel:*Vince Tempera - piano, keyboards*Antonio Marangolo - saxophone, percussion*Roberto Manuzzi - saxophone, keyboards*Ares Tavolazzi - bass guitar, double bass*Juan Carlos Biondini - guitar, backing vocals, bouzouki*Ellade Bandini - drums...
- 2005 – Anfiteatro Live (live)
- 2006 – The Platinum Collection
- 2010 – Storia di altre storie
Comics
- Storie dello spazio profondo (1975, with BonviFranco BonviciniFranco Bonvicini, also known as Bonvi, was an Italian comic book artist, creator of Sturmtruppen and Nick Carter strips.-Biography:...
) - Poche ore all'alba (1975, with MagnusRoberto RaviolaMagnus, pseudonym of Roberto Raviola, was an Italian comic book artist, regarded as one of the foremost cartoonists of all time in his country.-Biography:Born in Bologna in 1939, Raviola lived there for his whole life....
) - Vita e morte del brigante Bobino detto Gnicche (1980, with Francesco Rubino)
- Barbùn vs. Realtà (1981, with Filippo Scozzari)
- Gerry Pompa (1983, with Massimo Cavezzali)
Filmography
- Bologna. Fantasia, ma non troppo, per violino (1976, actor)
- Nenè (1977, soundtrack)
- I giorni cantati (1979, actor as himself and soundtrack)
- Le lunghe ombre (1987, actor)
- Musica per vecchi animali (1989, actor)
- Nero (1992, soundtrack)
- RadiofrecciaRadiofrecciaRadiofreccia, released in 1998, is the first movie directed by Italian rock singer-songwriter Luciano Ligabue, based on his 1997 debut novel Fuori e dentro il Borgo....
(1998, actor) - Ormai è fatta (1999, actor)
- Il segreto del successo (1999, actor as himself)
- Ti amo in tutte le lingue del mondo (2006, actor)
- Una moglie bellissima (2007, actor)
- Io & Marilyn (2009, actor)
Footnotes
External links
- Official Site – Official site, including touring schedule
- Unofficial Site with news and lyrics
- Francesco Guccini at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...