‘Towards the stars’, Ernesto Assante’s latest playlist: 150 songs in a book, the soundtrack of his life

«Songs are important. If you know someone who really thinks, not understanding Bennato’s irony, that it’s just “songs”, eliminate him from the list of your friends: those who live without songs live halfway, will never be able to give immaterial body to their dreams, he will never see the light, he will not fully understand beauty, he will experience interrupted emotions…”. In the introduction of Towards the starsthe book published by Repubblica and Rai Libri on newsstands today (price €14.90), Ernesto Assante gives voice to his vision.

The cosmos, for him, was an enormous organism regulated and illuminated by music. And we can only imagine the effort it took to compress an entire universe into just 150 songs. Like asking an astronomer to choose 150 stars to look at while excluding the others. You might as well make a heartfelt choice, put together a catalog that explains, as in an ideal exhibition, stories and secrets of the art of making music.

«Songs that have a specific weight, because they are, each in their own way, works of art, which have remained or are destined to remain over time, even the apparently stupidest and most volatile ones, songs born out of artistic desire or born to entertain but which tell, again, something extremely relevant, a moment in history, an emotion, a love, a pain…”.

After all, 150 songs can be a lot. It’s nice to find out how the meaning of Rainy day women #12 & 35 Of Bob Dylan raised a debate that has never been completely resolved, or reread the story of the forbidden kiss under the Berlin Wall which suggested a David Bowie the masterpiece Heroes. And maybe revisit an old record Lucio Battisti as My free song to listen again to a superb sentimental flash like Wind in the wind (and that song moved Ernesto’s heart every time), or to better understand the backdrop on which Franco Battiato he composed The cure.

«So this book is an exhibition on the art of song – wrote Ernesto – it is a listening guide, it is a long documentary, it is an interminable radio programme, it is a podcast, it is a film in episodes, it is a stream of consciousness of whoever wrote it is the fruit of a passion, mine obviously, for music, song, rock in particular (as you will see from many of the choices made)”.

There are so many Beatlesas was obvious, the highly celebrated ones of Yellow submarine, Come together, Yesterday And Let it be but also the less celebrated ones of It’s all too much (a fascinating psychedelic experiment signed by George Harrison). There are so many Pink Floyd and many Rolling Stonesthere are the Who hey White Stripesnext to War on Drugs it’s at De André And Guccini. But there are also the many loves of a curious and culturally open journalist and critic like few others: the grunge gods Nirvanathe dark new wave of Siouxsie & the Bansheesthe futuristic electronics of Kraftwerk and the reggae of Toots & the Maytals and His Majesty Bob Marleywhich he really considered a balm for living better.

There is no order in this long series of songs, other than that of beauty. There is no desire for technicalities or high degrees of difficulty in understanding: Jimi Hendrix is close to Squeeze Of Tempteda pop lighting so enjoyable that it comes close to the sublime intuition of God only knows of the Beach Boys, or what the author really considered the perfect song. About each song «everything is told, anecdotes, stories, ideas, sometimes the story is very short, other times more extended, because since there is no rule in the world of song (some of those we talk about in the book last just over a minute, others last almost ten) there isn’t even a rule for writing songs”.

Ernesto recommends combining reading each card with listening. Ultimately, these pages are a sentimental journey among the stars of our memory. In many songs we will see photographs of our lives again, we will smell smells and tastes. Memories. Inside those cards perhaps we will finally be able to understand that text that we have been humming without fully understanding it, even if the music has pierced our soul. And he never stops accompanying us. “Where is the road to the stars?”, he asked Lucio Dalla. It’s this one.