Enrico Ruggeri attempts a first assessment of his life and career, as he will blow out 67 candles on June 5th. In his book «40 lives (without stopping me ever» published by La nave di Teseo, the singer retraces the last decades through his 40 records. And looking back, Ruggeri al Messaggero does not spare criticism of today’s musical world, as different as according to he worse than in his years: «Everything is different from the past – says the singer-songwriter – We used to play, today there are PCs. Staying in a studio for two months, day and night, to record a record with people like you,. It’s no longer done. Creating without thinking only of the market is something that young people don’t know.” Yet Ruggeri says he doesn’t want to be seen as nostalgic for the good old days: “I don’t want to be a hypercritical boomer singer, but not those of today. have ever read a book, you can tell from what they say: they seem like WhatsApp messages, before writing songs they had developed their own internal world. Today the concept of an idea has been replaced by the “gimmick”. ».
Penalized because he is not left-wing
Ruggeri achieved some great successes with songs written for others, such as «Il mare di winter» for Loredana Berté or «Quello che le donne non di dice» for Fiorella Mannoia. His name is often not mentioned among the great songwriters: «But I am for those who stop me on the street, less so for certain press. This, frankly, makes me sad.” It’s all the fault of his non-alignment, says Ruggeri, if his name doesn’t enjoy the prestige he hoped for: «Not having had a real manager – he says – and never having been part of the left-wing mainstream». He remembers how at the Berchet high school in Milan he always rebelled against the “single left-wing thought that he dominated”.
The dictatorship of the lockdown
But Ruggeri rejects political labels: «I can have both right-wing and left-wing positions. I am a free man.” And then comes the comment on the Meloni government: «It takes time to judge, but so far, despite the opposition and certain newspapers saying the opposite, it seems to me that there is more open-mindedness than other old, much more dogmatic governments». Ruggeri doesn’t seem to have much desire to call himself anti-fascist: «The only dictatorship I knew was that of the lockdown, when you couldn’t leave the house without a Green pass and they chased you with a helicopter if you ran on the beach. This question scares me a little…”. Ruggeri’s fear comes from afar, he explains: «It reminds me of the 70s, when in Milan a right-wing student, Sergio Ravelli, 19 years old, wrote an essay to denounce the violence of the Red Brigades and the lack of institutional condolence after the death in Padua of two MSI militants attacked in a city office. That essay – Ruggeri recalls – was put on the notice board at his school and a few days later Romani was killed at home by blows to the head with a wrench.” In short, for Ruggeri asking if someone is anti-fascist “smells like pre-dictatorship to me”.
