He didn’t keep his promise, Luca Barbarossa. When in 2021, at the age of 60, he published his first book, the autobiography Don’t miss anything, she said that he would never do an encore (“I promise I’ll write the next one when I’m 120”). Next Tuesday, however, you will release One Hundred Stories for One Hundred Songs (with drawings by Michele Bernardi), a collection of thoughts, memories and intuitions that gravitate around songs that have in fact entered the emotional baggage of many people in recent years. Perhaps Barbarossa was right not to keep his word.
He also changed publisher, couldn’t there have been an auction?
“For charity. The first one went well, but it was an isolated episode: the contract was only valid for one title. To be freer and “lighter” I have been doing this for years now: I only commit to one project at a time.”
Your idea or the publisher’s?
«The publisher Elisabetta Sgarbi asked me if I had something to propose to her and I said yes: a musical guide that inevitably talks about my life, that of other singers and authors, and of the much humanity that revolves around these authentic jewels”.
Are there also pieces of yours?
“No. I would have been excessive. I chose beautiful songs with interesting backstories and full of meaning. It was a nice journey back.”
And in doing so, what surprised you most?
«The existential parable of a man who for decades has given moments of joy to millions of people. While I was writing one day I listened to Someday My Prince Will Come, one of the themes from Snow White, in the version of a jazz pianist I love very much, Bill Evans. I became curious and tried to find out a little more about the composer, the American Frank Churchill. I discovered that he won an Oscar in 1942 for the soundtrack of Dumbo, he wrote the Heigh-Ho theme of the Seven Dwarfs from Snow White, that of Bambi and so on. In short, a genius. That in 1942, instead of living happily ever after, exhausted by depression, he shot himself in the head, leaving his wife and young daughter. But that’s not all: the first time it was performed in a jazz key was in 1943 by the Ghetto Swingers, a group of inmates of the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Germany.”
In a concentration camp?
“Yes. The Nazis wanted a group of outside observers to believe that it was a normal place. Except that the deportees wanted to call it a Tribute to Churchill, paying homage to the great musician who had just passed away and the British statesman. They prevented him, of course. In short, I also tell stories like this.”
Let’s talk about something else: would you take Amadeus’ place in Sanremo? A colleague of hers like Claudio Baglioni has already done it in 2018 and 2019, and she has had a very popular show on the radio for years.
«I am already working to become the next Prime Minister».
Come on, did Rai make any proposals to you or not?
«Every now and then a joke yes, but certain mechanisms are complex. There are television hosts who are much more famous than me.”
If an offer came in you would obviously evaluate it, right?
“Certain. Who wouldn’t consider it? I loved the Festival very much, and Sanremo gave me so much. I’ve been there nine times and in 1992 I managed to win it, but there’s a queue for that role. I was president of the jury, every year we host the final stages of Sanremo Giovani at the Social Club and in 2019 we awarded Mahmood who then came in first place.”
Basically the right man in the right place.
«Let’s not exaggerate. If they called me for something I could also collaborate, but being the host or artistic director of the Festival seems very unlikely to me. Rai1 has prominent people who are very popular with the public and less risky than me. I have never hosted prime time programs on Rai1.”
In the book there are songs by the Beatles and Lucio Dalla, Bob Dylan and Michael Jackson, Little Tony and Police: what does this selection say about you?
“I do not know. Maybe I should give the book to a psychoanalyst. There is no logic, I simply chose beautiful and interesting things to tell. Like Billie Hallyday’s Strange Fruits, for example, about black people being hanged from trees; o The ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti by Ennio Morricone, sung by Joan Baez. And then there is number 101 which I dedicated to a great friend who is no longer with us, the journalist Ernesto Assante. For him I chose The Eagle by Lucio Battisti. Shortly before he left I asked him to read the book to check if there were any errors.”
Were there any?
“Someone. He pointed them out to me and I corrected them. It was one of the last things he did.”
There aren’t any recent songs, are there?
“Very true. It’s a somewhat vintage book. I stop at the 80s and 90s with Vita spericolata by Vasco Rossi and Creep by Radiohead”.
The song that always moves you?
«The old lovers’ song by Jacques Brel in Franco Battiato’s 1999 version. My parents always listened to it as a child. The first time I heard it I think I cried for twenty minutes. She revealed to me a melancholy that I had evidently had inside me all my life.”
The one who saved her life?
«Like a Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan. That piece has killer lyrics. Telling someone who has based their whole life on success how it feels to be on the side of someone who doesn’t know where they’re headed, what it feels like to be nobody, I find it devastating. And enlightening.”
And which one do you choose to cheer yourself up?
«Veronica by Enzo Jannacci, a very funny story of sexual initiation».
At the May Day concert, politics practically disappeared from the songs: what do you think?
«I haven’t seen it, to be honest. But I know that my friend Stefano Massini was there, with whom I have just recorded a speech in his new program for Rai3, Indian Reserve (together last season they brought the show The truth, please, about love to theatres, ed.), airing in a few days. He talked about accidents and deaths at work.”
Almost all the young people, however, did not say a word.
«The risk of self-censorship is very strong. Knowing that when you express your ideas you can be overwhelmed by the hatred of social media stops almost everyone.”
Of course, but now no one is exposing themselves: why?
«To avoid antagonizing part of the public. I think it only happens with us, at least in these terms. It’s a shame. Artists have the right and duty to be uncomfortable.”
Three years ago you said you were writing the subject of a film: what stage is it at?
“One thing at a time. This book, for example, will become a theater show in the autumn. For now I’m working on this project.”
Have you ever thought about making a record with your pianist son, who studies at the Conservatory?
“No. It is good for everyone to follow his path. We have an excellent relationship, it’s better this way. He would never rely on me, rightly so.”
In the past you said that for you Bob Dylan is God. So you don’t believe, right? Has anything changed as you’ve gotten older?
«I don’t have the gift of faith, unfortunately. On the other side for me there is nothingness, better to sow well here.”
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