June 8, 1985 Claudio Baglioni He publishes the LP La Vita Ora, his most successful work for CBS, with over 4 million copies sold.
“Life is now” is still the best-selling album in the history of Italian music.
It remained first for 27 consecutive weeks and 1 and a half years in the rankings.
TRACKLIST
- A new day or a new day
- The friend and tomorrow
- Lost men
- Life is now
- All the football minute by minute
- Let’s go home
- Loves in progress
- And now the advertising
- A train to where
- Night of notes, notes of night
THE HISTORY OF THE ALBUM
To record the album Baglioni chose, as for the previous “Strada fare”, England: the Manor Studios in Oxford and The Town House in London. The strings, performed by the prestigious London Symphony Orchestra, were recorded in the famous Abbey Road studios, the “sonic home” of the Beatles. The string parts were written by Celso Valli and the orchestra was conducted by Carl Davies, an American composer who co-authored Paul McCartney’s symphonic music works. In the songs Baglioni brings together his singer-songwriter soul with a sound deeply immersed in the 80s. The result was a complex album, sophisticated both in the arrangements and in the lyrics. In “Life Is Now” – essentially a concept album that tells the story of an ordinary man’s day in the 80s in song form – there isn’t even a repeated line of lyrics. In the grooves of the album, there is no recurring refrain to memorize and even the structure of the songs becomes complicated in the absence of repetitions. But all this will not be an obstacle to his success.
THE LYRICS
The original title of the album was “A bar on the city”, in homage to one of the most famous bars in Rome: the “Zodiaco”. The restaurant stands on the Monte Mario hill and from there you can enjoy a breathtaking view of the capital. It was precisely at one of the tables of the “Zodiac”, in fact, that Baglioni wrote practically all the lyrics of the ten songs, also helped by his wife Paola. “Life is now” is composed of 10 songs for 52 minutes. In the lyrics, as in the music, it is certainly a thoughtful work but covered in simplicity and lightness in the portraits written by Baglioni which describe the most varied humanity. A few tens of meters beyond the Zodiac, from the garden of the Cavalieri Hilton Hotel, Toni Thorimbert takes a photo of a panoramic view of Rome which will become one of the most famous cover interiors.
AT THE TOP OF THE RANKING, TO STAY THERE FOR A LONG TIME
The complexity of the album did not seem to affect its success. Far from it. After a frantic wait, sealed by the large signs with the words “Baglioni’s new album has arrived” displayed by record shops, the album broke every sales record. It immediately went to the top of the charts, and remained there for a good six months. A record that is still unbeatable. In the year of release the album sold over 1 and a half million copies.
FROM HANS ZIMMER ON THE TOUR, CURIOSITIES ABOUT THE RECORD
“Life is now” remained in the charts for 18 consecutive months, remaining in first place for 27 weeks. To oust him is “So Red The Rose” by Arcadia, a Duran Duran side project founded by Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor. Hans Zimmer also participated in the recording of the album, who in a few years would become the award-winning soundtrack composer that we all know. In Baglioni’s album, Zimmer is involved – together with Steve Rance – with the futuristic Fairlight, considered the first digital sampler: it allowed the timbres of traditional acoustic instruments to be stored, modified, mixed and played. Even the promotional tour of the album – divided into two tranches, both in stadiums – marked an era: in the second “round” of concerts Baglioni performed alone, playing multiple instruments simultaneously, thanks to the Midi interface. Another futuristic system at the time: a digital protocol (the acronym stands for “Musical Instrument Digital Interface”) which allows multiple instruments to be connected together and played and controlled with a single “master” – keyboard, guitar, rhythm – a series of “networked” tools and memorizing sequences on a computer.
