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For those given to wallowing in the poise and refinement
of later works, this record is a healthy shock to the system. It lays
bare the original and probably strongest driving influence behind the
composer's music. The plain, almost folkloristic feel is all pervasive,
not just in the choice of accompaniment, which besides Conte's piano usually
falls to a single accordion or fiddle, but in the rhythmic simplicity
often expressed as the double-time of a march, together with the lawyer's
raw unperfected vocal style. These were after-all his very first experiences
of singing and it would be a short while yet before he would fully understand
the limitations as well as the possibilities of his voice. Of this period
he says himself "non cantavo, ullulavo" (I wasn't singing, I was ululating).
The unpractised studio technique colours some of the well-known and best
loved songs already present on this album such as La fisarmonica di
Stradella or Onda su onda, the treatment energetic if bordering
on insensitive. Further evidence of Conte's still incomplete transition
from composer to recording artist, is provided by the piano which more
often than not is still used as though it were to compose a song, with
an accompaniment in mind, giving little space to the few instrumental
resources he is able to muster. The scarcity of means, with the piano
making up for things by way of even rhythms can at times produce a feeling
of having a metronome strapped to your head.
With these apparent detractions, why then is it that Paolo Conte
of 1974 remains one of Conte's most enjoyable albums? It might have something
to do with the enduring beauty of pure and simple melodies such as Wanda
or Questa sporca vita or it might be that deep down, whether you
like it or not, you have to agree with Conte's old assertion that the
march rhythm is deeply rooted in each and every one of us. It may well
also be due to the earthy tenderness of the lawyer's strongly inflected
local accent. Yet if not these then, on a more personal level, it is that
together with the following album, we are more than anywhere else in Conte,
and with such stark beauty, face to face with the common joys and disillusions,
growing pains, trials and tribulations of provincial life (more precisely
that of the small-town north of Italy), something that certainly never
fails to move those of us who share such a background.
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