Lucio Battisti
L'apparenza

Lucio Battisti mi è sempre piaciuto, da quando ero ragazzino. Ho sempre avuto l'impressione che avesse un talento particolare.

Basta ascoltare "Mi ritorni in mente". E' un pezzo strano perché non c'è la strofa.

La canzone parte col ritornello che viene interrotto da un bridge che nemmeno Paul McCarney o Kurt Cobain.

Era questa improvvisa accelerazione, questo passare da 0 a 100 in 0 secondi in barba alle leggi della fisica,

quell'accostare temi musicali contrastanti, che mi colpiva.

Mi ricordo che un'amica dei miei genitori nel 1986 aveva comprato "Don Giovanni", ero un ragazzino e non capivo,

ma il disco sembrava avere un fascino speciale.

Nel 1988 quando uscì "L'apparenza" ero già più grandicello, ormai ero più dentro il rock anglosassone e non approfondii il disco

anche se sembrava interessante. Avevo come la sensazione che ci sarei tornato sopra ma che quello non era il momento.

E il momento è arrivato qualche anno fa, quando per qualche mese ho avuto i bianchi battistiani a rotazione continua.

Ero talmente affamato di notizie e tutto sommato il web ne era così avaro, che decisi di scrivere una mail a Robin Smith,

l'arrangiatore de "L'apparenza", registrato a Londra.

Tutto sommato mi sembra un peccato che la cosa, benché minima, rimanga archiviata nella mia casella postale.

Forse le domande non sono 5, chiedo venia.

"Hello,

I'm a huge fan of Lucio Battisti. I loved his sixties and seventies songs when I was a teenager, but now [..] I'm really fond of his last five records which marked a neat departure from his previous music.

[...]

All songs of his, all albums of his last five are
my favorite, it just depend on the moment. Currently I'm listening a lot to "L' apparenza" and "Allontanando" is my favorite song in the set. It has incredibly beautiful progressions of chords.

So, I'm curious about how the songs came into the form I can listen to now. I read that you arranged the album. But what does that mean? In my head it's hard to tell apart a song from all the actual notes it's made of.

So, in what form were the songs when Lucio [..] presented them to you? Was it just a vocal melody line and maybe the chords played on a guitar (Lucio was a good rhythmic guitar player)?

Or was it something more? Was the final form of the song, the whole arrangement, something you could work out pretty freely? Or was it more a collaborative process between you and the author?

Thank you very much for any eventual reply[ ...]. It's time we know more about these magnificent records!

Thanks,
Carlo."

"Ciao Carlo

I have not listened to the album for a while now .I just did oh it is so magical. The harmonies are mainly all Lucio’s .He demod the songs with a very simple keyboard with his voice.What was so wonderful was that he just let me arrange everything as I wanted and he seemed to like everything .The relationship of the sound and the atmosphere relevant to the lyrics and the meaning was most important.At that time I drum machines were widely used and the use of rhythmic keyboards gave it this feeling of almost unemotion.This is what he wanted the empty change …the appearance .It was so easy and so enjoyable to make .I had already arranged Don Giovanni so I knew how Lucio worked and he knew how I worked .It was great and he is greatly missed .

Many thanks for bringing back such wonderful memories .

Robin"