Eugenio Finardi

Eugenio Finardi - also known as "Gege" - (July 16^th 1952) is a very famous rock and pop singer in Italy.With Angelo Branduardi, Edoardo Bennato, Lucio Battisti and Lucio Dalla, he represented Italian music during the seventies. With Francesco Guccini, he is the typical leftist committed singer and songwriter.

Life

Born in Milan (Italy) in 1952, his parents are an Italian sound director (his father) and an American opera singer (his mother). So he's native speaker fo English and Italian as well.

He joined the Italian Communist Party (PCI) during the early seventies: a lot of his songs (the first records, first of all) contain social and political items: "Musica ribelle" ("Rebel Music"), and "Saluteremo il Signor Padrone" ("We'll greet our Sir, the Employer") for example.

His first record, "Non gettate alcun oggetto dal finestrino" ("Don't throw any object out of train window") came on the market in 1975 and was a very successful LP.

Since then he has continued to earn praise from critics.

Career

Finardi has been making records since 1975. In addition to singing, he plays guitar and keyboards.

His career started when he was six, when he made a record for children. During the early seventies, he began to play rock music.

He joined groups like “The Tiger”, “Il Pacco” (literally “The Parcel”, but – most probably – that name is an Italian slang for “Let - down”) and “L’Enorme Maria” (“Mary the huge”). The last one was a group where played Alberto Camerini a famous Italian – Brazilian guitarist.

Meanwhile Finardi began to write English lyrics and in 1973 his first E.P., containing the English text songs "Spacey stacey" and "Hard rock honey" was recorded by “Numero Uno” (“Number One”, Mogol’s and Lucio Battisti’s record company), but it was unnoticed.

In 1974 he made a contract with Cramps, Gianni Sassi’s record company, and – the next year – he wrote committed and leftist – ideological Italian lyrics, that were collected in his first LP “Non gettate alcun oggetto dal finestrino” (“Don’t throw any object out of train window”, 1975. This record contains a rock cover of the folk Italian song “Saluteremo il Signor Padrone” (“We’ll greet our sir, the employer”. The band included another great Italian singer (for the future), Franco Battiato.

The succeess came with his second album "Sugo" ("Sauce"), during 1976, that contains two famous songs of his, "La Radio" ("The Radio") and "Musica Ribelle" ("Rebel Music"). In the same year, he attended to an aircheck in Parco Lambro, Milan (June, 26^th - 30^th), during the Sixth Youthful Working Class Festival [ [http://www.mytv.it/Clip.aspx?key=E2082182EC08F69E MyTV - 1976: Eugenio Finardi live al Parco Lambro ] ] .

In 1977, his new album, "Diesel" was a very successful record. It is acknowledged as the best Finardi's album. Here, we can find three famous songs: "Non è nel cuore" ("Love, it isn't in your heart"), "Tutto subito" ("All and immediately", against consumerism) and the most known song in this record, that is to say, "Scimmia" ("Cold Turkey"). This last one created a scandal for its crudely realistic words (Finardi tell us his dramatic experience with heroin, and uses some words like "buco". This substantive, in Italian, means "Hole", but in Italian slang, it sounds very cruel, and means "Fix"). Very pleasant are, instead, the words in "Love, it isn't in your heart". Actually, it sounds:

"“…./ But love / isn’t in your heart; / but it means to recognize each other by smell. / And fondness can’t exist / with no slightest respect / and as you can’t do without it / you must be a little patient; / Because love means to live together / and it really means to love each other, / but love can consist of delight, / but of boredom too. / And then, I relaxed, / and – as time goes by – I learnt / that it’s useless if we’re always perfect, / that I also love your failings, / that I like awaking / by your side, in the morning, / that I never get tired / to make love with you, / that it takes more than a moment / but the aim is to know each other inside. ….”"

In 1978 a new album was recorded, "Blitz". Inside two famous sountracks: "Cuba" (where we can find a deep uneasiness, caused by the period of cultural reaction - in those times - in Italy) and "Extraterrestre" ("Extraterrestrial"). This last one tell us about the nonsense of drug taking, actually:

"Once upon a time a guy was living in a garret / to have sky close to him for good / and he wanted to fly over his life like an airplane / as he didn't care about what people were doing. / One only thing was important for him / and time after time, he kept on practising / in developing that latent talent / hidden in the folds of his mind . / And all night long, laid down on his bed, / looking at stars / form the roof window, by a message / wanted to get in touch and said: / 'Extraterrestrial carry me away ! / I wish a star / that's all mine ! / Extraterrestrial came here and looked for me ! / I wish a planet, where I could start again !' / One night his message was received / and suddenly was transported / with no pain at all, into an unknown planet ... / and slowly, awareness, mixed with a sweet safety : / 'Universe is my fortress !' / ... But his security, shortly after / begins showing signs of doubts / and he feels that sadness is growing inside / because, now that his aim was carried out, / he still feels himself empty / and notices that nothing is changed inside, / that all fears of his didn't go away, / on the contrary, they increased / enlarged by loneliness. / And now, he is spending his whole life in looking for / getting in touch with / someone who can let him come back, and says: / 'Extraterrestrial carry me away ! / I wish come back, I wish go home ! / Extraterrestrial came here and looked for me ! / I wish come back and start again ! / 'Extraterrestrial carry me away ! / I wish come back, I wish go home ! / Extraterrestrial don't let me down ! / I wish come back and start again !"."

Lucio Dalla played his clarinet in the soundtrack "Valeria, come stai ?" (How are you, Valeria ?")

Album

L.P. / C.D.

* 1975 - "Non gettate alcun oggetto dai finestrini / Don't throw any object out of train windows"
* 1976 - "Sugo / Sauce" (Cramps, CRSNP 1801)
* 1977 - "Diesel"
* 1978 - "Blitz"
* 1979 - "Roccando rollando / Rocking Rolling"
* 1981 - "Finardi"
* 1982 - "Secret streets"
* 1983 - "Dal Blu / From the blue"
* 1984 - "Strade / Streets" (Alive)
* 1985 - "Colpi di fulmine / Loves at first sight"
* 1987 - "Dolce Italia / Pleasant Italy"
* 1989 - "Il vento di Elora / Wind from Elora"
* 1990 - "La forza dell'amore / The force of love" (a collection of old remastered songs plus 2 umpublished songs)
* 1991 - "Millennio / Millennium"
* 1993 - "Acustica / Acoustics"
* 1996 - "Occhi / Eyes"
* 1998 - "Accadueo / Eich - two - Ou" (Republished in 1999 plus 1 bonus track) [Eich - two - Ou, or H₂O, the water]
* 2001 - "La forza dell'amore 2 / The force of love 2"
* 2002 - "Cinquantanni / Fifty years old people"
* 2003 - "Il silenzio e lo spirito / Silence and soul"
* 2005 - "Anima blues / Soul blues"
* 2007 - "Un uomo / A man"

E.P.

* 1975 - "Soldi/Voglio (Money / I want)" (Cramps, CRSNP 1801)
* 1976 - "Musica ribelle/La radio (Rebel Music / The Radio)" (Cramps, CRSNP 1902)
* 1976 - "Non è nel cuore/Giai Phong (Love, it isn't in the heart / Giai Phong)" (Cramps, CRSNP 1803)

ummary

* Official Italian Website [http://www.eugeniofinardi.it/ eugeniofinardi.it]

* Recorded Albums (L.P., E.P. and C.D.): 27

* Studio Albums: 21

* Live Albums : 1

* Compilations: 5

* Start - date: 1975

* Stop date: None, at the moment.

References