It was March 5, 1943, exactly 80 years ago, when Lucio Battisti, the man destined to revolutionize Italian pop music, was born in Poggio Bustone.
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There are two phases in Lucio Battisti's career, this is now clear. There is the Battisti who took the tradition, especially the content, lyrical, extremely melodic, Italian, to put it into light music, to translate it into a song. The Battisti who, together with Mogol, packaged our romanticism in absolutely definitive songs, songs beyond which it is not possible to lean.
And then there is Lucio who dismantled piece by piece what he had built, creator of everything and its exact opposite, who proposed total accessibility to his music, who sang the e with popular simplicity, to then end up, making room for the collaboration with Pasquale Panella, in the construction of fascinating and futuristic musical and conceptual labyrinths.
Lucio Battisti, inventor of Italian pop
Almost 142 million clicks on the contents of the official channel on YouTube, just over 1,2 million monthly listens on Spotify, where the most listened to song is “Il mio canto libero”, which exceeds 21 million streams, followed by “La canzone del sole” (17 million) and “Con il Nastro Rosa” (14 million).
Numbers that could have been much higher than these, it is natural, if it were not for a brawl over the rights of the songs that in fact, once the historical moment of the so-called "fluid music" arrived, denied for a long time, perhaps too long, to entire generations, to approach music through its music; as practically happened as a rule before the advent of digital platforms.
Because in no Italian home was the music of Battisti/Mogol missing, as if it were the surgically precise soundtrack to tell the story of Italy's love, sadness, unbridled sentimentality, never of politics, which, as we know, created no small amount of problems for him in a very delicate period in which not taking sides was perceived, especially by singer-songwriter enthusiasts, as taking sides with what they considered to be the wrong side.
Battisti's songs at bonfires on the beach, Battisti's songs on the car radio, Battisti's songs in piano bars; for decades those songs have resonated everywhere, indirectly proportional to his presence on TV.
Lucio Battisti retired from the scene in the mid 70s
Lucio Battisti decided to retire from the scene around the mid-70s, after a historic tour with Formula 3, because he was unnerved by gossip, by the narrative that was made about him, totally deviated from the artist, and only that, that he claimed to represent.
Unnerved by what, until a year before his death, were called “abbattistamenti”, that is, photos that portrayed Battisti at any moment of his day, even going as far as making a contemptuous comment about the extra pounds he had accumulated over the years away from the spotlight.
A relationship, the one with the media, truly complex, so much so that his will when he felt death a little closer, seems to have been, according to what his widow Grazia Letizia Veronese has said in recent years, not to authorize the use of his music for television shows, advertising or films for the cinema.
Of course, he couldn't have had any idea how the music market would be revolutionized in a few years, so only recently, after a long-lasting legal battle, Battisti's music is available on all digital platforms.
Lucio Battisti died in 1998, at only 55 years old
Lucio Battisti died in 1998, at just 55 years old, and it is clear to ask ourselves today how much and what we have missed, what kind of artist he would have become as he matured. A question that is perhaps superfluous, considering that Battisti, well before he passed away, was every kind of artist possible, he leaves a legacy that we can hardly imagine being bigger, more valuable and, above all, more impactful in our lives, than it already is.
Article published on March 5, 2023 - 14pm
