Francesco De Gregori - Bufalo Bill (1976)

Artist...............: Francesco De Gregori
Album................: Bufalo Bill
Genre................: Pop
Source...............: Cd
Year.................: 1976
Ripper...............: Exact Audio Copy
Codec................: Flac
Information..........: TntVillage
Covers...............: Front
Total Size...........: 211 Mb


---------------------------------------
Rewiev
---------------------------------------



The extraordinary commercial success of Rimmel changed De Gregori's career forever. For starters, its

follow-up, Bufalo Bill, was never going to be an easy task. De Gregori has admitted his fondness for this

record, made during one of the happiest, most confident periods of his life. At the same time, if success

brought confidence, it also involved a degree of public exposure that the usually reclusive De Gregori

despised. In some ways, particularly in its music, Bufalo Bill was conceived as a sort of antidote to

Rimmel. When looking at the album from this perspective, it is striking how Bufalo Bill seems much more a

logical continuation to the album that preceded Rimmel, the obscure Francesco De Gregori, rather than to

the 1975 pop blockbuster. The full band arrangements and concise, catchier compositions that characterized

Rimmel give way to more freely structured songs, with long, ambiguous texts and virtually no choruses. Love

songs are conspicuously absent as well. Bufalo Bill does seem to have a running theme, the portrait of a

boy child, sometimes a village idiot, sometimes naïve, sometimes even cruel, who encounters the

unsentimental world of adults, with mixed results ranging from self-discovery to death. As in most De

Gregori's albums, Bufalo Bill includes one or two forgettable tracks, a few hidden treasures -- in this

case "Atlantide" and "Ipercarmela" -- and a handful of classics. The latter category here is made up of the

title track, the tale of the famous wild frontier man forced by time and disappointment to become a circus

attraction in his latter years; "Festival," a harrowing, desolate tirade about the suicide of singer Luigi

Tenco at the San Remo Festival; and the simply magnificent closer, "Santa Lucia." A humble hymn dedicated

to all those who are struggling with life, this is unquestionably one of De Gregori greatest, most

beautiful songs. A simple piano and voice arrangement, a sweet melody, a message of hope miraculously

devoid of any pretentiousness or sappiness, "Santa Lucia" is the rare kind of song that would justify

quoting the entire text, and alone worth the price of any album -- it should be clear, however, that even

without it Bufalo Bill remains essential listening for De Gregori fans.

---------------------------------------
Tracklist
---------------------------------------



01. Bufalo Bill
02. Giovane esploratore Tobia
03. L'uccisione di Babbo Natale
04. Disastro aereo sul canale di Sicilia
05. Ninetto e la colonia
06. Atlantide
07. Ipercarmela
08. Ultimo discorso registrato
09. Festival
10. Santa Lucia