Paolo Conte

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Went to see Cinq Fois Deux a month or so ago, and became mildly obsessed with the track "Sparring Partner" at the end, which I only just managed to identify tonight, it's not on the soundtrack.

Was wondering if Paolo Conte has other stuff I should check out.

This may seem a bit unlikely for me but please do not laugh!

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 21:12 (twenty-one years ago)

i wish i hadn't loaned out my paolo conte best-of to a co-worker a few years ago. time to hit up slsk.

― cindy margolis holocaust (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 21:21 (twenty-one years ago)

you should download "via con me" for starters...

Via, via, vieni via di qui,
niente più ti lega a questi luoghi,
neanche questi fiori azzurri...
via, via, neanche questo tempo grigio
pieno di musiche
e di uomini che ti sono piaciuti...

It's wonderful, it's wonderful, it's wonderful,
good luck my babe,
it's wonderful, it's wonderful, it's wonderful,
I dream of you...
chips, chips, du-du-du-du-du

Via, via, vieni via con me,
entra in questo amore buio,
non perderti per niente al mondo...
via, via, non perderti per niente al mondo
lo spettacolo d'arte varia
di uno innamorato di te...

It's wonderful, it's wonderful, it's wonderful...

Via, via, vieni via con me,
entra in questo amore buio,
pieno di uomini...
via, entra e fatti un bagno caldo,
c'è un accappatoio azzurro,
fuori piove un mondo freddo...

It's wonderful, it's wonderful, it's wonderful...

― cindy margolis holocaust (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 21:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah. That's on this best-of on Nonesuch, which is where I imagine many of us started:

ihttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000006R56/qid=1115765925/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-2836217-1475920

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 22:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Whoops.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000006R56.01._PE21_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 22:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Paolo Conte! Bringing him up brings a smile to my face. I saw him live once ('87 I think), such a powerfull ensemble! They swung, too bad it was a seated performance.

Ronan, I think the best of or a live album is a good place to start. It has the fast propulsive song I heard for the first time that night, forgot the title though. Of his regular albums I've only heard 1984's self titled one (which opens with "Sparring Partner") which is great throughout, the album containing "Max" (a minor hitsingle in the Netherlands!) and Aguaplano, which are great too but which lack the smokey nightclubby feeling of the 1984 album. Summarising, I guess that's actually the one to check out.

― willem (willem), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 22:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow, this song is gorgeous. I love it! The way that wonderful piano part plays in the chorus and suddenly sounds as if it's literally drowning...beautiful. I also like how, on the 'da da da' part, he totally sounds like Jasper from The Simpsons.

Thanks Ronan!

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Tuesday, 10 May 2005 22:49 (twenty-one years ago)

i just re-acquired the best-of and i'm very very happy. if anyone needs a copy, holla.

― cindy margolis holocaust (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 04:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah. That's on this best-of on Nonesuch, which is where I imagine many of us started:

that and the band 8 1/2 souvenirs (are they still around?), who covered a lot of conte and gainsbourg songs.

― cindy margolis holocaust (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 04:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Paolo Conte = best Italian musician EVER.
And greatest lyricist too.

― Marco Damiani (Marco D.), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 07:07 (twenty-one years ago)

The new album is excellent. It's ridiculous that Tom Waits gets all the plaudits while Conte does the whole schtick so much better and more profoundly. I've got tickets to see him at the Royal Festival Hall a week on Saturday.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 07:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Oooh. That's gonna be nice.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 07:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Conte is not so appreciated even here. He has his rabid fans, but younger, hipper people dismiss him as "old music", and he never flirted with politics and "big" issues - the only way here in Italy to be accepted in the artists' pantheon.

― Marco Damiani (Marco D.), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 08:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't ever recall the likes of Adriano Celentano or Fred Bongusto being overly concerned about politics or big issues. I mean, by those criteria, who's left once you get past Zucchero?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 08:13 (twenty-one years ago)

yes, but Zucchero or Bongusto have zero critical credit here - and Celentano was always harshly criticized for his catholic faith.
The intelligentsja of the Italian music scene was/is composed by people like Francesco De Gregori, Fabrizio De André, Francesco Guccini - did you ever have the chance to hear them? it can be a frustrating experience...
and what about Lucio Battisti? he was probably the most gifted Italian pop singer, he recorded at least a couple of fantastic albums (way more adventurous than anything Polnareff ever did!) but was promptly labelled as a "fascist" because he wasn't singing about the upcoming revolution.

― Marco Damiani (Marco D.), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 08:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Yep, props to Battisti. Sadly the others you mentioned never made it over to Britain, one way or the other...

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 09:01 (twenty-one years ago)

believe me, it's a whole lot better for Albion... :)
musically they really suck, they were just champions of an era where well-fed, middle-class protesters used to storm stages in order to process the artists (cultural revolution-style) because their songs didn't have enough proletarian contents. a tragically comic period, where Conte was described as a decadent mysoginist and so on...

― Marco Damiani (Marco D.), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 09:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Ah right, I've got you...Dario Fo pop.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 09:08 (twenty-one years ago)

yes!
Dario Fo is a good emblem of that era: a life of anarchic, "iconoclastic" shows just to end kissing the ass of the king and queen of Sweden...

― Marco Damiani (Marco D.), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 09:14 (twenty-one years ago)

oh, and Fellini's _Prova d'Orchestra_ is the best description ever of our 70's turmoil...

― Marco Damiani (Marco D.), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 09:18 (twenty-one years ago)

everyone's obsesed with this track Ronan! it's ace isn't it?

the IMDB site is aflame with people banging on about SPARRING PARTNER. i loved it too, and think it must be something to do with the very special way it's used in the film, as away from that it sounds a lot less exciting. often the case with soundtracks i guess.

yeah his VIA CON ME is also a soundtrack fave. it's on FRENCH KISS and WELCOME TO COLINWOOD.

― piscesboy, Wednesday, 11 May 2005 11:48 (twenty-one years ago)

In Britain it was used for an insurance ad.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 11:54 (twenty-one years ago)

"Via Con Me" also appeared in that German cooking film "Mostly Martha" a few years ago. Good stuff. I have his album "Appunti di Viaggio" from 1982 (which I found on vinyl for $1) which I like quite a bit even though I don't speak Italian. Great voice.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 13:04 (twenty-one years ago)

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