He then moved back to his family in Modena and attended the local "istituto magistrale". He worked for a couple otf years as a reporter for a local newspaper Gazzetta di Modena. In 1960 the Guccinis moved to Bologna where Francesco studied at the local university. From 1965 to 1985 he held italian courses at the Dickinson College (an American school) in Bologna.
He played in local bands such as The Hurricanes and Gatti and achieved success in the 1960s writing songs for a legendary Italian band, Nomadi, also from Modena. Some of these successes include "Noi non ci saremo" and "Dio è morto". In the 1970s, Nomadi recorded two albums of Guccini's songs as well as a live album, Album Concerto, featuring him. Guccini's debut album was Folkbeat, No. 1 (1967).
Guccini always declared his first two works, Folk Beat n.1 and Due anni dopo, being merely tentatives, a nature probably noticeable in the quite essential musical arrangements. The latter, however, contained classics like the title-track and "La primavera di Praga" ("Prague Spring"). His first mature album is therefore L'Isola Non Trovata ("The Not Found Island") of 1970, which shows many the themes which were to be present in the future releases: a certain melancholy for a perceived nearness of death, as well as the portrait of outcasts figures like "Il frate" ("The Friar").
Radici ("Roots", 1972), is one of Guccini's finest works, and contains some of his most famous songs. These include: the title-track, a nostalgic declaration of love for Guccini's youth spent in the Appennine mountains; "La locomotiva", a long ballad about the solitary, unlucky revolt of a Bolognese railwayman during the 19th century; "Il vecchio e il bambino", a melancholic story about the dreams of an old man, and the different way in which they are perceived by the boy accompanying him; "Piccola città" ("Small City"), about Guccini's early years in the Emilia-Romagna provincial world.
Stanze di vita quotidiana ("Stanzas of Everyday Life") of 1974 deals with more private themes, sometimes with nearly desperate accents. The album contains at least one masterwork, the yearning "Canzone delle osterie di fuori porta".
In 1976 Guccini scored his greatest commercial success with the album Via Paolo Fabbri 43. The title is his residence street in Bologna. He declared this choice was an error, because many of his fans made true pilgrimages there to meet and talk with him. The album features the famous "L'avvelenata", a catchy ballad in which Guccini unleashes his rage against musics critics and people perceiving in a distorted way his career ans popularity as singer-songwriter.
Amerigo (1978), whose title-track is about the story of the emigration of Guccini's Pavanese uncle to the United States, Metropolis (1981), and Guccini (1983), showed that the Bolognese singer's inspiration was left untouched by the general switch to the more commercial themes that characterized the Italian musical world starting from the end of 1970s.
The 1984 live tournée was highly successful, and was soon collected in a double live LP, Fra la Via Emilia e il West ("Between the Via Aemilia and the West"). Emilia Romagna and the Old West symbolize well the double ties of Guccini to his native land and to America. Guccini declared to have knwown the latter soon in his life, through the comics and magazines imported by US soldiers during World War 2, but also through his uncle's tales. After the war, like many Italians of the period, he was of course influenced by American songs and Hollywood movies, and finally managed to touch with hand this kind of myth during his personal voyages to US (including a love story with an American girl).
Last album of 1980s was Signora Bovary (1987), containing notable pieces like "Scirocco". After several interlocutory albums in the 1990s, Guccini returned at his best with Stagioni ("Seasons") of 2000: the title-track is an effective, merciless accusation against media invadence and moral corruption of Italy.
Guccini's last studio release is Ritratti of 2004.
Bisanzio
Francesco Guccini Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Anche questa sera la luna è sorta affogata in un alone troppo rosso e
vago
Vespero non si vede, si è offuscata la punta dello stilo si è spezzata
che
oroscopo puoi trarre questa sera, mago! lo, Filemazio, protomedico,
matematico. astronomo (forse saggio) ridotto come un cieco a brancicare
attorno, non ho la conoscenza (od il coraggio) per fare questo oroscopo,
divinar responso e resto qui a aspettare che ritorni giorno. E devo dire
(devo
dire) che sono forse troppo vecchio per capire che ho perso la mia mente
in chissà quale abuso od ozio o stan mutando gli astri nelle notti
d'equinozio
o forse io (forse io) ho sottovalutato questo nuovo dio lo leggo in me e
nei
segni che qualcosa sta cambiando ma è un debole presagio che non dice
come e quando. Me ne andavo l'altra sera quasi inconsciamente giù al
porto Bosforeion là dove si perde la terra dentro al mare fino quasi al
niente
e poi ritorna terra, e non è più occidente; che importa a questo mare
essere
"azzurro" o "verde"?! Sentivo i canti osceni degli avvinazzati di gente
dallo
sguardo pitturato e vuoto ippodromo, bordello e nordici soldati romani e
greci. urlate dove siete andati! Sentivo bestemmiare in alamanno e in
goto.
Città assurda. città strana di questo imperatore sposo di puttana di
plebi
smisurate, labirinti ed empietà; di barban che forse sanno già la verità
di
filosofi e di etere sospesa tra due mondi e tra due ere. Fortuna e età
han
deciso per un giorno non lontano o il Fato chiederebbe che scegliesse la
mia mano. Ma Bisanzio è forse solo un simbolo insondabile. segreto e
ambiguo come questa vita, Bisanzio è un mito che non mi è consueto.
Bisanzio è un sogno che si fa incompleto. Bisanzio forse non è mai
esistita; e
ancora ignoro, e un'altra notte è andata, Lucifero è già sorta e si alza
un Pa
di vento c'è freddo sulla torre, o è l'età mia malata confondo vita e
morte. e
non so chi è passata mi copro col mantello il capo e più non sento e mi
addormento.
Francesco Guccini's song Bisanzio is a haunting and philosophical meditation on time, fate, and the unknowable mysteries of life. The opening lines describe a moon shrouded in a vague and reddish haze, with the evening star barely visible and the point of the stylus broken, leaving the singer unable to divine any astrological omens. He muses that perhaps he is too old or addled to understand his own mind, or that the stars are changing in some inexplicable way. He wanders down to the port of Bosforeion, where he encounters a raucous and debauched crowd, including painted and vacant-eyed prostitutes, drunken revelers, and soldiers from different cultures and languages. The singer describes the city of Byzantium as a strange and absurd place, ruled by an emperor who is married to a "plebeian whore" and filled with labyrinths, impurities, and debates among philosophers and etheric beings. He notes that fortune and age will determine his fate, but wonders whether his destiny is predetermined or whether he has free will to choose his own path.
Throughout the song, Guccini weaves together evocative imagery, historical references, and philosophical musings to create a portrait of a world that is both beautiful and brutal, mysterious and mundane. He suggests that while we may never fully understand the complexities of life and the universe, we can still find meaning and purpose in our own existence.
Line by Line Meaning
Anche questa sera la luna è sorta affogata in un alone troppo rosso e vago
Tonight, the moon has risen drowned in a red and vague halo
Vespero non si vede, si è offuscata la punta dello stilo si è spezzata che oroscopo puoi trarre questa sera, mago! lo, Filemazio, protomedico, matematico. astronomo (forse saggio) ridotto come un cieco a brancicare attorno, non ho la conoscenza (od il coraggio) per fare questo oroscopo, per divinar responso e resto qui a aspettare che ritorni giorno.
Evening has dimmed, and I, Filemazio, the protomedic, mathematician, and astronomer (if I may) am left blinded and lacking the knowledge (or courage) to draw an astrological chart tonight. I will have to wait till dawn for answers.
E devo dire (devo dire) che sono forse troppo vecchio per capire che ho perso la mia mente in chissà quale abuso od ozio o stan mutando gli astri nelle notti d'equinozio o forse io (forse io) ho sottovalutato questo nuovo dio lo leggo in me e nei segni che qualcosa sta cambiando ma è un debole presagio che non dice come e quando.
I must say (I must say) that I'm probably too old to understand whether I've lost my mind to some vice or leisure, or whether the equinox nights are changing the stars, or whether I (maybe I) have underestimated this new god I sense within myself and the signs that something is changing. Still, these are weak portents that don't tell when or how.
Me ne andavo l'altra sera quasi inconsciamente giù al porto Bosforeion là dove si perde la terra dentro al mare fino quasi al niente e poi ritorna terra, e non è più occidente; che importa a questo mare essere 'azzurro' o 'verde'?! Sentivo i canti osceni degli avvinazzati di gente dallo sguardo pitturato e vuoto ippodromo, bordello e nordici soldati romani e greci. urlate dove siete andati! Sentivo bestemmiare in alamanno e in goto.
One night I wandered down to the port of Bosforeion, almost unconsciously, where the land fades into the sea, and there's almost nothingness, and then the land returns, and it's no longer the West. What does it matter to this sea whether it's blue or green? I heard obscene songs from drunkards with painted eyes, and the hippodrome, brothels, and Nordic Roman and Greek soldiers. They were shouting, 'Where have you gone?' I heard blasphemies in Alamanni and Goth.
Città assurda. città strana di questo imperatore sposo di puttana di plebi smisurate, labirinti ed empietà; di barban che forse sanno già la verità di filosofi e di etere sospesa tra due mondi e tra due ere.
An absurd city, a strange city of this emperor who marries a whore of immoderate people, full of labyrinths and impiety; of barbarians who may already know the truth, of philosophers and ether suspended between two worlds and two ages.
Fortuna e età han deciso per un giorno non lontano o il Fato chiederebbe che scegliesse la mia mano.
Fortune and age have decided for a day not too far away, or Fate would ask me to choose my hand.
Ma Bisanzio è forse solo un simbolo insondabile. segreto e ambiguo come questa vita, Bisanzio è un mito che non mi è consueto. Bisanzio è un sogno che si fa incompleto. Bisanzio forse non è mai esistita; e ancora ignoro, e un'altra notte è andata, Lucifero è già sorta e si alza un Pa di vento c'è freddo sulla torre, o è l'età mia malata confondo vita e morte. e non so chi è passata mi copro col mantello il capo e più non sento e mi addormento.
But maybe Bisanzio is just an unfathomable symbol. Secret and ambiguous, like life, Bisanzio is a myth that's unfamiliar to me. Bisanzio is an incomplete dream. Perhaps Bisanzio never existed, and I still don't know. Another night has passed, and Lucifer has already risen. There's a cold wind on the tower, or it's my sick age confusing life and death. And I don't know who has passed. I cover my head with the mantle and feel no more as I fall asleep.
Contributed by Zoe H. Suggest a correction in the comments below.