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.
Due anni dopo
Francesco Guccini Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
l'inverno e il freddo le han portate, o son cattivi sogni solamente.
Mattino verrà e ti porterà
le silouhettes consuete di parvenze;
poi ti sveglierai e ricercherai
di desideri fragili esistenze...
che un giorno ti rifletta il vuoto oppure che svanisca la figura.
E ancora non sai se vero tu sei
o immagine da specchi raddoppiata;
nei giorni che avrai però cercherai
l'immagine dai sogni seminata...
L'inverno ha steso le sue mani e nelle strade sfugge ciò che sento.
Son trine bianche e neri rami che cambiano contorno ogni momento.
E ancora non sai come potrai
trovare lungo i muri un' esperienza;
sapere vorrai, ma ti troverai
due anni dopo al punto di partenza...
E senti ancora quelle voci di mezzi amori e mezze vite accanto;
non sai però se sono vere o sono dentro all' anima soltanto;
nei sogni che hai, sai che canterai
di fiori che galleggiano sull'acqua.
Nei giorni che avrai ti ritroverai
due anni dopo sempre quella faccia...
La la la la...
The lyrics to Francesco Guccini's song Due anni dopo express the feeling of being stuck in a cycle of sameness, with broken visions and phrases returning repeatedly to the singer's mind. The winter and the cold have brought them, or maybe they are just bad dreams. The singer describes waking up to the usual shapes and appearances, but then searching for fragile desires and existences. They look in the mirror and see a familiar face, but cling to a fear of reflecting emptiness or disappearing altogether. They don't know if they are real or just a doubled image from the mirror. The singer will spend their days searching for the image seeded in their dreams, hoping to break the cycle.
The winter has laid its hands on the streets and what the singer feels is escaping it, like white lace and black branches whose shapes change constantly. They don't know how to find an experience along the walls they'll be wandering; they'll want to know, but two years later, they'll be back where they started. The singer still hears those voices of half-baked love and half-lived lives beside them, but they're unsure whether the voices are real or just inside their mind. They know they'll sing of flowers floating on the water in their dreams, but in their days, they'll always find themselves back in the same place, two years later, looking at the same face in the mirror.
The lyrics to Due anni dopo are heavy with introspection and a feeling of being trapped. The repeated mention of the winter and cold suggest a feeling of stagnation and stagnancy. The lyrics of the song suggest a dream-like state of mind where it is impossible to distinguish reality from imagination or illusion. The song is melancholic and deals with themes like introspection, uncertainty, and the passage of time.
Line by Line Meaning
Visioni e frasi spezzettate si affacciano di nuovo alla mia mente,
Broken images and fragmented phrases resurface in my mind once again,
l'inverno e il freddo le han portate, o son cattivi sogni solamente.
they have been brought by winter and cold, or are they just bad dreams?
Mattino verrà e ti porterà
Morning will come and bring you
le silouhettes consuete di parvenze;
the usual silhouettes of appearances;
poi ti sveglierai e ricercherai
then you will wake up and search
di desideri fragili esistenze...
for fragile existences of desires...
Lo specchio vede un viso noto, ma hai sempre quella solita paura
The mirror sees a familiar face, but you always have that usual fear
che un giorno ti rifletta il vuoto oppure che svanisca la figura.
that one day it will reflect the emptiness or the figure will vanish.
E ancora non sai se vero tu sei
And you still don't know if you are really
o immagine da specchi raddoppiata;
or a doubled image from mirrors;
nei giorni che avrai però cercherai
but in the days you have, you will search
l'immagine dai sogni seminata...
for the image sown in dreams...
L'inverno ha steso le sue mani e nelle strade sfugge ciò che sento.
Winter has laid its hands and what I feel escapes in the streets.
Son trine bianche e neri rami che cambiano contorno ogni momento.
They are white laces and black branches that change outline every moment.
E ancora non sai come potrai
And still you don't know how you can
trovare lungo i muri un'esperienza;
find an experience along the walls;
sapere vorrai, ma ti troverai
you will want to know, but you will find yourself
due anni dopo al punto di partenza...
two years later at the starting point...
E senti ancora quelle voci di mezzi amori e mezze vite accanto;
And you still hear those voices of half-loves and half-lives beside you;
non sai però se sono vere o sono dentro all'anima soltanto;
however, you don't know if they are true or just in your soul;
nei sogni che hai, sai che canterai
in the dreams you have, you know you will sing
di fiori che galleggiano sull'acqua.
about flowers floating on the water.
Nei giorni che avrai ti ritroverai
In the days you have, you will find yourself
due anni dopo sempre quella faccia...
two years later with the same face...
Contributed by Sophie G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Giovanna Bartoli
Nei sogni che hai, sai che canterai
Di fiori che galleggiano sull'acqua.
Nei giorni che avrai ti ritroverai
Due anni dopo sempre quella faccia...
la cantavo da bimba e ho pianto quando ho capito il senso....
Gio Luc
A due anni alla volta, ormai i "due anni dopo" sono davvero tanti. Speriamo di poterne raccontare ancora tanti "anni dopo". Auguri a tutti.
Luca Regini
altri 9 ne abbiamo raccontati, belli e brutti, come sempre. Auguri Gio Luc, se ci sei ancora
elisa canale
E' vero sempre al punto di partenza.... quasi un fenomeno di coazione a ripetere...
Margherita Una Vita
@Gio Luc : Grazie e altrettanto a tutti "noi"