Fabrizio De André in Concerto - Arrangiamenti PFM ["In Concert—Arrangements by PFM"] is a 1979 live album by Fabrizio De André featuring Italian progressive rock band Premiata Forneria Marconi, also known as PFM, as his backing band, recorded during their successful 1979 tour of Italy and Europe. Built on powerful, complex and carefully crafted rock arrangements, either by single band members or by the band as a unit, the album marked a significant stylistic and musical departure for De André, whose output up to that point had always employed acoustic-based, folk arrangements, occasionally branching into pop but never overtly using rock structures and instrumentation. Upon release, the album became immediately very popular and paved the way for other Italian singer-songwriters (notably Francesco Guccini) for their own transition from a folk style into a more rock-oriented one. The album was followed by a Volume 2 the next year, recorded during the same shows.
Background and overview De André and the members of PFM had known each other since 1969, when the band, then known as Quelli ("Those ones"), featuring Teo Teocoli as their lead vocalist and mainly active as session musicians, had played on his album La buona novella. According to reminiscences told to De Andre's widow Dori Ghezzi and Florentine actor David Riondino (who opened the 1979 shows as a comedic singer-songwriter) by drummer Franz Di Cioccio and bass player Patrick Djivas, in the 2020 rockumentary Fabrizio De André & PFM: il concerto ritrovato (i.e. The Newly Found Concert, as described in §Fabrizio De André & PFM: il concerto ritrovato), the band and De André met up again after a PFM concert in Tempio Pausania; De André, who had been living in Sardinia, namely in Gallura, since late 1975, was in the audience and, after the show, visited the band members in their dressing rooms and told them that he had been very impressed by the "density" of their music (in Di Cioccio's words) and by the sheer amount of musicianship involved in the band's improvisations. Di Cioccio reciprocated the compliment by telling De André that he had been following the latter's output for a long time before they even met, for La buona novella; Di Cioccio claimed to be especially fond of De André's older songs, such as "La canzone di Marinella". He and Djivas talked De André into adding "a lease of new life" to his old songs through "rockier" arrangements. The Genoan singer-songwriter, who at the time was also suffering from a lack of motivation and stimuli, enthusiastically accepted the band's proposal, and told them he would perform the arrangements on the road with them, as a tour, which was later immortalized by the two-volume live album.Fabrizio De André & PFM: il concerto ritrovato DVD.
All of the tour dates were very successful in terms of ticket sales and of popularity, although some of De Andre's early "purist" fans viewed his move into rock as selling out, or simply as De André "pandering" to a more contemporary music style in order to have a broader appeal. However, music critics at the time, comparing the tour to Bob Dylan "going electric" in 1965, lauded the tour itself, and its resulting live albums, for their great originality, and praised De André's audacity in going beyond the commonly accepted "minimal" attitude of 1970s singer-songwriters (according to which the number of instruments which were played alongside the singing, and the quality of the playing itself, had a much lesser importance than the lyrics) and "dressing up" his songs in beautiful musical arrangements, which thus became just as relevant as his lyrics.As told by De André and Guido Harari in their book Una goccia di splendore: un'autobiografia per parole e immagini ["A drop of brightness: an autobiography for words and pictures"], published posthumously by Rizzoli in 2010.Also from Fabrizio De André & PFM: il concerto ritrovato DVD.
Track listing Fabrizio De André in Concerto "Bocca di Rosa" ["Rose-mouth"] (De André; main arrangers: Franco Mussida and Flavio Premoli) - 4:32 "Andrea" (De André/Massimo Bubola; main arranger: Mussida) - 5:24 "Giugno '73" ["June '73"] (De André; main arrangers: Patrick Djivas, Premoli) - 4:24 "Un giudice" ["A judge"] (De André/Giuseppe Bentivoglio/Edgar Lee Masters [lyrics], De André/Nicola Piovani [music]; main arranger: Premoli) - 3:23 "La guerra di Piero" ["Piero's war"] (De André; arranged by PFM) - 3:30 "Il pescatore" ["The Fisherman"] (De André [lyrics], Gian Piero Reverberi/Franco Zauli [music]; main arrangers: Di Cioccio, Premoli) - 3:58 "Zirichiltaggia" [literally "Lizards' den" in Gallurese] (De André/Bubola; main arranger: Lucio Fabbri) - 2:27 "La canzone di Marinella" ["Marinella's song"] (De André; main arranger: Mussida) - 4:02 "Volta la carta" ["Turn the page"] (De André/Bubola; main arrangers: Premoli, Fabbri) - 3:56 "Amico fragile" ["Frail friend"] (De André; main arranger: Mussida) - 9:35
Fabrizio De André in Concerto, Vol. 2 "Avventura a Durango" [a translation of Bob Dylan's "Romance in Durango", from his 1976 album Desire] (De André/Bubola [Italian lyrics], Bob Dylan/Jacques Levy [music]; main arrangers: Mussida, Premoli) - 5:20 "Presentazione" [Band and crew intros, by Franz Di Cioccio] - 3:42 "Sally" (De André/Bubola; arranger: Roberto Colombo) - 5:05 "Verranno a chiederti del nostro amore" ["They will come to ask you about our love"] (De André/Bentivoglio [lyrics], De André/Piovani [music]; main arranger: Premoli) - 5:06 "Rimini" (De André/Bubola; arranged by PFM, main arranger: Premoli) - 5:00 "Via del Campo" [literally "Field Street" - a street in Genoa] (De André/Enzo Jannacci; arranger: Roberto Colombo) - 2:44 "Maria nella bottega del falegname" ["Mary in a carpenter's workshop"] (De André [lyrics], De André/Reverberi [music]; main arranger: Premoli) - 4:37 "Il testamento di Tito" ["Titus's testament"] (De André [lyrics], De André/Corrado Castellari [music]; arranged by PFM, main arrangers: Mussida, Premoli) - 6:34
2012 bonus tracks The 2012 re-release of both albums, within the 16-CD live box set I concerti ["The concerts"] by Sony Music, features four bonus tracks entitled "Contestazione Roma PalaEUR" (1-4) [i.e. "Jeering in Rome PalaEUR"], which consist in various excerpts from a 1980 show in Rome's PalaLottomatica (formerly PalaEUR); in the show, De André performed the same setlist as in the live albums, but he was verbally attacked, jeered and booed throughout by some of the local audience, who, as several other early fans of De Andre's, viewed the coupling between a singer-songwriter and a rock band as almost sacrilegious, implying a sell-out of the former; large groups of people shouted out "sell-out, sell-out" and chanted "idiot, idiot" between songs. The singer responded (in the second excerpt, track 10 on the CD) by claiming that there are no such things as good ideals and bad ideals, but that ideals are seen as good or bad depending on them being accepted by a majority or a minority of people. Di Cioccio, on his own turn, defended the combination on the ground that PFM were merely functioning as De Andre's backing band for that tour, as opposed to a full-fledged rock band with their own personality; he then proceeded to introduce the band members, as he did on Volume 2.I Concerti 2012 box set, CD 4, tracks 9–12. Some footage showing the audience from the Rome show was also included in the first section of the 2020 documentary film Fabrizio De André & PFM: Il concerto ritrovato, described below. The film also includes a scene from the same show, referred to by Di Cioccio in an interview excerpt, where De André, fittingly with the audience's reactions, sarcastically sings a line from "Amico fragile" as "And while I was sitting amongst your fuck-offs..." instead of ending it with the correct word, "goodbyes".
Song changes With PFM imprinting their own progressive rock stamp on all songs, all of the arrangements are notably different from their respective original studio recordings. Some of the changes are subtle, others more radical.
Fabrizio De André in Concerto "Bocca di Rosa", originally from Volume 1, is given a new intro and a new solo by guitarist Franco Mussida and keyboardist Flavio Premoli, with additional violin passages by violinist Lucio "Violino" Fabbri. The tarantella rhythm on the original recording is removed, and the song is played instead as a fast shuffle in . "Andrea", originally from Rimini, is played faster than the original, and Massimo Bubola's passionately Mediterranean instrumental melody (functioning as an interlude between verses) is more prominent. "Giugno '73" adds a new intro based on Patrick Djivas's bass, but remains otherwise faithful to its original recording on Volume 8; only, keyboards are more prominent and the instrumental interlude is played by Franz Di Cioccio on crotales. "Un giudice" is played very slightly slower than its original recording on Non al denaro non all'amore né al cielo and it is given a Cajun feel by Premoli, who adds a new solo on accordion. "La guerra di Piero" is relatively unchanged from its original recording on Volume 3; the song's military march feel is emphasized by Di Cioccio's percussion and additional keyboards by guest musician Roberto Colombo, one of which is played with a harpsichord timbre. "Il pescatore", originally released in 1970 as a standalone single, features one of the most striking changes: the simple folk arrangement in the original version is transformed into a rousing rock anthem, featuring heavy drums, percussion (both engaged in a short solo/break towards the end), electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards and violin. The hook, originally consisting in a whistled melody, is joyously sung as a choir ("La-la-la-la, la-la, la-la..." etc.) by the entire band - except for bass player Patrick Djivas, who does not sing. "Zirichiltaggia" is, again, played much faster than its original recording on Rimini. Fabbri emphasizes the song's bluegrass feel by playing a longer fiddle solo. The harmony vocals, originally sung by Bubola as one of the two shepherds comically arguing in the song, are here sung by Mussida. In his introduction to the song, De André stated that living in Gallura for four years meant that he at least managed to learn the local language - which allowed him to write the song. "La canzone di Marinella" is transposed from the beat of its original recording, on Volume 3, to a beat, and the arrangement, led by piano and acoustic guitar, is softer and calmer than the original - thus adding even more sweetness to De André's already sugar-coated, fairytale-like lyrical treatment of Marinella's rape and tragic death. In "Volta la carta", the Irish gig elements of the original recording, on Rimini, are given more prominence, with the main interludes being played on violin and keyboards. Mussida sings Dori Ghezzi's part from the original version, and the final operatic tenor high note is omitted, played instead as a held note on the violin. Di Cioccio starts the song by singing "Branca, Branca, Branca!", to which the band responds "Leòn, Leòn, Leòn!" - a reference to the main theme from the 1966 film For Love and Gold. "Amico fragile" is much longer than its original recording on Volume 8, with a new intro by Premoli and two new guitar solos by Mussida. De André sings the second verse an octave higher than the original, and in a much more impassioned tone, highlighting the overall resentful attitude of the whole lyric.
Fabrizio De André in Concerto, Volume 2