Ritorno alla giovinezza...
Da un po' di tempo si sente aria di revival in campo musicale.
Numerosi artisti, negli ultimi concerti, stanno riproponendo materiale risalente ai loro primi anni di carriera o addirittura album interi: un'operazione del genere l'avevamo vista in ''Holy Diver Live'', dove Ronnie James Dio dà in pasto ai suoi fan il suo primo disco (appunto ''Holy Diver'').
Questa tendenza ha evidentemente contagiato anche Derek Dick, in arte Fish... voce dei Marillion dal 1982 all'88.
Il concerto celebra il ventesimo anniversario di ''Misplaced Childhood'' (1985), LP più famoso dei Marillion, nonché uno dei migliori concept-album degli anni '80: il titolo ''Return To Childhood'' ed i disegni di copertina sono, infatti, evidenti rimandi al passato.
L'intera performace (di ben due ore!) è divisa in due parti, corrispondenti a 2 CD. Il primo ripercorre la carriera solista di Fish, dal 1989 fino all'ultimo ''Field Of Crows''; il secondo rappresenta per intero ''Misplaced Childhood'', a cui seguono altri evergreen dei Marillion.
Andiamo con ordine...
L'apertura è affidata a Big Wedge, risalente al primo album ''Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors''. Nonostante il piglio piuttosto pop, l'uso di una sezione di fiati e di coriste, nonché un testo molto evocativo (I found a new religion yesterday, I'd just cleared immigration JFK / a priest got in a Cadillac, the shoe shine boy sang gospel [...]) ne fanno una delle migliori composizioni del cantante scozzese. Segue Moving Targets, pezzo proveniente dall'ultimo ''Field Of Crows'', che testimonia la ritrovata vena creativa dopo un decennio piuttosto altalenante.
Brother 52 alterna momenti progressive, con tastiere in gran spolvero, ad altri di hard rock melodico. Sullo stesso genere è anche la successiva Goldfish And Clowns che contiene anche un ottimo assolo di chitarra. Dopo due canzoni buone ma non indispensabili, ecco un'altra perla: Raingods Dancing, una struggente prog-ballad con magnifiche tastiere di sottofondo...
Passa poi un altro piacevole quarto d'ora con il blues-rock di Wake Up Call (Make It Happen), e con il potente AOR di Innocent Party e di Long Cold Day. L'ultimo pezzo del repertorio solita, prima di effettuare il salto nel passato, è un altro evergreen di Fish: si tratta di Credo, una stupenda, emozionante e profonda marcetta che mischia prog, hard rock e sonorità vagamente celtiche.
Dopo averci proposto la sua selezione di brani ecco iniziare il pezzo forte... ''Misplaced Childhood'' nella versione integrale (che non era stata più proposta dai Marillion post-Fish).
Pseudo Silk Kimono, serve più che altro a far riposare l'ormai stanca voce del nostro artista: infatti si tratta più di un esercizio di recitazione che di canto vero e proprio. Gli applausi del pubblico scandiscono l'inizio diKayleigh, brano pop che all'epoca rese i Marillion molto più famosi e vendibili rispetto ai loro colleghi del neo-prog. Si tratta di una versione molto più morbida rispetto all'originale: effetto dovuto specialmente all'uso di coriste. Lo stesso riarrangiamento viene utilizzato nella successiva Lavander.
Bitter Suite ed Heart Of Lothian vengono invece suonate in modo leggermente confusionario, e ciò le rende meno digeribili rispetto alle corrispondenti versioni in studio. Altro esperimento, stavolta pienamente riuscito, viene effettuato sulla breve Waterhole (Expresso Bongo), trasformata in un pezzo hard rock dove vengono enfatizzate chitarra e percussioni. La graziosa Lords Of The Backstage è un altro momento di riposo e fa da trampolino di lancio per una versione di Blind Curve, dove il claustrofobico pezzo centrale viene allungato a dismisura. Magistralmente interpretate sono anche le due ultime Childhoods End? e White Feather.
Chiusa la pratica ''Misplaced Childhood'' arriva il momento dei bis...
Il primo, purtroppo interpretato in maniera discutibile, è Incommunicado: le parti di tastiera leggermente trasformate, e soprattutto la performance vocale di un Fish stanco e sfibrato dopo aver dato il 110%, la penalizzano parecchio. Ma ecco arrivare subito l'inversione di tendenza con Market Square Heroes (contenuta nel primo EP dei Marillion, risalente al 1983), talmente potente e perfetta da far scomparire l'originale... ed infine si chiude nel migliore dei modi con Fugazi.
In conclusione mi sento di affermare che questo ''Return To Childhood'' sia veramente un ottimo live... musica di alto livello interpretata da musicisti di livello altrettanto alto.
Particolarmente consigliato per i fan di Fish e dei Marillion, per i nostalgici, e soprattutto per coloro che apprezzano l'ala meno estrema e più melodica del progressive rock.
E come al solito... buon ascolto...
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 Big Wedge (06:25)
I found a new religion yesterday, I'd just cleared immigration JFK
a priest got in a cadillac, the shoe shine boy sang gospel
as God and his accountants drove away.
You'll see him coast to coast on live tv, in a stadium
rocked by Satan just the night before
the collection from the faithful is tax free
it'll pay for his presidential campaign and his yacht
And we all bow down, we bow down to the big wedge
and we'll buy ourselves some heaven on earth
we sell our souls, sell our souls for big wedge
are we selling out tomorrow for today?
A surgeon checks your plastic on the telephone
a casio concerto entertains you while you hold
your credit rating's good for a Madonna or a Bardot
a Dali or a Picasso for his wall.
You're looking good, looking good with big wedge
are you holding back tomorrow for today?
they're driving in, driving in with big wedge
are we selling out tomorrow for today?
You'll sell the ground beneath your feet
you'll sell your oil, you'll sell your trees
you ideals and integrity your culture and your history
your children into slavery to labour in their factories
your mother and your family
you'll sell the world eventually.
The IMF and CIA; there's just no difference they're all the same!
It just depends on what's your point of view
America, America the big wedge
and they're buying up your tomorrow with promises
the promises of big wedge and they'll break them
like your hearts another day
when you find out that you've left it just too late
and find that you're the only one to blame
that you sold out your tomorrow for Big Wedge
03 Brother 52 (05:00)
Doc: "Tattoo Shop"
Fish: "Hi Doc"
Doc: "Hey Fish, what are you doin'?"
Fish: "If you don't mind, we're gonna record this. Is that cool?"
Doc: "Oh that's cooler 'n hell. Hell yeah, 52's biggest dream man.
You know his biggest dream was, me and him go party with you."
On the trail of torn-out twisters, two angels on a mission came
Dust devils danced before them in the path of the hurricane.
On the road to Oklahoma, through the flatlands from L.A.
From the shadows in the valley, from a country where the lizards play.
While they drove they kept the radio on, why don't you singalong, singalong, singalong.
(Chorus:) Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo Brother 52
Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo Brother 52
I don't think so.
A man stands behind his shadow, a man stands behind his words.
These men are together with family to defend their rights in another man's world.
Most people stood against them, most people disagreed
With the need for all those weapons in our safe, secure society.
Paint the words and the pictures on another man's skin
We are lover, warrior, magician kings.
(Chorus):
Doc:"Fuckin' brilliant, man. OK, here's what happened. 52 barred the door shut from the inside. A gunfight started on the front porch. 52 shot back. You know...they come into his home with it, so he's protecting himself. The guy inside the house blew his brains out. Yeah, they made it look like he killed himself. But, no one believes he would, 'cause he's not that kind of man. That's all, I think, he wasn't afraid of death. You know, he believed in something to die for, that's what he did."
Some say he had it coming, others say he was sole to blame
But who says they've got the rights if any at all to blow the brothers away.
A man got a right to wonder, a man got a right to dream,
Without looking over his shoulder to choose the manner of the life he leads.
One man's thoughts on another man's skin
We are lover, warrior, magician kings.
(Chorus):
Doc: "What they have done, was they've come in and murdered him, for his bombs and his ammunition. Just like that Waco Texas or any of these other things, over here in the United States. Anybody that's stockpiling firearms and ammunitions is a threat to the government, so the government wages war against us. They tortured him, he went out but I'm sure he stood up like he was supposed to, you know? They smashed all the rings shut on his fingers with a hammer. It was all an orchestrated plan, man. The more.. the closer I was getting to it.. to the truth, the more they got everybody looking at me as being the guy that pulled the trigger. And what they did when they killed 52, is they broke the whole family up.
That's exactly what they wanted to do.
They wanted to break all of us up."
09 Credo (08:04)
(Dick/Simmonds/Boult/Usher)
I watch the TV every night,
I stay awake by satellite,
I hope and pray the nightmares,
Stay away today.
An oily shroud on a coral reef,
A black cloud's hanging over me.
When I hit on the remote,
The programmes stay the same.
Credo, credo, credo, credo.
An assegai slick with sweat and blood,
A shotgun barks at a rabid dog,
A shallow grave hugs a highway,
Beneath a bleaching sun.
chorus:
Credo, credo, credo, credo,
It don't mean nothin'; it don't mean nothin'
It don't mean nothin'; it don't mean nothin' to me.
When cancer sucks a young girl's breast.
When a company chains a young man's soul
When the coal dust stole
My grandad's breath away.
(chorus)
A tattered tramp tacks a windy wynd,
To close a crowded circle a brazier's light,
A man becomes a mountain, in the falling snow.
A mother screams and a baby cries.
The memory gone before the blood has dried.
A needle pricks the conscience,
To help it fade away.
(chorus)
The more you scream, the less you hear,
Or that's how it used to be.
But I just can't tell the difference
Anymore these days.
The open lips of an alter[1] boy,
A planet spins in a silent void,
The options are ever fewer
On the ground these days
(chorus)
[1] sic. Is this supposed to be altar? This is how it appears on the lyric sheet.
Carico i commenti... con calma
