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Ormai è fatta anche quest'anno. Per quasi due mesetti il bombardamento mediatico è stato impietoso: siate buoni, buoni da fare ribrezzo, e soprattutto comprate sempre più cianfrusaglie inutili. Siate buoni come il bambino dello spot del pandoro, con quella mascella deforme e con quel suo belato già impostato secondo i peggiori canoni sanremesi, usato per ricordarci più volte al giorno che è Natale e si può dare (o fare ?) di più, più o meno come dicevano i suoi tre fratelloni Morandi Tozzi & Ruggeri, se non ricordo male. O buoni come la modella statuaria con il culo molto più espressivo del viso, che con accento da Stanlio e Ollio continua ad assicurarci che tutto è intorno a noi, purché si usi un certo telefonino. Rimedi non ce ne sono: è il Mercato, sacro e intoccabile, e non importa se l'invito a dilapidare tredicesime fa a cazzotti con l'esiguità, e a volte mancanza, delle medesime. Però sviluppare reazioni allergiche è ancora possibile. Quest'anno per esempio ogni volta che dal carrozzone dei venditori televisivi viene sparata una raffica di "Jingle Bells" da imbecilli coretti infantili, i miei nervi acustici la assorbono e la convertono in note di pianoforte analoghe, ma molto più distinte, intense e soprattutto molto più adulte. Note che suggeriscono un altro modo di aspettare Natale, desiderando un fiume ghiacciato su cui pattinare in libertà, forse per trovare il modo di ricucire un difficile rapporto con una figlia adottata e un po' trascurata
È l'introduzione pianistica natalizia di "River", uno dei tanti gioielli che fanno di "Blue" (1971) un disco storico, senza ombra di dubbio la vetta massima della fase acustica di Joni Mitchell e per molti il suo capolavoro assoluto. Personalmente preferisco la successiva svolta a base di raffinati apporti jazz, che ha il suo culmine nell'ineguagliabile "Hejira", ma è una questione di gusti. In "Blue" si alternano, fronteggiandosi in un'avvincente gara di bellezza, due grandi gruppi di canzoni. Uno è costituito da struggenti duetti tra il pianoforte e la voce di Joni, che a tratti raggiunge vertici di intensità e di passione quasi liederistici. L'altro da eleganti ballate acustiche in bilico tra stile West Coast e influenze latine, e qui giganteggia la chitarra di James Taylor, volutamente scarna, a volte metallica come un bouzouki greco, ideale complemento sia ai gorgheggi luminosi della voce di Joni che alle sue sfumature più ombrose e roche. Anche qui il livello è tale che le preferenze sono una questione di gusti: chi come me è classicomane e amante del pianoforte sarà portato a privilegiare le canzoni del primo gruppo, il che non toglie un grammo al valore delle altre. Tra le splendide "confidenze al pianoforte" che la voce di Joni ci regala, oltre alla già citata "River", spicca "Blue", una vera e propria poesia incorniciata da accordi delicati e affascinanti. "Le canzoni sono come tatuaggi" recita il primo verso, ed è una garanzia: una volta ascoltata rimane davvero indelebile nella memoria. In "My Old Man" è bellissima l'alternanza tra l'esplosione di felicità, con acuti da soprano, delle strofe più amorose, e la brusca sterzata malinconica del refrain ("Ma quando lui se n'è andato..."), con la voce squillante che in un attimo si adombra. "The Last Time I Saw Richard", vero dialogo in forma di canzone, sfrutta i registri più bassi del pianoforte e della voce perraccontare un amore finito nel tono più lucido e discorsivo possibile. Anche se i due temi "amore" e "libertà", con il loro contrasto spesso irrisolto, sono alla base di quasi tutte le canzoni, nelle ballate per chitarra tende ad imporsi la libertà, che si esprime nel bisogno di viaggi, di spazi estesi, il che è perfettamente in linea con la tradizione musicale della West Coast. Unica ma notevole eccezione "A Case Of You", dove la chitarra essenziale di James Taylor lascia il massimo spazio alla voce di Joni, che esalta da par suo lo stato di grazia di un amore totale, assoluto come un legame di sangue. Il culto del viaggio come simbolo di libertà è espresso fin dall'inizio, con l'insistente ripetizione della parola "travelling" nella brillante "All I Want", che ci prepara a fare un pieno di nuovi orizzonti da scoprire in "Carey" e in "California", non a caso le due canzoni più serene del disco, con i loro chiari colori latini. Ma "This Flight Tonight" spezza ogni illusione e, pur trattando di un viaggio, riporta in primo piano l'eterno dissidio amore-libertà con i suoi tormenti interiori, ben espressi anche da una musica piena di tensione. La chitarra di James Taylor, fin qui metallica e nervosa, si placa in "Little Green", un concentrato di tenerezza in grado di commuovere i cuori più aridi, una breve parentesi in cui il dolce verde della primavera per un attimo si impone sul colore cupo della malinconia, quel blu che non è affatto "dipinto di blu" ma piuttosto un blu notte, come quello della copertina di questo capolavoro poetico e musicale
Elenco tracce testi e samples
03 Little Green (03:28)
Born with the moon in Cancer
Choose her a name she'll answer too
Call her green and the winters can not fade her
Call her green for the children who have made her
Little, green, be a gypsy dancer
He went to California
Hearing that everything's warmer there
So you write him a letter, say, "her eyes are blue"
He sends you a poem and she's lost to you
Little, green, he's a non-comformer
Just a little green
Like the color when the spring is born
There'll be crocuses to bring to school tomorrow
Just a little green
Like the night's when the Northern lights perform
There'll be icicles and birthday clothes
And sometimes there'll be sorrow
Child with a child pretending
Weary of lies you're sending home
So you sign all the papers in the family name
You're sad and you're sorry but you're not ashamed
Little green, have a happy ending
Just a little green
Like the color when the spring is born
There'll be crocuses to bring to school tomorrow
Just a little green
Like the night's when the Northern lights perform
There'll be icicles and birthday clothes
And sometimes there'll be sorrow
04 Carey (03:03)
The wind is in from Africa.
Last night, I couldn't sleep.
Oh, you know it sure is hard to leave here, Carey,
But it's really not my home.
My fingernails are filthy.
I've got beach tar on my feet.
And I miss my clean white linen and my fancy French cologne.
Oh, Carey get out your cane, and I'll put on some silver.
Oh, you're a mean old daddy, but I like you.
Come on down to the Mermaid Cafe and I will buy you a bottle of wine.
And we'll laugh and toast to nothing, and smash our empty glasses down.
Let's have a round for these freaks and these soldiers,
A round for these friends of mine.
Let's have another round for the bright red devil, who keeps me in this tourist town.
Oh, Carey get out your cane, and I'll put on some silver.
Oh, you're a mean old daddy, but I like you.
I like you, I like you, I like you.
Maybe I'll go to Amsterdam, or maybe I'll go to Rome.
And rent me a grand piano and put some flowers round my room,
But let's not talk about fare-thee-wells now, the night is a starry dome.
And they're playing that scratchy rock 'n' roll beneath the Matalla moon.
Oh, Carey get out your cane, and I'll put on some silver.
Oh, you're a mean old daddy, but I like you.
The wind is in from Africa.
Last night, I couldn't sleep.
Oh, you know it sure is hard to leave here, but it's really not my home.
Maybe it's been too long a time since I was scrambling down in the streets.
Now they got me used to that clean white linen and that fancy French cologne.
Oh Carey get out your cane, and I'll put on my finest silver,
We'll go to the Mermaid Cafe, have fun tonight.
I said, oh, you're a mean old daddy, but you're outta sight.
06 California (03:51)
Sitting in a park in Paris France
Reading the news and it sure looks bad
They won't give peace a chance
That was just a dream some of us had
Still a lot of lands to see
But I wouldn't want to stay here
It's too old and cold and settled in its ways here
Oh but California
California I'm coming home
I'm going to see the folks I dig
I'll even kiss a Sunset pig
California I'm coming home
I met a redneck on a Grecian isle
Who did the goat dance very well
He gave me back my smile
But he kept my camera to sell
Oh the rogue the red red rogue
He cooked good omelettes and stews
And I might have stayed on with him there
But my heart cried out for you California
Oh California I'm coming home
Oh make me feel good rock 'n' roll band
I'm your biggest fan
California I'm coming home
Oh it gets so lonely
When you're walking
And the streets are full of strangers
All the news of home you read
Just give you the blues
Just give you the blues
So I bought me a ticket
I caught a plane to Spain
Went to a party down a red dirt road
There were lots of pretty people there
Reading Rolling Stone reading Vogue
They said "How long can you hang around?"
I said a week maybe two
Just until my skin turns brown
Then I'm going home to California
California I'm coming home
Oh will you take me as I am
Strung out on another man
California I'm coming home
Oh it gets so lonely
When you're walking
And the streets are full of strangers
All the news of home you read
More about the war
And the bloody changes
Oh will you take me as I am?
Will you take me as I am?
Will you?
07 This Flight Tonight (02:52)
Look out the left the captain said
The lights down there, that's where we'll land
I saw a falling star burn up
Above the Las Vegas sands
It wasn't the one that you gave to me
That night down South between the trailers
Not the early one
That you can wish upon;
Not the Northern one
That guides in the sailors.
Oh starbright, starbright
You've got the lovin' that I like, all right
Turn this crazy bird around
I shouldn't have got on this flight tonight
You got the touch so gentle and sweet
But you've got that look so critical
Now I can't talk to you baby
I get so weak
Sometimes I think love is just mythical
Up there's a heaven
Down there's a town
Blackness everywhere and little lights shine
Oh, blackness, blackness dragging me down
Come on light the candle in this poor heart of mine.
Oh starbright, starbright
You've got the lovin' that I like, all right
Turn this crazy bird around
I shouldn't hove got on this flight tonight
I'm drinking sweet champagne
Got the headphones up high
Can't numb you out
Can't drum you out of my mind
They're playing "Goodbye baby, Baby Goodbye,
Ooh, ooh, love is blind"
Up go the flaps, down go the wheels
I hope you got your heat turned on baby
I hope they finally fixed your automobile
I hope it's better when we meet again baby
Starbright, starbright
You got the lovin' that I like, all right
Turn this crazy bird around
I shouldn't have got on this flight tonight
08 River (04:05)
It’s coming on Christmas, they’re cutting down trees
They’re putting up reindeer and singing songs of joy and peace
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on
But it don’t snow here, it stays pretty green
I’m gonna make a lot of money and then I’m gonna quit this crazy scene
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on
I wish I had a river so long I would teach my feet to fly high
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on
I made my baby cry
He tried hard to help me, you know he put me at ease
And he loved me so naughty, made me weak in the knees
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on
But I’m so hard to handle, I’m selfish and I’m sad
Now I've gone and lost the best baby that I’ve ever had
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on
Oh I wish I had a river so long I would teach my feet to fly high
Oh I wish I had a river that I could skate away on
I made my baby say goodbye
It’s coming on Christmas, they’re cutting down trees
They’re putting up reindeer and singing songs of joy and peace
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on
09 A Case of You (04:23)
Just before our love got lost you said
I am as constant as a northern star
And I said, constantly in the darkness
Where's that at?
If you want me I'll be in the bar
On the back of a cartoon coaster
In the blue TV screen light
I drew a map of Canada
Oh Canada
With your face sketched on it twice
Oh you're in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet
Oh I could drink a case of you darling
And I would still be on my feet
Oh I would still be on my feet
Oh I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints
I'm frightened by the devil
And I'm drawn to those ones that ain't afraid
I remember that time that you told me, you said
Love is touching souls
Surely you touched mine
Cause part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time
Oh you're in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet
Oh I could drink a case of you darling
Still I'd be on my feet
I would still be on my feet
I met a woman
She had a mouth like yours
She knew your life
She knew your devils and your deeds
And she said
Go to him, stay with him if you can
But be prepared to bleed
Oh but you are in my blood you're my holy wine
You're so bitter, bitter and so sweet
Oh I could drink a case of you darling
Still I'd be on my feet
I would still be on my feet
10 The Last Time I Saw Richard (04:16)
The last time I saw Richard was Detroit in '68
And he told me all romantics meet the same fate someday
Cynical and drunk and boring someone in some dark cafe
"You laugh," he said, "You think you're immune,
Go look at your eyes, they're full of moon
You like roses and kisses and pretty men to tell you
All those pretty lies, pretty lies
When you gonna realize they're only pretty lies
Only pretty lies, just pretty lies"
He put a quarter in the Wurlitzer
And he pushed three buttons and the thing began to whirr
And a bar maid came by in fishnet stockings and a bow tie
And she said, "Drink up now it's gettin' on time to close"
"Richard you haven't really changed," I said,
"It's just that now you're romanticizing some pain that's in your head
You got tombs in your eyes, but the songs you punched are dreaming
Listen, they sing of love so sweet, love so sweet
When you gonna go get yourself back on your feet?
Oh love can be so sweet, love so sweet."
Richard got married to a figure skater
And he bought her a dishwasher and a coffee percolator
And he drinks at home now most nights with the TV on
And all the house lights left up bright
I'm gonna blow this damn candle out
I don't want nobody comin' over to my table
I got nothing to talk to anybody about
All good dreamers pass this way some day
Hidin' behind bottles in dark cafes, dark cafes
Only a dark cocoon before I get my gorgeous wings and fly away
Only a phase, these dark cafe days.
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