• Voto:
Una falsetto impossibile e una straordinaria somiglianza con Titti, il canarino di Gatto Silvestro.
Fragile, indifeso ma battagliero. In una parola: Jimmy Somerville.
Dichiaratamente gay, nei primi anni ’80 forma i Bronski Beat e con “The age of consent” mette in salsa pop la difficile condizione del proletariato omosessuale nell’Inghilterra thatcheriana vendendo milioni di copie, grazie a singoli efficacissimi: “Smalltown boy”, “Why”, la gershwiniana “Ain’t necessarily so”.
Poi il giocattolo si rompe, i compagni di strada recuperano un nuovo, insulso cantante e lui va a sbattere in un serioso polistrumentista di nome Richard Coles, con cui forma i Communards.
I due comunardi (di nome e di fatto: l’attacco alla “Breadline Britain” dove “il fascismo conduce una nuova danza” e “privatizzerebbero tua madre” è un vero manifesto politico, come l’amara dedica a Margaret Thatcher in “Reprise”) si mettono al lavoro e quello che ne esce fuori dimostra che Jimmy era il vero e unico talento dietro al battito di Bronski. La sua voce qui tocca vertici da fantascienza senza essere mai enfatico o caricaturale, Coles ha una chiara formazione pianistica a metà tra la classica e il jazz e cesella strutture sinuose con cui accompagnare le acrobazie del minuscolo cantante.
Somerville e Coles sembrano due piccoli chimici in stato di grazia e distillano tutto quello che gli capita a tiro: la lezione di “Smalltown boy”, tirata a lucido, si vede ancora in “You are my world”, dove Coles e Somerville gareggiano in virtuosismi vocali e pianistici, e nella dance drammatica di “Disenchanted”, ma nuovi mondi appaiono all’orizzonte. “Breadline Britain” deve molto a Brecht/Weil, “La dolarosa” è un flamenco aspro e struggente, “Don’t slip away” gioca con la Black music, “Don’t leave me this way”, un successo planetario, coverizza un classico disco/soul e si permette di coinvolgere anche un mostro sacro come Sarah Jane Morris. Con la trascinante “So cold the night” il calderone si arricchisce di spezie orientali, e tanto per non farsi mancare niente i Communards sfidano nientemeno che sua maestà Billie Holiday in “Loverman”, buttandola un po’ sul “divertissement” ma cavandosela piuttosto bene.
R&B, disco, jazz, suoni etnici vengono buttati in pentola senza schemi né preconcetti.
La maionese non impazzisce grazie a un livello di scrittura ottimo e arrangiamenti decisamente sobri per l’epoca (stiamo parlando di metà anni ’80, le icone della scena pop gay-friendly sono Marc Almond, i Dead or Alive e i Village People… gente che di sobrietà non voleva nemmeno sentir parlare).
Senza parlare di capolavoro, “The Communards” (come il suo successore, “Red”) è tuttora un gran bel disco, suonato e cantato magnificamente. Pur essendo dinamico e ricco di momenti ballabili, per me è un disco d’inverno: riesce a creare un’atmosfera calda e avvolgente adatta a una serata fredda, magari con il caminetto acceso, un libro di Jonathan Coe sulle ginocchia e un gatto acciambellato accanto. Se potete, sostituite al gatto un essere umano (scegliete voi il sesso che preferite): Titti il canarino, in tal caso, potrebbe addirittura risultare afrodisiaco.
Un disco da riscoprire.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
01 Don't Leave Me This Way (06:26)
Don't leave me this way
I can't survive, I can't stay alive
Without your love, no baby
Don't leave me this way
I can't exist, i will surely miss your tender kiss
So don't leave me this way
Oh baby, my heart is full of love and desire for you
So come on down and do what you've got to do
Your started this fire down in my soul
Now can't you see it's burning out of control
So come on down and satisfy the need in me
'Cos only your good loving can set me free
Don't leave me this way
I don't understand how I'm at your command
So baby please, so don't you leave me this way
Oh, baby, my heart is full of love and desire for you
So come on down and do what you've got to do
You started this fire down in my soul
Now can't you see it's burning out of control
So come on down and satisfy the need in me
'Cos only your good loving can set me free
Set me free, set me free, set me free, set me free, set me free
Come, satisfy me, come satisfy me
Don't you leave me this way
Don't leave me this way
I can't exist, I will surely miss your tender kiss
So don't leave me this way
Oh, baby, my heart is full of love and desire for you
So come on down and do what you've got to do
You started this fire down in my soul
Now can't you see it's burning out of control
So come on down and satisfy the need in me
'Cos only your good loving can set me free
Set me free, set me free, set me free, set me free, set me free
Don't you know by now, don't you know by now
I'm losing control
03 Disenchanted (06:13)
So, boy where you go, what you do,
Hey there boy what is wrong with you?
No future, no hope, just broken dreams,
You spend your days wondering why
I'll be your friend, I'll be around
I'll be everything you need
I'll be your friend, I'll be around
I'll be everything you need
Hey young man, why you cry
Don't you know, you've got to try
A little bit harder, you've got to stand
On your own two feet
Never let them drag you down
Hey there boy
This prejudice and ignorance we can overcome
I'll be your friend, I'll be around
I'll be everything you need
I'll be your friend, I'll be around
I'll be everything you need
Disenchanted angry young man
Disenchanted angry young man
Disenchanted angry young man
Disenchanted angry young man
I'll never let you down
Never let you down
So boy now you know what to do,
hey there boy don't be blue
There's future, there's hope, hope for you
Hey young man just believe in what you do.
I'll be your friend, I'll be around
I'll be everything you need
I'll be your friend, I'll be around
I'll be everything you need
Pride is something good for you
Believe in yourself
05 So Cold the Night (06:48)
I watch your window
I shake so scared
Spying from my room
With nervous unrest
Night after night your fingers
caressing
The skin that is so fair you slowly
undress
Soon we will be together
Until then so cold the night
Soon we will be together
Until then so cold the night
I know that you knowthat I'm here
each night
Watching and praying the time is now
right
For me to undress and caress you
Until then I'll just sit here and dream.
Soon we will be together
Until then so cold the night
Soon we will be together
Until then so cold the night
Cold the night, Cold the night
Soon my love
Soon my secret lover
Soon my love
Soon my secret lover
Soon my love
Soon my secret lover
Soon my lover
I watch your window
I shake so scared
Spying from my room with nervous
unrest
Night after night your fingers
caressing
The skin that is so fair you slowly
undress
Soon we will be together
Until then so cold the night
Soon we will be together
Until then so cold the night
Soon we will be together
Until then so cold the night
Soon we will be together
Until then so cold the night
Cold the night
Cold the night
Cold the night
Cold the night
Cold the night
Cold the night
Ooh it's so cold without you
Cold the night
Cold the night
Cold the night
Cold the night
Cold the night
Cold the night
06 You Are My World (08:01)
There is nothing boy that can stop my
course
I will hold you tight never let you go
Tomorrow's party will never end
Like a bud in spring our love will
bloom and grow
Your eyes to me are precious stones
On a face that's made of a solid gold
When I hold your hand I want to cry
And your loving arms to protect me
from the could you are my world
The soul inside now belongs to you
I'm drowing in a love so deep
We will overcome those ups and
downs
So happiness is forever ours to keep
I will follow you to the end of time
I will be the blood flowing through your veins
I will ride with you till the end of the
line
You will be my everything; my world
You are; you are; you are; you are,
Oh boy; you are my world
07 Lover Man (03:52)
I don't know why but I'm feeling so sad
I long to try something I've never had
Never had no kissing
Ooh what have I been missing?
Lover man oh where can you be?
The night is cold and I'm so alone
I'd give my sould just to call you my own
Got the moon above me
Got no-one to love me
Lover man oh where can you be?
I've heard it said that the thrill of romance
can be like a heavenly dream
I go to bed with a prayer that you'll
soon make love to me, strange as it seems
08 Don't Slip Away (02:58)
Something inside of me's out of control
I can't contain it so just let it go
Baby I'm so sold on you can't you see
What you're doing to me
Now that I've got you in my hands
Won't let you slip away
Now that I've got you in my hands
Won't let you slip away
baby I waited here counting the days
Hoping and praying and blueing away
Now that you're here with me all of
my dreams have come true
Now that I've got you in my hands
Won't let you slip away
Now that I've got you in my hands
Won't let you slip away
[I got you, I got you]
Yeah yeah...
Could it be magic this feeling inside
Baby you move me in every way
All of these things that you do
Feel so good, oooh oooh ooooh ooh
Now that I've got you in my hands
Won't let you slip away
Now that I've got you in my hands
Won't let you slip away
Something inside of me's out of control
Baby can't stop it so just let it go
Baby for you I'd go down on my
Knees and I'd pray
Now that I've got you in my hands
Won't let you slip away
Now that I've got you in my hands
Won't let you slip away
09 Heavens Above (03:59)
Oh well he's got a hod on my heart
My lust and my everything
He's thrown it around and around and
I'm screaming, don't bring me down
Oh well I took control of his fire
And it kept me warm all night long
Now I find it hard to control the desire
To keep it burning on
Oh well his love is strong as strong can be
Oh well his love is strong enough for me
I've got an angel
I've got an angel
I've got an angel
I've got an angel
Oh well I took control of his fire
And it kept me warm all night long
Now I find it hard to control the desire
To keep it burning on
Oh well his love is strong as strong can be
Oh well his love is strong enough for me
Oh well his love is strong as strong can be
Oh well his love is strong enough for me
Heavens above no I can't get enough
Heavens above no I can't get enough
Heavens above no I can't get enough
Heavens above no I can't get enough
11 Breadline Britain (02:31)
This is Breadline Britain
This free and promised
land
Where the rich don't give a damn
Poeple
getting hungry and people getting poor
People getting
destitute and more
This is Breadline Britain
Oh
you've got to understand
Where evil's in
command
Where money buys onli pipedreams
and a
worker's life is damned
Democracy and freedom are
a
Far off foreign land.
Where the sick don't
stand a chance
Where fascism leads a new dance
Where
they'd privatise your mother
If given half a
chance
This is Breadline Britain
You've got to make
a stand
Breadline, breadline, breadline
Britain
Breadline breadline, breadline Britain
This free
and promised land
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