Le nuvole

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Le nuvole (The Clouds) is an album by Italian singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André, released in 1990. The songs were written by Fabrizio De André and Mauro Pagani. As Pagani revealed in an interview within the 2011 DVD biographical documentary series Dentro Faber (i.e. Inside Faber, the latter being De André's nickname in Genoese), he is responsible for the writing of most of the music, while De André wrote all of the lyrics,^[1] except for Don Raffaè, detailed below, whose lyric writing is shared between De André and singer-songwriter Massimo Bubola. Pagani's collaboration with De André, always according to the Lombard musician, happened in an identical way for De André's previous album, Crêuza de mä, with Pagani setting to music De André's already fully written lyrics, on the basis of a few melodic ideas from the latter. His next collaboration, with fellow Genoan Ivano Fossati on Anime salve, would be more equally balanced, with he and Fossati composing music by actually playing together.^[2]

Overview

Mégu megún and 'Â çímma are written in Genoese, Monti di mola in Gallurese. Don Raffaè, a satirical/parody song about Italian Camorra boss Raffaele Cutolo, is partly sung in Neapolitan from the point of view of a jailer in the Poggioreale prison where Cutolo is kept; by portraying the character as a close friend of the titular Raffaele's, De André uses references to the real Cutolo (such as the famous "maxi-trial" in the late Eighties, where he was sentenced to life imprisonment), never naming him explicitly, to spoof a number of well-known Italian stereotypes about Camorra, Naples and Neapolitans in general. An ironic footnote printed in the booklet after the lyrics says: "The facts and characters in this song are fictional. Any references to actual people are nothing but coincidences."^[3] In 1992 the song was covered by Roberto Murolo as a duet with De André; Murolo's cover is included in his album "Ottanta voglia di cantare", celebrating the singer's 80th birthday - the album's title being a pun on Ho tanta voglia (i.e. I feel like (singing) so much) and ottanta (i.e. eighty).^[4]

Track listing

1. Le nuvole (De André/Pagani) – 2:16
2. Ottocento (De André/Pagani) – 4:56
3. Don Raffaè (De André/Massimo Bubola^[5] – De André/Pagani) – 4:08
4. La domenica delle salme (De André/Pagani) – 7:35
5. Mégu megún (De André/Ivano Fossati – De André/Pagani) – 5:22
6. La nova gelosia (Neapolitan anonymous, 18th Century) – 3:04
7. 'Â çímma (De André/Fossati – De André/Pagani) – 6:18
8. Monti di mola (De André/Pagani) – 7:45

Awards

• The album won the 1991 "Targa Tenco"^[6] prize for albums^[7]
• La domenica delle salme won the 1991 "Targa Tenco" prize for songs^[8]

References

External links

• (Italian) "Le Nuvole" on viadelcampo.com