Eat the Phikis

Eat the Phikis
Studio album by Elio e le Storie Tese
Released	1996
Genre	Rock
Length	69:45
Label	Aspirine Sony BMG
Producer	Otar Bolivecic
Elio e le Storie Tese chronology
Esco dal mio corpo e ho molta paura: Gli inediti 1979–1986 (1993) Eat the Phikis (1996) Del meglio del nostro meglio Vol. 1 (1997)

Eat the Phikis is the 1996 album by Italian rock band Elio e le Storie Tese, published after their second-place finish at the Sanremo Music Festival 1996 with the song La terra dei cachi, a humorous take on Italian lifestyle.

Eat the Phikis had a good commercial success in Italy, by keeping the first place in the best-selling album chart (FIMI) for four consecutive weeks.^[1]

Track listing

1. "Vincitori o campioni?" – 1:59
2. "La terra dei cachi" – 4:21
3. "Burattino senza fichi" – 4:52
4. "T.V.U.M.D.B." – 5:26
5. "Lo stato A, lo stato B" – 4:31
6. "El Pube" – 5:03
7. "Omosessualità" – 3:34
8. "Mio cuggino" – 5:36
9. "First Me, Second Me" – 3:32
10. "Milza" – 4:34
11. "Li immortacci" – 4:40
12. "Tapparella" – 6:31
13. "Neanche un minuto di non caco" – 1:03

Personnel

• Stefano Belisari as Elio - vocals, bass on track 7
• Sergio Conforti as Rocco Tanica - keyboards
• Davide Civaschi as Cesareo - guitars
• Nicola Fasani as Faso - bass
• Paolo Panigada as Feiez - sax, guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
• Chhristian Meyer as Millefinestre - drums

Guest musicians

• Curt Cress – drums on tracks 3 and 12
• Vinnie Colaiuta – drums on tracks 5, 6, 8 and 10
• James Taylor – vocals on track 9
• Demo Morselli – trumpet on tracks 3, 4 and 11
• Daniele Comoglio – sax on 'tracks 3, 8 and 11
• Ambrogio Frigerio – trombone on tracks 3, 4, 6 and 11
• Giorgia – vocals on tracks 4 and 11
• Edoardo Vianello – vocals on track 11
• Naco – percussions on tracks 4, 6 and 8
• Enrico Ruggeri – vocals on track 5
• Vittorio Cosma – vocals and keyboards on track 12
• Aldo Baglio as Rolando – vocals on track 8
• Tenores di Neoneli – backing vocals on track 8
• Onofrio Cocco – backing vocals on track 8

Allusions

The album alludes to several other musical works.

• The cover is inspired by the cover of Time to Move by H-Blockx.^[2]
• At the beginning of Vincitori o campioni? voices by judges of Jeux Sans Frontières are heard. Voices from Teatro Ariston (in which Sanremo Music Festival is host) are coming next.^[2]
• In La terra dei cachi there are many citations of Italian and international music like "Papaveri e papere" by Nilla Pizzi, "Una lacrima sul viso" by Bobby Solo, "La donna cannone" by Francesco De Gregori, "Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068" by Johann Sebastian Bach and "In the Flesh?" by Pink Floyd.^[2]
• "Burattino senza fichi" is a parody of Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio.^[2] The title resembles the title of the album Burattino senza fili by Edoardo Bennato. It also refers to "Più ci penso" by Gianni Bella, "Get Back" by The Beatles, the soundtrack of the Italian Pinocchio film and The Adventures of Pinocchio, and "It's a Long Way to Tipperary", a song of World War I sung many times by Snoopy.^[2]
• T.V.U.M.D.B. is inspired by Earth, Wind & Fire works. A snippet of the soundtrack of the film Jaws is heard in the song.^[2]
• Mio cuggino is a joke about urban legends; there are citations of "Autobahn" by Kraftwerk, the voice of Ike Willis in "Sy Borg" by Frank Zappa, and Tullio De Piscopo's voice.^[2]
• "Li immortacci" is sung with Italian singers Giorgia and Edoardo Vianello (who sings on the notes of his own past hit I Watussi) and talks about famous dead rock stars living secretly in a quasi-immortal state ("mortacci" is a mild-to-folkloric roman swear roughly meaning "your damned dead"). "Li immortacci" are Jimi Hendrix ("er Chitara"), Freddie Mercury ("er Mafrodito"), Bob Marley ("er Rastamanno"), Federico Monti Arduini ("er Guardiano der Faro"), Elvis Presley ("er Pelvicaro"), Michael Jackson ("er Thrilleraro"), Jim Morrison ("er Lucertolaro"), John Lennon ("er Quattrocchi Immaginaro"), Luigi Tenco ("er Vedraro"), Ian Curtis ("l'Impiccato"), Kurt Cobain ("er Fucilense"), and Brian Jones ("er Piscina"); the identity of "er Tromba" ("the Trumpet", translated from roman dialect) is uncertain (probable names are Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis or Chet Baker).^[2] There are also citations of Lisa Marie Presley and Haile Selassie.^[2] Musically, there is a sampling of "We Are the Champions" by Queen (and of Mercury's voice), and in the part dedicated to Jim Morrison, some of the lyrics resembles the lyrics of "The End" by the Doors.^[2]
• In "Tapparella" are cited: "Little Wing" by Jimi Hendrix, "Strawberry Fields Forever" by The Beatles, "Gente per bene e gente per male" by Lucio Battisti and "Impressioni di settembre" by Premiata Forneria Marconi.^[2]
• "Neanche un minuto di non caco" is a fastened version of "La terra dei cachi" and its title refers to "Neanche un minuto di non amore" by Lucio Battisti. Both this song and its normal speed version are live recordings from the 1996 Sanremo Music Festival.^[2]

References

1. ↑ "Album - I numero uno (1995-2006)". IT-Charts. Retrieved 22 August 2015. 
2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Eat the Phikis". Marok. Retrieved 22 August 2015. 

External links

• Eat the Phikis at Discogs
• Eat the Phikis at AllMusic. Retrieved 20 August 2015.