school friends and a teacher. We were writers of our own school-magazine and
we had a meeting with people from other schools from whole northern Germany
where we all should learn more about how to write articles for newspapers
and that stuff. I was 13 years old that time.
The members of the other groups were "much" older, maybe 17 or 18, and when
we all met in the evening in the cafeteria of the youth hostel where we
stayed the older boys and girls played some records they had brought with
them - among them Jethro Tull and - Angelo Branduardi, both completely new
to me.
I remember the cafeteria had enormous loudspeakers and the sound of "La
pulce d'acqua" fullfilled the whole youth hostel - I'll never forget that. I
was deeply impressed by the atmosphere, the magic of the strange voice and
language, the violin, the melody - amazing !
The music, the people I met there, and the discussions I was attending to -
the older ones were talking about politics (it was the time of the peace
movement, the struggle against the use of nuclear power, the environment
movement), for me all that was a new way of thinking, very exciting, exotic,
but I got an idea of what life could (and should) be. Branduardi symbolizes
all of that. "La pulce d'acqua" to me is a kind of soundtrack of that time:
non-violent, peaceful, sensitive, influenced by different cultures: poetry
and politic statement at the same time.
When I came back from that weekend I went to buy the record. In the shop I
saw beside "La pulce d'acqua" also "Cogli la prima mela" and "Alla fiera
dell'est". Unfortunately I couldn't buy them all because I hadn't got the
money. So I bought "Cogli la prima mela" first (maybe because of the
colorful cover) and was fascinated again when I listened to the song "Cogli
la prima mela" the first time. Later, of course, I bought all the other
records too ... And "Branduardi canta Yeats" was the first "CD" I bought.
So Angelo's music is part of my life for that long period now. The first
concert I went to was indeed much later: in Hanover, october 30th in 1988,
concert of the "Pane e Rose"-tour.
Because I loved the Italian language so much and because I wanted to
understand what Angelo was singing I went to the Università per Stranieri of
Perugia for the first time in 1990 and learned Italian.
I think it's wonderful to know that we all together, even if our biographies
may be very different, have one passion (better: fate ;-) in common.
So I have to confess: I am serious ill of "Branduardite", and I hope I'll
never be cured !
