How Long Can Sushi Be O

... part 1 ... ON THE MYSTERY OF THE ROAD ON THE ROAD TO

Meeting in my store after many years of old reels ... there are two songs recorded. One is marked "7 / 4", another "Untitled." Why "On the Road to YS"? Why do we speak of a journey. The material presented in this record tells a very important step, even fundamental to the trip, four guys who undertook many years ago. It was 1971. After months and months of testing, a summer 'fire' in Rimini spent playing in the local area, and then in September the Festival at the indoor stadium of Pop Novate Milanese, this whole scene of the Italian progressive addition to the Colosseum - really a great event, strangely little remembered - a gray October morning Ballet Bronze landed in Milan. Phonogram (then Polygram, now Universal) had called us to record an audition. We ended up in a tiny room on the top floor of a historic building in Piazza Cavour. We carry all our tools, including Hammond, right up there. The equipment of the study was very limited: the recorder was just four tracks! We, however, the situation appeared to be the materialization of a dream. Right next door was the largest study, one in which the artists recorded important. We gave a sneak peek: there was a recording to 8 tracks (ridiculous, today), a Steinway grand piano, a Hammond B-3, even a Mellotron M-400 and a Minimoog, tools then almost science fiction, specie per noi musicisti italiani. Poi tornammo nel nostro sgabuzzino e cominciammo a registrare. I tempi erano piuttosto ridotti, per cui fu necessario tornare anche il giorno successivo. Mettemmo su nastro due brani, allora ancora senza titolo (poi sarebbero diventati “Introduzione” e “Secondo incontro”) e con le parti vocali embrionali, del tutto dissimili da quelle definitive. All’epoca io amavo cantare solo in inglese: avevo la convinzione che cantare in italiano mi avrebbe automaticamente fatto sprofondare nella melma dei cantanti melodici-tradizionali-commerciali, che disprezzavo oltremodo. Poi con gli anni ho cambiato totalmente idea in merito, nel senso che, pur continuando a disprezzare i canzonettari, ho rivalutato il suono della lingua italiana, anche nel rock. C’era da sottolineare, inoltre, che allora non parlavo ancora l’inglese, infatti la mia pronuncia era davvero improponibile per il mercato estero. Ciononostante andavamo avanti così, sfrontatamente (com’era nel nostro stile abituale d’altronde). I testi deliranti li aveva scritti - suggestionato dalle mie fantasie dark - Raffaele Cascone a Napoli, a casa di Lino Vairetti degli Osanna, immediatamente prima della nostra partenza per l’incandescente estate riminese. Passate alcune settimane, arrivò il responso dalle ‘alte sfere’ della Phonogram: ci offrivano un contratto! A rileggerlo oggi, era davvero un contratto-capestro, ma per noi in quel momento rappresentava the highest of our aspirations. We gave up, what's more, our pay us royalties for the giant size poster (100 x 140 cm) and the album cover "YS", opening in the inner leaves and richly illustrated. The next step was to go into the studio, this time the big one, to record, in fact, "YS". It was March 1972. Phonogram forced me to sing in Italian, but I refused, so I think to sing the entire album to one of four singers, a Sicilian girl, Giusy Romeo (later known as Giuni Russian). The result, however, not convinced, so in the end I was obliged to sing imbronciatissimo furious and all the songs and make a new mix final in mid-May. In June, "YS" was released on the market. The rest of the story (maybe) you already know.
Gianni Leone, 2010