✕
Pointless
At last, an inconclusive rap,
a heap of words saying nothing at all,
a bunch of letters held together just by metrics,
a mixture without ideas or any artistic drive,
or ethical drive, or poetic goal,
without the least aim of being dialectic,
purely aesthetic but without essence,
this rap fills up your ears, it seems like air in your belly,
it leaves everything exactly as it was before,
at the moment when it began,
so far nothing has changed,
nor will it change when it’ll be over, for sure,
rest assured of it,
this time I don’t want to tell you anything, I swear to you,
but I want to do it in the style of those authors
who make whole albums this way, instead of keeping quiet.
Now take a seat and learn the refrain,1
since anyway, in the end, you listen only to it.
«Well, I’ve been out of the spotlight for 6 years now (yes),
you cannot afford a mistake.»2
‹No… I cannot afford a mistake?!›3
«Who, me?? Rather, try to write something melodic and breezy.»
‹Oh, but then I’ll sign the piece.›
«And how are you going to sign it, with a cross? You ignorant!»
‹That’s true…›
«I want you classical and modern (yes), sexy and motherly (yes), and successful!»
‹Like Macarena?›4
«Much more!»
This is the portion of this song of mine
to which everyone pays the utmost attention;
what I’ve said until now, and what I’m telling afterwards
is needed only to distract you a bit.
This is the portion — with this variation —
to which everyone pays the utmost attention;
what I’ve said until now, and what I’m telling afterwards
is needed only to distract you a bit.
A stupid song, an end in itself,
a confessed criminal in its essence,
it’s taken to trial at your presence,
being cleared because it’s been made for the sole purpose of existing
(and so futile a fact can’t possibly subsist).
Consisting in nothing is not a crime;
were it prosecutable, all prisons together wouldn’t be enough
to contain the crowds of piecework-artists,
who compose only to inflate their amount of song minutes,
who write tomes and tomes of songs about good feelings,
always using a modest style, about very generic topics;
in writing they’re verbose, in thinking they’re too concise.
How prolific they are!
Every month a Parsifal, every year a festival,5
and every decade a full-blown the best of,
in which they put only the flour,
since they have already fobbed off the bran to you in the past ten years!
«You half-wit! (yes) It’s not working, can you hear it?»
‹No. Yes.›
«I’m looking for something more folkish…»
‹Frapparapparapparappara…›
«And what was that?! We’re not at the sheep country festival at all…
I meant something more chill-out…»
‹Oh, that stuff’s cool… tjou wjou…›
«But this sucks!
We need to get hold of the whole coast and some community centers, (yes)6
try with electro…»
‹Bzzzzzz›
«I said electro, not techno.»
This is the portion of this song of mine
to which everyone pays the utmost attention,
what I’ve said until now, and what I’m telling afterwards
is needed only to distract you a bit.
This is the portion, with this variation,
to which everyone pays the utmost attention,
what I’ve said until now, and what I’m telling afterwards
is needed only to distract you a bit.
A song with no story, but which adds up to my repertoire,
which lengthens by one track the inventory
that I’m collecting here in the form of a CD, an LP or an MC7
and that I’m trying to sell to you.
Representative of my style
enough to fit into the rest of my disc
without the risk of disappointing you,
now excuse me if I’m treating you too ill,
since if you’re listening to this one, you’ll have bought the original CD,
investing a conspicuous capital
equivalent to the entrance fee of a trendy place
or to the price of the ticket for a league match8
and out of which I may not even get a whole euro.
Take it for what it is:
an artistic scam,
dictated by a sordid merchandising necessity.
And if I’m selling all this shlock as jewels,
‟sir, understand me: I’ve got a family!”9
«Perfect! You understood nothing…»
‹Why?›
«We have to please teenagers (yes),
reassure mums (yes), keep company to emigrants (yes).
Feel more Italian…»
‹But, Francesco, I can’t.›10
«Frankie! Show me respect, you subaltern!»
‹Sorry…›
«Let’s give it an international taste (yes).
Try with English (yes), I don’t know, like… ‛drink a mole together’»
‹But it means ‛drink a mole together’…›
«Who cares? It fits in the metrics, (ok) and who’s gonna understand it?»
Drink a mole together, centrical forever, fed a funky restaurant
«No, no, too Anglo-Saxon.»
‹Really?›
«Try something Latin.»
‹Ista partem est…›
«Not in that sense! South America!»
‹Olé›
This is the portion of this song of mine,11
to which the whole worlds pays the utmost attention.
What I’m saying now, and what I’m going to tell you
is needed only as a distraction, olé.
This is the portion — with this variation —
to which the whole worlds pays the utmost attention.
What I’m saying now, and what I’m going to tell you
is needed only as a distraction, olé.
‹Caution: this disc is protected
by the sophisticated anti-piracy system MACUMBATRON.12
Any duplication attempt might cause
vertigo, leeches, feeling of inadequacy,
mass rebellions, excess body hair, spontaneous combustion.›
«Uhm, look for something more frightening…»
‹Uhm… crack of doom.›
«It’s not enough, something worse?»
‹Uhm, early election.›13
«All right.»
- 1. mò is a regional word for ‟now”, very common in central and southern Italy.
- 2. The album Ero un autarchico {I was an autarchic} is from 2003; the previous one, La morte dei miracoli {the death of miracles}, is from 1997.
- 3. This skit is based on the gags by Paola Cortellesi with the Gialappa’s Band. She played Magica Trippy {Magical Trippy}, a singer and voice over actress who gets exploited and mistreated by music producers.
- 4. Macarena has been so successful as a lighthearted summer song that it is still sometimes played nowadays (in tourist resorts, etc.), though it dates back to 1994.
- 5. Parsifal is an opera by Wagner. Here it stands for something majestic, but it is sarcastic and actually means long and boring.
- 6. They are trying to reach the widest audience possible to make money — from the radicals/rebels of centri sociali to the conformists/consumerists who, every Summer, go on holiday on the riviera romagnola (Riccione and the like).
- 7. Music supports:
CD = compact disc.
LP = long playing record.
MP = musicassette. - 8. scudetto is the name of the Italian football championship for the Serie A (the first division); it is also the name of its prize (a small shield-shaped Italian flag, a small scudo).
- 9. This is a typical excuse from people who occasionally commit crimes and think they are allowed to do that just because they were in need (they had a family to look after). The sentence is in its typical, southern-Italy-dialect formulation.
dottò = dottore (doctor) is used as a form of respect for people you’re not acquainted with (especially for more educated people, or people higher up in the hierarchy), in southern Italy. - 10. Frankie’s real name is Francesco Di Gesù.
- 11. In the original lyrics, this is Italian-Spanish mangling.
- 12. Macumba is a voodoo jinx.
This advice mocks those you can hear on TV after an ad for a medication. - 13. Since the Italian unification in 1861, it has happened just once, that a government lasted for the whole 5 years prescribed by the law (not counting the Fascist dictatorship).
게스트, 2017-03-04✕
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