Salvo alcune rare edotte discettazioni musicologiche di chi di Musica ne sa in profondità per averla vissuta, suonata e studiata per decenni, si tratta quasi sempre di noiosissimi e prevedibilissimi commenti denigratori, e qualche giorno fa si sono di nuovo scatenati alla vista (anzi all’ascolto) di un video diventato virale di un concerto di Samurai Jay, il cantante campano dominatore assoluto delle classifiche italiane 2026 con la sua “Ossessione”.

Ed effettivamente il video riprende in maniera impietosa una scena che forse il buon Samurai Jay avrebbe preferito non diventasse mai virale perchè, complice un temporaneo mancato utilizzo dell’Autotune, dimostra al di là di ogni ragionevole dubbio la sua totale e assoluta incapacità nel cantare.

Ecco il video:

Sì, è una scena terrificante. E sì, è impossibile non restare sgomenti al pensiero che Samurai Jay sia il più quotato cantante italiano dell’anno. Ma noi pensiamo che abbiamo tutti torto a denigrare sia lui che tutti gli altri artisti di alta classifica di oggi.

E vogliamo qui illustrarvi perchè bisogna salvare il Samurai Jay.

Il GUSTO È SOGGETTIVO, LA QUALITÀ NO

Partiamo da un concetto base, risaputo ma che vale la pena ribadire: il gusto è soggettivo, ma la qualità no. Questo in tutto, e anche nella Musica.

Quindi si può a livello di gusto preferire Samurai Jay (che citiamo come esempio, ma avremmo potuto citare quasi qualsiasi altro artista italiano da classifica di oggi) a “Kind of Blue” di Miles Davis (album del 1959 che citiamo come esempio in quanto giustamente ritenuto uno degli album più importanti della storia dell’umanità, ma avremmo potuto citare quasi qualsiasi altro artista non-italiano da classifica pre-1980).

Ma nessuno può ovviamente affermare che Samurai Jay sia superiore a livello qualitativo/artistico a “Kind of Blue” di Miles Davis.

E difatti per fortuna nessuno si sogna di affermarlo, e non lo affermerebbe (ne siamo certi!) neanche lo stesso Samurai Jay, che sicuramente sarà il primo a essere ben cosciente del livello oggettivo di qualità artistica dei suoi brani, e ben cosciente del fatto che lui li scrive e pubblica solo perchè a livello di gusto piacciono tantissimo a tantissimi.

Insomma Samurai Jay (e quasi qualunque altro nuovo artista trovate oggi nei piani alti delle classifiche) fa esattamente quello che fa McDonald con i suoi hamburger: ha trovato un prodotto che piace tantissimo a tantissimi, e lo produce e vende in grandi quantità.

Dando quindi per assodato che qualitativamente la musica di classifica di oggi è (salvo rare eccezioni, ovvio) di livello incommensurabilmente inferiore a quella di qualche decennio fa, arriviamo al punto cruciale del nostro discorso: il contesto storico.

IL CONTESTO STORICO

Oggi - e anche questo è un concetto base, risaputo - viviamo in un contesto storico in cui la musica non solo non viene più ascoltata nella maniera con la quale era ascoltata 50 anni fa, ma non ha più la stessa rilevanza umana, emotiva, sociale, storica che aveva 50 anni fa.

All’epoca la musica influenzava, cambiava, forgiava la gente, i pensieri, i movimenti, le idee, il mondo.

Oggi questa funzione chi la assolve?

La assolvono coloro che gestiscono i social media, coloro che regolano i parametri dei famigerati algoritmi, coloro che decidono cosa debba essere importante o meno in determinate “bolle social”. Oggi sono loro che influenzano, cambiano, forgiano la gente, i pensieri, i movimenti, le idee, il mondo.

E la musica oggi è solo un contorno, un sottofondo, una mera spezia del piatto principale che ci viene propinato ogni giorno, quello della manipolazione totale della nostra visione della realtà.

SALVIAMO IL SAMURAI JAY

Quindi abbiamo tutti torto quando diciamo che Samurai Jay non è all’altezza artistica di Miles Davis.

Abbiamo torto a dirlo anzitutto perchè non ha alcun senso dirlo, in quanto lapalissianamente evidente, ovvio e scontato.

Ma soprattutto abbiamo torto a dirlo - ed è ingiusto nei confronti di Samurai Jay - perchè in tutta evidenza Samurai Jay svolge tutt’altra attività rispetto a quella che svolgeva Miles Davis. Miles era un’artista, Samurai Jay è un commerciante. Paragonarli è come paragonare Caravaggio a Gianni Agnelli.

Crediamo quindi che dovremmo tutti smetterla di denigrare Samurai Jay e i suoi simili: dovremmo semplicemente considerarli per quello che sono: i cantori perfetti del nulla cosmico culturale nel quale chi domina il mondo ci sta sempre più facendo affondare, esattamente come Miles Davis era il pifferaio magico che con la sua musica visionaria ci illuminava la via verso la realizzazione completa del nostro potenziale esistenziale.

IN MEMORIA DI MILES DAVIS

Salvato il Samurai Jay, concludiamo con uno squarcio di memoria di un passato vicinissimo nel tempo, ma lontanissimo storicamente: questo fotogramma del video di Miles Davis dal vivo al Giants Stadium di New York nel 1986.

Uno squarcio illuminante su come appena qualche decennio fa gli artisti di qualità erano anche gli artisti più ascoltati al mondo, e ed erano loro ad influenzare il mondo con la luce abbagliante della loro creatività, della loro originalità, del loro talento, della loro passione, del loro amore e devozione totale verso la Musica.

Tutto questo non c’è più, nè tornerà mai più. Facciamocene una ragione, auguriamo lunga vita commerciale e tanta felicità al bravissimo Samurai Jay, abbassiamo le luci, mettiamo su “Kind of Blue”, alziamo il volume delle cuffie, chiudiamo gli occhi e siamo subito miglia lontani da tutto l’orrore che ci circonda. Miles away… 

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Listen to THE ELYSIAN LOVERS debut single!

“it feels like a ray of sunshine, from its cinematic string arrangement to its infectious tone of hope” (Rock Era Magazine)

“This song’s cinematic quality elevates it beyond a simple pop song into something more ambitious and more beautiful” (Apricot Magazine)

We plan to release here one song a month until the end of time, and to release every year a vinyl record that will include all of that year’s releases!

Today’s song is a totally stripped-down version of The Hollies’ immensely beautiful ode to friendship He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother, performed on acoustic guitar and sung by our Luana.

But instead of calling it “UNPLUGGED” (it sounds too MTV-ish and we never were MTV fans) we decided to call this version of ours “UNPROMPTED”.

In a world where so much music is “PROMPT POP” (a term we invented today!), increasingly shaped by prompts and algorithms, this is simply a human being spontaneously sitting down with a guitar and a voice and singing a song, just like Robert Johnson and early Bob Dylan used to do.

Also, no record company or marketing guru prompted us to do this. As always, we did it simply because we wanted to. So yes, this song is totally unprompted!

And this is only the first song of the UNPROMPTED series, more will follow soon, so stay tuned (by ear, not with Autotune)!!

The hi-quality WAV file of the song can be downloaded for free by all our paid subscribers.

If you are not a paid subscriber yet, you can support our crusade in the name of Music and become one - it is extremely inexpensive (a full month is cheaper than a Frappuccino!)!

And if you all want to catch a less-than-one-minute glimpse of The Elysian Lovers’ version of He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother, check this video out:

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To download the hi-quality WAV file of The Elysian Lovers’ version of He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother click here:

The rock music world has always been plagued with prejudice against women, even when they are idolized. And it is possibly precisely because of this “idolatry” that it is difficult for women to be taken truly seriously when pointing out such prejudice.

It is all about the way women in music are idolized. As musical geniuses? As great songwriters? Very rarely, especially if they are also singers and collaborate with men. The songwriting is typically attributed to the male components of the group they are in, leaving to women only charm, sex appeal and vocal performance.

And yes, of course this has happened tons of times when people have commented on our band too. As in all our articles here on our Substack, we speak from our decades of experience in the music world.

Now, check this fabulous video out:

The case of Nutbush City Limits is emblematic because there are many who, watching Ike & Tina Turner perform the song as you just did, readily assume that Tina is merely the singer - yes, a stellar one, but still only the singer - and not the artist who single-handedly wrote the song.

Driven by a relentless rock’n’roll guitar riff, Nutbush City Limits is a powerhouse of melody, energy, grit, and genre fusion: R&B, funk, soul, and rock’n’roll all crash together to give birth to something that manages to be incredibly simple yet incredibly unique.

And we would argue that Nutbush City Limits’ simple yet unique style then became the genetic blueprint for the AC/DC rock’n’roll formula: listen to the song again now, and you too will discover that classic AC/DC is very obviously a direct offspring of Nutbush City Limits.

Nutbush City Limits was released in August 1973 and became immediately a hit, and AC/DC formed in November of that same year. And we know for sure that the AC/DC boys were well aware of it: it is now common knowledge that Brian Johnson sang Nutbush City Limits during his audition to join AC/DC in 1980, after Bon Scott’s tragic death.

So, next time you marvel at the sheer awesomeness of a classic AC/DC track, remember this: behind the style of one of the most celebrated “all-male” rock bands of all time stands the amazing songwriting genius of a woman. A Goddess! 🌻

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Listen to THE ELYSIAN LOVERS debut single!

“it feels like a ray of sunshine, from its cinematic string arrangement to its infectious tone of hope” (Rock Era Magazine)

“This song’s cinematic quality elevates it beyond a simple pop song into something more ambitious and more beautiful” (Apricot Magazine)

Read more

As you all know by now, The Elysian Lovers Substack is dedicated to the cause of keeping Music alive, under the motto “Music matters, now more than ever”. As idealistic and Don Quixote-esque as it may seem or be, we do believe that talking in depth about the Art of Popular Music is every Music lover’s moral duty in today’s bleak and mostly machine-made musical world.

So “MUSIC MATTERS, NOW MORE THAN EVER” had to be the title of the Spotify playlist we’ve just created and personally curated. In this first incarnation the playlist has only 20 songs/cues but we will add more regularly. All the songs/cues have been longtime favorites of ours and we are thrilled to share them with you all!

We’ve decided to include in the playlist almost only songs/cues that have never become popular and that you might have never heard. This is above all to give you a chance to discover them and bathe in their aural beauty, but also to further prove the point that nowadays in music success does not equate with beauty. One could be forgiven for stating the opposite actually!

And as you’ll see we’ve also added to the playlist two songs we have written and recorded: we know that you subscribers are reading this now because you connected with our music, and we trust you will be happy to hear them again in the context of this playlist.

Ok, so here’s the “MUSIC MATTERS, NOW MORE THAN EVER” playlist - save it in your Spotify library, share it with your friends and play it very loud!

A word of advice: all these songs/cues are very atmospheric, intense, romantic, and cinematic in scope, and are best served at night, with low lights, the cellphone off, and the imagination on. Gift yourselves with 75 minutes of pure emotional bliss.

Enjoy!!

Here are a few words about each of the songs in the playlist:

1. Michael Nyman — “Diary of Hate”

Michael Nyman! One of our favorite composers of all time! The man who invented the term “minimalism” in music, and the composer of the soundtrack for the Oscar-winning movie The Piano. One of the biggest thrills of our musical path was to write and record (he played piano on it) with Nyman the single Let There Be Light, based on that best-selling and utterly beautiful soundtrack. Diary of Hate was recorded by Nyman and his Orchestra for Neil Jordan’s 1999 dramatic film The End of the Affair. An insanely romantic piece, it is impossible to listen without getting them shivers down your everywhere. Sheer musical pleasure.

2. Serge Gainsbourg — “Manon”

Manon is not amongst the most famous songs by legendary French chansonnier Serge Gainsbourg, but it is one of his most deeply sensual. Written and recorded for the 1968 film Manon 70, this song transports us to a foggy nighttime late 60s noir Montmartre. Longing, intrigue, obsession. “Perverse Manon, perfide Manon…”

3. Lisa Dal Bello — “Target (My Eyes Are Aimed At You)”

Canadian songwriter, producer and incredible singer Lisa Dal Bello’s 1984 album Whomanfoursays is one of the most personal, experimental, disturbing, mysterious, sensual, and downright weird albums in the history of rock. Written and performed entirely by Dal Bello alongside legendary David Bowie’s guitar player Mick Ronson, it never met the immense success it deserved in commercial terms but it did in artistic terms: it is a true masterpiece. In Target (My Eyes Are Aimed At You) Dal Bello battles with her own reflection with a degree of intensity you will seldom - if ever - hear in a popular song.

4. Stelvio Cipriani — “Tema di Paola”

Tema di Paola is the “love theme” written by Italian film composer Stelvio Cipriani for the 1976 Italian television drama Dov’è Anna? A beautifully plaintive and nostalgia-inducing piano melody backed by a somber orchestra takes us back to a world where movie soundtracks had actual singable, memorable, beautiful melodies.

5. The Elysian Lovers — “Home (Now That The Sun Shines The Light Of Your Smile)”

Our debut single!

6. Angelina Yershova — “Lost in Emotions”

Angelina Yershova is a Kazakh composer, producer, orchestra conductor and virtuoso pianist that has self-released several strikingly beautiful albums through the years, moving effortlessly between her outstanding piano playing and her extreme experimental music production techniques. Lost in Emotions is a classic piano cue taken from her masterful album Piano Mirage, and its sheer romantic beauty has to be heard to be believed.

7. Alex Hepburn — “Look What You’ve Done”

We first became aware of Alex Hepburn (pictured below) via Facebook before she had even officially released any music, and we were absolutely stunned by her talent as a singer and songwriter just by listening to this early song of hers, Look What You’ve Done, an extremely sensually powerful and intoxicating mix of Janis Joplin and Portishead. You will LOVE this song!

8. Starz — “Is That A Street Light Or The Moon?”

Is That A Street Light Or The Moon? closes Starz’s 1977 second album, Violation, and it sounds nothing like the rest of their 70s rock catalogue. This is a very eerie and surreal ballad with an incredibly haunting orchestral arrangement and a cinematic crescendo, one of the most unique and quirky tracks we’ve ever heard.

9. Wendy McNeill — “Such A Common Bird”

A few years ago we saw by sheer chance Wendy McNeill enchant a packed Berlin club singing her songs accompanied just by her accordion, and just like everyone present that magical night, we fell deeply in love with her immediately. This song is a true, true masterpiece, the music echoes Michael Nyman’s repetitive yet ever-changing hypnotic musical tapestries, Wendy sings it with a passion that is almost unheard of in today’s music, and the lyrics are as in all her songs so very insightful and poignant, here’s a little extract that we love from the second verse:

“We want freedom for ourselves

but we can’t give it to each other

We want peace between nations

yet we battle with our lovers

we’re blinded by billboards

and trying to get ahead

choking on ambition

and the words left unsaid”

Stellar songwriting, stellar artist.

10. Ennio Morricone — “Chi Mai”

Ennio Morricone obviously needs no introduction, but maybe this cue of his does, since it is not one of his best known, due to the fact that it appeared in a 1971 relatively obscure movie titled La Maddalena. Our British subscribers might know it though, since it reached number two in the UK singles chart after its later use in the 1981 movie Le Professionnel. This is Morricone at his absolute most fabulous, and Chi Mai in our opinion features not only one of his best melodies, but one of the most gorgeous melodies ever written.

11. Sufjan Stevens — “Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois”

From Sufjan Stevens’s 2005 album Illinois. A strange, bizarre, cryptic, eerie and absolutely heavenly song.

12. Lucio Battisti — “I giardini di marzo”

Lucio Battisti is generally considered here in Italy as the best singer-songwriter Italy has ever produced. Usually we do not agree much with what most of our fellow Italians say about music, but in this case we totally do: Battisti was a musical genius, a songwriter with a natural gift for amazing melodies, a producer who was not afraid to experiment, and a singer who (unlike most Italian singers back then and now too) sang with his true voice and to hell if it sounded or was out of tune. Battisti in the 60s and 70s wrote many incredible songs, and I Giardini di Marzo is one of the ones we love the most.

13. Paul McCartney — “Riding to Vanity Fair”

A 2004 McCartney somewhat dark song that we’ve always deeply loved, from his splendid album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.

14. King Curtis — “A Whiter Shade of Pale”

New York master saxophonist and arranger King Curtis in 1971 was in charge of one of the best bands ever assembled, featuring amongst others Bernard Purdie, Billy Preston, and the Memphis Horns, all key figures in the history of modern music. This is their impossibly gorgeous version of A Whiter Shade of Pale recorded live at the Fillmore West in San Francisco on March 7, 1971. The first three notes of the melody played by King Curtis at 0’38” are possibly the most sublime notes ever recorded by anybody in the history of recorded music, and if you think we are exaggerating, well, you are right, but we guarantee that once you hear them you will exaggerate too!

15. Daniel Lanois — “White Mustang II”

A stunning ambient guitar track by Daniel Lanois, the legendary U2, Peter Gabriel and Bob Dylan producer. Written with Brian Eno, who performs all the atmospheric treatments beneath Lanois’ guitar. Listen to this cue with your eyes closed and you’ll be transported into worlds you had no idea could even exist.

16. Belladonna — “Astronomer of Life”

This is from Belladonna’s sixth album, No Star Is Ever Too Far and it’s one of our songs that is most dear to our hearts. What happens when you are about to depart this plane of existence?

17. Hank Dogs — “18 Dogs”

British folk band Hank Dogs’ (pictured below) 1999 debut album Bareback is one of the albums we’ve listened the most to in our lifetime. A diamond record, once you bring it into your life you’ll never want it to leave. This dark, mystical folk noir ballad will trasfix you with its evocative and arcane powers.

18. Jessica Harper — “Old Souls”

We are amongst those mad few that think that Brian De Palma’s 1974 film Phantom of the Paradise is one of the fab-est movies ever made, and the Paul Williams-written Old Souls is the most heartbreaking songs in the movie, and possibly in the history of humanity. It is technically impossible not to cry when in the movie Jessica Harper gets on stage to sing it. Is there love after death? Yes, there is, says this song - and we believe it.

19. David Sylvian — “The Devil’s Own”

David Sylvian’s 1987 album Secrets of the Beehive is a most exquisite record, and this song - featuring the late Ryuichi Sakamoto on the (once again!) seemingly Nyman-inspired minimal piano - is one of its most stunningly beautiful moments.

20. Michael Jackson — “Little Susie / Pie Jesu”

You won’t even believe this track was written, produced and performed by Michael Jackson, since it sounds nothing like anything in his discography. A very dramatic waltz that carries the strange tale of the tragic death of a young girl, it is one of the weirdest and most wonderful songs ever.

🌻

Listen to THE ELYSIAN LOVERS debut single!

“it feels like a ray of sunshine, from its cinematic string arrangement to its infectious tone of hope” (Rock Era Magazine)

“This song’s cinematic quality elevates it beyond a simple pop song into something more ambitious and more beautiful” (Apricot Magazine)

È morto Francesco Guccini, un artista che non ho mai voluto ben definire, per il timore di sminuirlo nel chiuso di una qualche definizione.

E allora dicevo a chi me lo chiedeva: “hai presente l’effetto ch…

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In music, the Producer is not the person that puts up or finds the money for the recording (which is something a movie producer does in a movie). It is the person that makes sure that the recording is as good …

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This is what Bob Dylan said in a 2012 Rolling Stone interview, and sure enough …

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It was taken on the 29th of September 1961 in a New York recording studio at the end of a session for Columbia Records artist Carolyn Hester’s third album.

Bob Dylan (on Hester’s right in the photo) had been hired by He…

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The video was taken one evening of 13 years ago in a restaurant in Cotronei, a small village in Southern Italy.

Giovanni Tallarico, the grandfather of Aerosmith legend…

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And we always wondered what it actually was that made the differ…

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The story of how this solo came to life has been told many times, but never more authoritatively than by George Clinton himself, Funkadelic’s leader and “Maggot Brain”’s co-writer and producer in his autobiography:

“Eddie Hazel and I were in the studio, tripping like crazy but…

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We were truly thrilled when we discovered it, and more than a little in disbelief: like classic Freddie, we wondered if it was the real life or just fantasy!

It’s a very auspicious sign of wonderful things to come for the community of Music lovers we are putting together and for this publication, a home for people who believe that Music matters, now more than ever.

This of course only happened because of your wonderful support, so please let us extend our most heartfelt thanks to you all!

And hey, real life beats fantasy sometimes!! 🥰

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If you too believe that Music matters, now more than ever, share this post!

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Listen to The Elysian Lovers’ debut single!

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Before it was deleted, we managed to download it and we then uploaded it on Facebook, where it still resides after having been shared over 800 times, and where you can watch it clicking here.

It is in …

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One of the most literally incredible concerts I’ve witnessed in my life (and I’ve seen very many) was Bonnie Tyler’s at Reading Festival in the UK.

That day the massive crowd had been throwing big plastic b…

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Sarebbe una cosa bellissima se - salvo rare, bellissime eccezioni - questi personaggi non fossero di un’incompetenza musicale strabiliante, disarmante, deprimente. Quanto dicono è quasi sempre infarcito di inesattezze, strafalcioni, approssimazioni, anche se presentate con la sicumera di chi la sa lunga e ha i titoli e le conoscenze e le esperienze per mettersi su un piedistallo a pontificare.

Tutt’altra musica

Si possono però trovare simili canali di divulgatori musicali non italiani, e lì - è il caso di dirlo - è tutt’altra musica.

Anzitutto si tratta di veri professionisti che hanno lavorato per anni ai più alti livelli artistici immaginabili. E poi i contenuti: puntuali, informati, ineccepibili, interessanti, educativi, coinvolgenti, a volte addirittura emozionanti per il loro carico di intensità culturale: pensiamo ad esempio all’intervista di Rick Beato a Pat Metheny (da cui è tratta la foto qui sotto, l’intervista completa potete vederla qui). È un’intervista che dovrebbe essere mostrata in tutte le scuole medie per insegnare che la Musica è Cultura.

5 esempi

Facciamo solo 5 esempi di questi divulgatori, anche se immaginiamo alcuni vi siano già noti:

1) RICK BEATO (www.youtube.com/@RickBeato)

L’abbiamo appena citato, e di lui aggiungeremo solo che quando ha intervistato Brian May dei Queen, May ad inizio intervista gli ha detto che era in soggezione di Beato perchè lo riteneva “molto più bravo di lui come musicista”. Il canale di Rick Beato offre insegnamento e critica musicale ad altissimi, altissimi livelli.

2) BOB LEFSETZ (lefsetz.com)

Personalmente ci pregiamo di essere stati i primi in Italia a seguirlo, dopo che ce l’aveva consigliato la nostra ex-manager Honey Bianchi (già manager di Led Zeppelin, Page&Plant e Curve per conto di Trinifold), e sono un’infinità i nostri amici che lavorano nel music business italiano che ancora ci ringraziano per averglielo fatto conoscere. Lefsetz alterna da anni disamine dello stato attuale del business della musica a retrospettive critiche su grandi artisti musicali nella sua newsletter “The Lefsetz Letter”, alla quale è connesso TUTTO il music business mondiale che conta, e realizza interviste approfondite e illuminanti con nomi enormi della musica (sia artisti che discografici, manager etc) nel suo podcast “The Bob Lefsetz Podcast”. Anche qui altissimi, altissimi livelli.

3) DAVE PENSADO (https://www.instagram.com/pensadosplace)

Notissimo producer e mixer, vincitore di un Grammy Award per un suo lavoro con Mary J. Blige, nei suoi video podcast ha per anni offerto pillole interessantissime di conoscenza di produzione musicale e lunghe approfondite interviste con tutti i massimi nomi del mondo del sound engineering e della produzione. Imperdibile per chi produce musica, e anche per chi vuole capirne di più sull’architettura dell’emozione musicale.

4) DIALLO e LUXXURY - ONE SONG PODCAST (www.youtube.com/@onesongpodcast)

Nel loro video podcast One Song Podcast l’attore nominato agli Emmy Diallo Riddle e il produttore musicale e conduttore della radio losangelena KCRW Blake “Luxxury” Robin svolgono con uno stile brillante ed entusiasta (ma mai ridanciano e superficiale) delle analisi estremamente approfondite di brani storici di vari generi musicali (da Madonna a Ozzy Osbourne), narrandoli, illustrandoli e commentandoli nel dettaglio spesso con l’ausilio dell’ascolto delle tracce separate dei vari strumenti presenti nel brano analizzato. Estremamente istruttivo senza essere mai ampolloso o cattedratico.

5) SIMON NAPIER-BELL (simonnapierbell.substack.com)

Qui su Substack Simon Napier-Bell, il leggendario manager di Yardbirds, Marc Bolan, Wham! e moltissimi altri (nonchè autore del testo di You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me, la versione in inglese di Io che non vivo di Pino Donaggio) posta degli illuminantissimi articoli su vari aspetti del fare musica e del music business. Con uno stile arguto e vivace, Napier-Bell dona a noi lettori grandi perle derivanti da 60 anni di esperienza nel mondo della musica ad altissimi livelli.

Il nostro piccolo consiglio

Ovviamente questi canali sono tutti in inglese, e qui arriviamo al nostro piccolo consiglio per tutti coloro che fanno musica in Italia.

Per seguire il nostro consiglio, anzitutto, studiate il più che potete l’inglese. Fare musica che derivi direttamente come stile, ritmi, suoni, armonie e melodie dalla musica afroamericana e anglosassone - come quasi tutta la musica popolare realizzata in Italia negli ultimi 50 anni! - e che sia di livello internazionale dal punto di vista della qualità è praticamente impossibile senza averla capita a fondo storicamente, sociologicamente, filosoficamente ed esteticamente, e per questo bisogna conoscere molto bene la lingua inglese. Chi la conosce capisce perfettamente cosa intendiamo.

Una volta imparato a perfezione l’inglese, il nostro consiglio è di fare riferimento solo ai professionisti internazionali del settore, e non a tanti di quei personaggi italiani che - purtroppo per chi li ascolta - non sanno quello che dicono.

Sarebbe non solo un qualcosa che potrebbe portarvi a risultati insperati nel vostro fare musica dal punto di vista qualitativo e spirituale, ma sarebbe anche un piccolo/grande contributo alla rinascita della Musica come Cultura in Italia.

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Listen to The Elysian Lovers’ debut single!

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But every time we hear it we personally always find ourselves thinking: who did actually write those fantastic songs?

Obviously the riffs and the beats are pure Young brothers. But what about the vocal melodies and the lyrics? Up until his death, in AC/DC those were always written by Bon Scott. On Back In Black new singer Brian Johnson is credited as co-writer on all the songs.

A never-before-done analysis

The issue of who wrote the vocal melodies and lyrics of this legendary album is an enduring topic of debate. Both Angus Young and Brian Johnson have repeatedly denied that Scott had anything to do with the writing of those songs - even though it must be also noted that Young told Kerrang in 1991 that “Bon wrote a little of the stuff” and Rolling Stone in 1998 that “We had songs that Scott had written and we wanted to finish the songs”.

In any case, we’ve never read an analysis of the production timeline of Back In Black. So we’ve done it, and we’ve discovered that such an analysis raises a practical question: could a basically unknown singer who had just met and joined the band realistically write lyrics and vocal melodies of that outstanding quality for 10 songs in just a few days, while also simultaneously recording a full album? That logistical argument is rarely made and discussed, and we want to make it and discuss it with you here.

So, let’s look at the timeline of the making of the album.

The timeline of the making of the album

Bon Scott died on the 19th of February 1980. The album’s engineer Tony Platt said that, by then, AC/DC had been for weeks in the middle of doing pre-production (which means putting together, structuring, arranging, rehearsing the songs) for the album in London with producer Mutt Lange.

So, are we to believe that when Bon Scott died he had not yet written any vocal melodies and lyrics for the new songs they were pre-producing? Are we to believe that they worked for weeks on tracks that had no vocal melodies? Are we to believe that Scott was just there for weeks doing nothing, writing nothing, despite knowing they had a studio in Nassau booked in April to record the album?

Brian Johnson was confirmed as the new AC/DC singer on the 1st of April 1980. The band had met him for the first time in mid-March. Then in early April they went to Nassau to record the album, and then (as Tony Platt reports) in May 1980 they went to New York to mix it.

So, are we to believe that AC/DC entered the studio in April 1980 with only instrumental tracks, with no vocal melodies or lyrics, and with a singer they’d never met?

Vocal melodies and lyrics - even in a riff-based rock band like AC/DC - are what make songs what they are, and no record company and no producer would allow a band to enter the studio without any songs already written. As Back in Black’s engineer Tony Platt said in an interview about Back in Black’s producer Mutt Lange: “One of Mutt’s absolute talents is insisting upon getting the songs right before you go into the studio. In fact, the Foreigner “4” album got put back a couple of times, because Mutt didn’t feel the songs were in quite the right shape”.

And it is important to note that, most crucially, all the vocal melodies must already have been written when the recording sessions started, since it would otherwise have been impossible to record the backing tracks with the final song structure. So, are we to believe that Brian Johnson wrote all those vocal melodies - amongst the most memorable in the history of rock - at the end of March, just after having met the band and in just a few days?

And there is more: AC/DC were in Nassau for 5 weeks, so let’s assume 3 weeks to record the backing tracks and 2 weeks to record the vocals. Writing all the lyrics of those 10 songs in just 3 weeks would have been an incredible feat even if that is all you did during the day and night! But Brian Johnson in those 3 weeks was every day singing his as-yet-without-lyrics vocal melodies while the band recorded the backing tracks, so when did he manage to write the lyrics?

Pure Bon Scott lyrics

And some lyrics they were! Let’s look at some of the most famous lines of the album’s songs:

“She told me to come / but I was already there”

“See the white light flashing as I split the night / ‘Cause if good’s on the left then I’m sticking to the right”

“Let loose from the noose / That’s kept me hanging about”

“Whiskey gin and brandy / With a glass I’m pretty handy”

These are pure Bon Scott. The double entendres, the puns, the fun, slightly surreal irony (remember the genius line “a body like Venus with arms” in Touch Too Much? Pure Bon Scott). Writing that way is not only a very definite style, but one that is very, very hard to cop or imitate.

Many have tried, almost all have failed.

Bon Scott was a lyrical rock ‘n’ roll genius, and he always wrote with that style. Brian Johnson never did after Back In Black; he always only managed to put together lines that were supposed to sound like classic AC/DC but had none of the irony, none of the fun, none of the puns, none of those double entendres.

On the Highway to Hell

Back In Black has sold over 50 million copies, it is the second-best-selling album in music history.

We do not know if Bon Scott wrote the melodies and lyrics of that album. But we know for sure that if he did then Bon’s heirs have been denied an immense fortune if they have not received any songwriting royalties from it.

And we know for sure that, if that happened, whoever made it happen is on the Highway to Hell.

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Listen to The Elysian Lovers’ debut single!

We’ve just learned here that 27 songs written and recorded by us are included in the list of songs that the US magazine The Atlantic has discovered were used to train A.I.

That means that when A.I. churns out a song for you, that song might include—without our permission—musical elements that we originally created.

How do we feel about this?

Multi-award-winning artist SZA is very explicit on how she feels: “If you’re a musician and you support this degenerate shit, you’re disgusting”, she wrote on her Instagram.

We totally understand her stance, and it is beyond dispute that if a generative A.I. software is using copyrighted material in order to work, the people who own that A.I. software should get permission from the copyright owners first, especially if they are charging users for the use of their A.I. software.

On the other hand, we personally fail to see that much of a difference between the way A.I. “makes” music and the way many, many humans have been “making” music in the last few years, creating hits using pre-recorded loops, time-correction software, sound-replacing software, tuning software, and copy & paste programs like Splice.

And it comes as no surprise to us that very successful, very efficient, and very businesslike hitmakers like Timbaland, Diplo, and Ryan Tedder have wholeheartedly embraced working with generative A.I. music creation platform Suno: they were already creating music in a very similar way. If you make music-by-numbers, A.I. is great at math!

Anyway, regardless of how one feels about A.I. music, it is clear that some people are making a lot of money with the illegal use of stolen goods, and in a perfect world that would be stopped immediately, the perpetrators punished, and the victims reimbursed.

We’ll see what happens in our not-very-perfect world, but we’re not holding our breath.

They have already used it without permission anyway.

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Listen to The Elysian Lovers’ debut single!

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Written by Luana and Dani and produced by Dani, it is a song that is very dear to our hearts, and we think that the lyrics (read them below) can very easily illustrate why to whoever listens to them closely. Here we will just say that it is a joyful song about entering a new dimension, a new level of existence.

We recorded it as if it were still 1973: live in the studio, without any click tracks, tuning software or any type of modern artifice or trickery. We have always felt that this is the best way to fully preserve the musicians’ emotional integrity and to capture that ineffable quality that ensemble music can so powerfully exude.

Besides the band (Luana on vocals, Dani on guitar, Martina on piano, Taya on bass and Mattia on drums) the only parts we overdubbed were the backing vocals (all performed by Luana), the violins and violas (arranged by Dani and performed by the great musician Ambra Chiara Michelangeli) and a cheap 60s organ (performed by Dani).

It all could have easily been recorded in an analog 16-track machine, and even though we agree with Keith Richards when he says that 8-track machines are the perfect format for recording great rock’n’roll, we feel that for that extra cinematic feel using a 16-track certainly makes everything easier. Having those 8 extra tracks is not strictly necessary but it surely can accommodate cinematic overdubs like strings, backing vocals and keyboards way more conveniently.

Of course modern recording equipment has infinite tracks and infinite ways of manipulating audio, fixing tuning, timing, tonal discrepancies or mistakes with total ease, but when we record our songs we never want to take advantage of such technical tools.

Not only does a band that plays well not need them, but we believe that they constitutionally mess with the humanity, passion, talent of the musicians’ performances, bringing perfection to a form of art - Music - that loses its magical powers with perfection. Perfection is to Music what kryptonite is to Superman! So our advice to all rock’n’roll artists is this: never invite perfection to your recording sessions, and let your music fly.

Click on the above player to listen to Home (Now That The Sun Shines The Light Of Your Smile) on Spotify.

Home (Now That The Sun Shines The Light Of Your Smile)


you’re home - in your beautiful new home
in your peaceful, lovely home
you are floating on cloud nine

you’re gone - it’s so easy to understand
so hard to comprehend
much harder not to try

now that the sun shines the light of your smile
now that the stars are your eyes
now Heaven knows - you are home tonight


you’re home - in your starlit, splendid home
it’s such a celestial home
as the one you had in mind

you’re gone - it’s so easy to pretend
I can still hold your hand
not so easy not to cry

don’t let the moon try to hide its dark side
don’t let the comets collide
now Heaven knows - true love never dies

enter the great unknown
now - under the moonlight
fly - over the sacred grounds
soar high - and you will be home tonight

you’re home - you had known this all along
now you’re up where you belong
I can almost see you smile

you’re gone - it’s so easy to get by
and tell myself I’m fine
not so easy not to lie

now that the sun shines the light of your smile
now that the stars are your eyes
now Heaven knows - you are home tonight

home - in your beautiful new home
in your peaceful, lovely home
you are basking in the light

you’re home - it’s a tidy, homely home
it’s a billion miles beyond
but one day I will come by