4 febbraio 2012
At the beginning of this story, on November 2007, when I went to the Cortile Califano in company of Gerardo and Ciro to meet Franco Tiano, I have no expectations at all, really nothing. I just had in my pocket a CD with some demo tracks of “Vesuvius” and “A festa” recorded, and a few cigarettes.
We knocked at the door, a voice told us to come in, and we got into his humble low ground apartment. Franco was sitting in a couch and let us take a seat too. My companions talked to him about me, so he accepted to listen my songs and did it carefully.
I was excited, and as Franco was listening all along I had the feeling like that song would never come to an end: I was getting more and more nervous, and I was feeling like all that was wasted time, I just wanted to go home and stop it right there.
But finally Franco pronounced: “You know… now I’ll let you know why you got me moved!”.
He hardly got up and, resting to the furnitures, he opened a drawer and he took an old audio-tape out of it, labeled as “1982 Teatro Nuovo Caserta”. He passed it to me, for the audio cassette be put up in a record player.
Play! Noise! So he went on telling he had been using that tape for recording and he had been overdubbing it too many times. But he exhorted to put the tape forward, and so I finally found what he was looking for: his unmistakable and unique voice singing …it was an interpretation of the song “Alli Uno”, so I kept on listening… a tammorra rhythm… and a guitar… an electric guitar! Distorted! Metal!
“And now you got it? Can you see the reason? Then they didn’t want me to do it, and now, after 25 years you’ve come here!”
At those time they did not allow him to do that, they menaced him and accused him of outrage: the tradition had to stay pure!
So Franco decided we had to do something together. Some days later I went getting him to his home, and hobbling along he asked me to take his bag, quite too much heavy to him. I had a quick look inside of it, and it was full of jotters. We arrived at my studio, we immediately started to work, looking for some lyrics getting along with the verse I’ve previously already put down: I had left an instrumental part in the first seconds of the song and in the middle part of it, and I did that some months before that time, as if I already knew what should happen.
His notes looked like mine, a little messy, chaotic but accurate at the same time. In fact, just after a little time, he found the verse he was looking for: “Trees torn by the wind, you all are strengthless” it was written in a correct Italian, as Franco never did secondary school but he always had been reading a lot though.
He went standing in front of the microphone and spoke translating in dialect instinctively.
In this magic, after a few hours the song was quickly ultimated. After a few days ‘O Lione came to record the tamorra takes and after a few months we were ready to the make of the videoclip. But troubles and difficulties were not a few, not at all! Caused mostly by Franco’s precarious health conditions and by the weather conditions: the first three days of shootings. But faithfully we all tried, prayed and finally did it.
The presence of Rino Sellitti, like an indian guru, gave me strength I needed.
Unfortunately Franco passed away shortly afterwards, and I standed by him until the end, my first time at doing such a gesture of gratitude. He left me in inheritance a route I’m covering with persistence and perseverance, peacefully and with some difficulty at the same time, like all the things in life.
Now there’s so little respect for old people, the one who truly hold tradition and culture, the one we young have to take as a model in order to carry the TRADITION forward, I tell the PURISTS that I do not sing the tradition, I sing the contamination, like others, but in a different way.
But two days ago, I went for the Candelora at Montevergine, and for the first time in my life I found the courage to sing the tradition. I must thank the companions and the Mother Mary who gave me the strength.
I had no problem to get on the stage and sing in front of so many people. But it took so many years to me to sing with my tamorra companions for devotion to the Mother Mary! Maybe that is the real difference to me between Tradition and Contamination.
Joe