FINALLY – Il Volo released a new cd – I might even call this a mini-cd, as it only has 7 songs on it – recorded to be released in conjunction with their triumph in San Remo. I hear that the version released in Italy has even more songs on it – and, to my dismay – the version of this on Amazon is sold out already!! How is that possible?The centerpiece of the cd is, of course, Grande Amore, winner of the 2015 San Remo Festival – I would also tell you who wrote the song, except this Amazon Prime cd download doesn’t have liner notes with it! I’ll update once I have the cd in hand, and my apologies to the songwriter for not crediting him or her where due.
I think the guys just found their signature song .... to replace their original signature song, which was "O Sole Mio" ... a classic, to be sure, but I think it just got supplanted by this one. A soaring, passionate, soul-stirring, absolutely magnificent song – as sung by three of the world’s most magnificent voices. I’ve been sitting here, listening to it over and over again, totally in love with the song, the lyrics, the incredible passion of the delivery, the performance, the recording ... all of it. Those guys just nailed this song. Completely.
This is going to be a global blockbuster ... everywhere except the U.S. of course, because we are the world’s most ridiculous, arrogant, self-absorbed bunch of musically illiterate yahoos on the entire planet, unable to hear a word not sung in English without having a nervous breakdown ... all I can say is, thank goodness for the internet. No, really. I’s a lot of things, but mostly, it enabled those of us who long ago realized that mainstream American music was heading straight for the proverbial toilet, to escape the horror of it, and surround ourselves with actual MUSIC that lifted us into the stratosphere, where music was at its finest.
And there they are, from the Billboard International chart (digital): #1 already, a week after the performance in San Remo. And I would imagine that it will go viral in all of Europe, South America, Mexico ... all over the place.
Except here. Because we just love wallowing in our own self-righteous idiocy and narcissism, and love drowning in the hideous crap this country produces and, in their feeblemindedness, tries to call label “music”. It isn’t. Never was. Never will be.
So, way to go, Il Volo ...! Grande Amore is absolutely awesome, and the entire rest of the world knows it.
The entertaining part of it is watching them on You Tube confront in their own country the same hysteria we saw in South America in 2013 – the screaming girls, the huge crowds of people – and Italy was pretty much the last country to recognize them, really – Italy tends to celebrate everyone else EXCEPT for their own native sons. But they finally broke the Italian trend, and are now superstars in their own country – which I think is entertaining to watch. Suffice it to say they are having a lot of fun over there, right now. And hopefully, for my own listening pleasure, let’s hope they release a full-sized recording one of these days. Seven songs just isn’t enough.
Moving on ... I went for the “legal tasering” – my term for the EMG, possibly one of the most sadistic, painful medical tests they can inflict on anybody – and I was so not looking forward to it.
By way of keeping myself entertained and distracted, I’d been designing and making a new textile art wall hanging based on “We Can Fly” - #2 in my stolen “Women With Wings” series ... my way of processing this supposed “Causa Equina Syndrome” the neurologist thinks I have – and the walking issues I definitely have.
I am assuming the rest of my patterns and partially made textile art pieces were in the North Andover storage room, and now reside in the Salisbury storage room ... so until I can dig those back out, I’ve been creating new ones. I can think of no better way to distract myself than creative endeavors, at the moment. I finally bound my older “The Guitarist In-Between ” ... based on the famous quote from Federico Fellini:
“What is an artist? A provincial who finds himself somewhere between a physical reality and a metaphysical one…. It’s this in-between that I’m calling a province, this frontier country between the tangible world and the intangible one—the realm of the artist.”
Yes, guess who THAT is named for – or, actually, dedicated to, I should say. I dedicated it after watching him play “Rescue”, because that moment was so awesome it was truly a depiction of the interpretive creative process, at its core – the ability to tap into the unfathomable and create beauty from the ethereal. I started that thing back in the 1980’s; have been carrying it around, unfinished, since then. I’m astonished I finally got it done. Not sure what will happen to that after I’m gone, but he will be immortalized on it, at least: on his own, musically and lyrically and now also ... quilt-istically?
Today – a full moon in Virgo. I reached the point with this medical issue that I needed direction. Decided to tap into my subconscious with the Thoth deck. Imagine my surprise when the final two cards I drew were both “Magus” cards. Said, “Huh?” Looked it up. Apparently, there are a few decks which have three Magus cards instead of one – mine was apparently one of them. The additional two cards were rejects by Crowley; considered novelty items in the deck, not part of the deck itself. Usually, the Magus card had stood for Mr. Signpost – not sure what the two of them in succession meant, in this context. I now associate him with both sigils and direction, so wondered if that’s where the reading was going. I wasn’t sure what sigils would be useful, however.
And on to the sonnet cycle. Experienced a huge burst of inspiration on that as well and went from stanza 3 to stanza 7 in a matter of days. Not sure what all is happening with me – crippled and yet creatively fulfilled, at the same time? What is that all about?
I leave you with “The Time Has Come”, with Paul Cowsill singing lead for a change of pace. Also: Waddy Wachtel, John Cowsill of the Beach Boys on drums, Barry Cowsill in the hat and blue shirt on guitar, in one of his last appearances, and Susan Cowsill singing harmony vocals.
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