UOMO DI PEZZA

I bought this album on vinyl in 1976 when (thank God for albums and liners! Where are they now for CD's?) I was unemployed and had little to do but listen to the music. I was so fascinated with the lyrics and what they could mean that I purchased an Italian-English dictionary, The lyrics to Una Dolcezza Nuova haunted me. The very first line: "Colgo il tuo sguardo e lo stringo nelle mani" (those of you who *are* Italian, I beg your indulgence if I have butchered any of the words - I don't have them in front of me anymore and am relying on over 30 years of memory) translates loosely as "I catch your glance and I hold it in my hand." It's this kind of poetic beauty which hauntingly fills the groove of this album from start to finish. I was overjoyed to find Uomo de Pezza years later on CD, and every note and every chord was there for me to thrill to as I'd remembered it years before. Although the recording quality was slightly dismal, it doesn't lessen the impact of the musicianship or the lyrical content. It is - and always will be - one of the most haunting and beautiful collections of song I have ever heard.