TRENTO. On July 5, 1954, Elvis Presley recorded his first single in Memphis. A symbolic date that marks the beginning of the history of rock even if the roots of this music are much deeper. Enzo Guaitamacchi narrates this seventy-year-long sonic adventure in the second edition of his “La storia del rock” (Hoepli).
A book that will be presented today, Thursday 30 grin, at 8 pm, at the Urban Space attic at the “Nelson Mandela” Park in Arco with the author who will be accompanied by the singers Brunella Boschetti Venturi and Andrea Miró.
Guaitamacchi, why a second edition of his “History of rock”?
“The book went very well and allowed me to introduce the lives of rock stars to the most serious of Italian publishing houses, Hoepli, famous for manuals and scientific texts, and to even develop an entire series of books that currently count. about forty titles. It is a source of pride for me. However, seven years have passed since the publication of the book and we felt the need to make a revised, corrected and updated version “.
What’s new?
“The graphics are completely revised and we have added images that were not there in the first edition. We added the index of names that was missing and that was the only criticism we had received. We added fifty new pages to tell the latest twenty years because the first edition was emblematically interrupted with the death of Kurt Cobain who was identified as a point of arrival for the rock phenomenon that began in 1954 “.
Among the points that you also analyze the repercussions of the post-11 September with the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers
“I think that rock is a form of popular art that must be studied and enjoyed taking into account the places that generated it and the socio-cultural context in which it moves. The book is not a sequence of names and funny anecdotes but we try to explain how this music is the product of a socio-cultural humus that could only be born in those years in the southern United States and then spread throughout the Union and then throughout the world. Starting from this consideration, even the last few years were analyzed with this perspective. We started with a tragic event that changed history and that saw the world of music make its voice heard for better or for worse. Above all, we like to remember the fact that the artists raised their voices in support of an opinion that often contrasts with the political mainstream: they wanted to give a signal to the world by making themselves available to families of the victims through fundraising “.
Is there still a “committed” music?
“When I put myself in the role of teacher of the master of music journalism I always remember that music, not just rock, has different functions: for example, religious music or that which is made only to entertain. In the 60s and 70s the rock proposed important themes that today we take for granted but which at the time were innovative such as environmental sustainability or the spirituality of the East “.
Then there is the web with its liquid music
“This is a great revolution in the way music is enjoyed. Before you listened to a record by immersing yourself, studying the lyrics, there was an intimate and profound relationship with rock. Today you listen to it in a different way, most of the time through the computer or mobile phone, without the right concentration and the desire to deepen. Consequently, also from a technical point of view, it is the first time in a hundred and twenty years of discography that the sound quality has deteriorated. By now those who make music, produce it and mixes music often leaves out some frequencies because a lot of them will never hear them with headphones “.
The answer from music lovers lies in the overwhelming return of vinyl.
“It is overbearing in quotation marks. It is an attempt to make those who have not lived through that period fall in love with some works that are masterpieces but the sales are not comparable to those of the 80s but not even to those of the following decade. From the event of the internet, from the concept of gratuitousness there are no more numbers than before. Those who buy vinyls are a lover, may God preserve them, but they remain a minority. There is also the theme of support, you must also have a nice system to hear the music well “.
So how do musicians make money?
“From the record industry we have moved on to the live industry: before you made a record and the tour was to promote sales, now you make a record as an excuse to organize a tour because it is the real source of income if your name is not Ed Sheeran “.
In short, seventy years after its birth does rock not let go as it sees the future?
“From a historical point of view, rock has said all it had to say. The great masters like the Rolling Stones, whom I just saw at San Siro, are still active and this is a problem for young bands because we are talking about absolute excellence. . When Picasso was alive whoever wanted to compete with that type of art always lost because in addition to being the best, the Spanish artist was the first. Here, we find ourselves with many Picassos, many Shakespeare and we have many epigones, young, good for charity, but followers “.
So rock is sublimated as an art.
“In a thousand years, rock will be remembered as the great works of man such as the Sistine Chapel. But a great expert in classical music does not ask who the new Beethoven is, he just was there. In the same way we should be satisfied. by Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones and enjoy them since we are still lucky enough to be able to see them, as if we could see Picasso painting or Hitchcock direct a movie. “
A bit of pessimism for the new generation of rock?
“There are tough bands like Greta Van Fleet. But a critic will always say they look like Led Zeppelin and if Robert Plant plays live I will always prefer to see him. Then I realize that to a granddaughter of mine who sees Keith Richards on stage it seems to her. his grandfather, if he sees the boy instead he has a different movement of identification and attraction. But in all art the birthright is a value and if you arrive fifty years later, you are forced to measure yourself with the masters and in 99% of cases you lose “.
His top five record?
“Elvis, anything. It all started from there and therefore it is essential. Then The Freewheelin by Bob Dylan, Sgt. Pepper of the Beatles, one of the first four albums by Led Zeppelin and The dark side of the moon by Pink Floyd”.
Who dreams of being able to see on stage?
“Jimi Hendrix. I’d give everything I don’t have to revive him, see him in concert and interview him.”
The next book?
“It should be released in autumn 2023 and it will be a great excursus of stories of great female characters from the world of music linked to the thousand aspects of femininity: from the most romantic ones to the fight against abuse”.
Arco, a walk in the history of rock with Ezio Guaitamacchi and his pages