Edoardo Bennato

The underground Edo: ten songs to rediscover

by Federico Romagnoli

A short selection to rediscover a dozen hidden gems from the golden era of Edoardo Bennato, namely the first twenty years or so of his career. At most one track per album was chosen, in an effort to keep the result as varied as possible: during this period, in fact, the artist was so inspired that some records would have deserved to be included in full, but that would have defeated the purpose of a selection based on individual tracks. From the bestsellers “Puppet without strings” and “Sono solo canzonette”, however, no tracks were selected, since music fans in Italy tend to know them in their entirety.

A link for listening on YouTube has been paired with each title (it wasn't possible to create a Spotify playlist due to the absence of the album "È asciuto pazzo 'o padrone").

"Salviamo il salvabile" (1974, album: "I buoni e i cattivi")

One of the best examples of Bennato as a one-man band, with an arrangement built on acoustic guitar strumming, foot tambourine and kazoo. The lyrics narrate the collapse of the state machine and a political class that refuses to take responsibility, which still rings true today: "I was out in front, leading the way, and so many people got lost along the way, I acted in good faith but… save what can be saved. Io non c'entro, voi, voi… salvate il salvabile".

"Affacciati affacciati" (1975, album: "Io che non sono l'imperatore")

One of the first Italian songs, at least among those released by a high-profile artist, to openly attack the pope. Previously, Antonello Venditti, in the song "Brucia Roma", had sung the line "Brucia Roma cor papa dentro", but in that same song he also hurled barbs at any system of power, ending up diluting that specific attack: this Bennato song, on the other hand, is an accusation ad personam, over an aggressive backing of acoustic guitar, harmonica and shaker: "Lean out, lean out, bless us, watch us, watch us, you've been watching for almost two thousand years now".

At the end, a reprise of the song "Io che non sono l'imperatore" surprisingly appears.

“Fandango“ (1976, album: “La torre di Babele”)

This isn't the first time Bennato shows his love for orchestral arrangements: consider “In fila per tre”, from “I buoni e i cattivi”, heavily influenced by the comic opera of Gioachino Rossini.

But while that song has earned a firm cult following over time, "Fandango" has remained in the shadows, perhaps due to an even more elaborate arrangement (drawing on the great tradition of Argentine tango), a more cryptic lyric (targeting the performative posturing of the intellectual class of the era) and a chaotic, surreal ending, dense with overdubs, in which Bennato recites in Spanish the part of the host of a tango festival.

“Li belli gladioli“ (1980, album: “Uffà! Uffà!”)

Barely two minutes long, it's a brilliant piece sung in an old ecclesiastical style, in which Bennato acknowledges the powerlessness of politically engaged singer-songwriting in the face of society's habits and distortions: “Nononostante i miei reiterati inviti alla tolleranza e all'autocritica, il risultato è sconfortante”.

“È arrivato un bastimento“ (1983, album: “È arrivato un bastimento”)

The most exhilarating approach to funkof his career, with a strong contrast between verse and chorus, during which the pace of the meter surges. Amid solid groove of bass, syncopated guitar interplay (the ever-masterful Lucio Bardi) and dense layers of percussion, the lyrics deal with the generational rift afflicting society at the time (and which, on closer inspection, has always affected the most advanced forms of civilization): "Don't complain, don't bring up generational conflicts, the countermeasures you propose are cures worse than the disease".

“È goal“ (1984, album: “Live! È goal”)

A studio track conceived as an unreleased piece to open the artist's first live album. Very atmospheric, with an intense sax intro, it shows Bennato determined not to be outpaced by technological developments, moving between new wave electronica, heartland rock e arena rock,. The lyrics are devoted to the epic nature of football, but also to the excessive weight of expectations it generates: "Questa volta sei stato bravo, ma da ora in avanti su ogni tua mossa c'è un faro puntato, e allora vedremo quanto vali davvero".

It was the theme tune for the show "La domenica sportiva" in 1984-'85.

“Zero in condotta“ (1985, album: “Kaiwanna”)

Dark urban rock with blankets of keyboards, effects-laden guitars and a rhythm section as sharp as a razor blade, a sort of missing link between “Rebel Yell” by Billy Idol and “Turbo Lover” by the Judas Priest, having been released after the former but before the latter.

Its commercial potential was undermined by the lyrics, which are nevertheless the masterpiece within the masterpiece, a labyrinth of hermeticism, geometric structure, wordplay and sci-fi imagery, certainly the most experimental thing the artist has ever written, to the point that even online every transcription contains inaccuracies (even the one on Bennato.net). A full, corrected version is given below:

A-A, lines of motion,

A-A, tricks,

A, phase, D-U-Radio rays,

because when you move

you always postpone tomorrow,

trips, numbers that don't add up.

Now wherever you go,

now wherever you go,

now wherever I go

the Radio law tempts,

now where you show

can U-Radio like

let the man U say

how and where to play.

Tren-Tren, I don't change,

I ask, is this believable,

I ask myself, never go with deceit.

I, wow! With great readiness

I say no, no, forever and ever,

I say yes, never ever.

Nessuno pronto, no,

nessuna voce, no,

conferma di vettore,

nessuno pronto, no,

e l’uomo triste ora,

nello spazio di un crimine,

conosci il raggio Fow

e il viaggio andare, vado, vado,

vai, vai, vai.

A-A, zero in condotta. [x6]

E allora A-A, alla deriva,

sul tuo schermo privato

falsi dati ti confondono,

e oltre il muro della fortuna

così come linee in movimento

I knew, the red yellow is gone.

And on the radio now,

and on the radio now

I will write a line

and I will ask why I cry, cry, go, go, go!

“Whoever drinks, whoever drinks“ (1987, album: “Ok Italy”)

Coming from what is probably the best album Bennato ever made in the the Eighties, to this day sadly very underrated overall, since despite selling half a million copies at the time, none of its tracks have stuck in the collective memory, not even radio hits like title track and “Tu vuoi l’America”.

“Whoever drinks, whoever drinks” is a dynamic blues electronic rock track, with an entirely programmed rhythm section, and conceptually harks back to a great classic of Neapolitan song, “La rumba degli scugnizzi” (Raffaele Viviani, 1932), from which it borrows the staging of the street markets of the Montecalvario neighborhood and its immediate surroundings, while weaving in a list of the city's economic, political and structural problems.

Here too, there are no complete, error-free transcriptions online, a gap we will try to fill below (the many repetitions have been omitted so as not to weigh down the reading, while a couple of passages where doubts nonetheless remain have been marked with an asterisk):

Cigarettes, cigarettes, soda, who's thirsty?

'E palammetre songhe vive, 'e palammetre a mille lire,

'e cchiù belle da Pignasecca, sò vive, sò vive!

Sigarette, sigarette, tre pacchette seimila lire!

Statte zitto, state zitto, arrivano ‘e guardie.

Chi ‘e beve, chi ‘e beve, chi ‘e beve l’ova fresche?

I’ comme sò belle, I’ comme sò belle stammatina!

Uttocientocinquanta miliardi int’a metropolitana

e ancora amm’a vedé niente,

nientemeno sò passati dieci anni e stann’ancora a sfravecà.

‘E taralle, ‘e taralle, comme sò frische ‘e taralle!

Milleduciento e dispare miliardi a Bagnoli int’o stabilimento,

ce stanno affummecanno tutti quanti!

Ciro, viene accà, ca passano ‘e machine!

‘E miliardi ca se ne vanno, ‘e miliardi ca se ne vanno,

‘o centro direzionale, tale e quale a Cientosessantasette a Secondigliano,

‘A pazziella ‘mmano ‘e creature,

accattateve ‘a sciarpa ‘e Maradona!

‘E miliuni, e’ miliardi.

*Let's hurry up before they take away the little stand!

Billions for the unemployed, billions for the inmates.

Chewing gum, candy, ice pops!*

Music, music, get your recorded cassette tapes for five thousand lire!

Young man, get the fake cassettes, they're better than the originals!

“What's going on down on Viale Augusto?“ (1992, album: “È asciuto pazzo ’o padrone”)

From the project sung entirely in Neapolitan, using the pseudonym Joe Sarnataro and backed by Blue Stuff, a band from his hometown that played a tasty blues rock with traditional arrangements. This is one of the slyest tracks on the album, both in pace and content, once again questioning the waste of resources and the poor management of public works that plagued the Campanian capital at the time: “Io sto ’e casa a Fuorigrotta […] pe duje anne e duje mise ’o rummore m’ha acciso, notte e ghiuorno, ma che tenevano ’a scavà? M’o dicite sotto viale Augusto che ce stà?”.

“The land of toys“ (1992, album: “The land of toys”)

Backed by the arrangements of longtime drummer Mauro Spina, Bennato taps into the production techniques of early the Ninetiesand the backbone of this gem is a maze of drum machine (Roland?), guitars funky reminiscent of the Inxsbass jazz fusion and numerous nods to blues (harmonica, electric organ, piano arpeggios, and at 2'34" a quote of a famous riffs bass line, originally featured in nearly every historic version of an L.A. garage rock classic like “Hey Joe”, from the Leaves to Jimi Hendrix). The vocals, meanwhile, tightly rhythmic, verge onhip-hopand sound like a natural outlet for the artist, who has always been a master of tongue-twisters and metrics jammed with far more syllables than would naturally fit.

The lyrics warn those who want to emigrate to Italy, mocking the country through a series of ironic statements (“Everything's going swimmingly”, “There are no scandals, no government crises”, “Racism has never taken root here”).

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02/03/2026

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Federico Romagnoli, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition