Litfiba

Forty years have passed - it was exactly December 13, 1986 - since Litfiba followed up the already excellent "Desaparecido" (1985) with the double LP "17 Re", the second chapter of the celebrated "trilogy of power", long considered one of the cornerstones of Italian new wave, as well as the most representative album of the finest period of the Florentine band led by Piero Pelù.

The announcement of the Litfiba tour celebrating the fortieth anniversary of "17 Re" has certainly stirred the many fans nostalgic for the band's origins, who identified with the group's output at least up until the live album "Pirata" (1989), and who felt disoriented, some even betrayed, by the hard rock turn inaugurated with "El Diablo" (1990). But the tour for "17 Re" is not merely a revival operation - it's also the occasion to recover a long-lost, never-released track, the single "17 Re". It's more than a little strange that the very song meant to give the album its title ended up being scrapped, but for various reasons that's how things went.

The new version of the single, the only one known to exist, in its own way rekindles the spark of an unrepeatable era. From the very first bars, it's the post-punk bass of Gianni Maroccolo - the true soul of the band's new wave phase - that recalls what Litfiba once were. Ghigo Renzulli's guitar is no longer the overbearing, often intrusive instrument heard on the hard rock albums, but doles out its notes with wise restraint. Antonio Aiazzi's keyboards weave through the spaces between guitar and bass, always present without ever overpowering, right up to the piano melody that accompanies the brief closing monologue.

It's Pelù himself who updates the original lyrics to reflect the present day, abandoning that sense of universality - often paired with a certain poetic ambiguity - that so beautifully defined the band's first trilogy. For instance, while the lyrics of "Ferito" never needed to specify which war they were referring to, instead underlining a pacifist sentiment with no boundaries in time, Pelù has for decades felt the need to make constant references to the present.

From the orange man to the pig king, the frontman speaks about today's world with no filter, in a voice that remains, even now, one of the most powerful Italian rock has ever given us.

Diciasette re… chiusi in un quadro

Dove la luce…genera i mostri

Diciasette re…vecchio teatro

Of war and peace…their new videogame…

Shah-mat…

A man is lost without his history

e io non voglio dimenticare

Shah-mat…

A man is lost without his memory

e io non voglio dimenticare…

oh no oh no…

che il tempo è mio…mio…mio…mio…mio

Diciasette re …controllo totale

e droni e spade…e i loro eserciti di lacchè

Diciasette re …vogliono il sangue

per farci amare…il re maiale!

A man is lost without his history

e io non voglio dimenticare…

Shah-mat…

Shah-mat

A man is lost without his memory

e io non voglio dimenticare…

oh no oh no

che il tempo è mio..mio…mio…mio…mio

Shah-mat…

diciasette, diciasette

diciasette re marionette…

Diciasette, diciasette

diciasette re marionette…

un uomo è perso senza la sua storia

e io non voglio dimenticare oh no oh no

diciasette re marionette!

Hear the applause, so much applause

so many bows and cheers

everyone winning, everyone involved

self-absolved… freedom!

the orange man plays the master

and sodomizes… the truth…

Shah-mat…

Ride the wave of great music

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06/05/2026