Artist: Rossi, Vasco
Label: EMI Records
Release: 2011
Rating: 4.5/5
“Live or nothing” is the question Vasco is asking himself on his sixteenth studio outing. Vasco Rossi is a vital 59-year-old who has been through plenty of ups and plenty of downs in a thirty-year career. He was born on February 7, 1952, in the little village of Zocca on the border between Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, somewhere between Modena and Bologna. His father Giovanni Carlo named him after a friend who died in a concentration camp in Germany. As a kid he was ridiculously rebellious and a handful, and art interested him far more than studying economics and education. He scored his first musical successes in local high-school bands, but he still had to wait for his breakthrough among the big names of the Italian scene. The doors only opened for him with the record Siamo solo noi in 1981. Since then, raspy Vasco Rossi has ranked among the biggest stars of Italian pop music. Eros Ramazzotti and Zucchero came after him and had hits outside Italy too, but Vasco remains the record holder when you add up everyone who has come to his shows over the years. At the end of the eighties he sold out every big football stadium back home like it was nothing, outdoing the then hugely popular Prince and Madonna. And he’s still doing it today.
Vasco Rossi gives off the image of a rough, unpolished guy, a burly lumberjack from the foot of the Apennines. Despite the hard rock tracks he’s racked up by the boatload over his career, and with which he set an example even for English-language songwriters, on Vivere o niente he often touches on tender tones. In the second half he always builds the songs up with a driving rhythm and deep lyrics. The arrangements are refined and the instrumentation is exemplary. For all his reputation as a sharp, straight-ahead rocker, in technical terms Vasco and his producers keep the reins firmly in hand. He deftly cuts the rock edge and power with melodic moments, which he works into dreamy minor-key passages. Vasco got help from old acquaintances, the songwriters Tullio Ferro, Gaetano Curreri and Guido Elmi. Vivere o niente wins you over on the very first listen, and spending more time with its music will lodge Vasco in the hearts of listeners with open ears. We always say Italian is one of the most melodious languages, and of course Vasco is no different. Vowel after vowel flies out of his mouth, soothing the heartbroken in love and in life. If there’s no life, there’s no love, and that equals nothing. Vasco Rossi is a poet who reaches the deepest corners of the listener’s soul with simple turns of phrase. Those of you who know Italian will find in the lyrics the same traits of Vasco’s that he highlights in the music on Vivere o niente. Irony, joy, fun and provocation join hands in a fresh round of proving himself and redefining his musical language. In the track Eh… gia Vasco opens with the words: “It seemed like the end of the world, but I’m still here.” That sums up his stormy life, which was pretty wild, in keeping with his temperament.
Given his artistic stature, Vasco Rossi has every right to put out whatever record he likes. It doesn’t matter what he records; the faithful fans take his songs as pure gold. It’s worth adding that Rossi has written weightier or more forceful songs in his day, but Vivere o niente has already shown that more than half of its tracks will soon become part of his iron-clad live repertoire. In Non sei quella che eri (You’re Not the Woman You Used to Be) he describes a difficult relationship between a man and a woman who is hard to please because of her moodiness. She’s changed, well…
Guitarist George Lynch appears on Sei pazza di me (You’re Crazy About Me). If on the previous record, Il mondo che vorrei (2008), Vasco treated himself to a collaboration with Slash from Velvet Revolver and the once-famous Guns, this time the honor went to the brilliant technician Lynch from Dokken and Lynch Mob.
Vasco Rossi has been able, and used, to recording in the US for twenty years now. This time he did half the work at home and the rest in Los Angeles. Tried-and-tested studio veterans took care of the sonic perfection, and let me just quickly mention drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, bassist Tony Franklin, keyboardist Celso Valli and longtime manager Guido Elmi, plus guitarists Tim Pierce, Dean Parks and Stef Burns. The latter is an American who has lived in Italy for years and also plays with hard rockers Y & T. He’s been a member of Vasco’s backing band for many years, too. Rossi’s voice is holding up very well for his age. It seems that wisdom caught up with him in his later years, so he’s looking after his voice. With Vivere o niente, Vasco Rossi has delivered rock music tinged with Italian conviction and strong interpretation. His relationship with the audience is honest and open, always direct, clean and unpretentious. On top of that, those of you who know Italian a bit better will easily discover the depth of his messages in the lyrics. He mostly talks about all sorts of problems cynically, but directly and never from above, the way so many others do. Despite the flood of new musical trends, Vasco Rossi justifiably stands by the musical positions he has held since the end of the seventies.
Lineup
Vasco Rossi – vocals
Stef Burns – guitar
George Lynch – guitar
Tim Pierce – guitar
Dean Parks – guitar
Simone Sello – guitar
Massimo Varini – guitar
Samuele Dessi – guitar
Peppino D’Agostino – guitar
Guido Elmi – keyboards
Celso Valli – keyboards
Frank Nemola – keyboards
Sandro Magri – keyboards
Alex Alessandroni jr. – keyboards
Clara Moroni – backing vocals
Andrea Innesto – backing vocals
Annalisa Giordano – backing vocals
Tony Franklin – bass guitar
Caludio Golinelli – bass guitar
Cesare Chiodo – bass guitar
Saverio Lanza – bass guitar
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Matt Laug – drums
Paolo Valli – drums
Track list
1. Vivere non è facile (4:54)
2. Manifesto futurista della nuova umanità (3:54)
3. Starò meglio di così (4:52)
4. Prendi la strada (3:28)
5. Dici che (5:00)
6. Eh… già (3:45)
7. Sei pazza di me (4:13)
8. Vivere o niente (4:01)
9. L’aquilone (4:25)
10. Non sei quella che eri (3:47)
11. Stammi vicino (5:21)
12. Maledetta ragione (4:20)
13. Mary Luise (3:59)
