Come in un'ultima cena, by the great Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, from 1976. A masterpiece.
One of this band's best albums, of which I'm an admirer, one of their masterpieces, with excellent production, lyrics full of great emotion, and fabulous performances by Francesco Di Giancomo, a historic album for the band and for Italian progressive rock in general.
It is the album that marks a shift in the band’s sound, embracing jazz-rock influences. From a compositional point of view, the tracks move away from the long-suite structure of the previous records and begin to take on a song form, even if pieces lasting between 6 and 7 minutes remain, which are certainly not standard in pop or commercial music and which, no less than the previous records, are literally splendid, with moving and thought-provoking lyrics, inviting reflection even today with every listen.
It is a concept album that tackles themes from the second half of the seventies with a clear political commitment and reflects the climate of growing disappointment in that period about the outcomes of the struggles, the unfulfilled aspirations of the ’68 movement, those of the great mass movements—students, workers, intellectuals and minority ethnic groups—which, with their strong drive of protest against the dominant power structures and their ideologies, wanted a different society, fairer and anti-capitalist.
The line-up had already undergone a change from the original 1971 one; in fact after Darwin!, in 1973, Maltese, coming from Homo Sapiens, replaced Marcello Todaro on guitar. This is the line-up on this record
Francesco Di Giacomo, with his incredible voice
Brothers Vittorio and Gianni Nocenzi on keyboards
The extraordinary Pierluigi Calderoli on drums
Renato D’Angelo on a truly great bass
Rodolfo Maltese, a key player on this album with splendid guitars.
David Zard was the producer
The album consists of 9 tracks of varying length between about 3 and 7 minutes, for a total running time of around 45 minutes.
Choosing the songs is hard; the ones I prefer are "...at dinner, for example”, one of the greatest pieces of progressive rock and Italian music in general, "The spider", the most progressive in my view, and "Slogan" with its rock edge, perhaps the band's most rock track, "Up to my door" with its melodic tune and shifts in style.
The artwork is also off the beaten track compared to the previous albums; in keeping with the record’s narrative, it’s very striking, and it’s by Cesare Monti.
A version in English of this same album was released on the same album, titled "As in a Last Supper", with lyrics translated by Angelo Branduardi.
Singing the praises of an album like this is extremely easy, given its greatness. Many will call me blasphemous, but it’s one of my favorite Banco del Mutuo Soccorso albums.
Needless to say, this is a MUST.
Tracks
1. ...a cena, per esempio (6:20)
2. Il ragno (4:55)
3. È così buono Giovanni, ma... (3:32)
4. Slogan (7:23)
5. Si dice che i delfini parlino (5:50)
6. Voilà Mida (Il guaritore) (6:14)
7. Quando la buona gente dice (1:57)
8. La notte è piena (4:14)
9. Fino alla mia porta (4:30)
Duration 44:45
The Line-up
- Francesco Di Giancomo - lead vocals
- Rodolfo Maltese - electric and acoustic guitar, trumpet, French horn, vocals
- Vittorio Nocenzi - Hammond organ, synthesizer, harpsichord, Solina, vocals
- Gianni Nocenzi - electric and acoustic pianos, synthesizer, clarinet, recorder
- Renato D'Angelo - bass, acoustic guitar
- Pierluigi Calderoni - drums, percussion
My Version
Label: Universal Music Group – VM LP 199 (MAL 2015)
Series: Prog Rock Italiano – 88
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Gatefold, 180g
Country: Italy
Released: 16 Feb 2021
