The language of love?

 

Adriano Celentano is to Italian music what Jacques Brel was to French (and Belgian) music, what Vladimir Vysotsky was to Russian (and Soviet) music, and what Bob Dylan was — and is — to American music: a transformative artist whose career encompassed several stylistic changes, embracing the evolution not just of music, but of society as a whole. Now 82, Celentano is still revered in his native Italy, having released hit songs since the 1960’s and performed in dozens of movies along the way. But it is a particular piece of his that came back to cement his legacy in recent years…

At first glance, you would be absolutely forgiven in thinking “Prisencolinensinainciusol” is a bit of a joke. That title, for one, is impossible to pronounce — or write: if we’re honest, we just copied/pasted it. Then, when you see the accompanying video, taken from a 1970’s TV show, you’ll only find yourself more confused: who is that middle-aged man pretending to teach full grown — and suspiciously attractive — young women? Finally, the lyrics: what is that all about? It doesn’t matter if you speak Italian or not: that’s not Italian. And that’s not English either… although it does sorta kinda sound like it, if you don’t pay too much attention and/or already started drinking this lockdown-flavored, depression-inducing night away…

And that is all for good reason:

1. that title’s whole point was to confuse people who wouldn’t know what to make of it;
2. that middle-aged guy in the video is of course Celentano himself, who always loves playing on his (striking) looks in an often derisive manner;
3. those lyrics do not mean anything, and that was the idea: Celentano purposefully wrote a track using gibberish to explore how far one could go with it, and still appeal to listeners. Whether or not that was meant as a joke is arguably open to interpretation: the artist always maintained it wasn’t, but the video and his overall persona may suggest otherwise…

Regardless of why or how it was conceived, the point is that “Prisencolinensinainciusol” is one hell of a song: one simple and ridiculously heavy bass, aptly changing vocals from hauntingly hushed to near-shouting, a hypnotizing rhythm that works so very well with any of those videos (another famous one has dozens of performers dancing to it)… it appears Celentano met his challenge, and then some: the track is both proof of the welcome boldness and artistic ability of a musician who could apparently do no wrong.