L'auto targata "TO" - The Car Licensed "TO"

Un’auto vecchia torna da Scilla a Torino Dentro ci sono dieci occhi ed uno stesso destino Il bambino: ha una palla e l’aspetta un cortile Con nel mezzo poco sole, poco sole d’aprile Il ragazzo: inferriate, catene Ha vent’anni e son vent’anni di pene La ragazza: venduta per ore Nella campagna butta sangue e sudore La madre: è una forma disfatta Sopra gli occhi ha i capelli di latta Il padre: è uno schedato e spiato Se si avventa sull’asfalto è inchiodato Il paesaggio è un’Italia sventrata Dalle ruspe che l’hanno divorata Arrivano nel ghetto ammuffito, spaccato Con terra e sassi dentro al filo spinato Questo luogo del cielo è chiamato Torino Lunghi e grandi i viali, splendidi monti di neve Sul cristallo verde del Valentino Illuminate tutte le sponde del Po Mattoni su mattoni Sono condannati i terroni A costruire per gli altri Appartamenti da cinquanta milioni L'auto targata "TO" © 1971 Lucio Dalla, Roberto Roversi A postwar economic boom remade Italy and resulted in a massive migration from the rural south to the industrial north. Turin, home to FIAT and a huge manufacturing center, received the largest number of these terroni, a pejorative term derived from terra, meaning earth. "L'auto targata 'TO'" is a snapshot of the jarring dislocation experienced by southerners, in this case hailing from Scilla, just across the Strait of Messina from Sicily.

An old car returns from Scilla to Turin. Inside there are ten eyes and one same destination. The child: he has a ball and awaits a courtyard with, in the middle, scarce sun, scarce sun of April. The boy: bars, chains. He is twenty, and they are twenty years of woes. The girl: sold for gold. In the field she gave blood, sweat and tears. The mother: she’s a downfallen shape. Above her eyes she has pewter hair. The father: he’s in the system and watched. If he tries something out on the asphalt, he’s nailed. The landscape is an Italy gutted by bulldozers that have devoured her. They arrive in the moldy, broken ghetto, with earth and stones inside barbed wire. This place of the sky is called Turin. Long and grand the boulevards, splendid hills of snow on the green crystal of Valentino Park, all the banks of the Po illuminated. Bricks upon bricks, the southerners are condemned to build for others, apartments for fifty million. English translation © 2020 Dennis Criteser Il giorno aveva cinque teste was Dalla's fourth album and the first of a trio of albums in partnership with the poet Roberto Roversi. Before this album, Dalla's main partners as lyricists were Sergio Bardotti, Gianfranco Baldazzi, and Paola Pallottino. But Dalla was tired of writing songs he considered little more than simple ditties (his first love was jazz), and he wanted to develop a new approach with weightier lyrics. The new collaboration with Roversi allowed Dalla to explore new realms of composition, freer and more experimental. While sales were low, the album was well-received by critics and fellow musicians, and helped put Dalla on the map as an important emerging artist. The fruitful relationship with Roversi ended after their third album, over lyrics that the label wanted to tone down; Dalla was amenable, but Roversi was outraged and the album was released using a pseudonym for the poet.