Review written by BeatBoy for debaser.it (June 20, 2006 in prime time):
These are not I Pooh.
Forget about songs like "Tanta Voglia Di Lei" and "Chi Fermerà La Musica", because in this review we will face a completely different group (or almost completely ...) from I Pooh we all know. The very first line-up, dated 1966, is composed of: Valerio Negrini (drums), Mauro Bertoli (guitar), Gilberto Faggioli (bass), Mario Goretti (guitar) and the Englishman Bob Gillot (keyboard). After a few months Gillot and Faggioli leave (apparently they are kicked out ...), then replaced by none other than Roby Facchinetti and Riccardo Fogli. With this adjustment, I Pooh released their first album: "Per Quelli Come Noi".
The title can make us presage a usual song in the typical style of the group. But no. As already said, I Pooh of this record have nothing to do with those of the following years, here we find them as protesters. Yes, you read that right, protesters. We are in 1966, and as in the rest of the world, something is happening in Italy too, something that will change our society. It is true that there are still two years to go (the famous '68), before this becomes visible to the naked eye, but from a distance you can already feel that air of revolution.
The boys are no longer what they used to be, and frustrated by the old morals of the fathers, they begin to grow their hair and by any means make themselves heard if something is not right for them. One such medium is music. The so-called respectable people are convinced that the path that a good young man must take is to study, find a good job, have a family and die as an ordinary person. At the time, those who did not follow this "social pattern" were considered a delinquent, but seeing that these boys had an alternative to life imposed by the old, and above all they saw nothing wrong in what they said and did, through music they began to contest .
Groups like Bit-Nik (who does not know the hymn "Manifesto Beat" ?!) and Nomadi, in songs of three minutes maximum, started talking to these gentlemen about how they thought. An example of this is "Come Potete Giudicar" of the Nomadi, in which Augustus says not to judge only by appearance, that it is not said if you have long hair you must be people without morals, and that if they (the respectable) if they tried to talk to these long-haired, they will discover in the boys not immorality as they believe, but only a desire for change. The air of revolution ended up passing also by Facchinetti & Co., which in the title track hurl themselves with more ferocity than the Nomads against the right-thinking:
"You who do not see, do not hear but speak, only judge, who are not serious like you ..."
It's hard to imagine the I Pooh singing like that, isn't it ?! Facchinetti, leader at the voice, in the verse shouting at the top of his lungs "but those like us, don't know how to hate, let us have the strength to sing. We don't ask you anything after all, just leave us our world ..."
The arrangement, given the times, is Beat, with psychedelic nuances and a strong reference to Western atmospheres, especially for the harmonica solo in the middle of the piece. Truly an unprecedented performance by I Pooh!
Other high points of the disc are: "Nel Buio", with the amazing introductory bass phrasing and recurring throughout the length of the piece. A piece with strong gloomy atmospheres, in which in the lyrics one can notice a departure from "contestation" and an approach instead to the theme of love, but not a banal text. The choirs in the finale are thrilling! - "Brennero '66" dedicated to the victims of terrorism in South Tyrol that year.
Overcensored song, considered by RAI to be "politically uncomfortable" and at the third Festival delle Rose, I Pooh were forced to rename it to "Le Campane Del Silenzio" and consequently soften the lyrics. And then finally there are the acid guitars of "Nessuno Potrà Ridere Di Lei", a very engaging piece.
An album to be rediscovered and evaluated, because I Pooh as well as in these grooves, in the future we will never hear from them again. Incredibly unrecognizable!
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