The other Fabrizio

Editorial by the staff of "A Rivista Anarchica"

translation Enrico Massetti

The more we move away from that of 11 January 1999, when Fabrizio De André died, the more we're missing him.
The news of his death came in the preparation of the monthly anarchist "A" while the number 251 (February 1999) was closing. We had time only to add, in the editorial, the following brief note:

While "closing" this issue of the magazine, we learn of the death of Fabrizio De André, a longtime friend, an anarchist "sui generis" (but who is not among the anarchists?), a fellow traveler of our movement and of our magazine - which took him as a supporter not only economic. Personally we were associates for almost a quarter of a century, our friendship has been one of those who can stay for years without feeling, but when you find yourself... Goodbye Fabrizio: There will be no more discussions or sings sung in a restaurant. And a hug to Dori, to Christian, to Luvi.

For the following issue, however, we made a dossier, based on some evidence and the revival of a little-known interview dating back to 1993. The whole was illustrated with unpublished photographs supplied to us by Reinhold "Denny" Kohl, a companion for many years who had been "the" photographer of Fabrizio, as well as a great friend.

That number of "A" was sold out in a jiffy. To the many requests we have continued to receive in subsequent months - by anarchists, retailers, distributors, deandresofili, etc.. - We had always respond noway it's possible.
We have now decided to revive the dossier, limiting ourselves to enrich it with more pictures and two new contributions. And for the title we chose a verse of the song If you cut into pieces ("The Indian", 1991): the official version, in effect, states that "Lady Liberty, Miss. fantasy", but Fabrizio sometimes in concert, sang the modified version. And we, his fellow anarchists, as he just loyal officer, so we want to remember our Fabrizio - Fabrizio another.

The English version on the Web

by Enrico Massetti

In the '60s I grew up listening to Fabrizio's songs, I remember when I was in my early teens trekking on the Italian Dolomiti di Brenta with my father while singing to myself "La guerra di Piero" or "La ballata del Miché". Fabrizio planted in me the seed of the libertarian ideas that would accompany me in all my life.
Now that I live in the USA I see that Fabrizio is not as well known in the English-speaking countries as he is in Italy, the language barrier being in my opinion the major obstacle to his popularity. His songs, in addition to the musical content, are really poems whose words must be understood to be fully apreciated. I therefore in this Web site to the original documents of "The other Fabrizio", published in Italy by the magazine "A rivista anarchica" translated from Italian, I added a set of pages with the songs themselves (including videos, that are important in today's multimedia world), accompanied by the lyrics, both in Italian as well as in English. The language can be a barrier, but Fabrizio's ideas and songs are really universal, without borders.

rivista anarchica
anno 29 n.252
marzo 1999