It’s 1990 when i CCCP – Faithful to the Line by Giovanni Lindo Ferretti decide it’s time to stop. The band that more than any other represented the Italian punk movement, influencing an entire generation of underground artists, disbands. And it melts October 3 1990, the same day as the reunification of Germany. Rude Pavda provides a concise summary of the situation: “Communism dies, the CCCP dies”. Before saying goodbye to the project – which in any case will be reformed as CSI two years after – CCCP publishes Epic Ethnic Ethics Pathos, which contains the latest single: Amandotia song with an intense meaning and a fascinating story.
A song which, to the detriment of the anti-system nature of the band, will achieve incredible mainstream success (also thanks to a cover by a Sienese singer with a rock tone and scratched voice).
Actually the first to sing Amandoti was not Gianna Nannini, nor Giovanni Lindo Ferretti, voice and lyrics of CCCP. The very first version of the song was performed in 1987, three years before release. On that occasion it was sung by Annarella Giudicithe “Well deserved soubrette” by CCCP – Fedeli alla Linea.
This also explains why in the album Epic Ethnic Ethics Pathos (1990), where the song made its debut on record, the track bears the official title of Loving you (so-called cover).
History and meaning of Amandoti by CCCP – Fedeli alla Linea
Listening again (and rereading) the incredible lyrics written by Giovanni Lindo Ferretti, it seems clear that the song talks about a desperate loveprobably finished, that drags on. However the song was not inspired by the end of a romantic relationship between two lovers. Far from it. The text was inspired by the death of Lindo Ferretti’s grandmotherwho composed the song in his home in Cerreto Alpi, near Reggio Emilia.
The first element of heartbreaking beauty in the song is its title: Loving you, to the gerund, as if to underline that loving means performing an action. As if to say: “This is what I feel the moment I love you”. On the contrary: “The moment I perform the action of loving you”. And in fact the love described in the text represents a tiring action (“loving you makes me tired”), deteriorating (“empty me inside”), but which nevertheless represents a certainty (“loving you comforts me”).
Giovanni Lindo Ferretti describes us a desperate and exasperated love, which would be better off finishing instead of continuing to drag on. Despite this awareness, however, in the chorus he begs for love not to end. Or at least not right away.
So remember the concept of death (and here perhaps we return to the passing of our grandmother): we all have to say goodbye to our loved ones sooner or later, but we are never ready to do so. We would do anything to put it off for a month, a day, or even just an hour.
Some loves, like death, are a continuous postponement of the inevitable.
The meaning of the lyrics of Amandoti by CCCP – Fedeli alla Linea
Analyzing the lyrics of the song, we can notice that the two verses express two contrasting moods. The refrain is instead a sort of imploring, a prayer. In all cases the perspective used is that of the first person: the protagonist is speaking directly to the loved one.
Loving you tires me
It empties me inside
Something that resembles
Laughing while crying
“Loving you makes me tired” is one of the most beautiful and significant phrases in Italian music, hands down. In the first verse the protagonist highlights all the negative aspects of the act of loving. Giovanni Lindo Ferretti is very good at making us perceive the physical (as well as psychological) discomfort of the protagonist. Love is an action that requires an expenditure of energy. An action that “empty inside”. Something exhausting, but it makes those you love feel good. The text gives us the perfect image: “Something that resembles laughing while crying”
Loving you tires me
It makes me melancholy
What can you do, it’s life
It’s my life
What is melancholy if not really “laughing while crying”? The protagonist takes note of her condition and accepts it. He recognizes her: “What can you do, my life is like this”
Love me still
Do it gently
A year, a month, an hour
Head over heels
As anticipated, the refrain is a sort of prayer. The protagonist, despite having remarked how much love hurts him, begs for it not to end. At least not now. Also “to love madly” it is a very powerful image.
Loving you comforts me
The white nights
Something that fills
Old steamy stories
Loving you comforts me
It gives me joy
What can you do, it’s life
It’s my life
The second stanza is the antithesis of the first. If the first part of the song focused on the physical and emotional discomfort felt by the protagonist, in the second part it emerges the comforting effect of love. Not exactly a positive aspect (a lot of uneasiness still shines through), but rather an illusory one. Also in this case it is good to point out that the text does not talk about love in itself, as a Platonic idea, but about the act of loving: what the person who loves feels in that precise moment (after all, the title is specifically in the gerund).
The covers: from Gianna Nannini to Måneskin
In 2004, 14 years after the original release, Amandoti by CCCP – Fedeli alla linea reached the mainstream public thanks to a very successful cover of Gianna Nannini. The cantaurocker Sienese inserts his version of the song on the album Perle of 2004.
The cover will be so successful that many are still convinced that Amandoti is a song by Gianna Nannini. Among these also Anna Mena who – accused of the fact that her Two Hundred Thousand Hours was all too similar to Amandoti – referred to the latter as “Gianna Nannini’s song”.
However, one of the most interesting and intense covers of Amandoti was created by i Moonlight in the evening covers and duets from Sanremo 2021 (the same Sanremo that will launch their career through the roof). For the occasion the Roman band decided to call their former X-Factor mentor on stage, Manuel Lambs. proposing a version of disarming intensity.
Just last week CCCP announced the highly anticipated reunion tour, which will take them in concert throughout the summer of 2024.
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