Osanna - O' Napulitano ( The Neapolitan)

[umbertino]

 

 

Sung in Neapolitan dialect...Which I don't understand at all other than maybe a few words...Like another language to me ( I live  up North just 100 miles away from the Austrian border so....)

 

A great Italian band imo

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osanna

 

 

Translation ( w parts missing)

 

https://flowlez.com/en/songs/o-napulitano-1197704/

 

 

 

Review by andrea
In 1977, after the negative experiences of Uno and Città Frontale, founder members Lino Vairetti, Danilo Rustici and Massimo Guarino reformed Osanna with a new line up featuring Enzo Petrone on bass and Fabrizio D'Angelo Lancellotti on keyboards and synthesizers. "Suddance" was released in 1978, when the Halcyon Days of prog were coming to an end... This album could be very disappointing for old fans since Osanna here were trying to find a new musical direction blending rock, soul and jazz with the traditions of Naples, but in my opinion the result is not bad at all...

 

"Suddance" is very different from Osanna's early works (the album features also some guest musicians like Benni Caiazzo on sax and Antonio Spagnolo on electric violin), nonetheless here you can find at least one outstanding track, the suggestive and melancholic "A zingara" (The Gipsy woman) featuring a mysterious mood... Lyrics are sung in the dialect of Naples and describe the desperate life of gipsy woman with "music and hope in her heart" who is rejected by the society... "She's a gipsy and she causes fear / That's why everybody avoids her in the street / She is so desperate to bang her head against the wall / But every time she asks for help people pretend they don't see her..."...

 

There are other good tracks, like the opener "Ce vulesse" and the instrumental title track, more in a jazz rock vein, or the long and desperate "Chiuso qui" (the only one sung in Italian and featuring "claustrophobic" lyrics that describe the feelings of an inmate)... However, the overall sound is closer to the genre that is known as "Neapolitan Power" (very successful in the early Eighties and spearheaded by Pino Daniele) than to the peculiar prog of the early Osanna albums...

 

Although it is not an essential album, at length "Suddance" is a good work released by an excellent group of musicians who were trying to explore new musical paths to go further... It's a pity that they had to stop!

[umbertino]

 

 

It would take / it'd be needed that ....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ce vulesse translation

 

https://flowlez.com/en/songs/ce-vulesse-1197702/

[umbertino]

 

 

The gypsy woman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://flowlez.com/en/songs/a-zingara-1197703/

[umbertino]

 

 

Locked up in here

 

 

 

 

 

Talks about an inmate locked in his cell.....His reflections about it all

 

 

Due to various social problems / difficulties originated in the past (which politicians of various gov'ts were never capable of addressing and solving)...Naples turns out to be (or at least used to be until recently as far as I know) the Italian city with the highest number of booked / incarcerated people...Also in their young age, unfortunately...Main critical issue is unemployment....There's the highest amount of folks having a criminal record  in the country apparently....

 

Al Capone was originally  from Naples

 

Camorra is the powerful mafia there ( different from Sicilian "Cosa nostra"  which means "Our own  thing" )

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camorra

[umbertino]

 

 

 

 

[umbertino]

 

 

Album  "Palepoli" ( really good)  1972

 

 

Oro caldo (hot gold)

 

Stanza / citta' (bedroom / city)

 

Animale senza respiro ( breathless animal)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Review by loserboy
PROG REVIEWER

 3rd album released by one of the classic Italian bands of the 70's mixing a much more "World music" influence than their classic debut "L'Uomo". "Palepoli" is an highly musically diverse album with many influences and sudden atmosphere, mood and tempo changes. At times I guess comparisons could be made to the early work of JETHRO TULL or even SEMIRAMIS but overall "Palepoli" reaches far too many different peaks to remain in one place for comparisons. Guitar sounds are meaty, hard and are slightly fuzz-like (a personal fav) and when combined with the heavy flute passages, percussion and keyboard atmospheres (some grand mellotron) makes this a tremendously addictive offering. I have always loved OSANNA ability to deliver a progressive rock album without worrying about remaining within a defined boundary. "Palepoli" is essentially 2 long album side epic tracks (18 and 22 mins) which are given lots of room to explore some grand musical caverns and hills. A great piece of Italian progressive history and an album full of unpredictable musical moments with that classic Ital-prog shape