Attention American Idol contestants! Luigi Tenco failed to make the final of the 1967 San Remo Festival. As a protest against the jury's taste in music, he shot himself in the head. The song Tenco performed was "Ciao Amore Ciao" and had I been judging he would still have pulled the trigger. However....
Luigi Tenco's best work is quite magnificent. His "Lontano Lontano" puts romance in the context of a human lifespan, with irony, regret, and a kind of ecstatic madness. The song is a delicate balance of agony, joy, and sadness with its irresistible opening lines setting the tone: "And one day a long, long, time from now, you'll see something in the eyes of somebody/And that something will remind you of me, and my eyes that once loved you so much."
Steven Brown formed Tuxedomoon in San Francisco in 1977 and the group released several records on the Residents' Ralph label. They relocated to Europe and that is probably where he discovered the recordings of Luigi Tenco. Brown's thoroughly convincing version of Tenco's material, in both English and Italian, has an air of tragedy and the wistful quality of a slightly unhinged Bowie. His view of "Ciao Amore Ciao" is almost the exact opposite of mine but we arrive at the same conclusion: "On one level it sounds like a rock ballad, but when you listen to the lyrics (and the delivery of those lyrics) this song pulls itself into another realm altogether; behind the veneer behind the gloss into yourself. If that had been the only Tenco song I ever heard, it would have been enough."
After playing in high school jazz bands, Tenco played professionally with I Cavaieri (The Knights) under the pseudonym Gigi Mai. In 1961 he issued "Quando," the first single under his real name and a little later he also flirted with acting and soundtrack music. After military service he signed with RCA and in 1966 released the wonderful "Un Giorno Dopo L'Altro" (One Day After Another). That same year Tenco fell in love with Italo-French singer Dalida. Perhaps against his will, the two performed at San Remo. On January 27, 1967 she found him dead in his hotel room, bullet wound in his left temple, suicide note nearby. Tenco and Dalida had become engaged just a few days earlier. Apparently the judges downplayed his death and the contest continued. Ah showbiz!
The backing on most of these tracks is terrific with suitably sparse piano, saxophone, double bass, clarinet, flute and light percussion. Five pieces are a re-release of a 1988 mini-album originally issued on the Industrie Discographiche Lacerba label. The 12 additional songs include Brown solo material ("Besides All That," "R.W.F.") several Tuxedomoon tracks such as "What Use?," and some interesting live recordings. All this make Brown Plays Tenco a consistent and appealing record.
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