Vecchioni: “Battiato fought the obvious, his genius not yet fully understood”

“The first time I met Battiato was in 1973 in Forlì for a street party: he arrived alone with an ocean liner that was an organ and he just played without singing while I sang very difficult songs: a total failure”. Thus begins the emotional and affectionate memory that Roberto Vecchioni entrusts to Adnkronos in expressing his personal tribute to the great master Franco Battiato, who died this morning at the age of 76. “Battiato – explains Vecchioni – has not yet been fully understood, when this happens we will realize that he was an absolute innovator, a scary eclectic who understood and studied all musical cultures”. And describing the poetic figure of the artist from Catania, he observes: “What strikes me most is his playing with nonsense, fighting the obvious. Through his songs he makes us feel a tranquility of mind until the end, he did an incredible effort to convey to us that the soul of man matters “.” He met the greatest Eastern and Western thinkers, and made a total journey to understand the mysteries of man in music “, concludes the professor of Italian music.