In spite of any superstition, Francesco Guccini celebrates today , therefore, a week in advance, his eightieth birthday which falls on June 14th . It will be an online social event in which among others will participate Luciano Ligabue and the President of the Emilia Romagna Region Stefano Bonaccini. A nice gift has already come to him from the jury of the Campiello Prize which has included him in the five finalists with "Tralummescuro - Ballad for a country at sunset". And, mind you, in this case the word gift should be used only for the temporal coincidence between the announcement of Campiello and the birthday because Guccini is a writer, as well as one of the most important songwriters and authors of Italian music: it is not therefore the recognition of the literary value of his texts but precisely to give value to the work of an author who has been writing books for decades.
And writing today is his main activity, since he has retired from the music scene for some time. Even if it is a character allergic to celebrations and rhetoric, it is right to fetish a character who is now a point of reference, at a time when the lack of symbolic figures is dramatically felt.
It is right because Maestrone, as it is called by those closest to it, is part of that generation that with the songwriting has made one of the most significant and original contributions to Italian culture of the last century.
Modenese, Guccini in some respects embodies the best of the tradition of the Osterie of Bologna, a place of the soul with its specificities, where on infinite nights music was the soundtrack to a composite universe and by its mythopoietic nature.
He made the teacher for a lifetime but also the young reporter at the Gazzetta di Modena and the advertiser, he entered the world of music with a reluctant attitude first as an author, for Caterina Caselli and especially for the Beat, Equipe 84 and Nomadi groups, which led to success "Auschwitz", "To make a man", "God is dead", "We will not be there".
Relying on a very rich cultural background, Guccini has found his precise poetics over time, until he arrived, starting from the 70s to become one of the most loved and listened to characters of the engagement season, also thanks to his concerts, authentic happenings where music and songs mingled with monologues and accents of the best cabaret.
There are many of his songs that have become collective hymns: "The locomotive", "Small town", "The old man and the child", "See dear", "Meeting", "Autogrill", "Song for a friend", "Cirano", "The poisoned" to give some examples.
