History
Introduction
Le Orme are the most enigmatic Group on the Italian scene:
Their career began in 1967 with the 45 rpm 'Fiori e Colori'. Just with the first record
it was clear that Le Orme were unique.
In 1970 Le Orme left behind the Beat mode and began their musical research
in new directions, struggling against prehistoric Record Companies who
didn't believe in new ideas.
In 1971, after the Italian success of E.L.&P, producers were finally
convinced and Le Orme were able to realise an Album according to their
ideas: 'Collage''. This 33 r.p.m. changed Italian Musical History.
This Milestone gave birth to all Italian Progressive Groups: P.F.M., Banco,
Delirium, etc.
This is only the first of many Milestones, which are revealed in our book:
'History and Legend'.
This Booklet is dedicated to all Foreign Fans in commemoration of Le Orme's
30th Anniversary Discographic Career.
For all those friends who possess Albums of Le Orme, but probably don't
understand the significance of their songs, we propose this compilation
with texts translated from Italian to English and with a brief explanation
of the songs significance and relative Album.
We have deliberately left aside the first Beat records because they
appertain to another story ...
From this brief story you can comprehend why I consider Le Orme an enigma,
every LP is completely different from the other, and their Live
Performances were authentic theatrical shows; the covers of several of
their Albums have attained World fame, etc., etc., etc., and each record
has arrived at the Top of the Hit Parade and many Albums are real
Milestones in the evolution of the Italian Progressive Music.
In 1982 they were slowly eliminating distinguishing themselves from the
majority of other Italian Musicians, have always written very poetic texts
for their songs.
Many times, their texts were double-bladed , and I would like to read
between the lines with you and discover together the real significance of
their brans.
From the Album Collage:
Era inverno (It was Winter); Cemento armato
(Reinforced Concrete); Sguardo verso il cielo (Glancing Towards the Sky);
Immagini (Visions); Morte di un fiore (Death of a Flower)
In Italy in 1971 it was difficult to find a girl to take to bed. Therefore,
many young fellows had their first sexual experience with a prostitute.
Often they fell in love with her after this emotional encounter.
The text describes this strange love.
It was Winter
Every night she was getting ready
Always beautiful and smiling
An actress who doesn't change the scene.
The sadness of the moon
In the hands of the people
Who possess your false pleasure
Without saying a word to me
You suddenly ran away
Maybe you understand that
I love you ?
I want to say the people's opinions don't matter
I always have that evening in my mind.
It was Winter and you trembled
You were a splendour on the snow
I said: " It's the first time..."
You held me so close, so close...
and I felt hot, hot , hot ...
I said: " It's the first time..."
*Ten thousand, twenty thousand always beautiful and smiling
An Actress who doesn't change the scene.
*Ten thousand, twenty thousand in the clients hands Who possesses your
false pleasure.
*)Ten thousand, twenty thousand refers to the tariff in Italian lire of the
prostitutes services.
Reinforced
Concrete
Reinforced Concrete
The big City
I feel life passing by...
Close to home I can't breathe
It's always dark and I give up hope
There are more sirens around
Than singing nightingales
It's better to run away
And not come back again.
My awakening is sweet
Because the Sun's with me
In the air the notes of a guitar
My house is faraway
Yesterday's friends
Have all disappeared
I don't remember them anymore.
Reinforced concrete,
The bit City
I feel life passing by...
Glancing Towards the
Sky
The joy to sing
The longing to dream.
The instinct to attain
That which you don't have.
And here another day like yesterday
Awaiting the morning to begin again.
The strength to smile
The strength to fight.
The fault to be alive
And not be able to change.
Like a dry abandoned branch
Which futile tries to bloom.
The Clown's mask in the midst
Of a great Desert
A fire which is extinguishing
A glance towards the sky.
A glance towards the sky
Where the Sun is wonder
Where nothing becomes the world
Where your light sparkles.
Visions
A stream on the moon
A garden in the middle of the Sun.
A cypress tree in the desert
All the fields coloured purple.
And she's not there
She's not there.
A nice sun, a nice day
So many stars in a night.
Smiles on the lips
Some lips on the lips.
And she's not there
She's not there.
A statue which moves
People who speak to it.
A baby is born for love
For love a man dies.
And she's not there
She's not there.
Death of a Flower
(The text was written when Italian Newspapers were beginning to relate the
first cases of death by drugs.)
They recovered you
In the middle of a field
Inside your worn-out Blue Jeans.
They said that you
Seemed to have fallen asleep
Tightly holding your black cap
Your tee - shirt was
Still drenched with rain
And you wore the smile of your years.
They wrote saying that for you
The music finished
Between four and five o'clock
In the morning.
Like Crystal water from the stream
Which flows down to the sea
Your last brief hour too was flowing
Away in a pale morning
And the wind who had kissed you
Was your only companion.
In 1972 the Album 'Uomo di Pezza'(Rag Man) attained a Golden Disc.
Uomo di Pezza is an Album of a constant theme, and recounts the unjust
abuses women receive from men.
In reality, the life of a man is always conditioned by the woman at his
side, but this fact is rarely confessed by a man. This makes him appear a
Clown even more, a puppet with the strings in a woman's hands.
From Uomo di Pezza:
Una dolcezza nuova (A new Sweetness); Gioco di bimba
(Child's Play); Figure di cartone
(Cardboard Figures)
A new Sweetness
I catch your glance
And hold it tight in my hands
There is an ancient fear in your eyes
Dreams of ashes are now burning inside you
When doubts dissolve
You will believe in me
A light which dazzles you
The pureness in the mirror and you
Come closer to me.
The sky cries above the glass:
The tempest is in your heart and you
Take shelter in me.
The thunder screams in the space
Your voice is already a sigh and you
Are trembling by my side.
I catch your glance
And hold it tight in my hands
In your eyes a new sweetness...
New for you.
Child's Play
Child's Play tells the story of a young girl who suffered sexual violence.
Her white dressing-gown represents the pureness of a young girl who rocks
on the swing in an adolescents game. All of a sudden, she is raped by the
Rag Man. The next morning, this man realised he had wounded the girl's
innocence. He felt repentant, and cried out to his Tailor (God): "I didn't
want to wake her up like this".
Like a spell she gets up in the night
Walking in silence with her eyes still closed
As if she was following a magical spell
And on the swing, she returns dreaming.
The long dressing-gown, her face like milk
The moonbeams in her thick hair.
The wax statue moves between the flowers.
Jealous Elves are spying on her.
Rocking, Rocking, the wind pushes her.
Capturing the stars for her wishes.
A furtive shadow detaches from the wall,
In the child's play a woman is lost.
A cry in the morning in the middle of the street
A Rag Man invokes his Tailor
"I didn't want to wake her up like this"...
Cardboard Figures
In a strange world of your own
Made of cardboard figures
And many rag dolls, you live
You live closed in those four walls
You don't remember who brought you here
You only know who plays with you now
You don't have the anxieties of the future
To you time has no more value
That which you did yesterday
You would repeat tomorrow
And in your dreams you speak with the Angels.
In a closed circle of folly
You lost your youth.
Like a flower snatched
From a branch in Springtime.
You give a name to all the butterflies
And confess to the wind your lovers.
You dance alone in the empty corridors
When it's evening
You hold the cushion tightly to your chest
On the white wall designed
The profile of a woman with her baby
And like this... Happily you fall asleep.
In 1973, Felona e Sorona won another Golden Disc. This 33 r.p.m. was the
first Italian Concept Album. The success was so sensational that Tony
Stratton Smith (Boss of Charisma ) 'obligated' Le Orme to record the same
Album in English. Peter Hammill (Ex Van Der Graaf Generator) fell in love
with Felona e Sorona and in translating conveyed his great visionary,
apocalitical, and feverish force. He transmitted his personal poetical
touch in the same style as the beautiful and famous brans for which he is
renowned . The following texts are by Peter Hammill taken from the Album
Felona & Sorona. As in the Italian record, the English version contained a
brief story on the two imaginary Planets: " Felona and Sorona imagined
Planets millions of light years apart. Felona radiant with peace and love.
Sorona an unhappy speck in eternal darkness. A place of withered life and
beings like vegetables. Burdened and unsmiling ghosts, clinging to faith...
hope. The Supreme being, rejected source of all happiness, rolls his gaze
to sad Sorona, and from those eyes pour a cascade of light. Skeletal life
and smudged flora warms and blooms in the awaited miracle of light.
Darkness, fear, silence, are gone. For an instant, the sister Planets
Felona and Sorona are alike in their happiness. It lasted only the space of
a smile. With the magic enchantment, their equilibrium shatters and
vanishes. Felona and Sorona capsize. In the imponderable game, they
annihilate each other'.
From Felona e Sorona:
In Between; Felona; The Maker; Web of time; Sorona;
The Plan; The Balance
In Between
No changes outside of time
two planets exist side by side.
Neither aware of the other
though they are intertwined
like branches of a tree.
They (have no thought) of what they belong to...
What of the trunk in between,
what of the energy ? (that makes it all be...)
Two planets in harmony,
of opposition.
The supposition is that when one is serene,
then the other is sad.
What of the Man in between ?
He smiles on one and it's life is happy.
His back is turned on the other
and a shadow is cast...
He is the Man who makes the soap balls,
creating magic happiness
for all who touch them.
They are good enough to eat.
They taste like marzipan,
give buoyancy to boats,
and peace to man.
Before them all neurosis meekly fails...
Some even say that such a sacrament
must be the Holy Grail.
Felona
The people of Felona are happy as can be.
Every day's a holiday with wine and levity...
Nothing really matters
except their daily meal,
and they are taken care
of by the soap balls in the fields.
Living in round houses,
the music of the spheres,
permeates their beings
and echoes in their ears...
Nothing really matters except to be alive,
and that is taken care
of by the soap balls from the sky...
The house - spheres are so mobile
powered by the wind,
they move without discomfort to the families within.
Moving as the wind blows
over hill and vale,
bouncing through the countryside
like elastic whales !
And finally when evening comes
and the winds die down,
the spheres are left as villages
and new neighbours are found...
The wind creates communities tomorrow they'll be gone,
but the people just make holiday
and join in happy songs.
The
Maker
I've watched this world.
It seems a long time.
The people here are joyous,
and something calls me far away...
He is the Man they call the Maker.
He's almost humanoid.
But there is still a void between
Him and the men he shelters.
He brings them happiness...
He tries but nonetheless has none
to use himself in private.
There are no friends for Him.
How very lonely to be gone.
Or maybe more than this.
For he is life.
He is the bond between worlds some call time.
But for all this he receives no worship...
No core of peace lies deep down in his mind.
So demi-God for two planets at once,
and when he travels away one decays...
For energy runs from one to the other,
and joy and pain interchange with his gaze.
Deus in machine saviour who only half perceives
"I can do no more, I've made heaven here...
I've given them my love and now must see my other world...
What happens there ? "
Web of time
Across the web of time a planet spins.
Here where the ending is.
Here it begins with life of content free as air...
Changes have come since the Maker was there.
He left them with his words but took their wind.
The light of his teachings grew dimmer till it
had quite disappeared in the dark .
They forgot everything and snuffed the spark of joy.
The soap balls disappeared.
The land was scarred, no longer spherical.
The houses became hard like the hearts
of the men who walk the streets in despair...
Sorona
Endless faces which wear the shadows of sadness
as their masks.
Nameless voices which rise in concert to welcome
in the dark.
Huddled shoulders against the presence of Sorrow
on the streets,
passing among the crowd and touching the souls
of all he meets...
And deep in their eyes you find an anguish that clamours for release...
If only to be blind.
Fingers tingling and bodies ringing in harmony
with words whose melodies and phrases
are now forgotten, though once heard...
Suddenly there's a smile or two.
Suddenly the tide begins to turn.
The Plan
" This is the plan: think of your fellow man...
Do what you can to make all life a part of your own!"
The Balance
Two perfect worlds for a moment exist.
Sorona of happiness, Felona of bliss.
Since that the future holds peace and joy,
but whenever you build, you also destroy.
All things are equal while all things survive,
life has no movement without turning of tides.
The maker moves them, he does his best,
but people eat soap balls and forget the rest.
In Felona the wind falls, the start of decline...
The spheres cease to move, it will only take time.
Till life is static, happiness dead,
and death is the feeling in the people's heads.
Golden days for Sorona have begun to dawn,
and all words of caution are treated with scorn.
No thought for patterns, live for today,
no thought for a carton in the Psycho play.
What when the maker once more goes away ?
If there is an ending,
it surely comes here.
Sorona in happiness, Felona in fear...
But endings are circular and life is the line,
it goes on for ever, no change outside time !
In January of 1974, Le Orme recorded the first Italian Live Album. At the
end of that year they released a very complicated Album: Contrappunti.
From Contrappunti:
Frutto Acerbo (Green Fruit); India; La Fabbricante
d'Angeli (The Angel's Maker); Maggio(May)
Green Fruit
In 1974 the Italian mentality considered it imperative that females arrive
to the altar virgins. This provoked complexes and insecurity among a lot
of young fellows: making love with girls prior to matrimony, could ruin
their reputation! The songtitle word 'green' (unripe) signifies a young
boy's premature feelings, while, the word 'fruit' represents the heart. In
fact, the song is a narration of the first sexual experiences of
adolescents. The Devil signifies the temptation; the fear in the dark
represents young peoples apprehensions towards sex.
The oath signifies all the romantic promises young people make during
courtship; The rolling under the hay represents the love games which
prelude making love, but because it is 'forbidden', the heart suffers.
The Devil was already declaring victory under the bed;
and in the dark, the fear before sleeping.
For the first oath which I snatched
from the sun.
In Springtime the stone in the pool
which bounced so strongly in ourselves.
While rolling under the hay,
the heart of green fruits was suffering.
And in the Summertime evenings
I was rushing to the Tavern,
To repeat to my Father
"The soup is cold" .
In the silence going back towards home her sad hand.
And the girls who were laughing behind the back
of ardent secrets.
I dreamed to stop them,
but my voice was lost in the wind.
Then came the Winter,
with the big white sun behind.
So much love, so much love
was bursting inside.
I still remember that strange day,
when I sincerely said
" I don't want to do it" (make love)
But I begged her to rest for one minute,
only one minute more.
India
India was written by Le Orme after they made a trip there. In India Le Orme
saw real misery. Many people were literally dying of hunger in the
streets and others living in bidonville, scarcely habitable for animals.
After encountering these visual experiences, a few days later, Le Orme
heard on the Radio that the Indian Government announced their
participation in construction of an Atomic Bomb. Le Orme were questioning
themselves as to why the Indian Government was prepared to spend such
exorbitant sums on Nuclear experiments instead of giving assistance to
alleviate such National suffering. Due to this situation Le Orme imagined
India as a Mother who abandons her own children, and wrote this song in
protest to the Indian Government, and to open the eyes to 'Hippies' who
considered India as a Celestial Paradise.
Mystical woman
With a bronze body
Taking the treasures
Of ancestral loves
Immense deserts
Of hot ashes
The sun conserves
Your antique fevers.
Fertile land
Of blue diamonds
Proud fruits imprisoned
In the mud
Insane fountains
Of invoked rains
In the thirsty fields
Brought to life.
With your dancing in skies
Of fire
You hide the breathing
Of hungry mouths
You cry in the river
Spoilt by the wickedness
But a stronger thunder reveals you a liar
What wisdom echoes in the Sitar ?
And how much poison emits your incense ?
The Angel's Maker
In Italy in 1974, Abortion was illegal. Nevertheless, this clandestine
activity was a source of flourishing business for many charlatans who were
operating in secret without any consideration for hygienic precautions. Due
to this heedless situation, many unfortunate girls lost their lives, and
their families kept the silence to avoid trouble with the Law.Le Orme
wrote this song in protest, because, in reality, only poor girls were dying
whilst girls in better economic positions were resolving the situation
abroad, where Abortion was legal. The text initiates with a description of
the procedures for this clandestine operation: the old woman (the
Constructor of Angels) arrives in the night to avoid being seen, the rusty
surgical instruments represent the absurd hygienic conditions in which
those operations were performed. 'the moon gets wounded passing the broken
glass' evokes the dilapidated houses without electricity and only moonlight
for assistance where those distressing operations often took place.
From the deep darkness
Of the night
Two empty eyes scrutinise
The stars
The Constructor of Angels
Has arrived
But stumbles with the rusty 'tools'
On the already bloomed tummy
Of an ingenuous young girl.
The moon gets wounded passing
The broken glass.
All of a sudden the air gets cold
on dark rooftops shines the dew
By this time the stone breast
Does not breathe
Which a sweet deception
One day had melted.
By now the old woman is tired
And gets lost in the fog
While the Church bells
Announce the Religious Feast.
May
This text was written by Le Orme after assisting at a strange event on the
1st of May (Workers Day). At the Congress of Bucharest an Exponent of the
Chinese Communist Party co-incidentally pronounced the same phrase which
the Pope (Paul VI at the time) had said: "Man is the first and most
important of Earth's treasures". Therefore, Church-going Catholics and
Communist atheists who celebrated Workers Day outside Churches had both
heard the identical phrase! Under inspiration Le Orme dedicated this bran
to underline the importance of Man rather than religion or Politics.
The sun in May is timid and disappears
About the time of the Rosary.
The drenched Winter air bursts forth
From the old beams.
The white Church front slowly revives
Like the face of a sweet nun
Discovering herself in the mirror.
Even if a long time has passed
Her door still creeks
And recalls the last occasion a 'Grace'
Never received.
Now tired and tensed as an arch
For the mocking of the people
Abandoning myself among the sad music chords
Where one day I will drown.
Behind the candles, the songs of children
Which shake my chest like a punch
A free and faraway voice remains closed
Among the altars:
"Man is the first and most important
Of Earth's treasures".
Noisy footsteps in the Square,
Dust on the white marbles
Arms raised from work ,
The flags and Holy water.
Behind the closed door the Priest listens
To a thousand voices in the Festivity:
"Man is the first and most important
Of Earth's treasures".
From the Album Smogmagica:
Los Angeles; Amico di ieri (Yesterday's Friend);
Immensa distesa (Immense Expanse); L'Uomo del pianino (The organ-Grinder);
Amanti di Città (City Lovers)
Los Angeles
The text is very brief and only describes Le Orme's landing at Los Angeles.
I felt a void inside myself.
And a sensation of fear.
While the darkness of the clouds
Was still around me.
Then, suddenly underneath me.
An ocean of lights
So many at the same time,
I had never seen before.
Yesterday's
Friend
Autumn wind soiled with sand
Pose your veil on the City
The Desert is your cradle
I don't know your age
Bring back the memory of the old Pioneers
Driven by a dream of Liberty
You have dispersed their singing
You have guided them to the sea
To a new reality
Autumn wind, yesterday's friend
Today, nobody takes care of you
Lifting up your voice
Takes the sleep away of who is resting
And only dirties the City.
In the following two Texts a vague crisis of Le Orme is detected: In
Smogmagica a Guitarist had enlarged their Formation and this created
several problems: To dedicate principally to Blues or Hard Rock as was Tolo
Marton's tendency or continue the musical exploit which had always
distinguished Le Orme ?
In the first text the phrase: 'I go in search of more lively portraits and
only find invented landscapes' signals the difficulty of musical research
and falsity in Show Business. In the successive text the phrase: 'Faraway
Fog from my home Make the old road safe' is an attempt to clarify that
which Le Orme have in mind for the future.
Immense Expanse
You would like to follow my faraway journeys
But you prefer the shelter of dreams
Your mind runs, it precedes my steps
It's still today for me, for you it's already tomorrow
Your imagination is an immense expanse
Where the sun makes a gift of better sunsets.
I, who haved lived running,
Renounce dreaming touching reality.
I go in search of more lively portraits
And only find invented landscapes
My memory is an immense expanse
Where the sun is hidden by enormous cardboard .
You who have lived dreaming
Can you give me something real of yourself.
The Organ - Grinder
Faraway Fog from my home
Make the old road safe
I bring the tired thoughts
of every curiosity.
Play the organetto
And tell me the truth
Make me understand
If it's a dream or reality.
How many strange things
I have closed inside me
Play the organetto
And give me happiness.
When people smile and
you depart with the thoughts
When your mind abandons and
time has no more value
When you experience all this,
it means you've received so much
Play the organetto
And tell me the truth.
Faraway Fog from my home
make the old road safe
Bring the tired thoughts of every curiosity.
This text was written to ironize typical Italian songs, because they were
usually written with insignificant words. With this bran which Aldo sang
beside Tolo Marton Le Orme demonstrated that Italians knew how to play
music, but when they sung, everything was spoilt.
City Lovers
Him: It's me who always sends you the flowers
Her: In the rush you forget my allergy
Him: It's me who submerges you with books
Her: To be able to hear the detailed summary from me
Him: You always manage to belittle
The kind thoughts I have for you
You don't appreciate me as I deserve.
Him: It's me who prepares Indian Dinners
Her: Even if you can't stand the breath I have after
Him: It's me who always gifts you with pendants
Her: So you avoid the ring which bind's you to me.
Her: If you could only guess
just once the thoughts I wish
You would merit my consideration.
Together: But love unites us
And we will never break apart
Him: I will always be yours
Her: I will always be yours.
In 1976 they change guitarist, and returned in the Hit Parade with the 45
rpm 'Canzone d'Amore' (Love Song). Then they departed for London to record
the Album Verità Nascoste.
Love Song
My Love, I'm writing a song for you
I leave aside the problems for a moment
I want to think a little about you
Now you are the only important thing
The only real message
That my mind persues
The sun is turning around us
I hear the world has stopped shouting
Now listen to my words
Lay down your tired mind
This fragile and insane love
It's all that you have
Keep it dear to your heart
The sun is turning around us
I hear the world has stopped shouting
Now listen to my words
Lay down your tired mind
This fragile and insane love
It's all that you have
Keep it dear to your heart.
From the Album Verità nascoste:
Verità nascoste (Hidden Truth's); Vedi
Amsterdam (See Amsterdam);
Hidden Truth's
I would like to gather your world
And free the great dreams
And colour your designs
Of desperate sleepless nights
And laugh like someone who wins
Their life in a losing game.
I would like to take up
The journey again which
I had travelled by your side
To become your horse
And sweetly carry the weight of your love
Cancelling every doubt in you..
See Amsterdam
The mothers don't know,
The mothers don't know,
Why their children go.
They return to Amsterdam,
They return to Amsterdam,
Just one more journey.
I want, I want to be able to burn every ticket,
But the performance is replayed:
The landscape's sad when the wind dies down
The blades of the mill form the great crosses,
And the wind returns,
And the wind returns,
Turning the wheel turning.
Obligated holiday,
Obligated holiday,
Stop somebody in time.
I want, I want to be able to burn every ticket,
Venice who never cries,
The tulips light up the colours
and everybody runs to see you again.
In 1977 they went to Paris to record the Album Storia o Leggenda, a 33
r.p.m. which verified their intentions to leave behing the electronic
instruments.
From Storia o Leggenda:
Storia o Leggenda (History or Legend); Il Musicista
(The Musician); Se io Lavoro (If I Work); Il Quadro (The Picture)
History or Legend
All of a sudden I awake
With so much cold around
I look to see if the sun's come out
But what's happening to me
I've a big hole here in my chest
I try to get out of the room
But my door is locked
I can't fly anymore
What has changed during this night
If I wanted to stay with her ?
History or Legend give me the key
I must follow spellbound flutes
While I was dreaming of a swing
Today someone has taken my heart
The brief evening goes down
So many windows are already closing
The River turns even greyer
Maybe a pearl will remain suspended
All of a sudden I awake
With so much cold around.
The Musician
Sometime ago I was going around in deserted streets.
I sung songs that nobody ever listened to.
I did everything to make both ends meet
I can never forget the sad Sundays.
Then Fortune opened the doors.
It made me know the world that I dreamed
And from that moment my life is changed.
I can never forget my first applause.
Nevertheless, I can't say if I am better off now
Or when I was hoping in a more different life.
And now I am again preparing the suitcases
Another journey and depart, the car will burn out,
And if I can make it in time, I'll pass by home.
I'll greet my wife, in a month I'll see her again.
And so, I can't say if I'm better off now
Or when I was hoping in a more different life.
If I Work
If I work, it's because I don't know what to do
I have few friends to pass the daytime
And don't want them to speak badly of me
In saying that I'm only trying to gain
Because this isn't true
It's never been true
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter
Sings the day of the land in Festivity
It's so
serene I'm staying here awaiting the evening
If I work it's because I don't know what to do
Wasting time means remaining behind
And if I was reborn again
I would ask The Lord to give me
A farmers strength
And my love of life is not lacking
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter
Sings the day of the land in Festivity
It's so
Serene I 'm staying here
Awaiting the evening.
The Picture
Sitting in a Bar
In the neighbourhood of Montmartre
With a glass in my hand
Abandoning my thoughts
They were days that I felt very low down
When a firm voice
Made me lift my gaze:
"Bonjour, Messier It's days that I've not eaten
I wish to show you the picture I have painted
It's the image of a man
It's the story of a life,
Many times recuperated, and then lost"
A year has already passed since
That strange encounter
And I always recall his great eyes
That of his sad smile appearing from the scarf,
To his voice which is always in my mind:
" Bonjour, Messier it's days that I've not eaten,
I wish to show you the picture I have painted".
I still remember that picture
A background of fire-red
And in the middle there was...
Only a butterfly.
After an intense year of musical studies, in 1979 Le Orme reappear to the
Public with Classical Musical instruments and with a new Album: Florian.
From the Album Florian:
Fine di un viaggio (The End of a Journey)
The Text is a reply to the song "Mister Tambourine Man" written by Bob
Dylan in 1965; but in Le Orme's reply the significance is completely
overturned. With this song they ratified the termination of the Rock Era,
and in fact all the Album was played with antique acoustic instruments.
End of a Journey
The long journey which you made
Has ended here.
From your dream you must now wake up
I leave you to your destiny
I won't follow you any more
My ship has inverted it's course
Give up dreaming my friend
And remember that tomorrow
Is already today
For this I am telling you:
"Change Mr. Tambourine man
You are no use to me anymore
Your magic ship is a wreck by now
Drop your tambour and go
In search of other sounds
Nobody follows your useless
Shadows any more"
The new road is already marked out
And I will go along it
My footsteps are more steady now
The laughter towards the sun
Now only makes fear
For this I am telling you:
" Change Mr. Tambourine Man
You are no use to me any more
Your magic ship is a wreck by now
Drop your tambour and go
In search of other sounds
Nobody follows your useless
Shadows any more ".
The New Road is already marked out
And I will go along it.
My footsteps are more steady now
The laughter towards the sun
Now only makes fear
For this I am telling you:
" Change Mr. Tambourine Man
You are no use to me any more
Your magic ship is a wreck by now
Drop your tambour and go
In search of other sounds
Nobody follows your useless
Shadows any more".
In 1980 in their private Studio, Le Orme recorded another Album of acoustic
music entitled: 'Piccola Rapsodia dell'ape'.
In 1982, and again a Trio, Le Orme threw themselves on instruments with the
maximum electronic potential, and recorded the Album Venerdì.
Immediately after, the Organist who was insisting on Classical Music left
the Group.
From the Album Venerdì:
Marinai (Sailors); Com'era bello (It was so
beautiful...)
Sailors
What do I care if it rains today,
It's Symphony music.
So many umbrellas that open
And the trees get wet.
Pianofortes inside submarines.
We are singing for you, Captain:
"We are born from a storytale
Where the sky didn't betray sailors,
Sailors, Sailors, Sailors..."
I recognise those clouds
They arrive from Africa
They are small puddles
which are sandal-wood scented.
Pianofortes inside submarines.
We are singing for you, Captain:
"We are born from a storytale
Where the sky didn't betray sailors,
Sailors, Sailors, Sailors..."
After the decline of popularity due to the three previous Albums of
acoustic music, Le Orme resumed electronic instruments. In this text, the
melancholia transpires, owing to the passing years as the Group now
appertain to another generation.
It was so Beautiful...
Inside the Record player full of dust
An old waltz which is no longer danced
Without an address, without a photograph
Not even a blow on the heart will pull me together.
The moon is turning, turning around us
Sleep, sleep if you wish.
And I sing: " hey - hey - hey - hey - hey - a - i - o"
I had a place in the sky, but no longer
Silver stars have fallen down.
I still see again beds of suger
Forgotten in the darkness of a Cinema.
An afternoon in the sea, a raft
Where has the wind of the island ended ?
The moon is turning, turning around us
Sleep, sleep if you wish
And I sing: " hey - hey - hey - hey - hey - a - i - o"
In Paradise under the clouds
Like youngsters, just like ten years ago.
Youngsters, youngsters of another age...
Our sea was so beautiful
With the fishermen of Mermaids.
With the fishermen of Mermaids...
It was so beautiful our sea.
In 1986 Le Orme reunited, but after four years of discographic silence, the
Record Companies were giving them the cold shoulder. Le Orme continued
their Live activity until 1990, afterwhich they were 'compelled' to make
compromises to release an Album. The result is a 33 r.p.m. beautiful but
(due to production constrictions) 'scarcely' Le Orme. Also in the texts,
there are traces of other peoples collaboration. Ironically funny...
the Album is simply entitled 'Orme'!
From the Album Orme:
L'Universo (The Universe); Terra antica (Ancient
Land); Dublino Addio (Farewell Dublin);
Diventare (To Become); 25 Maggio 1931 (25th May 1931); Se tu sorridi brucia
il mondo (If you smile the world inflames); Chi sono io ? (Who am I ?)
The Universe
How do I know
If it's forever or not
Of course I would like it to be this way
But when the impelling forces arrive
You know...
I bet that you are fearful as me
But you never talk about it
Maybe you are trying to cancel
This harsh truth
This fragile destiny which doesn't
Reassure us at all
Tell me no, Tell me no
Lift up your eyes and look above
The Universe is not as vast as you think
It's a ceiling a little more blue
Of a large and cheerful house,
Built for us, Just right for us.
Unfortunately, I know
That this is day-dreaming a little
But tell me how you manage
If you don't illude yourself
To cancel this harsh truth.
Lift up your eyes and look above...
Ancient Land
You are a thirsty flower
Who will not wither
You are a torrid desert
Who will never burn
You are a sunbeam
Between the clouds
But an invoked rainfall will drench you
Ancient land, Friendly land
Your sky has known great truth's
Ancient land, Friendly land
In the silence of the night
The wind rises
For us, who are faraway
It isn't easy
Lighting small fires
In the darkness
But it's like this that we can be able
To fly like swallows raising
Another voice for your Liberty.
Ancient land, Friendly land
Your sky has known great truth's
Friendly Land , Ancient land
In the silence of the night
The wind lifts up.
Farewell Dublin
Green fields which plunge themselves
Between the Ocean's waves
And up above passes the blue of the sky
And in the eyes that Liberty
Which even today is only half
Orphan, who has not taken off her veil
Also I have learned to love you, you know
Just like loving someone among us
By now I am also your son
That God will remember you
Farewell Dublin
Farewell to the Streets beaten by the wind
I still feel it inside me
By now I am also your son
That God will remember us
Farewell Dublin.
To Become
How many times I've dreamed to change
Waking in the morning
and not recognise myself
To lose the sense of time and of space
Entering without weight
in the soul and in the heart
I would walk in the expanses of the Spirit
Where the wind keeps quiet
to let the leaves speak
I would try to change my image reflected
But the real change is unexpected
To become a tree to sprout
To become cloud to fly
To become fire for warming
Or become sea for navigation
To become music to make dreams
To become light to see
To become earth for covering
Or become water to quench ones thirst
To become cloud to fly
Or become sea for navigation
To become...
25th May 1931
The 3 o'clock train has arrived
Come to the station with me
Sixteen wagons of poetry, of trust and happiness
Today is the 25th May of thirty-one... sixty years ago
The wait has been long even for you
I'm sure you thought he wasn't coming
Instead he's here with the Actors and the Production
To film your life
Now the City is full of flower-beds
Now the cars are all still in the garages
A pony trotting joyfully down the street
The road is now all yours
And now if you get a move on you will get there.
The 3 o'clock train has arrived
There's so many people singing with me
Young Lady tell me at once who you are
because your kisses are so sweet
Hand-in-hand, scattered in the streets as well as us
delighted, we go just outside of the City
There's a world, a field, a bright river
that's waiting for us
I beseech you, grasp yourself a little to me
Because...now if you get a move on you will get there
If you smile the world inflames
You give me very little guarantees
You go away and you depart and return
only when you want
to almost indifferent to our lives
To all this Carousel which is taking us apart
But afterwards if you smile
the deeper world which is inside inflames
When giving yourself, the horizon creates a bridge between the sky and me
I try, but I don't understand you anymore
what you are looking for
maybe you don't even know yourself
And you walk alone amidst your secrets
Inside those mysteries
That nobody knows
But afterwards if you smile it he deeper world which is inside inflames
When giving yourself, the horizon creates a bridge between the sky and me
Do you belong to me, or no,
I swear I don't know
maybe this is what binds me to you
Not knowing you are mine, totally mine
maybe this is what binds me to you
But afterwards if you smile the deeper world which is inside inflames
When giving yourself, the horizon creates a bridge between the sky and
me...
Who am I ?
But I can't wait anymore
If this is the day I have to depart
I would be happy to take everything
which reminds me of you with me
But how can I do it
But I can't wait anymore
The sea is calling me, the wind wants me
For navigating in that reality which never betrays which you will search in
the depths of my eyes
Who am I, I still don't know, Who am I
Who are we, maybe the heroes of a finished era
My dreams, your dreams the cloud, more free
Becomes for us... the immensity
Like the awakening from a deep sleep
My thought detaches from the worldv
For navigating in that reality which never betrays which you will search in
the depths of my eyes
Who am I, I still don't know, Who am I
Who are we, maybe the heroes of a finished era
My dreams, your dreams, the cloud, more free
Becomes for us... the immensity
My dreams, your dreams, The cloud, more free
Becomes for us... the immensity
In 1992 Tony Pagliuca definitely abandoned the Group and was substituted by
Michele Bon on the Keyboards and by Francesco Sartori on the Piano. With
this new Formation, Le Orme departed on an intense Live activity, while
continuing their research of new musical facets. At the end of 1994 a new
Concept Album was ready: a Suite narrating the stages of a man's life in
comparison with a River.
The record initiates with thunder followed by the sound of rain which
slowly paves way to a traditional Indian Melody (Rage Bagheshri) carried
out in two Acts (Vilambit and Drut). The second Act of the melody reappears
again at the conclusion of the Album, but this time becomes suffocated by
the backwash of the sea and the cries of seagulls. At the beginning of 1995
this Opera presented to the Public, received noteworthy acclaim; however Le
Orme had many difficulties to overcome in releasing this record: The big
Recording Companies were reluctant because the Album was considered too
'progressive'. At the end of 1996, in protest of the indiscrimated price
raising of c.d.'s Le Orme entered in participation with a new Record
Company which proposed C.D sales to the Public at accessible prices.
From Il Fiume:
Madre Mia (Mother Mine); Chiesa D'asfalto (Asphalt Church);
Lungo il Fiume (Along the River); Il Vecchio (The Old Man); La Parola (The
Word); Grande Acqua (Big Water)
Mother Mine
The River is born from a generous Mother,
a sweet and pure spring
Between solitary and silent mountains
which encounter with God.
Across the Orient's Deserts
and boundless prairies
Since a thousand years like
a vagabond wind,
it has never stopped.
It has known the innocence of children,
the pain and the pity
The River embraces villages and Cities
on most secure banks.
In that perfumed and mysterious land
where people go to die.
And like the dust which blows faraway...
in that ancient immensity.
Mother Mine, Mother Mine
,Sweet crystal water.
I still feel the taste
of your Liberty.
The River
The River is born by a generous Mother:
a pure and sweet spring.
Among solitary and silent mountains
which encounter with God.
Across the Orient's deserts,
and boundless prairies.
Since a thousand years like a vagabond wind
it has never stopped.
It has known children's innocence
the pain and the pity.
The River embraces villages and Cities
on its most secure banks.
In that mysterious and perfumed land
where people go to die.
And like dust which blows faraway..
in that ancient immensity.
Mother mine, Mother mine
Sweet crystal water.
I still feel the taste
of your Liberty.
Asphalt Church
Look at this City
with the skyscrapers which watch the World
It looks like publicity
of the Paridise we have lost.
Here it is, the big City
which reflects on the Rivers water:
Asphalt Church v
made with cement and mud
Golden Lover
who consumes you.
"Nobody will get out alive from here,
from this too sick sky"
Somebody is shouting like this
and I heard him shouting even now.
Asphalt Church
made with cement and mud
Golden Lover
who consumes you.
Along the River
Along the River... Every life a battle.
Along the River... The conscience who undresses.
Along the River... Awaiting for an emotion.
Along the River... The fear to remain alone.
To still feel the violence of the dark.
To reawaken a thousand thoughts among voices,
sounds and noise.
To steal the wings of the Wind...
to fly
along the River.
Along the River... Learning slowly slowly.
Along the River...
With the strength of who has made mistakes.
Still shouting the days innocence.
Awakening a thousand thoughts.
Among voices, sounds and noise.
To steal the wings of the Wind...
to fly
along the River.
The Old Man
The old man who lives on the River speaks
He narrates of men and worlds far away.
He grasps an already dry olive branch.
burns the incense which rise in the sky.
There is light on his long hair
reaching to his shoulders.
Who are you?
Who are you?
You, who see further than my eyes
inside my words,
my naivety?
I would like,
I would like.
to become that which you are:
Solitary Mountains
embraced with God.
The Word
The future
is cloudy.
The past
is sand in the Desert
That the Wind
blows away.
As free water
The present
is a great swelling River
and you must...
live this.
Big Water
Towards the Sea with joy, and with fear
I breathe the 'condemnation' of love
I want it to be...
Time and my home
I look for a reply to my why's
I will continue
to travel towards the Sea
There is no Sun which could dazzle my heart
I look to see if there is a Sun above me
Which can give me serenity
Inside the Sea
I desire to abandon myself
in the deepest mystery to understand
This 'Spell' will one day disappear
There will only remain...
the reality
* ) " Om Ganghe Shwar, Nama Shiva
Om Ganghe Shwar, Nama Shiva Om "
In the Sea...
we will not be alone
We will embrace...
other hands
Everone of us knows that nothing will change
This race without end...
will continue.
*) Indian Chant dedicated to the Ganges River.
PS : Many thanks to Victoria for the long time devoted to the translation .
aldtagli@tin.it
Most recent revision Sunday 9 March 1997
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