SHOUT SONGS

SHOUT SONGS

Mar 9, 2025 | MUSIC, ROCK

Basically, the definition of shout songs refers to the Gospel genre: a strongly rhythmic religious song in the African-American folk tradition, characterised by chants or shouts of response between the leader and the congregation.

Shouts of invocation, we can say of a joyful kind.

However, when I think of shout songs, completely different songs immediately materialise in my mind.

Songs that are irresistible to me, in the sense that when I listen to them, I feel strongly involved and find myself singing with an unequivocally liberating emphasis.

Shouts that drag out a load of emotions.

What is the quintessential shout song in your opinion?

Wandering around the web in search of answers, the song mentioned the most left me somewhat perplexed.

It is actually one of the songs in the index of my Heron Formula, so it has a special meaning for me, but for my vision it does not exactly correspond to the idea of a shout song: Won’t Get Fooled Again – Roger Daltrey – The Who.

What do you think?

Going on a sort of statistics of the most quoted songs, I realised that a high percentage of them are in my index. 

A fluke? Definitely not: obviously it all comes down to my vision of music.

What do you prefer to sing instead?

I know, I should use the verb to listen, but shout songs provides an additional level of involvement.

Speaking of involvement, I also take this opportunity to talk about Emily Armstrong.

shout songs

Her singing screamed a huge responsibility: to get on stage with Linkin Park.

Surely no one considered the thought of a replacement: impossible, but still a huge perplexity remained.

That’s why I appreciated Mike Shinoda’s sentence: the voice of Chester Bennington is you.

We are the voice of those who have left us.

In contrast to the shouting, there are those who have chosen silence, no less than a thousand artists: 1,000 UK Artists. 

shout songs

These 1,000 UK Artists have released a 12-track album entitled Is that what we want?

Here are the titles:
1. The
2. British
3. Government
4. Must
5. Not
6. Legalise
7. Music
8. Theft
9. To
10. Benefit
11. AI
12. Companies

These tracks do not contain any of the thousands of entries among which we can mention Annie Lennox and Kate Bush and represent the artists’ protest against the proposed change in copyright law.

The amendment would allow artificial intelligence companies to create their own products using rights-protected work: music, lyrics, etc., without a licence, effectively favouring the so-called training of algorithms without providing any remuneration for authors.

Silence to communicate.

Shall we also add our voice?

Or perhaps I should say let us also add our shout …

THE HOUSE OF SILENCES

THE HOUSE OF SILENCES

Jan 25, 2025 | BOOKS

Have you ever read Donato Carrisi? As usual, I work in reverse and started with the last book that came out: The House of Silences.

This book was a gift, and it was also the ‘container’ for a further gift, so you can imagine how happy I was to receive it.

The House of Silences is the fourth volume in what is so far a quadrilogy and comes to bookshops after the previous books The House of Voices, The House without Memories and The House of Lights.

Do you know any of these books?

Pietro Gerber, the protagonist, is a hypnotist specialising in paediatric therapy.

On the subject of hypnosis, I would love to know Quarc‘s opinion:  in his All true Alessandro Depegi recounts his own direct experiences.

Regarding silence instead, would you like to tell me something?

In the meantime, I would like to quote two sentences from the book that struck me:

Sad people cannot hurt anyone precisely because they know pain well.

Every person has an indelible dream. A dream of which he keeps the memory for the rest of his life. Often there is not even a particular reason for this, often they are not memorable dreams at all.

By now you know that I have a particular weakness for dreams but as I am not normal, I cannot remember an indelible dream unfortunately.

I can, however, speak of a recurring element: water. 

What about you?

THREE MILLION EUROS

THREE MILLION EUROS

Jul 11, 2022 | CHRONICLE

Three million euros is the amount awarded as compensation for the 17 years spent in prison by an innocent man, one would wonder if this is the price of a depredation.

This is what I had written in recounting the Ilaria Alpi affair. 

But now unfortunately a further question must be added: Is three million euros the cause of Hashi Omar Hassan’s death?

According to the thesis bouncing around the various news outlets, the reason for the killing is precisely related to the compensation money.

But the Order of Journalists together with Usigrai and Federazione Nazionale Stampa Italiana, in union with all the associations participating in the #NoiNonArchiviamo campaign, 

have signed a writ of incorporation as offended parties to continue to demand the truth about the death of Ilaria Alpi and Miran Hrovatin.

Let’s take a step back: with the previous story, I had stopped with the compensation for the wrongful imprisonment of Hashi Omar Hassan. To summarize what happened next we can refer directly to his appeal published

on the Facebook page of Chi l’ha visto. 

Hashi Omar Hassan therefore asked for help so that he could find his family in Sweden and Somalia.

In Somalia, however, he found death, a violent death, just as violent was the death of Ilaria and Miran.

A bomb under the seat of his car in Mogadishu blasted him and the silence that like a dusting will fall back on the truth, beginning to cover it again with the blanket of time.

AVANTI, PARLA – COME ON, TALK

AVANTI, PARLA – COME ON, TALK

Aug 18, 2021 | BOOKS

Come on, talk! About an order or a peremptory invitation?
Changing the pitch can be both.
What if the request comes from a longtime friend and the tone is simply curious?

As happened to me when reading Giulia Caminito‘s book, also in this case I found a completely unconventional way of writing, even if I have not been conquered in the same way.

When Porci con le ali – Winged pigs came out, Lidia Ravera‘s debut book, I was still reading Mickey Mouse but the echo of the sensation generated remained impressed on me, as well as the post-1968 wave that brought with it an epochal change.

This book brings back to those years, however, in a slow and alternating way, more like an undertow that laps slowly.

And slowly one realizes that the story was built specifically as a system on a very specific foundation: the base, the true fulcrum of the whole story.

If on the one hand I was curious to deepen a page of Italian history of which I have never read, but which I have lived through news stories, on the other I found myself questioning my way of thinking.

Is the constant effort on myself to eliminate judgments and prejudices really effective?

And again: would I have had the same point of view if I hadn’t found myself in front of a perfect “grandmother”?

How often have we said then that it is not enough to give birth to be mothers, but if life offered a second chance?

I firmly believe that children and young people teach us constantly, and that they are saving.

The food for thought also ranges from the controversial question of knowing how to forgive oneself, to the survival instinct.
From the intrinsic power of silence to the benefits of music.
From consistency to hypocrisy.

All this is a portion of what emerged from the conversations with Monica: this time too I owe this reading to her, just as I owe to her the enrichment on a human level that I was able to draw from it.

What do you think about it?
Do you prefer a book to reveal a story or a reflection?
Come on, talk …

SILENT DEATHS

SILENT DEATHS

Jan 23, 2021 | ENVIRONMENT

I have already talked about PM2.5 because frankly it is a topic that is very close to my heart and I find it absolutely important, despite continuing to pass more or less in silence.

The effects on health are hidden and manifest over time, there are no obvious infections or symptoms, but when the disease is noticed in many cases it is late.

The death tolls are terrible and yet they are rarely mentioned.

I find the latest publication from The Lancet Planetary Health absolutely frightening which indicates Brescia and Bergamo in first and second place among the European cities for mortality rate due to these damned particles.

And not only that: they are followed by Vicenza in fourth place and Saronno in eighth, meaning that out of ten cities, four are Italian, concentrated in the northern area, mainly in Lombardy.

But many other inhabited centers also have chilling levels of pollutants, available here. 

As if that were not enough, it should also be considered that despite everything there is also a hidden share: air pollution is a leading environmental cause of mortality around the world. Cities are generally hot spots for air pollution and disease. However, the exact extent of the health effects of city-wide air pollution is still largely unknown.

I have the hope of shaking some conscience, in the small, so that this theme is given an adequate echo, even if my voice falls into the same silence of all voices dull in the suffering among the indifference of most.

Archives

Pin It on Pinterest