25 DIAMONDS LABEL

(photo credit: Drew Katchen)

#1: Let’s start with the now. Will you share with me what your current life looks like? I know you’re living in New Jersey and The Van Pelt are back together and have a new LP in the works. Care to expand? What else is worth noting?

Chris: My current life!

Ok, well I am 51 years old which means I entered “sniper alley” about 6 years ago wherein your friends start getting picked off one by one. When this happens you have two choices as far as I see it. You can double down on the grind and continue building your mausoleum compromise by compromise, or you can throw caution to the wind and start living more than you ever have. I chose the latter and it completely bifurcated my life. On side bad I have a divorce with a woman I shared 18 years with. We hit our wall where she was not willing to keep peeling away the onion at deeper levels of vulnerability. My penalty for pushing for this was to see my most intimate life partner become a stranger overnight who can no longer even look at me. Also on side bad is the fiscal hole it jettisons you into. Just when you start to think you’ve dug yourself out of that hole of poverty the arts kept you in, you find yourself right back in it. However, on side good I have a beautiful son who I can now raise with my idea of love undiluted by another’s crippled version of it. Side good also finds me reconnecting with so many vibrant brilliant souls of my youth that I lost contact with. What I’ve learned is that if you once had it in you you always have it in you. My connections and friendships might be fewer than my peers, but those I do have are so profoundly deep they root me no matter how scattered about the globe they may be. How does this translate to tangible art? The Van Pelt are finishing up our first album in 3 years and I have gone back and started re-editing my first novel, White Pigeons, as seen through wiser eyes. So, hopefully, it will be a book with a framework written by youth but the substance of a reflective soul.

#2: I want to go deeper into all of this, but let’s start with the music. As far as I know, this all started long ago in the early 90s when you were a teenager with the band Native Nod. Is this correct, or was there anything earlier yet than Native Nod?

Chris: In fact there was a band before Native Nod called Mental Floss featuring the ex-drummer of Agnostic Front, Dave Jones.

Dave wrote all the lyrics so all I did was sing and dance around. I was 16 and I only lasted half a year.It was at a Mental Floss show in Montclair that Dave and Justin from NN decided I should be the singer in the band we’d start.

#3: And so tell me more about Native Nod. It sounds like you were 16 when it started? In NJ? Do you have recollection of the influences and intentions surrounding the band? Did the band feel well received and/or respected despite being young teenagers? Were there reasons the band ended? Have you been surprised by the continued interest?

Chris: Yes I was 16, my brother Danny was 15 and on drums, Dave and Justin were on bass and guitar respectively and each 14.

Every now and then people ask us for unreleased tracks and the only thing we have is a cassette demo that is interesting if only to see the leap that happened for us in that short time span. When we first started we were mostly influenced by grunge, we even covered a Mudhoney song live. But, in my opinion, that 1990-1992 time span was one of the great eras for music. So much mind blowing music was coming out every week, stuff that still holds up today, For example, we went to see Smashing Pumpkins play at Maxwells in Hoboken in 1991. Codeine opened for them. Codeine! We had never heard anything like it. Then I saw Heroin play at ABCNORIO. I mean the list of groundbreaking music that was coming out then was endless and being kids at the edges of New York City meant it was all so easily accessible to us.

So we were the youngest kids at the shows, which meant no we weren’t taken seriously. Then Sam McPheeters asked us to put a song on his Fear of Smell comp and people started treating us differently. Gravity asked us to do a 7″ but, taking our cue from DC, we felt a scene should be local and we went with Gern. Then popularity hit and that’s the reason the band broke up. A scene that supports quickly becomes a scene that cliques and it no longer spoke to me. I quit a day before we were supposed to do a full US tour over an argument about playing a show at Jon Hiltz’s basement. It no longer represented to me what it did when it began and, being a teeneager, I did something drastic rather than more tempered.

Is there still a continued interest? Ha. No, nothing surprises me. It’s more often the worst bands that get the most interest anyhow so I detach myself from the whimsies of the masses the best I can.

#4: And then came The Van Pelt – or was there anything bridging between? Had you played guitar previous to starting The Van Pelt? The sound and feel between Native Nod and The Van Pelt feels noticeable – were there new inspirations that reflect that change?

Chris: Then came The Van Pelt!

In between and during both bands I was also playing trombone for the World Inferno Friendship Society.

I did in fact start playing guitar in Native Nod towards the end of the band, but we never recorded like that nor played live with me on git. The first Van Pelt record was a response to what we felt was happening around us in NYC. It felt like the proper song was being abandoned. There were so many great art rock clubs like Tonic and the Knitting Factory, the idm dj was more common than the classic rock band format, and add to that that we were aware that the final angsty bursts of our teenage years were in the process of burning off. So that first Van Pelt album was an ode to the anthem. The anthem is dead, long live the anthem!

That put us on every A&R guy’s radar so we were scouted by every major label in town and respectfully declined. However, a massive winter storm hit NYC in the winter of 1996 and that roughly coincided with the end of college and the entry into the real world for us as well. It was a blow we weren’t ready for, hence the quick about face from Stealing From Our Favorite Thieves to Sultans Of Sentiment. The floor dropped out for us and that reflected in the kinds of music we made. Sultans is a beautiful bummer.

#5: There’s a lot to mention from this period – let’s see if I can keep it cohesive. With The Van Pelt came an entirely new set of musicians, including Toko, who, if memory serves, became your wife – is this correct? Can you speak of how the formation of The Van Pelt came to be? And what led to the initial demise?

You also mentioned the choice to stay with a small label – Gern Blandsten, who you released records exclusively with through both bands thus far reflected on and into the first full length from your next project, The Lapse. Can you talk about your relationship with Gern Blandsten and it’s owner, Charles Maggio? What influenced the decisions to avoid the enticement of major labels and stick with a firmly independent?

Chris: Ok so real quick, Toko and I never got married. I was getting her O Visas each year via “The Van Pelt Inc.”. We incorporated the band so she could stay.This got harder and harder to do so at a certain point I suggested we get married. We broke up during this time. I was still up for marrying her, but I think she was more bent on killing me.

The evolution of the Van Pelt is an interesting one tho, because none of the current members were technically in the original band, not even me. There was a band that was playing in an NYU dormand they needed a bass player so I joined . The two guitar players were at each others’ throats so I then wound up writing the songs . The drummer quit so we got Neil to join – and that became the first line up for The Van Pelt. The current line up was the line up for our second album, Sultans of Sentiment. This is the lineup that’s lasted through the years.

The initial demise is interesting because I attribute it to timing. With Sultans we got really good at restraint . But in order for restraint to make sense, in my opinion, you need to allow the opposite to happen every now and then. I was impatient . I wanted to blow gaskets after Sultans, but other members wanted to continue honing restraint . Again, not having the social skills of adults , we broke up.

When I think back to turning down all the offers, you know the thing that stands out to me more than ethics was sustainability. I didn’t want to be a band that wound up in the used bin, dropped by their labels never to be touched again . I wanted the freedom to continue making art the way I wanted to make it and remaining on an indie seemed the best route for longevity. That said, eventually I lived through that anyhow – when Matador dropped the Lapse no one would ever touch anything I made again.

Regarding Gern, the early days were really exciting . When it was time to grow though there was a lack of accountability, transparency, and forward thinking. To this day I have no idea how many albums we sold.

#6: I had this wrong! So were you and Toko at all romantically involved, or was the proposition of marriage based only in securing citizenship?And then, given all of this, how did things lead to The Lapse? Was the.. idea, frame of The Lapse centered around you and Toko? And yet, at some point The Lapse continued without Toko?

I stumbled upon another interview since starting this where you referred to the first Lapse album as the worst album you’ve ever made. Do you still feel this way? What about it made it the worst? Can you find redeeming qualities in it?

And then for the second Lapse LP, you made the move from Gern Blandsten to Southern. Did you find the move more satisfactory? Do you have better feelings about this Lapse record?

You also mentioned “when Matador dropped The Lapse” – was there a proposed 3rd LP to then be released on Matador? You’ve told me of Vague Angels and Matador, but perhaps it’s not yet time for this story.

Chris: We were romantically involved! We dated for about two years. The last year of The Van Pelt and the first year of The Lapse. We recorded the second Lapse album while we were in the process of breaking up.

The idea of “The Lapse” is a theme I’ve never made it beyond, the spaces between things, transitions, processions to and fro but never at a fixed point — this is where real novelty happens. The Lapse did continue without Toko because we had two tours booked and she quit right before them. I didn’t want to cancel the tours and when I started playing with different people it just seemed to fit into the theme of endless transitions even more.

Betrayal as the worst album I ever recorded: I do find more redeeming in it now than I did shortly after we recorded it. Immediately after recording it it felt too reactionary to me of what I was coming off of with The Van Pelt. After the clean recordings and all that restraint with The Van Pelt I just wanted to explode. I wanted a raw recording and I wanted to leave the flubs in so it felt as alive as possible. I was also listening to a lot of Jimi Hendrix at the time and I loved the poor quality of his early bluesier recordings. I was also kind of looking for a fight. I wanted to disturb things and lyrically I leaned on that with a heavy hand. I was so worried about a risk-averse world. I still am, but I’d like to think I approach that fear now with a more tempered tone. That said, I’m listening to it as I respond to this and I find myself falling back on the original theory, not entirely angry that I made the album that way.

I love the second Lapse album! I think you can feel the tension between Toko and I come through. So the switch to Southern was interesting because we signed to Southern UK not Southern US, and the US team was never really on board with that signing. It went well in the UK, but the Chicago office never really liked us. That’s also par for the course though, all of my music has always done much better in the UK than here.

Truth Loved by Vague Angels was originally the third Lapse album. We signed to Matador as the Lapse in fact! I changed the name after that fell apart and I wanted a new start.

#7: You’ve mentioned to me you’ve felt more… successful, appreciated in the UK than the US – do you have any sense of why this is? What has the balance of touring the US versus other countries looked like in your life? Do you feel any bitterness or disappointment in what then must feel like a lack of support in your home country? Has the feeling ever been strong enough to consider leaving?

Chris: Americans don’t care about lyrics, they do overseas. Stateside I’m a novelty act, a guy who talks a lot about nonsense. Overseas people actually take time with your lyrics. Foreigners who speak English as a second language spend more time dissecting my lyrics and coming back to me with thoughtful dialogue than a single American ever has. Bitter isn’t the right word though, I think it’s closer to despondency. People of our ilk don’t make music for money, we make it to add something to the ether, to nudge the discourse along, to connect and communicate in ways that straight speech falls short. So yes it’s sad that nothing I do here generates discussion, that I have to go overseas for that, but would I live overseas? I have lived in Italy several times. I speak the language and I’m a citizen even. I lived in Glasgow for six months once. I lived in Mexico for four months. I lived in Los Angeles for two years, that’s almost overseas! I don’t particularly have a home I need to be at, but I do have some needs my home must meet. It needs to foster serendipity. It needs to have enough different cultures that no cultural encumberments can form and slow us down. And it needs to have an economy, a way for people to grow and continue sharing.

#8: Does your current home meet these needs?

Chris: Sort of!

Structurally Jersey City does, and ethnically by some measures it’s the most ethnically diverse city in America, but societally I’m not sure anyone is looking for serendipity anymore.

#9: There’s meat yet to chew here, but I don’t want to get too sidetracked.

From The Lapse begat the… band? project? Vague Angels. You mentioned the 3rd Lapse LP shaped the first Vague Angels album – I’m seeing a trend here. Are 3rd albums a curse for you?

So The Lapse is signed to Matador and then breaks up. Let’s take it from there.

Chris: Ha, maybe!

By the time The Lapse signed to Matador it had become a real band with Don Devore (Ink & Dagger) on bass and Jason Kourkounis (Hot Snakes, Delta 72) on drums, so we started to feel like we should rename. We tried out Sparrow for a few shows but went back to The Lapse. So when that whole project crumbled I already had foot out the door regarding the name as well. Vague Angels would be just me, with truly no idea where to go.

(The Lapse)

#10: And so at this point are you in a contract with Matador but without a band? And from which Vague Angels is formed?

Let’s talk about the first Vague Angels album, Truth Loved. Who else participated in this album? What were the circumstances? Will you go into what happened as this album reached completion?

Chris: No, worse — I’m in contract with Matador AND finally with a solid band. The album they signed us for was Truth Loved, I just released it as Vague Angels rather than The Lapse after this whole thing fell apart. But it’s worse that I had a band because three people changed their life plans for it rather than just one. We had a tour of the UK booked as well as a tour with Malkmus later in the fall. Matador dropped us after both tours were booked — so we toured without a label or a record. The UK tour started on 9/14/2001 — 3 days after the Towers fell.

So on that album you have Don & Jason as previously mentioned, you have Gibb Slife from Les Savvy Fav and his brother, you have my brother Danny, my cousin Johnny, other former Lapse bass player Gary Keating, and you have Kurt from The Lilies in the studio for much of it. It was such a TIME.

#11: So this speaks of 3 labels now who’ve disappointed you – are you souring at this point? Where did this leave the original state of Vague Angels? Is it safe to assume it made these tours less than ideal?

Chris: Exactly, with no one working you touring becomes incredibly difficult. In 2004 and 2005 I did months and months of touring either alone or as a duo.Life changing tours for sure, but near zero fans gained and most turnouts were pretty poor. In 2007 I then toured Europe for 7 weeks with a full band and in 2008 I toured Europe both solo and with a band sporadically, as I was living in Bologna. By these points the world had moved on from what I was doing in so many ways. The sound of bands, the lustre of bands, the way bands connect and are marketed. I was way out of my league. I sold off all of my equipment in 2009 except for one guitar. However, it was also in 2009 that SXSW had it’s first “90s Emo Showcase” and so that was the first time The Van Pelt got back together since our breakup in 1997. So just as I tried my best to close the door, a new door opened.

#12: You’ve segued beautifully for me into my next questions. In short, things get hazy for me here – somewhere in the decade we’re now speaking of you released 2 more Vague Angels albums, along with your first novel (containing the first VA album along with it), then 2 more books, as well as the initial Van Pelt reunion. Let’s make sure this interview isn’t infinite and elaborate on all of these projects as you see fit?

Chris: It gets confusing for me here too!

So this is how I remember it:

Early 2000: start writing White Pigeons, my first novel

Spring 2000: start recording Truth Loved, intended to be the a Lapse album

Spring 2001: Sign to Matador

Summer 2001: get dropped by Matador

Early Fall 2001: Towers Fall on 9/11, we start a UK tour booked through Matador with no tour support nor label in sight on 9/14

Later Fall 2001: We tour with Malkmus

Early 2002: With no interest in our band anymore we decided to rename ourselves Sparrow and start fresh

Not much later in 2002: Don Devore quits to move to Australia to make a record. Jason Kourkounis quits to join the Burning Brides who just signed a huge deal

Spring 2002: I work the album into a chapter of White Pigeons and rename the band, Vague Angels

2004: I write my second book 57 Octaves and release the second Vague Angels album “Let’s Duke It Out At Kilkenny Katz” on a Brooklyn label called Pretty Activity

2007: Start recording the last Vague Angels album “The Sunny Day I Caught Tintarella di Luna for a Picnic in the Cemetery”

2009: that album comes out on a German label called Expect Candy, a release a book of short stories called “Feathers Like Leather” on Wes from Cold Cave’s Publishing House called Heartworm, and the Van Pelt play SXSW

#13: This brings us to the 2010’s. 3 books out, 3 Vague Angels albums and a Van Pelt reunion. Then what? Are you in NJ for all of this? Are you married yet at this point? Has your child been born yet?

Chris: I got married in 2008 while in New York, but in 2012 my wife and I moved out to Los Angeles where we lived for a little over two years, though we spent every fall in Italy working grape harvest and learning how to make wine.

At a certain point she and I both felt like we would never be Los Angelinos though. We loved it there, loved our jobs, loved our friends, but the way of life felt like it would always be alien to us, so we decided to move back east and start an importing company in New Jersey.

The reason we chose Jersey, aside from me being born there, was that we saw the smaller towns of America changing for the better as we drove back and forth across the country. When I was coming up in the 90s the only choices for people like me were the mega cities, but now that the mega cities had become unaffordable you have this whole generation of kids staying put and making wherever they were from cool. I decided to do the same with Jersey.

My kid was born in 2018!

#14: Can you tell me a bit more about your appreciation of and involvement with wine and Italy?

So we’re getting closer back to the present. What happens for The Van Pelt after the initial reunion shows? What happened to Vague Angels?

Chris: I hung Vague Angels up in 2009 and planned on never playing music again. Then those SXSW shows came along for The Van Pelt and a seed was planted. In 2014 a Spanish label La Castanya released “Imaginary Third” by The Van Pelt which was 7 songs that were meant to be the third Van Pelt album. That got some attention in Europe so we were asked to play an All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in London called Jabberwocky. We built a small tour around that and that’s when we knew we had to get back together. When we were rehearsing the old songs it felt impossible not to write new ones. Like The Van Pelt as a band is its own thing, sum larger than the pieces thing.

Italy: man that’s a long story. We first toured there in 1997 and I loved it so I started learning the language. Italy and the UK are the two places in the world where I’m most successful musically so I found myself going back there all the time, making friends, finding a wife, figuring the culture out. As far as wine goes, I got my first job in wine in 1999 at a wine bar in NYC. Since then it was something I just kept growing closer and closer to. It never grows old, never bored me. Also, it felt like a good compromise between the world of the arts and the world of surviving. Winemakers are maniacs and agriculture is magical.

#15: We’ve returned to the now. How are you doing? You’ve shared with me these are pretty uncertain times for you right now. Feel free to elaborate however you choose.

And let’s get future forward while we’re at it. What’s next? I know there’s a new Van Pelt LP and you and I are planning to release Truth Loved on vinyl, both in 2026. But what’s tomorrow like for you as well?

Chris: Great question!

So the stage in life you find me at is completely bifurcated. A year and a half ago my wife and I split up.I love her dearly and always will, but after 18 years it was clear that some fundamental things that needed to change never would.However, I didn’t want to break up. I never believed in marriage in the first place and pushed us against getting married. It’s a flawed rite.If you came into my wine shop and I said “Hey! You absolutely need this bottle of wine! 50% of those who purchase it return it and we estimate another 50% of those who keep it aren’t satisfied with it, so basically we’re talking about a bottle of wine that only 1 in 4 will love. Buy it!” You’d never buy it.That’s marriage. So if I don’t believe in marriage then I therefore shouldn’t believe in divorce.I loved so so much about her, why have to give it all up?I suggested we “loosen the lid” on our relationship. She wasn’t having it.We owned our house and businesses together so I’m in that awful phase right now of lawyers and mediators and courts and impending poverty. But I did say it’s bifurcated right? On the other side of have a 7 year old son who expands my worldview every second I am with him, I have girlfriend who I’ve loved since the 90s, I’ve reconnected with all the incredible friends of mine scattered about the globe that have never given up peeling away the onion as far as it will go, and I’ve reignited my own artistic flame. I am more inspired now than I have been for decades.

Yeah I can’t wait to have these two albums out in the same year! It’s such a mad game trying to claw yourself back into conversation in your fifties. Almost no one succeeds, yet you have no choice but to go for it anyhow.

#16: I’ve got just 2 more questions now, scout’s honor.

Are you able to find hope and inspiration through your divorce? How many facets of your life does it directly affect? Does focusing on art help? Does anything? Can you see beyond the current?

Chris: It’s tough, but yes there is so much inspiration in this. There’s so much unveiling of people’s true characters I couldn’t see before and that’s liberating as well. Being broke is something people of our ilk wear well, but that whole thing changes when you have a kid, so that’s stressful — but again, also inspiring. What better lesson can you teach your kid than how to persevere against all odds.

And yes I can see beyond this. It will feel like such a weight has been lifted and I can really take off.

#17: I’ve put this one off until the very end as I didn’t know any other spot to insert it.

You mentioned people in the US don’t care about lyrics. I typically keep a hard stance on artists have zero obligation to explain their art, but I’m breaking a rule here.

In “Punk House”, it seems clear you’re referencing early tours/shows/even a mutual friend by name in a seemingly retrospective reflection. That said – I don’t have a clear feeling on if these are actually good memories or not. Are you a nostalgic person? Would you do the 90s all over again?

And finally: I’m going to ask you to put your money where your mouth is here. Please name me 5 amazing lyricists – even down to specific passages if you’d like to – and just what about them makes them special to you.

Chris: Punk House:

Both! That’s what nostalgia is to me. It cuts both ways and it’s very dangerous, but would I do the 90s over again…Fuck man yes, yes I would. It was the last decade where we were still reaping the benefits of our empire gains in both World Wars. We didn’t know it yet, but we were living on borrowed riches. We were the first generation of men on the planet to never have to fight in a war, that had to have had epic repercussions. Yeah man, I think the 90s will be studied and remembered for ages.

I love that you put me to this test.

So

1. Mogol was an Italian lyricist who was most famous for writing for Lucio Battisti.”Ancora Tu” is a great song wherein snippets might not tell the whole story, but here’s the vibe:

Non mi sorprende, lo sai

Ancora tu

Ma non dovevamo vederci più?

E come stai?

Domanda inutile Stai come me

E ci scappa da ridere

It doesn’t surprise me you know

..you again

You know we weren’t supposed to see each other again

And how are you doing?

Man what a useless question

You’re just like me

And then we start laughing again

Or “La Collina Dei Ciliegi”

E se davvero tu vuoi vivere una vita luminosa e più fragrante

Cancella col coraggio quella supplica dagli occhi

Troppo spesso la saggezza è solamente la prudenza più stagnante

E quasi sempre dietro la collina è il sole

And if you really want to live a brighter more fragrant life

Cancel with courage that which begs from your eyes

Too often wisdom is just stagnant prudence

And almost always the sun rises behind the hill

Again, these are snippets that would do better within the whole

Another Italian, Rino Gaetano. I’ll put this one complete and leave it to whoever reads this to translate. It’s “Sfiorivano Le Viole”

L’estate che veniva

Con le nuvole rigonfie di speranza

Nuovi amori da piazzare sotto il sole

Il sole che bruciava

Lunghe spiagge di silicio e tu crescevi

Crescevi sempre più bella

Fiorivi, sfiorivano le viole

E il sole batteva su di me

E tu prendevi la mia mano

Mentre io aspettavo

I passi delle onde

Che danzavano sul mare a piedi nudi

Come un sogno di follie venduto all’asta

La notte, quella notte cominciava un po’ perversa

E mi offriva tre occasioni per amarti e tu

Fiorivi, sfiorivano le viole

E il sole batteva su di me

E tu prendevi la mia mano

Mentre io aspettavoIl sole che bruciava, bruciava, bruciava, bruciava

E tu crescevi, crescevi, crescevi più bella, più bella

Fiorivi, sfiorivano le viole

E il sole batteva su di me

E tu prendevi la mia mano

Mentre io aspettavo te

Mentre io aspettavo te

Si lavora, si produce, si amministra lo stato

Il comune, si promette e si mantiene a volte

Mentre io aspettavo te

Il marchese, La Fayette ritorna dall’America I

mportando la rivoluzione e un cappello nuovo

Mentre io aspettavo te

Ancora penso alle mie donne

Quelle passate e le presenti le ricordo appena

Mentre io aspettavo te

Otto von Bismarck-Shonhausen

Realizza l’unità germanica e si annette mezza

Europa

Mentre io aspettavo te

Michele Novaro incontra Mameli

E insieme scrivono un pezzo tuttora in voga

Mentre io aspettavo

Let’s take a break from Italian for a second and return to the powers of pop in English.I tried to watch that Billy Joel documentary and he was too much of a madman for me to finish it, but I did always love that he slipped difficult themes into pop and no one noticed. “Only The Good Die Young” is a song about a Jewish guy trying to deflower a Catholic school girl. Brilliant.

And let’s stay in pop but head back to Italy. Luca Carboni was/is a huge pop star but he started out weird and on heroin.”Co Stiamo Sbagliando” is an all time favorite:

Ci stiamo sbagliando, ragazzi

Noi che camminiamo sul mondo

Noi coi piedi di piombo

Restiamo giù

Sotto cento chili di cielo

Eh… siamo forse degli angeli

Noi no, noi che non siamo le stelle

Nemmeno le donne, nemmeno quelle

Quelle più belle

O le commesse dei negozi del centro

Quelle vivono a mezze giornate

Eh… no che non sono le fate

Noi, noi ladri di mille lire

Cercando il modo per non morire

Per non pagare le tasse

Per far passare la notte

Ogni tanto parliamo d’amore

Magari fuori c’è il sole

O che magari piove

Poi no, che non siamo da soli

Magari siamo in cento milioni

Cento milioni di cuori

Cento milioni di matti

Graffiamo e poi facciamo le fusa

Eh… proprio come dei gatti

E come i gatti dentro ai giorni e alle notti

Noi ci incontriamo e ci guardiamo negli occhi

E poi facciamo l’amore

Sì, sì, facciamo l’amore

E ogni tanto ci facciamo del male

Eh… e ogni tanto è normale

Basta non farsi mai prendere in giro

O, almeno

Non farsi portare lontano

Vedi che bella la vita

Basta andare più piano

Magari dimmi come vivono gli angeli

Dimmi le fate

O se le hai mai incontrate

But later he had this pop hit “Mare Mare Mare” that was anything but what it sounds like. A young guy heads out on his motorcycle from Bologna at night to head to the seaside, but when he gets there the girls just laugh at him and he makes no connections. Too distraught to even drink, he just gets refills of his coffee at the cafe and then drives back. But in the song he sings out “Mare Mare Mare” and if you aren’t paying attention you can get pulled in.

Italians are the greatest lyricists on the planet and I could go on and on, but you said only five so I’ll end with the best lyrics ever written, the lyrics I will always be chasing, “Year of The Cat” by Al Stewart:

On a morning from a Bogart movie

In a country where they turn back time

You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre

Contemplating a crime

She comes out of the sun in a silk dress

Running like a watercolor in the rain

Don’t bother asking for explanations

She’ll just tell you that she came

In the year of the cat

She doesn’t give you time for questions

As she locks up your arm in hers

And you follow ’til your sense of which direction

Completely disappears

By the blue tiled walls near the market stalls

There’s a hidden door she leads you to

“These days, ” she says, “I feel my life.

Just like a river running through

The year of the cat”

While she looks at you so coolly

And her eyes shine like the moon in the sea

She comes in incense and patchouli

So you take her to find what’s waiting inside

The year of the cat

Well morning comes and you’re still with her

And the bus and the tourists are gone

And you’ve thrown away your choice and lost your ticket

So you have to stay on

But the drumbeat strains of the night remain

In the rhythm of the newborn day

You know sometime you’re bound to leave her

But for now, you’re gonna stay

In the year of the cat