Claudio Baglioni who leaves Francesco De Gregori stranded after he got out of the car to push, “stiff as a puppet”. It's one of the anecdotes that the singer-songwriter of Along the way tells today about Corriere della Sera in an interview with Aldo Cazzullo.
De Gregori «said in an interview, a Naked King or to Wild Bunch, of wanting to “pollute the calm and tranquilizing sea of Mino Reitano and Baglioni”. I replied to him, not from an alternative magazine but from Smiles and Songswhich neither Goodnight sweetheart it was a revolutionary anthem. He made us meet an impresario from Cesena, Libero Venturi.”
The two become friends and go «to Jesi to listen to a then unknown singer-songwriter, Angelo Branduardi. Then we stopped by the manager in Cesena, to stock up on some money, and decided to continue on our on the road, there was also a photographer friend, Luciano, known as Lucky. De Gregori wanted to go to Paris. I took them to the mountains, to the Marmolada. The car stopped, the others got out to push, we set off again. After a couple of kilometers I realized that I had forgotten De Gregori in the snow. The Prince, standing stiff as a puppet, was rather annoyed. The next day the news of Pasolini's death arrived, Francesco immediately said: they killed him.”
The two also played in Piazza del Pantheon, in Rome. ««We were thinking of a happening; no one recognized us. We tried with the best-known songs: a Japanese man threw us a coin. And here the versions diverge. De Gregori claims that I was more hurt. I say the opposite.” It's not the only time Baglioni played incognito, so to speak. «In the gallery in Naples» he recalls in the interview «I scraped together 12,500 lire; and I thought my father would scold me for making money illegally. In Grosseto, Elio and Storie Tese signed me up incognito for one of their karaoke competitions. I sang mine Along the wayand I was beaten by two little girls singing So much desire for her».
For a certain period, Baglioni and De Gregori recorded for the RCA label whose headquarters was the meeting place of songwriters and musicians looking for an opportunity. «I was shy», says Baglioni, «a boy from the suburbs who didn't bother with girls. They were waiting for the opportunity, and our waiting room was the RCA bar. They gave you a book to read, they recommended a film, and every now and then to get rid of the soloists they created a group: you will be the Pandemonium, you the Schola Cantorum… Morandi and other famous artists would pass by, or from the intercom they would call as a joke: “The maestro Giuseppe Verdi is expected in the canteen”, “has anyone seen maestro Donizetti?”. I was a backing vocalist with the Bertè sisters, Mia and Loredana, and with Renato Zero, who unlike me already had some money in his pocket, once at the Farnese cinema in Rome he paid for the cinema.”
Going back to the beginning of his career, Baglioni talks about a competition in Venice, The Silver Gondola. «Ron was there too. On the jury, the sailors of a ship anchored in the port, who didn't care much to hear Christmas night: “God, you are being born, and I am dying.” I arrived last; Ron, second to last. I contemplated letting myself fall into a canal. An elf who played at singing opera saved us: it was Lucio Dalla.”