Roberto Di Simone "Secondo Coro Delle Lavandaie"
http://www.marathonpacks.com/2006/11...oro-delle.html
So those of you who count yourself among the frequent readers of this site (bless your dear, dear hearts) might recognize this song from a
post I wrote last month on OOIOO's infectious song UMO, from their great, polycultural album on Thrill Jockey,
Taiga. When I heard OOIOO's song, I was instantly transfixed by the simultaneous potency and youthful innocence that served as its spiritual guide, to the point that I couldn't stop iPodding it on repeat for about three days straight. Well, there are certain reasons that I'm in love with the Internet, and intrepid commenters are one of those reasons. Someone named TG (take a bow, ma'am or sir) informed me of the fact that OOIOO's song is in fact an uncredited cover of a the song "
Secondo Coro Delle Lavandaie" (
mp3) by Roberto Di Simone (here's a
bio),
and then pointed me to a WFMU blog post (with solid information about the record) with the original version of the song, from the exact same day---creepy. Simone, from what I've been able to gather from my limited selection of online sources, organized and led a group of young Italian musicians called Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare, or the "New Company of Popular Music," who were devoted to creatively interpreting Italian history in song, but you know, anthropologically. They released a record in 1976 called
La Gatta Cenerentola, which is a rock opera of sorts (for children?), themed around Cinderella. I love how "Secondo Coro" gently vacillates between cultural styles---at times referencing certain North African musics, and at others Indian ragas, and theatrical Chinese folk (these are mostly speculative, and partially drawn from the above bio), foreshadowing a multicultural musical methodology that would later inform OOIOO's.