Parnassius Guccinii is the sixteenth album by Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini

Francesco Guccini

Francesco Guccini is an Italian singer-songwriter, considered one of the most important Cantautori. During the five decades of his music career he has recorded 16 studio albums and collections, and 6 live albums. He is also a writer, having published autobiographic and noir novels, and a comics...

. The title references a butterfly subspecies named after the artist. It was released in 1993 by EMI

EMI

The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

 and was generally well received.

Overview

Parnassius Guccinii was released in 1993, three years after Guccini's last studio album, Quello che non...

Quello che non...

Quello che non... is the fifteenth album by Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini. It was released in 1990 by EMI.-Overview:Quello che non... was released in 1990 by EMI, three years after Guccini's last studio album, Signora Bovary, continuing on the same style. The main themes of the album...

. The title is a reference to a butterfly subspecies discovered in 1992 by an Italian entomologist

Entomology

Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of arthropodology...

, which was named Parnassius mnemosyne guccinii after the singer-songwriter. The front cover also features an image of the butterfly.
"Canzone per Silvia" was dedicated to activist Silvia Baraldini

Silvia Baraldini

Silvia Baraldini was active in both the Black Power and Puerto Rican independence movements in the United States in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s...

, while "Nostra signora dell'ipocrisia" (Our lady of hypocrisy) was a criticism of Silvio Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...

. The track "Farewell" was inspired by and a reference to "Farewell Angelina

Farewell Angelina

"Farewell, Angelina" is an album by America folk singer Joan Baez, released in late 1965. It peaked at #10 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart.-History:...

" by Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

, quoting one line ("the triangle tingles, and the trumpet plays slow") and featuring the same instrumental introduction. The song was dedicated to Angela, following the ending of their relationship.

Reception

Parnassius Guccinii was generally well received by critics and won the 1994 award Targa Tenco as best album. The newspaper La Repubblica

La Repubblica

la Repubblica is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Founded in 1976 in Rome by the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, as of 2008 is the second largest circulation newspaper, behind the Corriere della Sera.-Foundation:...

said it was "beautiful", while an article on the Corriere della Sera

Corriere della Sera

The Corriere della Sera is an Italian daily newspaper, published in Milan.It is among the oldest and most reputable Italian newspapers. Its main rivals are Rome's La Repubblica and Turin's La Stampa.- History :...

said Guccini in the album was "sincere and hot-tempered" and "at times even funny". The Italian music website Ondarock.com gave a 6 mark to the album, saying Guccini was "inspired", and praising "Farewell" as one of the best songs he ever wrote. The literary criticist Paolo Jachia stated: "Guccini's enormous poetic and cultural effort has been opening the best tradition of Italian poetry to Dylan-esque ballads".

Track Listing

1. "Canzone per Silvia" - 5:04
2. "Acque" - 6:40
3. "Samantha" - 5:22
4. "Farewell" - 5:16
5. "Nostra signora dell'ipocrisia" - 4:23
6. "Dovevo fare del cinema" - 4:28 (music and lyrics by Gian Piero Alloisio)
7. "Non bisognerebbe" - 3:52
8. "Luna fortuna" - 3:51 (music by Juan Carlos Biondini)
9. "Parole" - 6:12

Personnel

• Vince Tempera - piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
  , keyboards, Hammond organ
  Hammond organ
  The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
  
  
• Antonio Marangolo - saxophone
  Saxophone
  The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
  
  
• Roberto Manuzzi - saxophone, harmonica
  Harmonica
  The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
  
  
• Ares Tavolazzi
  Ares Tavolazzi
  Ares Tavolazzi is an Italian bass player and jazz musician born in Ferrara.-Biography:He studied cello and double bass in the Music School of Ferrara and began his career as bassist playing for Carmen Villani in a beat group, with his future collaborator, drummer Ellade Bandini...
  
   - bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  , double bass
  Double bass
  The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
  
  
• Juan Carlos Biondini - guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  , backing vocals in "Luna fortuna"
• Ellade Bandini - drums, percussion
• Gianni Coscia - accordion
  Accordion
  The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
  
  
• Lele Chiodi - backing vocals in "Acque"
• Lucio Fabbri - violin
  Violin
  The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....