The Year to Come: the meaning of the song
An immersion in the meaning of “The Year to Come”, one of Lucio Dalla’s most loved songs who, through an imaginary comparison with a friend, claimed the hope of believing in a future.
“Dear friend, I’m writing to you so that I can distract myself a bit” is probably one of the most famous incipits in the history of Italian music. It immediately gives the idea of what we are going to listen to: a song constructed like a letter that was born from the desire to talk about the world that revolves around Dalla, a world with many complexities, such as that of terrorism.
It was the beginning of 1979: Italy was increasingly floundering, dragged down by years of attacks, massacres, political and economic crises, bogeymen of monstrous fears and bad memories that were not even so distant. But perhaps a glimmer of light was beginning to be glimpsed at the end of the tunnel: the hole through which a thread of air passed, powerful enough to make everyone desire to leave all the darkness behind and allow themselves the luxury of a blissful lightness. The 80s were around the corner, and even if no one, not even Dalla, had a crystal ball, the push towards a less heavy world was so strong and shared that it seemed like divination. Perhaps this also pushed Lucio to write that song: the most beautiful letter in the music of an Italian song.
Dear friend, I am writing to you so I can distract myself a bit. Since you are very far away, I will write to you more forcefully. The song “L’anno che come” by Lucio Dalla immediately went to the top of the charts and, like a punch in the stomach of all Italians, left a bruise that has never faded in the 45 years since it was written.
But what was Lucio talking about in that letter? Even though years have passed, is this song still sung from mouth to mouth?
Of the world at that moment, in the painful phase of transition between two eras, but also of many moments that came later and certainly also of what we experience today, we too stuck between anachronistic deliriums of war, uncontrolled escalations of violence and values evaporated into ephemerals appearances. “We don’t go out much in the evening, including when it’s a holiday, and there are those who have put sandbags near the window” is one of the lines read as referring precisely to the terrorist attacks. Still, Dalla’s is also a letter of hope for a better future. This wish is made and made: “It will be Christmas three times and celebration all day, every Christ will come down from the cross even the birds will return (…) and without major disturbances someone will disappear, perhaps it will be the too clever and the idiots of all ages”.
Who was Lucio addressing? According to the most recurrent sources, Giuseppe Rossetti, the friend who hosted him in his house in Monghidoro. In late 1978, where it would appear, the song was written. Rossetti was a political activist who ended up in prison for a short period: Lucio spent New Year’s Eve keeping his arrested friend company. Perhaps the idea for the song came from there. But we know that Dalla reviewed the text with Father Michele Casali, a Dominican friar from Bologna and a great friend of the singer-songwriter, who, according to many, was the recipient of the song.
Dear friend I write you so I get distracted a little
And since you’re really far, I’ll write you harder.
Since you went away there’s a big new
The old year is over by now
But something’s still not right
We don’t go out so much at night, even during the holidays
And someone put sandbags next to the window
And we stay in silence for weeks
And those who have nothing to say
But television said that the new year
Will bring a transformation
And we’re all already waiting
Christmas will come three times a year and party all day long
Every Christ’ll come down from the cross
Even bids will come back.
There will be plenty of food and light all the year
Even mutes will be able to talk
While deafs are already doing so.
And we’ll make love, everyone the way he likes
Even priests will be able to marry
But only after a certain age
And without great disturbs someone will disappear
Maybe the too-smarts
And stupids of every age.
See my dear friend what I write and tell you
And how happy I am
To be here in this moment.
See, see, see, see
See dear friend what you have to invent
To laugh about it
And keep on hoping.
And if this year should pass in a glance
That I’m in this moment too.
The new year coming in a year will be gone
I’m already preparing: this is the news.
Writer: Lucio Dalla
Share: