More than a century has passed since the March on Rome. Songs have
followed, and marked, every step of the struggle against Mussolini andhis successors. Even during the dictatorship, satire was a sharp arrow
in the quiver of anti-fascists, because opposition to fascism can also
be done with hearty laughter.
1 Fausto Amodei - If You Don't Know Them
2 Silvana Fioresi and Trio Lescano - Pippo Doesn't Know
3 Liliana Lanzarini - Vandalists, Vandalists
1 Fausto Amodei - If You Don't Know Them
Fausto Amodei officially began his career in the 1950s with the
literary-musical experience of Cantacronache. Over the next decade, his
style took shape through his collaboration with the Nuovo Canzoniere
Italiano, both as a songwriter and as an instrumentalist, recording with
Dischi del Sole. In his songs, Amodei successfully synthesised culture
and struggle through his lyrics, using popular music and French
chansonniers. Many songs manage to convey concepts and phenomena as
easily as if they were nonfiction volumes. Amodei's unique ability to
combine satire with activism is perhaps his ability to combine satire
with activism. With the exception of "Morti di Reggio Emilia," his
compositions almost always maintain an ironic tone, often employing a
few swear words when declaiming political positions. Fausto Amodei is
the author of one of the first songs about the Resistance not written by
a former partisan, as the title itself suggests: "Partigiani fratelli
maggiore." Anti-fascism is a recurring theme in his work; "Morti di
Reggio Emilia," his most famous song, has been part of the repertoire of
struggle songs since the 1960s. Fausto passed away in September 2025; it
is doubly important to remember him with one of his timeless
compositions. "If You Don't Know Them" is a funny-and intelligent-piece
in which the author shows us the fascists: pompous in their tacky cults,
colluding in state massacres, their frivolous, classist, warmongering,
and imperialist slogans. "If you don't know them, look at them for a
minute / you'll recognize them by the type of salute, / it is performed
with an outstretched arm, open hand, and straight fingers / according to
what you've learned from the prescribed rules. / It's a singular salute
made with the right hand / like in elementary school you use to salute
the teacher, / to get her permission to leave school and go to the
bathroom! / Now you'll recognize them without a doubt at first sight /
only fascists use this salute here." Amodei reviews the symbols,
rituals, and stereotypes of (neo)fascists to dismantle, mock, and offend
them point by point. The song also explicitly references Almirante's
Movimento Sociale; the fascists "worth knowing" didn't disappear after
1945. "If you don't know them, look at the gang leader / he's an
executioner or a murderer, / he's wearing a shirt and tie over his
coarse woolen coat / so that all the blood staining him remains hidden.
/ He bought a tricolor and every time he waves it / you can smell the
scent of his black shirt, / he aims to be a good man as long as it suits
him! / Now you recognize him, Almirante, he's always the same, / with
his machine gun and truncheon well hidden in his vest."
Amodei's title is based on the first line of a song written by the
Arditi during the First World War: "If you don't know us, look at us
from above / we are the black flames of the assault battalion," which
the singer-songwriter addresses in the third person singular. Starting
in 1919, the fledgling fascists coined dozens of these very short poems,
such as "If you don't know us, good citizens, / we are Benito
Mussolini's troops." They all concluded with a clear reference to the
trenches of the First World War: "Grenades in the hand / and caresses
with the dagger!" Today, online, you can find Italian army units singing
it, mixing-perhaps not through philological attempts-verses from the
Great War with others from the Fasci di Combattimento.
The lyrics of "If you don't know them" are rich and engaging; the author
must have enjoyed adding to the mix from verse to verse, and they
provide us with a snapshot of who and what fascists really are, both
those in black shirts and those with the tricolor flame. With the
appropriate updates, the lyrics could be revived, almost pedagogically,
even today.
2 Silvana Fioresi and Trio Lescano - Pippo doesn't know
"Pippo doesn't know" is a song written by Mario Panzeri and Nino
Rastelli in 1940. It was a hit from the start, but the song's popularity
continued with popular interpretations in the 1960s, including recent
and perhaps unthinkable covers. "But Pippo, Pippo doesn't know / that
when he passes by, the whole city laughs / and the seamstresses, / from
their shop windows, / make a thousand little moves at him." The lyrics
seem rather frivolous and perhaps naive; today, it may seem cryptic, but
the uncertain identity of this extravagant Pippo generated dangerous
ambiguity in the 1940s.
The song didn't just carve out a place in the history of Italian music
for its swing composition by Gorni Kramer, which in an era of autarchic
bayonets and cardboard boots should have been called "syncopated
rhythm." Many recognized the clumsiness of many of the leaders in the
song's protagonist, particularly Achille Starace, secretary general of
the PNF and commander of the MVSN. As had already happened with "Maramao
perché sei morto," Panzeri was singled out by fascist censorship, and
for this reason "Pippo non lo sa" became a song of the rebels, one of
those compositions that attacked the fascist regime by resorting to
allusions. "He wears a jacket over his coat / and a shirt over his vest.
/ Over his shoes he wears socks, / he has no buttons / and he keeps his
trousers up with his laces." It's incredible how the all-encompassing
repression of the twenty-year period obscures the possibility of
determining whether these compositions, with their innocuous and almost
ridiculous lyrics, were the product of clever conspiracies by their
authors, or whether Mussolini's pathetic censorship stumbled into
blatant paranoid excesses. Perhaps what really matters, then, is the
meaning these songs acquired in the collective imagination. The song's
authors have differing statements regarding the identity of Mickey
Mouse's friend, the protagonist of the song. According to Rastelli,
"Pippo" was a clumsy shop assistant; while in 1962, Kramer recounted a
conversation that took place following a concert where the "Negroid"
rhythms-as they were called in Italian-and the American music (swing,
jazz, foxtrot) demanded by the audience were strongly opposed by the
regime. Kramer then sought advice from Maestro Pippo Barzizza, who
didn't answer the question of how to reconcile "Americanophiles and
autarchs," and so, setting that answer to music, he created "Pippo Non
Lo Sa." The first performance featured Silvana Foresi singing alongside
the Trio Lescano. The trio was composed of the three Dutch Leschan
sisters, naturalized Italians, who would sing the most famous songs of
the era. Accused of espionage and because of their Jewish origins, the
singers were forced to interrupt their careers. They managed to escape,
but after the war, there was no longer any room for their music in
Italy, so they were forced to emigrate and were long forgotten.
3 Liliana Lanzarini - Vandalists, Vandalists
"Giovinezza" was the "Triumphal Hymn of the National Fascist Party." The
music harked back to the "Students' Hymn" from the turn of the century
("Commiato"). During the Great War, the song underwent its first
revision, becoming "Giovinezza," but at the time it was the "Hymn of the
Arditi." From that moment on, several fascist versions would flourish,
as the anthem's final subtitle already suggested. But the tune of
"Commiato" would spawn many compositions in the tradition of the labor
movement and nascent anti-fascist song, in addition to "Fiume o morte"
and the version by the "Corridonian National Syndicalists." The
anti-fascist versions emphasize the violent, anti-proletarian nature of
the gangs of "bold young men" (such as "Delinquenza, delinquenza"). The
parody of "Giovinezza" reported here was sung by Liliana Lanzarini, the
witness recounts: "We were swatting hemp in the countryside, and they
said: 'Come on, children, let's sing now.' There's a band of brigands /
of paid bandits, / they're preying on the reckless / for wicked ends. /
With royal protection / they act like cheap heroes, / against the
defenseless proletariat / they commit vandalism. / Vandalist vandals /
shameless bullies, / you won't be paid anymore / the gravy train will
end!" The old lady sings two verses with the refrain, exactly according
to the format of the well-known Fascist anthem. In addition to the
verses, Liliana also expounds on her father's teachings: "I remember him
saying: never betray the working class, never; never be a complete
servant of the bosses; do your duty, honestly.[...]I was 15 when my
father started explaining everything to me." This testimony, from a
young woman from the Emilian countryside, originally from Monteveglio,
captures the social and political climate of peasant demands and
struggles against which fascism raged. Liliana and her family remained
active in the anti-fascist underground and also suffered the
anti-partisan repression that began in the aftermath of the Liberation
and the "victory" of the Resistance. A brief story and a short sung
fragment from which we can draw upon a rich class tradition. This latest
anti-fascist version of "Giovinezza," with its popular and authentic
vocabulary and neologisms, is another piece of a broader mosaic composed
of extensive research into oral history and popular and protest singing.
Liliana's interview is available on YouTube, along with those of other
contemporary witnesses from the municipality of Anzola dell'Emilia (BO).
The parody excerpt is also featured in the documentary "Beyond the River
in the Trees" (Antonella Restelli, 2002).
En.Ri-ot
https://umanitanova.org/se-non-li-conoscete-note-bandite-resistenza-12/
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