“From zero to Zero”, by Tommaso Labranca: pop biography of a chameleon
Review by Patrick Bateman
Seventy years have already passed since Renato Fiacchini, son of policeman Domenico Fiacchini and nurse Ada Pica, opened his eyes to the world in the splendid setting of a real and popular Rome, and more than fifty have passed since that boy very thin and with the movements of a goblin he decided to adopt the pseudonym, whose origin is already legend: "zero" . Zero in response to his detractors who told him, at the beginning of his career, "you are a zero" , or zero as a number that is both zero and infinite, infinitely small and infinitely large? Here, if there is something that is common denominator – forgive the mathematical reference – in the life of this artist it is ambiguity, a studied and perfect ambiguity, always capable of feeding myths and beliefs that often, given the visceral relationship between Zero and his fans (the sorcini , as he himself affectionately renamed them), have resulted in anecdotes and vicissitudes with an almost hagiographic flavor.
In this regard, the choice to celebrate the seventy years of this multifaceted pillar of Italian music fell on this biography, published about ten years ago, and written by the pen of Tommaso Labranca, an equally multifaceted intellectual who left the world too soon. of the living to devote themselves, I hope, to other colorful ruminations in the afterlife. I chose it because "From zero to zero" ( Arcana , 2009) is neither a hagiography nor a conventional biography, but rather a sort of biographical novel in which the dynamite and ferociously satirical language of Labranca embraces with passion and a critical spirit a story definitely worth telling like Renato's.
The author follows a fil-rouge in the chronological narration of the artist's life but breaks it with reflections on the zeitgeist of the time using that linguistic mixture of high and low that is the trademark of Labranca's writing. In the nimble 200 pages of the book a story of ambition and dedication, of ascents, ruinous falls and resurrections is told, which allows the reader to have an idea of the character Zero, the Fiacchini man, his music and his time ranging between sections of real life, Hollywood Babylonian gossip, reviews in ultra-pop sauce to the albums (with particular attention to "the best records of our lives", the celebrated Trapezius , Zerofobia and Zerolandia ) and reasoned comments to the lyrics, often recalling ensembles and recurring thematic subsets (civil commitment, the relationship with notoriety, social satire, ambiguity and so on and so forth). Labranca follows the continuous transformation of this pop chameleon, from the dancing masquerades of the early days of “No! Mom, no! " to the almost messianic and liturgical style assumed from the end of the 1980s onwards and which continues today, in the name of a solid and indissoluble relationship with his many followers scattered throughout the peninsula to whom, at the end of each pagan rite celebrated in arenas and palaces, always addresses the same prayer: "Do not forget me!".
A nì , but who forgets you!
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This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/recensioni/da-zero-a-zero-di-tommaso-labranca-biografia-pop-di-un-camaleonte/ on Sat, 24 Oct 2020 03:37:00 +0000.