Bologna, August 6, 2026 – Today Italy woke up to terrible news: Francesco Guccini has left us. He passed away at 86 after a long illness.
Read more The thousand lives of Guccini: music, writing, and teaching. «Contemporary poet and intellectual»
Riccardo Bertoncelli, after being mentioned in one of Francesco Guccini‘s most famous songs, “L’avvelenata,” became a pop celebrity: “There will always be one, you know / A failed musician, a pious man, a theorist / A Bertoncelli, a priest spouting nonsense.” He was guilty, as a young music journalist for the monthly Gong, of strongly criticizing the Maestro’s album, ‘Stanze di vita quotidiana’.
The song owes its fame also to those harsh and direct words, what today would be called a ‘dissing,’ recently taken up by Fabri Fibra at the start of the album, ‘Mentre Los Angeles Brucia.’ A long quote that had the songwriter’s approval. It is one of many stories told by Bertoncelli, who has spanned over 50 years of listened and reviewed records, in his new work ‘Abitavo a Penny Lane. Memories of glorious years of rock, jazz and blues’ (Feltrinelli). The book will be presented by the author this evening in Bologna (6 PM) at the Feltrinelli Bookstore in Piazza Ravegnana, 1.
Bertoncelli, is it true that the controversy between you and Guccini was resolved right in Bologna?
“Yes, I discovered by chance that I had been mentioned by Guccini, at the height of his fame, especially among those who loved committed singer-songwriter music, and I decided it was necessary to clear things up. So I did what today would seem like science fiction: I took the phone book, found his number and address, via Paolo Fabbri 43, took the train and went to see him in Bologna. Not only did we talk, but a friendship was born. Francesco invited me several times to hold public conversations about his work.”
Your review, very harsh, reflected, it was 1975, the cultural climate of the times.
“We at Gong were all very young and armed with a sacred fury that wore the clothes of politics. Singer-songwriters had to prove their social commitment. Francesco, in my eyes, had set that aside preferring to tell about himself, in a private and not public dimension. And this was considered a sin.”
We at Gong were all very young and armed with a sacred fury that wore the clothes of politics
Guccini was not the only one to be the subject of your not exactly benevolent analyses.
“We didn’t spare anyone. There was a heated controversy, also in 1975, with Demetrio Stratos’ Area, one of the most original research groups in the Italian scene. I took on the task of explaining in an article to Demetrio, who was a great artist, how he should have sung to return to what I considered the glories of the past. He didn’t take it well, wrote a fiery letter to the newspaper, in which he contested point by point what I had written and did so with knowledge of the facts. We were forced to ‘make amends’ a few issues later, with a long interview and a nice photo feature by Roberto Masotti.”
Your professional story intertwined with Bologna even after meeting Guccini.
“It happened at the end of the ’70s, when, in a Bologna still under the effect of the student rebellions of ’77, the magazine Musica 80 was largely conceived. Among the group of people who helped create it were Franco Berardi ‘Bifo,’ journalist Maurizio Torrealta, future director Renato De Maria, and the graphic group Traumfabrik, who came from the famous occupied house in Via Clavature. We devised a magazine that mixed music with cinema, literature, and art.”
Bologna is a provincial city. Your book, from the title, is a tribute to the province.
“I was born in Novara and in Novara, in the small neighborhood where I lived, I imagined there was my ‘Penny Lane.’ Like the Beatles, who were my heroes, I transfigured the streets I walked, the shops I frequented, as if they were the center of the universe. This is the extraordinary power of music, it makes you travel, fuels your imagination, makes you a better person.”
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